Category: T&L

Micro to meso

During the microteach session, it had come to light that a member of our small group was a fellow technician, teaching within the sound arts specialism. My own background is within sound arts for performance, so it felt natural to organise a meeting with them to discuss teaching resources, academic co-delivery, and ongoing projects.
(Curiously, when researching all about UAL before my arrival several years ago, I had discovered this sound arts course existed. I was a bit miffed to subsequently learn that there is virtually no cross-course collaboration in sound)

Sadly, I did not video record this meeting, but the one-to-one meeting allowed me to get to know my fellow student/colleague better, finding good common ground in skills as well as teaching approaches. We shared our current projects, and discussed the difficulties of delivering online. I talked about a specific successful sound project I had taught, and I asked my fellow student for guidance as to their own successful projects, and why they felt they were successful. That naturally flowed on to sharing useful resources and small beginnings of realistic plans to collaborate in the future.

This is useful in considering ‘communities of practice’. As Etienne and Beverly Wenger-Trayner suggest, ‘communities of practice’ can be found in several organisations, including in education, aiming to form a “broader learning system”, developing practice in key skills such as problem solving, seeking experience, mapping knowledge and identifying gaps (Etienne and Beverly Wenger-Trayner, 2015 Introduction to communities of practice) (available online here) (URL accessed 19/04/21)

Deadlines

I’m great at setting and managing deadlines of others, however, my own procrastination at times is self-destructive. A fellow student and Wimbledon colleague called me out of the blue to for a short discussion about time management. We both were open with each other about workload stress, and the processing and writing up of information, so much so that the much longed for Easter break had become mildly stressful. We decided to set ourselves in interim deadlines to send each other our case studies work in order to sustain energy and commitment.

I took part in all three of the Easter break organised writing sessions. Lindsay Jordan discussed the concept of ‘Morphic resonance’ (Sheldrake, R., 2009. Morphic resonance. Rochester, Vt.: Park Street Press) which was a sensation I had experienced but couldn’t define. I had also experienced this while teaching, asking students to complete a making task synchronously and completing the task alongside them. This is something I intend to continue doing, as keeping a sense of community is a vital part of my practice.

Coping with a lack of feedback

Source material
Performing with an invisible audience – Hattie Voelcker/UWE, 2020 (video)

General overview:
Tips and helpful information for online teachers to ‘perform’ for their audience via the “little black dot” of their camera from teachers, performers, and academics (Dr Helen King from University of the West of England). Tips include “embrace the awkwardness”, “stop and breathe”, “inhabit the song – really know your subject” and “keep eye contact with the camera and not at the screen”.

Thoughts:
Performing is hard at the best of times. Thirty pairs of eyes staring at you and noting your every word? You’d better know your subject inside out lest a student asks you something you don’t know and loses confidence in your ability, and subsequently, engagement. Who wouldn’t want to get it right everytime?
“Perfection can be a barrier to connection” states the presenter. Yes, indeed. Early on in the pursuit of perfection I realised I was coming across like Dominic Cummings at a press conference, reading from a large amount of notes I had prepared in order to prove – mainly to myself – that I did possess knowledge.

Over time, I had slowly learned to rely less on full sentences of notes and more on bullet points and question prompts:

Being super enthusiastic is also really important. Finding at least one good in something a student has made will encourage them to stay engaged. As I am a technician, my sessions aren’t compulsory (unless they are practical equipment training sessions), which means I have to work extra hard on maintaining engagement and enthusiasm. This video was extremely helpful in providing practical suggestions for the different concerns I couldn’t quite eloquently describe. One of the biggest changes I have made since watching the video is consciously looking at the “little black dot” when talking for longer periods, with occasional glances at students to assess body language (for those that have their cameras on). This isn’t the easiest of changes, but if it as seen by students that I am maintaining eye contact, then that is a win.

Responding to feedback

Source material
Macfarlane, B. 2004. Teaching with Integrity: The ethics of higher education practice. Routledge.

General overview:
Professor Stephanie Rae, teaching Research Methods to postgraduate students alongside spending time conducting research in Health Sciences, is undergoing student evaluations which analyse how students holistically view her teaching. While she has concerns over some of the feedback, she is also quite defensive about her attitude. She then takes part in an observation of a colleague’s lecture, which she compares her own teaching style and politics as well as assessing levels of student engagement.

Q. Which aspects of Stephanie’s teaching practice appear to be the most fertile for development? 

Stephanie is open to change. She is aware of the negative feedback and how she comes across as a teacher. From her peer observation work, she understands that students are not only evaluating her teaching, but comparing her to other lecturers. Peer observation is useful in revealing many teaching methods – good or bad – as we see ourselves as if we were in the role of teacher while we observe. Stephanie wants the engagement and positivity shown to her colleague, but she still wants to be true to herself.
Although she had been appointed for her professional research skills and not for her charisma, she still has a requirement to keep students engaged and focused on her teachings. She worries charisma is the reward for being daring or controversial, but looks to seek out the positives in the lecture she viewed as being “highly engaging and accomplished in many respects”.

Q. What could Stephanie do to move past her defensive response? 

Stephanie could walk a mile in the students’ shoes and be more open to receiving feedback, good or bad. She needs to understand why the negative comments from the students outweighed the positives. Surely the students don’t have a vendetta against her? She doesn’t help herself when she has “finally seen the back of the postgraduate research methods course…and could now get back to her ‘real’ work”. This mindset will become evident in her personality. Combined with getting the students to assess each other in the name of experimentation (and not a clearly defined pedagogical approach perhaps?) will result in negative responses. Perhaps Stephanie could try having a more useful student-led assessment process with clearer outcomes that will better serve their individual or group needs.
It was a positive achievement not to have binned the unwelcome the comments or “unfair” evaluations – these are a useful starting point, combined with more peer observations, for Stephanie for an action plan.

Q. Are there any interesting questions or problems that this case study raises for you?

Does the course team have regular meetings to discuss:
Student responsiveness/engagement in different learning areas
Is there a unified approach?
Is there regular student course rep feedback sessions throughout the year?
Accessibility – some needs are unfairly dismissed, particularly around making lecture notes available online in advance.


Further reading:

Source material
Macfarlane & Gourlay 2009: Enacting the Penitent Self

Reflection:
1. Conforming to expectations of a journey from novice to fully rounded educators in a short space of time can be dangerous.
2. Hapless novices – are they riding on enthusiasm and instinct? Understanding and interpreting different philosophical teachings and educational theories are important and eye-opening, but is this designed to make teachers toe the line or allow them freedom to explore their own personal philosophers as teachers?
3. The “hidden curriculum of emotional performativity” – communication with emotions makes us more human, more accessible, more engaging and perhaps more articulate.
4. Do our own values marry with the values of the institution that we work for? If not, do we have any place being there, or are we in danger of politicising students with our own views? Sometimes, especially in the current climate, it’s difficult to stay politically neutral.
5. How do we manage expectations, and whose expectations are we managing?

Source material
Example OB2 form (peer observation)

Reflection:
1. A very detailed feedback form. This makes me re-evaluate the depths I need to be observing.
2. It is ok, and not offensive, to be critical and give suggestions for helpful tips. Everyday is a learning day, even for seasoned teachers. It’s always useful to see suggestions for practical tips to make online sessions more interactive and engaging. The person being observed was not defensive about their approach and was thankful for the comments.
3. I enjoyed the ‘rationale’ type questions e.g. “what will you do with their contributions”. Indeed, why ask for contributions in the first place? Sometimes it’s to promote discussions, but sometimes it’s seen as a time filler. How does a teacher cope with students misunderstanding the question, those who have language issues or those that are neurodiverse? Do the answers ever get used to aid future learning or reflection?
4. It highlighted many of the challenges we face in online teaching, when we’re so used to face-to-face teaching. Being online does feel like a community, as long as people are prepared to put in the effort to respect online etiquette. This form does provide useful suggestions on building up interaction in the online community (when we can’t use instincts of reading body language to help).
5. Perhaps the initial video source material should be made to be mandatory viewing for all online teachers in order to train community facilitators in maintaining engagement in stressful times.

How much of our students’ experience is about us, anyway?

Student stories – Kimmy

The student is concerned about organisational issues.
Perhaps the teacher is using a one size fits all approach rather than basing “contact time” on individual or group needs, but this depends on at which point of the year this student was referring to, as long as there parity in contact time.
Some students need more hand holding, some need more autonomy – why are there such varying levels? Have their expectations not been managed from the start?

The student has concerns about issues in the structure of this session, and perhaps the overall approach from the tutor.
Background music can be irritating and not particularly inclusive – some may have neurodiverse needs that means background music can be intrusive in their concentration.
Students value many things about their course – especially if they are paying an inflated international fee – including contact time. This student has raised concerns that time management, part of the overall organisational management of the course, has not been successfully implemented (in their opinion).


Student stories – Dilesh

This student is concerned about a lack of the feeling of a community.
Based on this student report and my own visits, Central St Martins feels like a goldfish bowl. You can only accessed parts assigned to you. You can look/admire from afar, but you can never truly integrate.

UAL is a collection of sites under one heading. A student or staff member cannot access any of CSM’s facilities if they are studying at another site.
Sites that feel more of a campus, such as Wimbledon College of Arts, has more of an integrated approach. As a member of staffing working at Wimbledon, it definitely feels more like a ‘big family’, because we’re such a small site. Students engage more in this large community and strive towards inclusivity. Technicians know their students well and form and maintain good working relationships quite quickly. Perhaps the problem is down to the enormous size of CSM and the fact it’s more like an enormous office block in the middle of the city, so it doesn’t feel like a campus.

A dedicated art college is nothing like a traditional university setup. The student chose to go to a dedicated art school rather than a mixed subject university. I agree that cross-subject (art and science) integration is a powerful learning and research tool, and students should be encouraged to work cross-course for exploring fields different to their own specialism, such as the UAL Creative Computing Institute.

Reading/viewing (webpage with video):
Laura D’Olimpio, The Ethics of Care (2019)
https://ethics.org.au/ethics-explainer-ethics-of-care/

In this article, D’Olimpio discusses traditional male centric moral theories and its relation to the feminist approach to ethics. She cites Kant and Bentham as theorists discussing the role of morality in decision making, requiring the decision maker to be detached from their emotional state. D’Olimpio then explains that feminist ethics does not see opposition between reason and emotions, and that moral decision making is influenced by relationships with the people they know, or to those who are powerless. Thus, the moral decision making is done by one who is ‘caring’.

The video on the website discusses feminist ethics from their origin, investigating Carol Gilligan’s In a Different Voice (1982) publication, which looked at how men and women’s ways of analysing and resolving dilemmas. The video compared Gilligan’s work to Lawrence Kohlberg, who studied men’s moral development, describing the moral journey as separate from others. Gilligan argued that moral development was indicated by morals connected to responsibility and care, and the goals of moral development is to maintain connected to others. The video continues on, commenting on Nel Nodding’s similar view of ethical theories. She argued that these theories were too male-centric by focusing on law, justice and reason (thought to be inherently male values) and not focused enough on feminine values such as empathy and responsiveness. Justice, Nodding stated, was an extension of caring.

Feminist/Care ethics see the difference in male and female ethical and moral decision making, and sees how females can engage with decision-making due to the benefit of empathy. However, care ethics have been criticised for being too female-biased, highlighting differences between men and women rather than basing ethics on a universal human being.

The video summarises feminist ethics. It’s about listening attentively, and free from bias and stereotyping. Feminist ethics are about understanding problems faced by women, such as power inequalities and oppression, and wanting to solve them.

Back in the article, D’Olimpio considers the ‘Heinz’ dilemma: should someone, a ‘moral agent’, steal medicine for their sick wife if they can’t afford to buy it, or abide by the ‘do not steal’ rule? She then continues by considering the reasoning from a caring perspective – ethical caring. Noddings sees children as naturally caring and states this is necessary for ethical caring. Noddings sees relations between specific sets of people as a basis for ethical behaviour, rather than following an arbitrary set of moral codes.

D’Olimpio summarises the piece by discussing stereotyping in caring roles and considers the feminist criticisms that link women to caring roles (education, nursing), perpetuating the stereotype.

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Viewing (online lecture):
Lindsay Jordan, Love and Belonging in the Educational Realm (2020)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwsS6XEnqds&feature=youtu.be

Introduction

• Recognition of those on the margins of society
• Considering the purpose of education in an uncertain world
• Duty to respond to our students that are in our shared space
• Duty of care for maintaining connections
  
  Anna Julia Cooper
  
• Anna Julia Cooper, 1858-1964. Sociologist. Victorian Feminist
• ‘Belonging’ is a major theme in her work. She celebrates that she belongs in her chosen field of work. However, she doesn’t strive for it.
• Wrote A Voice From the South (1892) – She theorises a sense of belonging: White men can’t speak to black men’s experiences, and similarly, black men can’t speak to black women’s experiences. Belonging is intersectional. It may be individual. It is not possible to speak for a group you don’t belong to.
• Cooper’s educational philosophy was because women were essential to the continuation of the population, they should be included in deciding the aim of education and philosophy of education
• Cooper believed that vocational education was also important, but also those who had the aptitude should be able to study ‘liberal arts’ (arts and humanities). African-American scholars at the time were seeking progression, but were in disagreement as to whether the vocational route was the way out of emancipation.
  
• Cooper had views on the education of teachers, as seen in the published article The Humour of Teaching (Crisis Magazine, 1930): The teachers are reacting to standards that are set by academic boards, and judged on the quality of their work, without having the time for the specific needs of their pupils. There is little time to digest any teachings or theories in the pursuit of learning to be teachers. The joy and inquisitiveness is in danger of disappearing due to the pressures they face.
• A lot of Cooper’s work exists as published magazine articles and letters, not books. She remained working in the margins of academia.
  
  Structures and systems
  
• We look towards the dismantling of structures and systems – “what we want after the break will be different from what we think we want before the break”.
• What are these structures protecting? Who are they shutting out?
• What threats come into play in the concept of ‘belonging’ in education?
• What safeties are kept in these structures (e.g. academic regulations, standards, rules) – who/what are they protecting or shutting out?

—————————————————————————————————————–

Thoughts and responses

Who cares?

Why is there such a shortage of jobs in healthcare and eduction? Is this because these roles are traditionally female, yet the rising costs of nursery education makes working unaffordable? This is probably a generalisation. However, for a short period of time in my life, my child’s nursery costs were more than I was taking home and I seriously considered stopping work. [Stopping work would have made re-entering the profession harder, so I continued to operate at a loss]. A more benevolent government would consider the value in working mothers (like Scandanavia).

The weaker sex

Thoughts about female hysteria, and that problems were once considered to rise from the womb. The physician Aretaeus of Cappadocia considered the womb “an animal within an animal”, with the womb thought to have been able to push other organs around in the female body with the ability to cause ailments ranging from sluggishness and vertigo, all the way to sudden death. The female body was thought to have been attacking itself. The cure? Pleasant smells placed by the vagina to calm a wandering womb (and also to keep a woman pregnant so the womb wouldn’t get bored and start to wander off).

By the 1500s, wombs were no longer thought to wander, but, instead, the irrationality of women was blamed on the womb. Over several thousand years, the womb had become less of a way to explain physical ailments, and more of a way to explain mental dysfunction. Thought of the Victorian era ‘female hysteria’ come to mind, written into literature as some kind of curiosity, and with bizarre “cures” to calm down the heightened womb.

Although the myths have been, thankfully, disproved by modern science, some thoughts remain by some as to women continuing to be the weaker sex, weakened by ‘compassion’ and ‘caring’ emotions, perhaps considered by the same people who haven’t got the capacity for being unemotional or objectively focused.

Nature Vs Nurture

Anecdotal evidence from my own family states that the women always cooked and cleaned – and in several cases stayed as housewives – while men went out to earn a wage and enjoyed social freedoms. Despite this, my own family had extremely strong-willed women (know for their longevity and health), known by everyone as ‘The Matriarchs’, who not only had their familial circle of caring and influence, but a social circle of caring and influence. They were known to have made extremely important life decisions, with or without the blessings of their husbands, demonstrating rationality and attention to detail (as well as wielding power), as well as retaining the feminine characteristics of care and developing relationships. There was little room to question nature vs nurture in terms of equality as the women in my family appeared to nurture the qualities of retaining both caring qualities alongside power and rationality.
“I know I have the body of a weak and feeble woman; but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and of a king of England too” said Queen Elizabeth I, reminding me of my own Great-Grandmother, wielding great power and influence everywhere she went.
This combined ethical state may be a rebellion against our Jewish religion, where the male and female divide and conservative values, as well as following a set of (outdated) moral codes are extremely pronounced in Jewish Orthodoxy. I’ve not considered this in any great detail before, but this is something I am keen to explore, especially as someone who has broken ties with religion and considers herself a feminist.

The importance of the caring and empathetic qualities, in all genders, is still so varied, and this can be considered something of nurture. if children are from a background of importance of equality in the family unit, they may themselves go onto embody those notions. If children are exposed to traditional conservative values their family holds, they may find it harder to find equality within the family (and may go on to hold the same values into adulthood), with toys being purchased for children to continue to perpetuate the gender stereotypes.

References

Fantastically Wrong: The Theory of the Wandering Wombs That Drove Women to Madness – Matt Simon, 2014
https://www.wired.com/2014/05/fantastically-wrong-wandering-womb/
(accessed 12/2/21)

Queen Elizabeth I’s speech to the troops at Tilbury – Royal Museums Greenwich, 2015
https://www.rmg.co.uk/discover/explore/queen-elizabeth-i-speech-troops-tilbury#:~:text=I%20know%20I%20have%20the,myself%20will%20take%20up%20arms%2C
(accessed 12/2/21)

McLeod, S. A. (2013, October 24). Kohlberg’s stages of moral development. Simply Psychology. https://www.simplypsychology.org/kohlberg.html (accessed 12/2/21)

Further reading (to do)

Carol Gilligan, In a Different Voice (Harvard University Press, 1982)

Glossary

Utilitarianism – The view that the morally right action is one that provides the most good.

Deontology – Views regarding which choices are morally required, forbidden, or permitted.

Intersectionality – understanding how aspects of a person’s social and political identities combine to create different modes of discrimination and privilege. Examples of these aspects are gender, caste, sex, race, class, sexuality, religion, disability, physical appearance, and height.

Thoughts following the reading of Monica Vilhauer’s excerpt “Understanding Art: The play of work and spectator”.

View the text
Monica Vilhauer, Gadamer’s Ethics of Play: Hermeneutics and the Other, Lexington Books, 2018, p. 31 – 48.

Initial thoughts
This chapter of Vilhauer’s book looks at what happens in the space between art and the viewer. The chapter discusses the role of ‘play’ within several art forms, and the importance of engagement from its audience.

So far, this text has been the most appealing and most digestible. I was excited and delighted by the notions of play and engagement and all the wonderful metaphors for communicating with art, regardless of its platform.

There are three subjects – the spectators, the piece of art and the interaction between the two.

Reflections

The role of audiences and spectators
Participants come into a viewing space for arts with their own understanding of the world. Dramatic arts/performances rely on a ‘suspension of disbelief’, which perhaps the static art piece does not benefit from. However, does the creator of the artwork also expect a certain level of competency and understanding of the world to fully understand their intentions? Each spectator has their own unique lens, their reactions are just as important as the artwork itself.

I was drawn to the text speaking about art as an event in which meaning is communicated (p.31-32). Thinking about the premiere performance of Stravinsky’s ballet Rite of Spring, the audience reaction was, supposedly, one of shock at the dissonant music and jerky movements in the ballet. Although these reactions may be valid, it is thought that some of the audience members were deeply upset about the narrative of the piece, which was based on Slavic paganism, and they were ready to make their opinions known as early as possible on the night of the premiere, leading to an infamous riot in the theatre. Although this wasn’t a positive experience in the history of this ballet, it demonstrated audience interpretation and interaction with a piece of art, and gives future audiences a historical event to consider in their own engagement with it.

Playing and experimenting
I am a great believer in learning through play. My own career path has only been carved out by ‘learning on the job’, through play, experiments, making mistakes, and meaningful engagement, with experiences used as a point of discussion with students. In my experience of teaching, experimenting has been a vital part of ‘learning through making’, whether it be a prop, a piece of theatre set or a full-scale theatre lighting installation. It doesn’t matter what the medium is – the important part is there are participants who meaningfully engage with materials or a concept in order to produce an outcome, while other students in the room engage meaningfully through active listening and verbal observations. The text talks about a processes developing in between different players as a shared experience, depending on the players’ contributions (p.33) – the more students meaningfully participate in the sharing and observations of their work in ‘learning through making’, the more valuable the sessions. The difficult piece is maintaining students’ interest while making the session accessible and giving confidence for everyone in the room to participate.
In a theatre design context, students are aware of logistical pressures of putting on a production, which stops them from relaxing into play [there are some areas of technical theatre which do not allow for experiments (or else, injuries may occur), but the areas that can accommodate experimentation are celebrated].

Gamification of learning
The approach to learning technical techniques or creative problem solving is better achieved by play, rather than theoretical learning. How a student reacts, practically, to a technical problem is something that can’t be taught with words alone. However, with some techniques, they may be seen as too difficult, uninspiring, or boring for a student, particularly with any language or neurodiverse accessibility issues. With varying levels of willingness to participate, some success has been achieved in turning sessions into a game; Mini tasks within a session are dished out , with everyone reuniting every so often to discuss the work, like running room to room in The Crystal Maze. Using gamification and being truly “interactive” (p.35) is a such an interesting method of immersive learning, with committed students acting as both the performer and the audience – losing themselves in the excitement and challenge of the set tasks, and returning to the same room as interactive observer.

Not everything has to be positive

Thinking about the initial approach of participants to a piece of art, they come armed with their own unique understanding of the world and perhaps pre-conceived notions of how they should behave around art. Using my own experience, I feel I have a good amount of art appreciation under my belt. I feel I should be able to be readily reflective, verging into being regularly positive – always find something good to comment on. Perhaps, when experiencing art, I expect to feel something. However, some artists’ work leave me cold for no apparent reason. My reaction to art by the painter Mark Rothko is a good example. Sometimes I am frustrated as a viewer, and I can’t explain why. After reading the text and doing a bit of soul searching, I understand this to be a legitimate response – perhaps this is something the artist expected/hoped for. Perhaps this is a new reflection on their work. The important part here is that a reaction has been obtained through engagement with the work.

Further thoughts
In one of our small breakout groups we discussed the usefulness of feedback from peers to improve teaching – would it be fair to suggest students are also given the opportunity to give feedback on particular sessions? This may be easier to manage as a technician (rather than an academic) because there is an immediacy as to whether something is understood or not (which has a direct correlation to their levels of engagement during a session) as they carry out a particular practical process.


Glossary and further reading
Vilhauer, M. (2010). Gadamer’s ethics of play: Hermeneutics and the Other, Lexington Books

Rite of Spring riots of 1913
https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-22691267 (accessed 10/2/21)

Teaching isn’t something I’ve found the most natural thing to do. I definitely fell into it by accident. The result, almost a decade later, was that I wouldn’t want to do anything else. However, it took many years to learn to retain any kind of calm outwardly exterior when inside I’m terrified. I still get enormous shakes meeting whole new cohorts of excited first year students. Perhaps I’m desperate to come across as likeable, approachable and knowledgable. The shakes go by session 2.

Collaborate Ultra isn’t always the easiest platform; in the first introductory session with Lindsay in December I was teamed up for an initial ‘getting to know you’ exercise with someone who promptly left the session with tech problems – no working mic, no working camera. I had a conversation with myself instead.
However, there is a terrific mix of people in the tutor group, from all wonderful backgrounds. There is so much experience in the room, which I am excited about getting to delve into. While we can’t all go to the pub after the session, I hope that we get to meet, socially, somewhere online.

For the amount of speaking I do each day, I was surprised to find out how terrified my voice came across when it came to the presentations. I feel less qualified as a student to be able to talk about my findings, I guess, for fear of getting the tone or meaning of the reading wrong. In the field of theatre production, there are very binary outcomes – you’ll know instantly if you got it wrong. I’m sure I’m to be told that there is no right or wrong when it comes to interpreting readings – that’s what forms debates and discussions – but I don’t want to come across as not getting a basic grasp. I think I just need to relax into the process of learning and relax into the notion that I can’t always get things right.

So, this is me. I’m effectively a project manager for theatre and performances. I turn theatre design ideas into something practical by ways of working out feasibility, ensuring things comply with health and safety, writing more than enough schedules that nobody reads and by occasionally threatening unruly participants with various bit of sound equipment and a piccolo. I am an experienced multi-skilled theatre technician and stage manager. I gave up working on shows many years ago due to ill health, so I changed my career path into production management. The teaching came from working with students at UCL (where I was employed before coming to UAL), who I worked with on informally teaching about stagecraft and production management.
There is a lot of freedom at UAL to teach whatever path is required, as long as an overall outcome is met, which is usually ‘put on a production’. So I do this by treating my students as professionals, putting them through the stages of work they would find in industry. This gives them confidence and purpose. They come back and ask for more challenges. They learn the different theatre languages by immersing themselves into the practical world of making performances.
This is why the following Spark journal entry appealed to me:

I am drawn to learning about methods of integrating professional practice into academic units – not just leaving it to the technicians to facilitate – because it stresses the importance that it should be recognised alongside the traditional content. More and more, students want to see the value for money from their course, paying extremely high fees has the expectation that jobs will come out of a result of having a degree, also reflecting on the value for money aspect with annual feedback surveys. I hope that the students on the course that have been written about in the article receive parity from industry professionals, and that students have been appropriately trained in how to communicate effectively.

Once our initial presentations were complete (I was super impressed with some of the graphics!), we were put in teams to talk about the two articles we had read and prepared for. There didn’t seem to be enough time to talk about them – every point someone made allowed a useful and relevant springboard into another observation from another student. The Dell’Alba text was explored, the Holmwood text wasn’t. There was real experience and passion behind everyone’s observations, with this amazing range of industry and teaching experience in the group. I think we’re all very polite at this stage and not quite at the debating stage, or perhaps we’re all in agreement with each other.
I hope to explore the Holmwood text at another time – linking sociology with pedagogy is an important aspect. It’s not a good place to be blind to different backgrounds, but instead to understand, celebrate and commemorate events related to the individual. Let the individual tell their story. While I wish for a true meritocracy, it’s far from existing.

I enjoyed the group question of “why do we teach?”. It’s empowering. It’s terrifying. It’s the joy in the back and forth of meaty discussions. Students might hang on your every word. Student write things down that I say and try to memorise it. Sometimes I don’t even know what I’m about to say. I’m also prone to going off on tangents, but mainly because I love the field I teach, with its many related interesting topics, leaping from point to point. I do wish I was more structured, but I tried very hard to deliver a more structured session at the start of the academic year, and it was as dull as dishwater. What I aim to do, however, is teach the rules in order to enable the students to break the rules. I strive for parity in giving everyone the same level of attention, questioning, and feedback. Sometimes it’s tough when not everyone speaks or contributes. Why do students come to my sessions to not contribute?

Although at the moment I run technical sessions weekly (online only), these aren’t seen as compulsory, so there is no punishment for non-attendance. The students that have stuck with me through the development of sessions have regularly contributed feedback – and they are not afraid of giving feedback either – which means I can adapt the sessions quicker while still expecting the same outcome, which is to advance their understanding of theatre languages. There is so much more to look into with language and communication, and I’m excited to explore this with the fellow students.

References

Hanceri, E. (2016). Finding your place: Preparing creative students for industry. Spark: UAL Creative Teaching and Learning Journal, [online] 1(2), pp.98–101. Available at: https://sparkjournal.arts.ac.uk/index.php/spark/article/view/12 [Accessed 16 May 2021].

Dall’Alba, G. 2005. Improving teaching: Enhancing ways of being university teachers. Higher Education Research & Development, 24 (4), pp. 361–372

Holmwood, J. 2018. Race and the Neoliberal University. In Bhambra, G. K., Gebrial, D. and Nişancıoğlu, K. (eds.) Decolonising the University. London: Pluto Press, pp. 37-52.

This morning at 9am, I was a very anxious former student-turned-current student. I went through an odd but strangely calming preparatory tea ceremony, and thought about all my best teaching experience anecdotes.

I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect. I knew Lindsay was going to ease us in gently, for which I was grateful. It’s been far too many years since the last proper lecture I attended, so to have such brilliant speakers in the first morning was a blessing.

Although in my own practice I dutifully load all my teaching material onto Moodle, I hadn’t experienced it from a student perspective. I was mightily glad to be able to have the slides open in a separate window as the speakers were talking so I can go back to anything I had missed while furiously note taking on the previous points, or even the insightful points my fellow students were making in the chat.

I enjoyed the conversation about the silences in the room. In my own practice in theatre design, we consider silences a really vital tool, for colouration and dynamics. The next observation is about teaching online – I have not taught in college since February due to vulnerable health. Silences in the room from students may be seen as irritating – I have experienced my fair share of non-talkers (particularly the students who load up the meeting, keep their cameras off then disappear altogether) – however, I have come to embrace the silences as a challenge to get even the quietest student talking. This can be through the meeting chat, a synchronous Padlet exercise or verbal expression. I don’t pick on anyone to speak (unless we are in a group tutorial) but I continue to ask provocations to get the conversations flowing. I’m slightly prone to tangents, which is a by-product of active student verbal engagement.

In pre-Covid face-to-face teaching, verbal communication is the single most important tool at hand, particularly in the theatre environment. I teach practical theatre making, which is considered a ‘dangerous environment’ (akin to a building site) by the HSE. With the proper verbal communication at the right time, it’s the difference between being safe and being crushed by an enormous weight from 8 metres up in the air. Some students see some verbal communication processes as primal scream therapy, which is an interesting perspective. Even the most shy multi-lingual student leaves an early stage theatre induction session having experienced hearing their own voice being projected, respected and responded to by their fellow class-mates.

My very practical teaching practice rapidly moved to online theoretical teaching, and I am very keen to explore more ways of getting a pleasurable response from students verbalising their responses in the online world. I want the same student voices in the room to quieten, and for quieter students to voice their valid responses. I wish to re-create the buzz of the theatre workshop environment online, as a great deal of responsiveness comes from community spirit, engagement, and a collaborative effort.

Thank you for such an excellent start to the year!