I recently had a student asking me but what is research? To which I replied: that is a good question, because there’s not really a clear definition, (we then delved into ways the student could do her research anyway. But I wanted to acknowledge the students´s doubts and emphasise that the ambiguity that it can be).

According to Susan Orr and Alison Shreeve in their book Art and Design Pedagogy in Higher Education, Knowledge, Values and Ambiguity in the Creative Curriculum:

“Research is a term used in a specific way in art and design but which lacks clear definition. It refers to a process of finding and exploring information on which to base the generation of conceptual, visual and material ideas. The way research is undertaken is seldom articulated, but expectations of what constitutes good research certainly exist within course groups, usually as tacit knowledge emphasising the ambiguity of the learning environment (Kjølberg 2012). In each course and subject culture, there will be an expectation or cultural configuration of what constitutes good research. A small-scale study explored the variation in ways students approached the research component of a fashion/textiles project and identified that it was possible to do this in increasingly complex ways, from reproducing elements of the visual material studied in the designed arte-fact to embodying abstract ideas and concepts in the designed artefact (Shreeve et al. 2004). Further research would be useful to understand more fully how and what constitutes research processes in undergraduate learning across different sub-disciplines and where there are commonalities. There are certainly distinct cultural differences in expectations of research (Kjølberg 2012) but usually consensus that merely collating information from the Internet does not constitute sufficient research on which to base a creative project. There may be some requirements to ‘read’ around a subject area as well as generate visual materials and explore these to generate new products and artefacts. In many cases research is generated by the students’ own interests and subjective responses to the world (Barrett 2007), particularly within the later stages of a design course. Research is also required for theoretical or cultural and historical studies which are part of the degree programme. This kind of research may encompass critical reading, the construction of arguments or points of view and, in the final year, is likely to value primary research which contributes to a dissertation on a subject or question of the student’s own choice. This might correspond more closely to academic research in other disciplines; although the subject of the study is most likely to relate to artists, designers and their outputs, it usually does not preclude any other subject of interest to the individual student.“

In the BA Fine Art Y1 The Learning Outcome 2 is related with research – Identify potential inter-relationships between practice and theory in your own work and that of others and utilise appropriate resources to inform you in beginning to articulate those relationships. (Knowledge).

It is clear in the LO2 that the students have to Identify potential inter-relationships between practice and theory in their own work and that of others. That of the others can be artists, craft-mans, filmmakers, writers, painters, designers, etc.

There are no requirements to ‘read’ around a subject area, however a bibliography is provided with suggesting reading.

Also in every Lecturer there are material available for students to delve in, whether reading, watching documentaries, seeing the slides, etc.

According to Allan Davies in Learning outcomes and assessment criteria in art and design. What’s the recurring problem? “… art and design students are often in pursuit of a ‘quarry’ of which they are given only partial knowledge. Indeed, this can be a deliberate learning strategy in the creative arts. For art and design students, formulating and finding their own quarry is an essential part of the discovery process. They do, nevertheless, need to know the ‘landscape’ and the ‘boundaries’ when they are in full pursuit. It might be that these are better articulated in the form of a discourse than in specific outcome form and more usefully manifested in project briefings, team meetings, etc.”

“The requirement that all learning outcomes should use terms, particularly verbs, which are ‘measurable’ creates more challenges that it resolves. To insist on using terms such as ‘identify’, ‘explain, ‘analyse’ and so on does not make the task of assessment any easier since explanations and analyses, etc, are discipline specific and are likely to be equally ambiguous for students who have not been yet been inducted into the language of the discipline.”

In our Cohort seminar #1, in groups, we discussed the successes, limitations, issues, doubts, and opportunities for development (especially for employability and inclusivity). Here are some comments on the padlets during this session:

“Arming our students with the skills they need to be successful in (a) gaining employment and (b) their practice

Skills offered as a ‘palette’ to allow them to pick and choose and be creative in how they apply themselves

Knowing versus doing”

“How can we ensure that learning outcomes are specific enough for online learning, but open enough for experimentation within the students’ practice?”

“International students: Teaching and learning is varied across the world, and the increase in international students at UAL opens us up to more expectations from more culturally diverse students.”

“How can we support students’ employability without limiting their creativity and imagination (knowing vs doing/using)?”

Reflecting on these padlets posts, on the Learning Outcomes and being an artist myself, I feel the learning outcomes in fine art are open enough to have space to unknown avenues and creativity. There are always margin to improve, though.

It is also about helping the students to find what they love, so they can succeed and feel fulfilled.

It is also about showing them that is an incredible hard work process, and from this point of view, the students/ artists must therefore enjoy working hard or see what they do not as work.

It is also about a language that seeks

It is also about inclusive practices and different perspectives, respect and community.

If one chooses to study fine art, one has to know that it is a journey to discovery, to imagine, and to create new meaning and/or things. At the end of the day, it is not about grades, it is about knowing, feeling that one is going in the right direction, not just to one self but for a wider community.

Reflection on Unit 3 Theory/ Practice Peer review

Talking To A Goldfish was a collaborative project that I did while I was in residency at Doremi, in Cumbria, resulting from the ideas and voices of one of another artist in residency Meg Norongchai and I.

The aim was exploring both voices and communicate with each other using mainly sounds that resonate in a quarry of disused inter-linqued quarries and the main chamber. The sing was no longer related to semantic meaning. The voice was reduced to listening, one voice calling another, one voice responding to another.

I was thinking of this work as a metaphor for the classroom, particularly in the session Unit 3 Theory/Practice Peer review. Fundamental things such as being fully present, listen to the students and follow up with the right comment or right question are dependent on self care and awareness.

In this session I was noticeable tired. I am sleep deprived. Because of my workload, I have been going to bed late and my son, wakes up very early and also still wakes up in the middle of the night. I also have a solo exhibition in Germany in April.

I had to stop and restart again! Sometimes things don’t go as plan and one has to accept that there’s no such thing as perfection, although the aim is that. However it is good to be aware that there’s more than preparing the lesson for the class. There’s a whole world of emotions and other kind of powerful language that influence the learning.

I recently read The Slow Professor by Maggie Berg and Barbara K. Seeber, which I mentioned in another post, and I was deeply inspired by some of the writings.

Some notes on that:

“…faculty stress directly affects student learning. We know from experience that when we walk into a classroom breathless, rushed, and preoccupied, the class doesn’t go well; we struggle to make connections with the material and our students.”

_{Excerpt from Macfarlane, B. 2004. Teaching with Integrity: The ethics of higher education practice. Routledge.}

Ego is the enemy (by Ryan Holiday)

She’s fantastic at what she does in her ‘real’ work, which affords her privilege of walking into any post. 

She catering to a very different audience with teaching, she’s there to serve the students and they may not know who she is.

Be humble – know who we are serving — knowing if we’re the right person to serve (in this case the students)

She’s not fit for the purpose – not humble / defensive / wrong interpretation of feedback

Is it the institution? Expectation of work from institution, pressure to complete tasks on top of role of teaching and research.

She knows it’s part of the action plan, for university. It has to be done, do it properly (not by throwing bad feedback away)

Very good for job within certain context. She has international reputation. She only thinks in one dimension.

She can juggle both research and teaching, there are plenty of people who do this successfully.

She needs to be more self aware of taking on criticism. Understanding theories and pedagogy, improving on self awareness.

She needs to do a PG Cert. 

Ego is something she needs to accept as a teacher

Do I enjoy teaching or do I just want to do my research?

Personality – pastoral care and wellbeing of students. 

How do we get best out of this situation – removing bias

She’s routed in evidence base teaching. 

A few comments from the two padlets from this session:

How could Stephanie move past her defensive reaction?

What areas of Stephanie’s practice are ripe for development?

• Consider how her practice can be brought into her lecturing and vice versa, they don’t have to be so seperate. She should frame them as supporting each other rather than one taking time away from the other.
• Stephanie’s false dichotomyI think Stephanie needs to see if she can figure out a way that her teaching practice can complement, feed into or otherwise enrich her research practice. I think by learning to respect her students as (at least) future peers, she could enter a new spirit of generosity rather than obligation regarding her teaching commitments .´
• Provide lecture notes AFTER if she is not keen to ‘spoon feed’ the students prior.
• d. Stephanie could re-consider providing handouts in advance as these could be more inclusive anyway.
• Her ability to take on feedback without getting defensive. 
• Needs to renew her passion for teaching and relationships with the students.
• Check her ego and take notes from the more junior teacher

Having had feedback recently again, with the peer observations, I couldn’t avoid feeling nervous. Specially because I really want to do well, with the PGCert and with my teaching. However this is my first year, of hopefully many more, teaching within the curriculum, so receiving feedback is so helpful because I am learning so much reflecting on what I did and how I can improve my teaching.

Reflecting on feedback, I can understand how sometimes it is easy and even normal to get defensive. Personally, I (still) feel like that sometimes. And that is why it is so important to not react when we have this feelings.

I let these feelings come, I embrace them, I think about why I am in defensive mode. Then, I let go of the feelings. I am able, then, to reflect and learn with the feedback.

Talking about feelings reminds me of this poem by Rumi.

The Guest House

This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.​

Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.

​

Micro-teaching Reflections

Reflecting on my micro-teaching session and on the feedback from my peers I wanted to use this session to create a space of reflection and dialogue. 

I started preparing the session thinking how can I use this with my students and, being an artist my self, I feel it is so important to have time and dialogue with objects, being them found objects or something that we created.

Before formulating my ideas I watched a useful video on object based learning, Embracing Intercultural Dialogue in the Classroom: CPD, Methodologies and Methods: Practical Implications for the Classroom, Jo-Anne Sunderland Bowe, Heritec UK Limited (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BucOs-JfGTk).

In the video, it is mentioned that Object Based Learning is an opportunity to welcome the changes in the curriculum moving towards the concept of the 4C´s in ‘21st Century Skills’ which are Critical Thinking, Creativity, Collaboration, Communication. 

In there, there’s also a very inspirational quote regarding informal learning and objects: “we are constantly learning through our experiences; is this idea that we take new information, apply it to our personal life and to our experiences and construct new meaning from it.”

I also read The Slow Professor where I was particular interested in the chapter Time Management and Timelessness and I found this quote that resonated with me and I wanted to somehow incorporated in the session through a pause with the silence and contemplation: “Personal motivation is not enough. environmental factors facilitate or interfere with creative thinking. The major obstacle to creative and original thinking: Mainemelis found, is the stress of having too much to do;”

With this in mind, my first ideas to plan a micro teaching session took into consideration, for the first task, the creation of a space for silence and reflection, for visual thinking, for visual memory and assimilating of new meaning. For the second task, I was hopping that handling the object would “provide an opportunity for communal discussion” (read in Object-Based Learning and Wellbeing, Judy Willcocks, 2021), enhancing communication and collaboration.

Breakdown of the micro-teaching session: 

Task 1 : Looking at the object, I want you to observe it, to interpret it, to think about it. 

Bring a personal life experience or experiences that includes or relates with this object. You have 5 minutes of reflective silence. Feel free to write down notes or keep your thoughts to yourself. Afterwards I will invite you to share and discuss these experiences and how they relate to the object.

10 minutes: Sharing it with the group; 

Task 2: Discuss collectively what art form or media you imagine this story or experience and object being presented in. 5 minutes

With regard to learning objectives, I was interested to develop the following: observational skills, visual literacy (ability to ‘read’ objects, to find meaning from them), team working and collaboration, communication and inspiration. 

In this session I was particular interested in building skills on the following UAL assessment criteria: 

Enquiry – active learning and reflection, students can relate these skills to their own practice to build enquiry

Communication – how you share your learning with an audience, presenting and explaining your work to different people.

Knowledge – enhancing understanding (perceptions of others), explore diverse cultures and connections, and appreciate what you do in a wider context.

Feedback and reflection:

After looking at the object one student was reminded of her grandma pillows and the fact that some of the feathers would stick out of the pillow;

Another student thought about birds and connotations about freedom. The student also thought about the meaning in first world war when feathers were given to soldiers representing cowardice or conscientious pacifism.

One of the students thought about bedding and silk pillows. Also the way of the feather was designed made her think about body in water and how light our bodies are in water.

Sergio thought about joy, highness, and from his perspective he could see an old man with a white eye brown.

In the second task they discussed ideas how would they presented a feather and a combination of their experiences. They thought of making a mix media animation. The animation would be printed in a fabric that would have the feather as a pattern. The film would featured an old man called Robert, with white eye browns, looking like feathers. He had to go to war but decided instead to make a war with pillows. 

Very inspiring idea, indeed, in current times!

Upon feedback, I think that perhaps a more robust object would have been better, because no one handled it. Perhaps, the object was too sensitive or small. 

Regarding the silence, a student said that at the begging they felt quite uncomfortable with the 5 minute silence. But after a while they thought it was important. 

Sergio had doubts, at the beginning about the time in silence but he said that he understood the quiet process within the second task. It makes me think that I should have explained task 1 and task 2 at the beginning. Researching further in one of my readings Object-Based Learning and Wellbeing, Judy Willcocks writes “Almost all participants in our well-being workshops noted the importance of working to a brief with clear goals, points for reflection and deadlines.” .

Sergio also asked a pertinent question regarding if I would do this with first year students, for example at the beginning of the year, without us getting to know each other first. Questioning if they would engage with the task, or perhaps would be to open, and they would get lost, or distracted. 

I haven’t done this session with my students. I did said to my students though that it is ok to embrace silence and, for example, in a presentation if someone doesn’t reply straight away do not assume the worst.

Thinking about this feedback leads me back to my readings of Innovative pedagogies series: Wow: The power of objects in object-based learning and teaching by Dr Kirsten Hardie, when she asks ´first year students to select an object of their choice and place it in front of all their peers so that the example will elicit an instantaneous, authentic and audible response from the group: a wow (2008). Any object can be selected as long as it is considered to have the power to provoke a wow. Students are asked not to present or explain their chosen item: “the student’s voice is communicated by objects. Neither students nor teacher talk. Silence is only to be broken by the exclamation of ‘Wow! A genuine utterance of this single word ultimately confirms the success of the students’ work.” (Hardie 2008, p. 139). Discussion takes place after the wow.`

Thinking about other students sessions, I thought that Tracy’s session was very effective because she combined theory about jeans, a task and quiz. She helped everyone to learned the task if sowing a base for a mug made out of jeans. At the end, the quiz was run in an informal, and I thought it was a good way to sediment knowledge. 

I also thought that Abi´s session was really effective. She thought us about fabric materials. I really liked the touching the different materials, the smell. I thought it was really interesting that at the end she unveiled where the materials were from and their sources. They were all natural materials: from mango, pineapple, coconut, etc. We had previously tried to guess this and upon unveiling we were all surprised. 

It was really good to stay for almost the all day and see and learn from so many different approaches, I also had a lovely lunch with Abi and I thought that everyone gave good feedback to their peers.