Knowing and responding to students’ diverse needs
Background:
Embroidery course- highly practical based
18-25 students per year group, 10-13 per class
Context: BA2 Designer Identity Written and Visual Proposal session (3 classes a term to support a written proposal for their visual project at the end of 2nd year)
In these sessions I work with students from all textile disciplines (print, knit and embroidery), each student has their own project direction with different supportive research, skill levels and language understanding. Because of this I need to be adaptive in my approach to teaching.
‘An adaptive teacher is aware of the diversity of learning pre-conditions, and the learning and problem-solving behaviour of students’ (Vogt & Rogalla, 2009).
This unit is set up to help the students start their 3rd year research by proposing and initiating research and experimentation into their chosen direction. This However, has not always functioned as intended with students starting from scratch when they come back in 3rd year. This is because they have 3 projects to submit at the same time and usually the proposal element isn’t a priority as the other two projects are practical lead and writing proposals is new to them.
Evaluation:
I share the full class with another tutor, and we start as a full group for a presentation then I take half the students for deeper discussions on their projects, I feel working in smaller groups allows more time with each student and therefore more personal feedback for them to work on rather than generic full group discussions.
I see the same students in all 3 sessions, this helps with continuity of feedback and allows me to keep up to date with their projects. It also helps save time as they don’t need to re-introduce their work to a different tutor.
I have created a timeline that I share with the students which shows all they key dates they need to be aware of for their proposal sessions and what they should have done for certain dates. This aims to help students who struggle with time management as they have a lot of multiple projects at the same time. This in theory works well, when I share this with the students, they seem engaged however in practice not all students can keep to it or refer to it unless I show it to them again.
Moving Forward:
Session content – I aim is to allow more time for understanding their identity as designers and for them to question their likes and dislikes so that they can direct their project to their strengths and interests, which will hopefully mean they are more likely to stick with it in their 3rd year.
Presentation– I am going to aim to keep my presentations short with more visuals than text, this class takes place on Friday afternoon so attention and engagement can be challenges. I will include a key word count, language, and reference breakdown so students understand the terms being used within their proposal structure, this helps with any language barriers which can occur with written elements. The presentations go up on Moodle the same day as the session so students can access it via phone or personal laptop in their own time, this is useful for absent students, students with eyesight problems and for students who need to access and digest information in their own time.
Utilising different specialisms – Another change to this unit is that instead of seeing only embroidery students my group will be a mix of printer, knitters and embroiderers. This allows me to deliver a more diverse range of feedback and suggestions, it allows for my students to create new connections, and I can show students different approaches to designing which will help to build their knowledge.
1-1 tutorials (online or in person)– I will give one to one tutorials in the 3rd and final session, this allows for more in-depth, project relevant feedback on their draft proposal and aid their personal professional development. I will organise this tutorial to be online or in person using a sign-up time slot system on Moodle which allows students to arrange a time that’s best for them and organise it with their other commitments/projects.
References:
Vogt F., Rogalla M. (2009). Developing adaptive teaching competency through coaching. Teaching and Teacher Education, 25, 1051–1060.