Knowing and meeting the needs of diverse learners
Contextual Background
This will be my second year as a tutor for Year 1 on the BA (Hons) Cordwainers Fashion Bags and Accessories course. Having experienced teaching on all Year1 units, I’ve had time to evaluate and reflect on how we can adapt sessions to help support student learning and hopefully be more inclusive by doing so. I will be focusing on our second unit Accessories Design and Technologies (Please find Assessment Brief attached)
Evaluation
This year as the group is much larger than previous, and because I’m sharing some of the teaching responsibilities with another technical tutor, I don’t believe I’ve managed to build a strong relationship and trust with all the students. There is a large number of international students and also a very high percentage of students who didn’t choose Accessories as their first choice (chosen from the “pool”). This has been my biggest challenge, motivating and ensuring all students understand the Assessment Brief, despite all the absences. As you can see from the chart below, PDT (Product Design & Technology the name of the unit before revalidation) pass rate in 22/23 was 85.19%, we believe this is because of the students’ lack of interest in the course because they decided to accept their offer onto the course despite it not being their preferred choice. The number of students reporting this issue is increasing each year resulting in low attainment rates.
Figure 1- Unit Pass Rates Level 4 (Year 1) dashboards.arts.ac.uk
Over the first block, we deliver a combination of workshops (Core skills and pattern cutting), lectures, masterclasses, and more informal experimental and making sessions. By alternating sessions and delivering a variety within the Timetable we hope to keep students engaged whilst also delivering a strong foundation in the course.
Moving forwards
Group tutorials – This year I’ve found it beneficial to do smaller group tutorials and formative tutorials with my colleague Eting (co-teaching). As we have a large language barrier on the course, Eting can step in as an interpreter to ensure all the students fully understand the brief.
Although we only had a few of these sessions this year, it was a great opportunity for less confident students to present in smaller groups to gain feedback, I propose we arrange more next year to ensure we support the cohort adequately. The sessions rely on students bringing their work for feedback, so it’s vital to stress the importance of preparing for the sessions.
1 to 1 tutorials in person – Currently we don’t have the teaching hours to meet students on a one-to-one basis (except for their Personal tutorials). It could be useful to offer students who feel they need extra support, I often notice students are more honest in intimate settings and they will voice their concerns and discuss if they don’t understand specific issues.
Catchup sessions – For students who missed practical lessons or joined the course late due to enrolment or Visa issues. Offering support from the technical team to help students catch up on missed lessons. To support (LO4).
Experimental and Making Sessions – Although we currently offer these as timetabled sessions, I feel we could encourage students to be more creative in their approach to experimenting. (LO4). I could try to reach out to industry partners to see if they have any interesting materials etc that the students could recycle to encourage creativity and innovation within their initial experimental work, this should encourage less affluent students to attend as there will be materials available for them, but also encourage sustainability. I would hope this would also increase the attainment rates as students would be more motivated by the surprise workshop activity. Brookfield, S. (2015) When students are surprised by a radically different classroom activity their interest levels spike and engagement increases.
Encourage more students to attend written and language support sessions – Students struggle with the written parts of the ADT submission, this is mostly because English is their second language. I suggest encouraging more students to attend the language sessions to help them understand how to describe their design journey and evaluate and reflect on their progression in their submissions. (LO2 & LO3).
To conclude, I believe it would benefit the course if all the teaching and technical staff would meet at the end of the unit to reflect and give feedback on how they think the unit went. Once the results are published I will arrange an in-person meeting. We did however arrange a meeting at the beginning of the unit and because of this, I believe the team worked better as a whole and hoped to gain a strong outcome despite all the initial teething issues at the LCF East Bank Campus.
Refrences
Figure 1- Unit Pass Rates Level 4 (Year 1) dashboards.arts.ac.uk
Brookfield, S. (2015). The Skillful Teacher: On Technique, Trust, and Responsiveness in the Classroom. Germany: Wiley. P126
Further information
Crip Theory – Literary and Critical Theory – Oxford Bibliographies
Links
Assessment Brief for Accessories Design and Technologies 23/24