Tag Archives: teaching

ACTION RESEARCH CYCLE

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THE ACTION RESEARCH CYCLE (Based on McNiff and Whitehead 2009)

It’s time to reflect on my research and at what stage of the Action Research Cycle I am currently in.

I have been able to got through Step 1, as the problem has been defined and the research question has been framed. The identified opportunity of increasing employability and the sentiment of being part of the LCF by participating in networking activities, translates in the the Research Question: How Networking can positively impact future employability for the MA’s Fashion Design Management Students as well as their personal adaptation journey to the LCF.

I am currently working on Step 2 and it’s being a challenging process, as mentioned in my previous post. Collecting data hasn’t been as smooth as I planned, specifically the survey data collection. However, the casual conversations have been really insightful and hopefully  they will help to shape how teaching or activities related to teaching can be updated. Nevertheless, it would be recommended to work further on increasing the participation ratio from the current 18% to at least a 95% of the survey targeted participants: Current MA FDM students and Graduated ones. This is the sample size recommended by Saunders, M., Lewis, P., & Thornhill, A. (2019). Research methods for business students. To conduct this research later on the time line, during the second term of the course, it would help to increase the participation as the students will be more settle.

In reaction to Step 3, the research aim is to deliver a tool to increase the networking opportunities the students have during their one year course, but unfortunately, it won’t be possible to implement it before the submission of the project. Post project submission, I will be involved in a process where I will be able to use the developed tool (Step 3), monitor and evaluate the changes made (Step 4) and review, reflect upon the changes and repeat the cycle if necessary (Step 5).

Saunders, M., Lewis, P., & Thornhill, A. (2019) Research methods for business students. 8th edn. Harlow: Prentice Hall. (Pages 297 & 298)

RESEARCHING ABOUT WHAT I AM SEEING

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December 2023, LCF

Since I started my Action Research Project I’ve been consciously paying attention to what I’ve been seeing and observing in the class room. The MA’s Fashion Design Management Students have been casually sharing their different networking experiences during the first term at the LCF. So far, they have had the opportunity of collaborating with other peers from the same course, working in a cross-unit which involves student from different courses, attending industry events and others. That translates in some relaxed discussions before starting my lecture. However, these conversations are not relaxed anymore for me as I’ve trying to gather as much information as possible which could be potentially useful to build my research. Basically, trying to actively understand the students’s experiences, views and challenges. 

This experience directly resonated with the article from our 1st ARP session, Documenting classroom life: how can I write about what I am seeing?. As the article mentions, we don’t write what we see, we scribble. In my personal experience, I scribble key words, tone of the conversation, emotions and feelings. It is more about the action being observed than the specific words. Even though, the author highlights the impossibilities of capturing “everything” when observing any social scene, the relationship between the researcher as observer and the own own subjective past impacts the witnessing of the present scenario. Considering that, I have used my notes as a starting point to further research during my one to one casual conversations and the survey I shared with the students. These notes have opened me a space of new areas of research. 

L. Jones, R. Holmes, C. Macrae and M. Maclure (August, 2010) “Documenting classroom life: how can I write about what I am seeing?” Manchester Metropolitan University, UK. Vol. 10(4), pp. 479–491.

Diversity & Inclusion

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When I joined the LCF as an HPL I had to undertake the training in Equality, Diversity and Inclusion.

I believe these are fundamental and relevant topics which I’ve always tried my best to embrace, and to which I can personally relate because I am Spanish and I have lived abroad for few years.

Inclusion comes from many sources including culture, ethnicity, gender, and different learning abilities. My aim is to feel everyone welcome, a part of the group and in a safe space for sharing their thoughts and doubts. During my lectures, seminars and tutorials I seek to create an inclusive space where all the voices are heard.

My approach has had a number of elements:

  • Group Sharing: Students introducing themselves verbally to the group when we meet for the first time, including the reasons behind their academic choice and their future goals. I realise not everyone is comfortable in introducing themselves verbally and I have given them the option of writing their introduction in Padlet. 
  • Learning the names of the students and naming them/asking them directly during the sessions.
  • Knowing where they are coming from. I have had the opportunity of travelling a lot due to my corporate job and can often share stories related with their country of origin.
  • Asking them for examples of their own relevant industry experience. Few of them have had the opportunity of working as design intern and their knowledge of sampling development is very valuable when we cover this topic during the unit.
  • Creating small group activities where each student can participate in role playing.

Thanks to the PG Cert, I also incorporate the following ideas into my practice to increase the student’s inclusion and interaction:

Teaching Well

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During one of the PG Cert sessions we discussed the UK Professional Standards Framework 2011 and we were asked about what we need to know to teach well. 

As a group we brainstorm and defined what we should know to teach well:

  • Our students, their motivations, choices, their context, their values and beliefs. (K3)
  • We should have technical knowledge of the topic to be teached. (K1)
  • Being able to engage and communicate. (K2)
  • Coaching skills
  • Facilitating learning (K2)
  • To be capable to develop good structures: Brief and Learning Outcomes 
  • Language and Ecosystem of courses (K2)
  • Ourselves

Surprisingly we didn’t cover Core Knowledges like assessment (K2), innovation and technology (K4), evaluation (K5) and quality (K6), which we have discussed multiple times during the last few weeks.

Personally, I would add few more points to the concept of “teaching well”. From my experience, passion an interest about the topic to be delivered is key to create an immersive learning experience as well as inspiring during mentoring sessions or tutorials. I wonder also about the relevance of having industry experience and current market knowledge.

The exercise continued with the following question: What values inform the way we teach?

We connected the Core Knowledge with Professional Values and we were able to highlight V1 and V2, whilst we didn’t cover V3 and V4.

Overall, it was a good exercise to reflect in teaching and learn about the UKPSF11.

Teaching with Integrity

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I’ve been reading the case study from Bruce Macfarlane’s 2004 book Teaching with Integrity: The ethics of higher education practice (Routledge), in which a fictional lecturer, ‘Stephanie Rae’, receives feedback on her teaching in the form of student evaluation forms and a peer observation.

How relevant is it to get feedback from our students and colleagues to elevate our lectures and ourselves as practitioners.

It’s always a vulnerable position being observed, specially by other colleagues, as it’s easy to get used to a regular way of working that allows us to operate in our comfort zone. However, what we fail to recognize is that we could be seen as being boring, lacking innovation, interaction and engagement with the students. We could also be guilty of being confusing or obsolete. Like Stephanie, who was being compared with other colleagues who were apparently more dynamic, charismatic and thought provoking.

I believe the Peer Observation Exercise will challenge me; however, I am looking forward to it. It’s a sweet and sour feeling which will help me to move forward.

Stephanie had a time constraint and her focus was her research work. That is the reason given by her not to rewrite her lectures as she didn’t have enough hours to do it due to her research workload. However, I wonder, does time really impact teaching quality?  Don’t we need the same time to be interactive than delivering a solo speech? Don’t we need the same time to be boring than charismatic? Of course, time matters as it is a resource that allows you to prepare more interesting sessions, but till which degree is it about preparation vs being skilled?

Pedagogy & Empathy

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Pedagogy is understood as “the method and practice of teaching, especially as an academic subject or theoretical concept”.

Discussing what we understand as pedagogy and which concepts and methods come to our minds, questions are raised about empathy, ludic practices, ipsative teaching, VARK model, digital tools, physical space, experimental learning activities, risk taking stimulation, freedom of expression and so on.

I have been wondering how one would start to teach Empathy. It’s such an important skill for everyone including teachers and students.

I got greater clarity after a discussion with my colleagues from the PG Cert. First of all, can empathy be taught? I am not sure about that as from my perspective empathy is an inner value. Although, in any case, empathy could be encouraged with listening, respect and allowing to each of us to explain our story, where are we coming from and our background. Active listening is key as well as the creation of a safe space where everyone feels comfortable and can share their thoughts freely. Physical space is something I had never considered before James Carazzo’s session, but after reflecting on it, I believe is an essential part of creating an environment of trust.  I am also curious how we can extrapolate this concept to on-line teaching where the physical space is substituted by a cold screen. How can empathy be delivered in a digital world? 

In addition, other thoughts come to my mind. Is the size of the students group relevant when we want to encourage values like empathy? From my experience, it is more challenging to have meaningful conversations across all the students when the group is larger than 25-30 people.