Record of Observation: Tutor

Session observed: Unit 7 Publication Workshops

Size of student group: approx. 120 students

Observer: Tim Stephens

Observee: Holly St Clair (Meade)

Part 1.: Context

What is the context of this session/artefact within the curriculum?

The students have just finished making films on a subject they have chosen using found material. They have been engaging in visual research. They will now be producing a publication to accompany their films at the end of unit screening. We are in the second part of their Unit 7 project, designed by George Mellor. 

How long have you been working with this group and in what capacity?

I have been working with this year group since the start of the academic year. I am an Associate Lecturer. I have a tutor group who I assess and tend to.

What are the intended or expected learning outcomes?

Students will learn methods of book making through object-based learning. They will handle publications that use unusual or innovative formats.

What are the anticipated outputs (anything students will make/do)?

They will use materials to practice different techniques, creating dummy books. They may begin to draft their publication. Students are encouraged to use the staff working as resources for information.

Are there potential difficulties or specific areas of concern?

There is a theme of anxiety amongst this year group, especially around making in front of others. There can be a hesitancy to ask questions. We want to foster a studio environment to tackle this.

How will students be informed of the observation/review?

They will be informed at the start of the studio session in a large group. They will be reminded when joining my break-out group.

What would you particularly like feedback on?

Communication, whether students are focused and engaged. If they understand the intention of the day’s workshop. 

How will feedback be exchanged?

In person or on this form!

Part 2.: Tutor Observation

H: you

St. students

T: other tutor

I do Teaching Obs., by noting the sequence of events…this will help you recall the session and reflect on what you think is happening and what you did at the time, based on your memory of the session’s events.

Book-publication display, workshop. Artefact exploration and production, show and tell (new) event.

Set up of the session, wide range of publications laid out on tables. Friday workshop. Plus Film Club afterwards, with popcorn!

H: Morning, what’s your name..?

H: What’s your film (?) about….

St. Explains a bit about her project…

H: Amazing…I’ve organised these in themes…entirely hand drawn and written…

St. Browses…

H: these three here [you explain and discuss informally with student 1:1]

Very positive, encouraging, manner.

Talking about journeys and explorative work…

H: This book’s really special to me, autistic…designer, diarist…all sensory, soft…

A group of students arrive.

H: I’ve tried to group these in themes…embroidery…hand made…one on toilet paper…these all unusual paper choices, sizes…

H: This is a project I did when I was studying here….

You explain the studio, project, children’s issue based work… Yeah, it was fun while it lasted!

H: This is lovely…by J. he also studied here….he went on a walk….I love it…

[T: Find a new table – announcement!]

H: If you have any questions…they’re not all immediately accessible, what they are…

St. [immediate question re: the large A3 format book]

You circulate around the table to the opposite side.

[I browse the publications]

You structure various discussions, about forms of the publications, their types and projects behind them.

St.’s disclose things about their interests and on-going projects, which you discuss with them.

The conversations are prompted in all sorts of ways by the stimulus material.

e.g. This one is one of my projects, it’s an activity book…you have to be aware of which side you cut out, because there is something on the other side…

This one gets bigger and bigger as you unfold it…

[I get distracted!]

You continue with the 1:1 conversation format, approach new arrivals to the table, comment on what they are browsing, rearrange and keep the space of the books on the table.

St.s are also talking to eachother, sharing their interests, opening the tiny packet book, and flicking through pages.

You move with St. to show the Egypt booklet publication and he is very enthused. You talk about the other related publication.

H: Contrasts the western lens on …

[Jingle to move on]

H: time to move on folks

St Thanks

H: have you looked at J’s books

H: [you explain the various colours/grades in one booklet]

St: Wow!

They explain how they like the break in the sequence

H: Yes! The interruptions….

You continue to circulate with new arrival students.

One hour – over so soon!

This was a very interesting, and somewhat unusual, untypical, activity to observe, not least because the materials laid on about 5-6 table across two large rooms, including a live illustrator/showing their own works, staff personal collections of an historic archive of exceptional examples of booklet, publication, illustration, and various book concepts…that were each so interesting in themselves.

Such resource-rich environments, which could be called ‘immersive’ in one sense, ‘exploratory’, OBL (object-based learning), object handling, exemplar stimulus material, also a type of diverse, curated exhibition are an interesting context to teach in. We are more demanded, by the context and materials to be ‘facilitative’, ‘conversational’, ‘friendly-open-welcoming’ (each tutor was stood beside their specific collection, like a host, or in a market-stall type environment. This set up in some ways already determines the type of interaction we have with students, as visitors….However, as educationalists, this allowed you to be ‘experts’ and share your ’expertise’ on the collections in front of the students. In a very specific way.

This is very similar to the role of archivists and museum-object curators and professionals. They often take a very purposeful backward step, not to impose readings, interpretations or specific narratives as these might exclude others; and they can be very reticent. You were very good here at ‘allowing’ student to find their own meanings, ask their own questions and you started to elaborate and open up the teaching from this point.

You seemed to effectively have some meaningful interactions all stemming from either a) asking a good question about their interest or practice or b) disclosing something about the object or c) disclosing something about your own practice interests or insights into the objects. This was wonderful to see and helped to ‘calm’ or ‘focus’ those potentially embarrassing or slightly uncomfortable moments…as if we are at a sale, or display and we are not sure whether to just look or to communicate further with the person that is there hosting, make sense? In a highly defined scenario such as this, the teaching itself, as I said, is kind of structured by the situation-activity.

It may seem that ‘successful’ teaching in this context is only where someone’s interest/project is sparked by the object/your disclosure and we have a ‘good’ conversation! 

However, let’s just imagine that’s not the case. Let’s say that wandering in a market in a foreign country is a perfect learning opportunity. Why would that be? What is learning in this context…? If it is learning through looking, touching, exploring, naming, identifying, absorbing, comparing, noticing, attuning, and so on. What types of pedagogies, actions/acts could you as facilitator, make? This might be one way for you to think about this situation, and as you recall the session through the description above. What possibilities are there for you, apart from simply being there as host.

You might have to step outside of what was expected of you as tutors in this scenario, but let’s imagine…

Welcoming – you did a great jo pf being friendly and welcoming at the table.

Encouraging –  you did a good job of encouraging people to look, touch and explore (this is known as permission giving, and students often need a lot more than we think! To be brave, and to learn).

Noticing – write down five words related to what you see, tell me three things you notice about,

Thinking – tell me one thing you don’t know about what you are looking at, ask one question about an object you have picked up.

In a sense these are all types of ‘play’ used in ‘exploratory’ or ‘discovery’ learning in the above scenarios I listed earlier. Hence reading up on this context would help to work out more possibilities.

For what I saw in the ‘event’ itself it was a great session in which students were almost overwhelmed by the richness of the scenario, this in itself is a wonderful thing to be part ot, and I hope the idea takes off and becomes really popular.

The making part, which was the student response element would have been super interesting to observe so I’m sorry I missed that, as that would be where things like formative feedback could come in. You may also want to reflect on that aspect of the session that was unobserved.

Thanks Holly, great session and wonderful experience for me!

Part 3.: Reflection on Feedback

Thank you Tim for your thoughtful observations! I’m very glad you enjoyed the session. Below are some of my reflections:

The session format was one I had done variants on before, on other occasions I have brought my philately collection and printed posters. While I enjoy the intimacy of this act, there is an element of trust and vulnerability. If I were to ask my students to bring in personal collections I would describe them as brave for doing so. Sharing can be scary!

This is very similar to the role of archivists and museum-object curators and professionals. They often take a very purposeful backward step, not to impose readings, interpretations or specific narratives as these might exclude others; and they can be very reticent.

This is an interesting observation for me, I have worked in three previous roles in museum and gallery spaces! Two of these were casual student roles (namely: stopping children from eating the artwork and grown ups from breaking things) where I often had to engage with a member of the public asking questions or wanting to discuss the artwork. As my role was to sit in the gallery for hours, I learnt to listen instead of offer my interpretation straight away. I always kept an ‘Easter egg’, a fun fact, in my back pocket to really ‘wow’ the visitor. I’ve never considered how these experiences might re-emerge in my teaching until now!

It may seem that ‘successful’ teaching in this context is only where someone’s interest/project is sparked by the object/your disclosure and we have a ‘good’ conversation! 

I love the conversational style of teaching we often engage with on our course, but it does have limitations. It can be difficult when a student is particularly lost with their project, how can you guide them when they don’t know where to go?! If we continue the metaphor, I would like to orient the students in these situations. Not a host but a guide. (This might be stretching the metaphor to it’s breaking point, but perhaps the objects can act as maps. Or the terrain. Or land marks.)

I would not like to overwhelm the student if good conversation feels distant, I think offering one good object and really spending time to analyse – do the object based learning – would empower the student more than if I offer them a hundred different trails to follow. The wonderful thing about books is that if you don’t have content, you can focus on form. The format of a book can feel much more tangible and accessible if the content is more obscure. After you left, the next task was to try this and make dummy copies of the books they had seen. I noticed some students without a strong direction went back to exploring book forms and found a grounding in making and playing.

Thinking – tell me one thing you don’t know about what you are looking at, ask one question about an object you have picked up.

I love this prompt. Not knowing can feel disempowering, writing ‘I don’t know’ in an exam gets a big X next to it. This turns not knowing into a big green tick instead.

One final take away from me: We have a very large year group, with many students joining on exchange programmes, and so it’s easy to feel disconnected/discombobulated. The format of the workshop allowed me to be introduced to new students, and check up on those I haven’t seen for a while!

Overall, I’m glad my enthusiasm for zines and book making translated. A positive day!