Asuf’s PgCert Blog

OB2  Peer Observation Report                                                 

Date of observation: 8^th February, 2023 – 1.5 hours……….…………………

Observer:  Smriti Mehra……………  Observee:  Asuf Ishaq…………………

Observer to complete the following:

Observations and suggestions:

You led an in-person group session tutorial for students to talk about their offsite installation projects and plan their exhibitions. One student had let you know that were not going to be able to attend the session and you requested another student to voice-record the session for them.

Students are working on Negotiated Projects – an opportunity for which they made an application in which they proposed an installation in a public space. It is an opportunity for students to collaborate with real life partners to realise their ideas.  

Polly, Axle and Ruby attended the session with you in person and you introduced me to them. Since your session was at the Glasgow School of Art and I am in London, I observed the session online. After the introduction I turned my camera off so as not to draw attention to myself or be a distraction.

You set the agenda for the session with a handout and a timetable. This is very useful as it made it easy for students to look at a calendar and chart out their plans then and there.

You emphasized the importance of making a detailed plan including key dates to communicate with the partners who would fabricate the final outcomes and also to consider the time it would take for production. 

Each student discussed their project and their plans for it. You made yourself approachable by listening to them carefully, answering their questions and giving them options when they identified hurdles in their process. 

You discussed a group visit and the logistics it involved. You discussed everything they needed to keep in mind about their collaborations. 

• To find out all the techniques the company has to offer
• To ask technicians questions
• Plan for and make 2-3 visits for the production
• And most importantly to challenge them. Gauge the room they need for experimentation and not underestimate the time they need for this.
• You also emphasized what the company had said, which was for students to keep an open mind and not get too attached to their ideas. It is important to be reflexive both ways.

I appreciated the ease of the discussions and how comfortable the students were with you. The session was punctuated with laughter and everyone had time to talk about their work. You provided them with valuable milestones and communicated the importance of planning things well in advance. Providing a timetable made the task at hand immediate and effective. You helped them articulate the questions they needed to ask and gave them practical tips on how to structure their process – what needed to be done beforehand and what could they do onsite. You were open about what you did not know about their projects and students filled you in. You brought the conversation in and ended with what the students could expect from this process.

• The exhibition is a way to test their work with an audience.
• How could they be reflexive in this exchange
• To make the most of this opportunity

At the end of the session, you left handouts for Elanor and Juliet who missed the session. 

The class was inclusive and it was a pleasure to observe you in action. 

Observee to complete:

This was a small group tutorial of three sculpture students at the Glasgow School of Art, to discuss their project and exhibition. This session was focused on the planning and logistics of working with a fabricating factory and planning their exhibition. I was nervous for my first observation and began behaving out of character, Smriti joined live on Teams and offered to switch the camera off, which helped. This was my first tutorial with Polly, Axel and Ruby and two other students who couldn’t attend. It is an opportunity for all three students to share their ideas with staff and peers and support each other because all three are working with the same acrylic fabricator factory. The tutorial was useful for me to get to know the student and their work. My handouts for the schedule planner and list of key top-do lists were useful for students to plot timetables. One by one each student described the work they were making. This process Smriti observed I did this well, Polly, Axel and Ruby were comfortable with me leading the conversation. Providing insights into how to engage with a commercial factory and the importance of developing a relationship with them. 

This logistics and planning tutorial was straightforward, students felt supported and felt comfortable sharing with each other. As Smriti observed I was preparing students to make the most of this opportunity, working with an external partner. And supporting them in planning and organizing their project. The tutorial was informal and fun, Axel had recorded the session for the absent two students, and there was good peer-to-peer support too. In this observation not much came up from Smriti that I could improve on, it was a straightforward group tutorial. I enjoyed the session and found Smriti’s observation useful to read and reflect on.

­­­OB2 Tutor Observation Report 

Session to be observed: Negotiated Projects

Size of student group: 1-2-1

Type of activity: Progression tutorial and assessment feedback tutorial

Observer:    Liz Bunting                                              Observee: Asuf Ishaq

Observations, suggestions and questions

In both tutorials you demonstrate knowing your students and their work well, making references and connections to prior projects, interests and grades; be that remembering Maria playing the guitar, or Sky improving her grade from a B to an A-. Their open body language, leaning forward, eye contact, and openness in discussing their work highlights feeling comfortable and engaged in the conversation. Through your exchanges you demonstrate care for them and their development, and your belief in their success. Your language and tone is affirmative, empathetic and supportive e.g. “I’m impressed!”, “this is a really interesting area”. All of this supports positive relationships, mattering and sense of belonging which are influential in student success. 

Personal development tutorial (with Maria)

We meet Maria in the studio space in their usual spot, providing a familiar space. Your presence is calm and friendly and the tutorial began gently by asking about their film footage. Maria talked about wanting to reshoot and focus on ceramics and love. You asked curious questions, showing an interest in their work, before suggesting bringing in footage to provide a narrative. They go quiet, seemingly deep in thought, before sharing they had made a song. They got excited talking about the potential of animation with references to dance videos, and played the song. You commented on their confidence and asked if they wrote the lyrics. You suggested soundscape or narration. They talked about how they envisaged the visuals and footage. 

You went onto offer several ideas of what could be interesting to explore conceptually and as a process e.g. soundscapes, stop motion animation and other ways to get a line drawing effect, dreamscape of memory, storyboarding. Maria nods as you talked, clearly thienking. When you mentioned exploring the relationships with music and moving image they spoke up again, clearly excited to talk about music. You suggested spoke words/poetry and they told you they’re feeling more inspired by music. They noted down your suggestion of film-makers and artists. Whilst offering suggestions/inspiration provides useful challenge and can expand visions, you could probably offer less direction to open up more space for students to work out their own path and meet their own challenges.

Assessment feedback tutorial (with Sky)

You asked how they have been, they respond not very well. You ask if they’re getting enough support and suggest looking at what the university can offer. At the end of the tutorial you encouraged this again. She asked “where?” and you helpfully brought up the Student Services page on the UAL website and ran through the areas of support available. To help with signposting students to services that will meet their specific needs, I find it’s helpful to ask “how can I support you in your learning?”. In case you haven’t seen it, there is guidance for staff on Canvas onhow Student Services can help support students: https://canvas.arts.ac.uk/sites/explore/SitePage/45474/student-services. For more urgent ‘at risk’ referrals, there is also concise guidance on Canvas on signposting and referrals here: https://canvas.arts.ac.uk/documents/sppreview/cbab4fae-6658-48d4-8d76-c7143d3c638d. 

You framed the tutorial as being about questions for feedback. They said they wanted to talk about how to improve which directs the rest of the conversation. Providing the student with this agency and voice supports a sense of ownership of in their learning, mitigating against the power imbalances inherent in Higher Education. 

You noted that they improved their grade since their last assignment, how they were doing well with ideas and that improvement was about further enhancing that. As a suggestion, before offering your thoughts you could ask the student how they feel they have improved and where they still need to work on. Encouraging students to self-evaluate to recognise their own achievements and best attain their goals, supports the student in taking charge of their learning. This article by David Nicol and Debra Macfarlane-Dick on self-regulated learning may be of interest https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03075070600572090). 

You brought up her work on your laptop to demonstrate your feedback on how to further enhance her practice; she leant in, clearly engaged. You highlighted aspects of her portfolio such as how she’s built narratives in her work through sketches. You encouraged reading more around subjects of interest and enquired what they were. They commented “dreams, things that are dreamlike and playful”. You added “naïve mindset”. She nodded. You suggested a few artists and also encouraged looking beyond art to adjacent areas such as psychology. She said “yeah okay, um…”. You went on to talk about finding their own voice, and referred to where they do this in her portfolio to helpfully demonstrate. You encouraged they had made really good progress, which led them to talk about their drawings and how they were developing them. You asked, “Tell me a bit more about this image”, which prompts them to lean forward and talk about different aspects. 

Both tutorials were dialogic and you asked many questions, though I noticed the students spoke less than you did, especially Sky who mostly provided short responses. You mentioned that both students are quieter in nature and expressed an interest in strategies to support greater student voice. Below are a few ideas. 

• Sometimes it’s useful to embrace silence. We might automatically want to fill silence, but silence can be really productive. Some people need quite a bit of time to process, gather their thoughts and form a response. 

• I find it helpful to focus on listening and asking open questions / expansion on initial responses (vs offering direction), to support the exploration of ideas, thoughts and feelings together. You could incorporate more questions such as “tell me more about that” which sparked a fuller response from Sky. 

• I’m personally drawn to the advice of Yusef Waghid in ‘Towards a Philosophy of Caring in Higher Education”, who talks about enacting rhythmic caring to help students become more confident in articulating their ideas. He explains this involves holding back our own judgment (at times) so that the student can speak their mind unconstrained by the teacher’s perspective and without worrying about the consequences of disagreement. He encourages first asking for students’ opinions/ideas, providing space for them to re-articulate and adjust, and then responding with your thoughts and suggestions once students have concluded their judgments.

For more ideas you may be interested in this book “Working 1-2-1 with students: supervising, coaching and personal tutoring” by Gina Wisker, which is available in UAL Libraries:

What do you think might work in your context to bring in the student voice more?

Reflection on the observer’s comments and ideas to follow up:

I found the observation notes by Liz very beneficial; this is one of the first times I have the opportunity to reflect on my teaching. I was pleased to read that I delivered engaging and constructive tutorials with individual students Maria and Sky and with care and attention. Generally, my intentions with tutorials are to provide much insight into students’ development, provide inspirational references, and go deeper into their ideas and art-making.

Art practice is a fluid process; sometimes, grasping what you are making can be challenging for young artists. My role is as a critical voice that reflects what their art practice is saying or not saying, students benefit from hearing how it is received by another artist. 

Maria’s tutorial was to learn what they are thinking of making, they were excited about new ideas and less interested in their previous tutorial about making a film, exploring film footage and sound. I think I tried too hard to provide direction for their previous work and at the same time for their new ideas of making a song, although I was enthusiastic about their new ideas, I was still thinking about their previous work. I began to provide too many ideas and talked much more than Maria. Rather than discuss their moving image ideas, I should have stayed with their songwriting and singing. I could have mentioned briefly how they can merge moving images into your songwriting and storytelling if that is still interesting for them. I can be more focused on my feedback, and discuss what is in front of me, rather than what we discussed a month ago.

Sky’s tutorial was for their assessment feedback, they asked ‘how I can improve’, I hurried into providing advice, but I should have begun by asking what they think can be improved, and encouraged self-evaluation. I was pleased that the tutorial was encouraging and building trust, in this case Sky felt comfortable and engaged although replying in short responses. 

I spoke more than Sky, I suppose I wanted to make them feel comfortable and I felt I needed to be reassuring, I need to ask more open questions and embrace quiet moments in a conversation. I asked Sky how they were doing, and they responded not very well, and on the lines, a bit down and not leaving the house. I straight away noticed they needed support and began providing support from student services, and a link on their website. I do regret not asking what I can do to support your learning. Liz provided very useful links to videos and information for staff and how to respond to this precise question and situation. I will certainly try to improve this.

I have discussed how art practice and process can be challenging for some students because the work can carry personal experiences and emotions. I as a teacher need to be empathetic and caring, working through their ideas and process. I found Liz’s feedback very useful, and further reading David Nicol and Debra Macfarlane-Dick on self-regulated learning, 1-2-1 tutorials by Gina Wisker and Yusef Waghid’s ‘Towards a Philosophy of Caring in Higher Education’ sounds very interesting. This observation has been an inspiring session and look forward to further reading. Thank you!

A3: Evaluation of teaching practice: Assessment & Feedback

For second-year BA Fine Art students at the Camberwell School of Art. One of my responsibilities as a lecturer is to assess students’ studio-based practice and the development of their art practice. In this case study I will be discussing both assessments and giving feedback and the engagement of receiving feedback during formative and summative assessments and other non-assessment moments in between to support, guide and advise on improving and developing aspects of the work. Feedback in the form of written, verbal and group peer feedback. My aim as a lecturer is to support students in their development and build trust and relationships. My observation is that most of the students do not always take advice from tutors or read feedback. Students focus on receiving higher grades.

In Frontiers in Psychology, the article on Responsibility-Sharing in the Giving and Receiving of Assessment Feedback by Robert A. Nash and Naomi E. Winstone (2017) describes ‘enhancing shared responsibilities between educator and student, the receiver of feedback is not good at receiving it, and giver of feedback is not good at giving it’. The ‘consumerist’ identity of students who become detached from their personal responsibilities in the learning process, and place unrealistic accountability on educators to deliver results and to resolve all challenges. In my opinion, this leads to mistrust between educators and students’ relationship. This is a challenge to address as higher education has become a consumerist relationship. Putting a stronger focus on student-centred approaches can emphasise student responsibility in learning rather than focusing on the educator. Student practice autonomy within the learning process, the key factor is interdependence, rather than the student being completely independent or dependent. 

In UAL Course Designer: Designing Inclusive Assessment Tim Stephens and Elizabeth Staddon describe assessments for learning as ‘both summative and formative feedback points can be used as learning opportunities. Assessment for learning should also help lecturers to differentiate their teaching, resources, practice or the learning environment for the students’ benefit.’ I agree with this point but there are many other timely points we provide feedback which is learning opportunities for students to embrace. The effectiveness of feedback still rests partly on the quality and timeliness of the information that is communicated, it also, critically, rests on how well and how proactively the student engages with this information. Students and educators can work to remove the barriers to engaging with assessment feedback. To overcome a lack of awareness of what feedback means and what it is for, the educator’s responsibilities should include ensuring that the feedback we provide is clear, transparent, and linked to grading criteria. Students, on the other hand, have responsibilities including seeking clarification over the meaning of the feedback they receive. In overcoming barriers to cognisance, educators might build time in the curriculum for training students in the skills underlying the implementation of feedback.

I think neither student nor educator can fulfil their roles without each other’s engagement. We need to shift the emphasis on shared responsibility rather than shifting the blame.

A2 Evaluation of teaching practice: Teaching & Supporting Learning

I teach second-year BA Fine Art students at the Camberwell School of Art. My teaching focuses on the development of students’ art practice and studio-based learning. As a tutor, I support students in the studio and exhibition environment. In this case study I will be discussing group crits. This activity I co-run two to three times a year, these are usually formative crits. Group crit usually takes place at the interim stage during a project or module before work is submitted for summative assessment. My planning alongside my colleagues involves preparing the studios for an exhibition context for a group crit, students hang and display work, for groups to view the work and speak to each other in a spacious space to have good eye contact when discussing their work. Students are scheduled for 20 mins each for morning and afternoon sessions. 

I find crits enable students to display and share their work with peers and improve their presentation skills. Insights from ‘Critiquing the Crit’ Report (2007), by Margo Blythman, Susan Orr and Bernadette Blair, examine group crit as a teaching and learning method. Supported by research from National Student Survey (NSS), and compiling experience and views of students, staff and staff when they were students. In my experience of working with students in this setting the conversations are constructive, encouraging, and supportive, it brings the artwork into sharp focus, and students provide individual interpretations and perspectives. 

‘Critiquing the Crit’ Report outlines the strengths and weaknesses of group crits.

Strengths are: 

• Group work
• Presentation skills 
• Problem-solving
• Peer learning
• Instant student feedback, 
• Fun because it’s communal 
• Human contact, building relationships between staff and students.
• Enables students to benchmark themselves against peers.
  

Weakness is:

• Students feel nervous before a crit 
• Unformattable, emotionally impacted  
• Some shy and quiet students found crits difficult
• Students whose English is a second language find participating difficult.
• Non-constructive critique 
• Difficult art language
• Time pressure
• Talkative students dominate

In my experience crits can improve students’ confidence and get students used to critical judgements on their work. This helps develop skills in critical thinking and discussing their work. Students give informal qualitative feedback, an opportunity to learn from others and to discuss and debate. Art Crits: 20 Questions A Pocket Guide, Featuring Interviews with UK Fine Art Staff on The Topic of the Art Crit by Sarah Rowels, Q-Art (2013), explains, know what to expect in a crit. 

Being unsure of the purpose of any given crit can cause anxiety. From Art Crits: 20 Questions A Pocket Guide, here is a  staff talks about ways that they support understanding and ownership of crits amongst participants. “I spend time explaining the process of the crit beforehand to give students a sense of expectations. I say, well it’s your project and you are in control of it. What you are really doing now is using the group as a focus group, as a way of testing out ideas, of what it is that you are doing”. Peter Day (University of Wolverhampton)

The term ‘crit’ is a problem since it easily gets confused (by both staff and students) between critique and criticism in the exclusively negative meaning of the word. For some students the word ‘crit’ can be daunting, 

I would look to re-frame this to make it inclusive, both research I refer to demonstrate how crits are an integral and important part of art school pedagogy. 

A1 Evaluation of teaching practice: Designing & Planning for Learning

Teaching second-year BA Fine Art students at the Camberwell School of Art. One of my responsibilities as a lecturer is to prepare students for a ‘professional’ life as practising artists. The pedagogy of putting up a group exhibition in collaboration with their peers. In this case study I explore the pedagogy of art exhibition to build a public-facing presentation. Students learn valuable skills in presenting and engaging with new audiences, internally in the school and externally in galleries and communities. I support students with exhibition activities throughout different moments in the course. The learning is to develop new skills, practice, planning, logistics, social, creativity and collaboration. The exhibition involves making work, curating, and promoting the exhibition, and basics such as filling holes and painting walls. It is a fun and social experience, building relationships outside the school. The weakness of working with exhibitions is that shy or quiet students avoid participating in the collaborative and social process and experiences, often those students deliver their work to be hung.

In a.n (Artist Information Company) research paper, Professional practice in art schools: preparing students for life after graduation, Sarah Rowles (2016), “students set up projects – exhibitions, screenings, community projects, whatever – and develop professional aptitudes in doing that. The important thing is that the learning of those ‘professional’ aptitudes is powered by the work. In pedagogic terms, this would be ‘situated learning’. Its value is that it is quicker, and it sticks”. 

In an article from Art, from Design & Communication in Higher Education Volume 14, Number 2, The bookbinding workshop: Making as a collaborative, pedagogic practice by Elizabeth Kealy-Morris, she notes in her article Polanyi, M. (1967) argued that the educator and the student need both explicit and tacit knowledge to understand a new experience and set of skills. Explicit knowledge can be critically analysed through writing, whereas tacit knowledge is unarticulated and unformulated, and thus, more basic, and embodied – what we know but cannot say. And showed associations between student engagement and improvements in identified desired outcomes, including cognitive development, critical thinking skills, practical competence, and skills transferability. They found that interacting with the staff has been shown to have a powerful impact on learning, especially when it takes place outside the classroom and responds to individual student needs. Polanyi’s account of tacit knowledge adds to our understanding of experiential knowledge. It refers to embodied knowledge or ‘skill’ developed and applied through practice and experience and is understood instinctively.

The exhibition experience is outside the setting of the assessment, it brings engagement with students, peers and staff, working towards one aim. Rowles. S (2016) paper outlines, Fine arts programmes around the country’s opinions vary on ‘professionalising’ fine art students. Fine art graduates carve out a huge variety of jobs for themselves. And UKPSF’s ‘professional values’ are embedded in Fine Art courses. Skills such as exhibitions, writing funding applications, artist statements, CV, and presentation skills developed in crits and collaboration projects.