Plan for and support student learning through appropriate approaches and environments
Contextual Background
I deliver instruction across five BA and MA courses at UAL, teaching students how to safely operate camera and lighting equipment for both studio and on-location filming. Each course has specific needs, requiring a flexible space housing specialist equipment to accommodate varying cohort sizes and workloads. This work requires a lot of equipment, such as physical sets for the students to light and film in as well as lighting, rigging, stands and camera equipment (See photo).
Evaluation
Although I have access to dedicated studio spaces I am often assigned to generic classrooms that lack the necessary equipment. This requires me to retrofit these spaces for each workshop. The poor management of these spaces and lack of adequate provisions wastes valuable time, negatively impacting both my ability to teach and students’ learning experience. This in turn can affect the structure of my workshops, due to losing time in my sessions I am sometimes forced to cut or modify content.
Moving forward
Working in a live studio environment, creates a central space for teaching in art and design and playsing a vital role in structuring learning. It fosters a collaborative, social environment where students engage in discussions, create work, and receive feedback. This setup mirrors professional environments and prepares students for real-world practice (Orr & Shreeve, 2017). I am therefore trying to move all of my workshops to a consistent studio environment, ensuring when any student is onsite they have access to this resource. I have actioned this through working with my line manager and the head of the Screen School at UAL to bring about these changes when booking in my timetable in the future.
Additionally, I’ve been reflecting on my own teaching approaches and have been adjusting them to better recreate a ‘co-teaching’ environment. Having a consistent classroom structure to work with gives me more time in the planning of my classes. Spending less time retrofitting unfit spaces allows me more time in the sessions to react to my students’ needs. As Cook and Friend (1995) state, “classroom design and teaching approaches must be flexible and responsive to the needs of all students” to ensure engagement. Each student’s background and needs differ, by ensuring I have consistency in my provision, I can better adapt my teaching approach where necessary to support my content being understood by the students.
Bacharach, Heck, and Dahlberg (2010) emphasize that “co-teaching allows instructors to tailor their approaches to the unique learning needs of students, ensuring greater inclusivity.” To support this, I’ve incorporated more group exercises and discussions into my workshops, providing students with opportunities to learn from one another and assist each other during tasks. This approach centers each student in the learning process, ensuring active participation within the session. By moving away from a more transmissive approach and avoiding the ‘top down’ model of teaching, the students can engage more with the content. Having a consistent studio space with access to all the equipment I need at hand, means I can focus on building the teaching environment which is best for my students. Without having their learning suffer from lack of provision or retrofitting classrooms that aren’t fit for purpose.
References:
Bacharach, N., Heck, T., & Dahlberg, K. (2010). Co-teaching in higher education: A model for creating inclusive classrooms. Journal of College Teaching & Learning, 7(7), 23-30.
Cook, L., & Friend, M. (1995). Co-teaching: Guidelines for creating effective practices. Focus on Exceptional Children, 28(3), 1-16.