Case Study 2. Skills and knowledge for knowledge acquisition – learning how to learn

Posted on 12th February 2025 by Grace O'Driscoll

Planning for and supporting student learning through appropriate approaches and environments

Background 

I have now secured in-person teaching sessions to support Year 2 Unit 7 as part of the plan to build library and research skills into the Camberwell BA Fine Art learning journey – having somewhat dropped out of timetables since the Covid19 disrupted period. I have completed recorded tutorials which are now loaded to unit Moodle pages and need to plan to what extent and in what ways the in-person sessions differ from the video materials. Students need to be equipped with the research-skills knowledge that enables and empowers them to independently acquire both their discipline, and critical context knowledge, and to feel that these skills and methodologies are personally meaningful and beneficial to their journey.

Planning

While I have worked to make the recorded tutorials more personal and engaging than some past sessions and have split them into shorter focused sections based on feedback, I now need to deliver in-person recaps to cohort groups that will both encourage students who have watched the video tutorials to use them in their work (revisiting as and when needed) and will engage students who have not yet watched them to begin their journey towards acquiring the skills and confidence they will need to achieve their potential and enjoy their research.

Moving forwards 

I am going to review and edit the slide pack to ensure that anything very basic is shortened or removed, signposting to the video provision for those elements rather than trudging through them. I will vary the examples from the Moodle posted packs to try to avoid disengagement due to repetition, having had negative reactions in past sessions to re-used slides, and will try to upweight the examples used. This time I am switching to more culturally significant examples, having gone with personally relevant ones for the video tutorials. I think this will work well in an open setting – where I have seen more personal info sharing work well has been in a more intimate environment of small group sessions which like video tutorials feel more like a 1:1.

Now that the video resources are in place the purpose of the in-person sessions shifts slightly to be more about encouraging use of the materials provided and removing barriers, rather than a race to impart details, so I will allocate more time to answering questions and using student examples to recap on the skills and methodologies shown. I will also talk about ongoing ways to use the resources, revisiting and dipping in and out in tandem with progress, as a way to give clarity to the building blocks of research skills that they will continue to acquire over coming units – embracing the fact that some repetition is part of that layered learning experience.

References  – to be added

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Learning from Examples of Examples

Posted on 12th February 2025 by Grace O'Driscoll

Something I was really struck by on the microteaching day reminded me of some teaching I had observed in a session led by an academic colleague, supporting from a library perspective. In different ways the two experiences highlighted the power of carefully chosen examples when illustrating points or demonstrating skills. This is something I had not really thought much about in the past, and often when demonstrating aspects of the library catalogue I would try to choose somewhat innocuous ‘neutral’ examples from recent student searches – based on my assumption of the technicalities and efficacy of the search as the more important and interesting aspect.

When attending sessions run by a colleague I noted that they gathered materials relevant to areas of their own research as examples, openly discussing their progress and interests in research, and also introducing some more personally resonant materials and talking through aspects of their human connection to these resources. I noticed at the time that this seemed impactful to both the students and myself and I think I just banked it as an aspect of their own interpersonal style, rather than thinking of it as a pedagogical choice. Much as Barton and Wilcocks (2017) describe objects in a learning environment as encouraging ‘personal meaning making’ I am now wondering if perhaps well-chosen illustrative examples can function similarly, and realising that what I had observed was a conscious teaching approach.

On the micro-teaching day one of the participants in my group, again teaching about a more technical subject matter, chose very impactful examples. This time not so much on a personal level, but rather newsworthy and impressive in anecdotal and cultural ways. Again, I thought about the impact of well-chosen examples in garnering engagement and in demonstrating potential for impact beyond the immediate task. This seems particularly useful when the subject under discussion is perceived as process oriented, in an environment where other content competing for student time and attention is often highly visual and engages the more of the senses. By choosing examples that show the ‘use’ of the research-skills and the research tools in a way that demonstrates meaningful ‘transformation …[beyond] …simply what we are aiming for’ the ‘point’ of the exercise is clearer (Ahmed, 2019, p.22)

This has encouraged me to think more strategically about the examples I am choosing to illustrate simple technical skills, and to vary them, steering away from more neutral, pedestrian, and meaningless examples. By creating an additional layer of interest and connection with the skills being demonstrated and discussed, whether by introducing some more personal interest or information from myself, or by tapping into something that is of more general news or cultural significance, or even an example that is simply amusing or a shared topical reference I hope that the some of the technical, skills-based learning will be more engaging and more memorable than when it is framed purely for efficacy and efficiency.

References

Ahmed, S. (2019) What’s the use?.Durham: Duke University Press.

Barton, G, & Wilcocks, J. (2017) Object-based self-enquiry: A multi- and trans- disciplinary pedagogy for transformational learning. Available at : https://sparkjournal.arts.ac.uk/index.php/spark/article/view/75 accessed on 29/01/2025

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My Microteaching Experience

Posted on 29th January 2025 by Grace O'Driscoll

In the library, with an Object….

For my microteach session I planned a research-skills based activity starting with a chosen object as a jumping off point. Students often start their research projects with a very narrow singular research interest such as ‘happiness’ or ‘science fiction’ and need help expanding to a researchable topic, for example by incorporating theory, social and cultural perspectives, and wider art and aesthetic lenses.

The UAL library catalogue is not intuitive to use – getting the most out of it requires some tips and tricks – lots of amazing resources are somewhat buried. Feedback we get from students, and staff indicates that the catalogue is underused partly because if it’s limitations, and so I focus on ways it can help users avoid frustration and save time in my sessions, also highlighting that it delivers resources to a much higher standard Google for example.

Having posted quite long detailed tutorials to Moodle pages, crammed with different search techniques in the past, I am shifting to shorter more focused bite-sized content just showing a few selected tips. This is to improve engagement and accessibility – building students skills up slowly over several short sessions rather than in an overwhelming deluge. This experience was a great test for this bite-sized approach.

The objective of the session stated at the outset was to build skills and confidence in expanding research themes and in navigating the UAL catalogue.

The timings of my session were planned as follows

  • Introduction and learning objective :                                    5 minutes
  • Choose a meaningful object :                                                   1 minute
  • Demonstration of library searches and ‘expert tips’ :         5 minutes
  • Participants Research activity and post to padlet :             5 minutes
  • Reflect on the research experience :                                       3-4 minutes

I used my library research skills slide deck as the initial basis for building my session, I find slides helpful for structure and visuals. I decided that using an object as an exemplar of the issue of research topic specificity would work, based on the idea that ‘objects …. can act as powerful metaphors, enabling abstract ideas to be communicated and understood’ (Barton and Wilcocks, 2017). I find research-skills engages students much more when we are using their own themes as examples (the material is very dry, we can’t expect anyone to enjoy library searches as a librarian would) and so I planned to ask the group to choose their own objects that have personal meaning for them as start points.

I tested the tutorial as I was concerned about the 20 minute length, and found that lots of content from the original research-skills pack was confusing the narrative of the session, and causing too much switching between screens. I included a padlet but on reflection I needed to learn more about how to set these up so that all participants can post whether logged in as UAL or not (one of the other micro-teachers did this successfully so it can be done!). It was not really necessary in the end as posting in the chat sufficed.

I decided, based on the object start point, to start the catalogue search demonstration with an image search and follow with a book search, which would be livened up with some really nifty tips that usually are not known about by many UAL library users: subject-tag reading lists, and the online shelf browse facility. I was surprised how much difference leading with the image search made – and I think I will change to this order for more of my research-skills sessions in future. It makes total sense now on reflection that UAL users as ‘visually orientated and visual thinkers’ (Hardie, 2015) engage with image search more readily than book and article searches.

In the session having covered the introduction and mentioned to participants to start to think about a meaningful object I explained that my glasses would be my research object and why, which was a chance to be a bit more warm and personal. Then I moved on to the library catalogue demonstration showing the need for multiple keywords by demonstrating how ‘glasses’ ‘eyeglasses’ and ‘eyewear’ deliver very different levels of results, on both image databases and book searches. In one of the other microteach sessions the teacher used some very impactful examples. This is something I’d like to give more thought to for future – it made a positive difference.

I then asked participants to do their own searches on their chosen objects, at which time I stayed in the room to re-demonstrate any search technique as needed. One participant asked me to repeat the image search which I did. I think leaving room to recap is useful and I will encourage recaps in online live sessions and face-to face going forward rather than relying on ‘any questions?’ which most often goes unanswered.

Instead of reflection time discussing the objects chosen and search experience as planned I reacted to the more functional research-skills questions the participants had, including showing a journal articles search. For me this was a great result as it showed the learning objective met an immediate need and was genuinely useful, even if it differed from my plan. I was really pleased with the feedback that everyone found the session helpful in a very practical, functional way – that they felt they now know about ways to research though the library catalogue that they were not aware of and are more aware of the wealth of content available which would help with PGCert research. Teaching from a service perspective this is the result I’m most often aiming for.

References

Barton, G, & Wilcocks, J. (2017) Object-based self-enquiry: A multi- and trans- disciplinary pedagogy for transformational learning. Available at : https://sparkjournal.arts.ac.uk/index.php/spark/article/view/75 accessed on 29/01/2025.

Hardie, K. (2015)  Wow: The power of objects in object-based learning and teaching, Available at : https://www.advance-he.ac.uk/knowledge-hub/wow-power-objects-object-based-learning-and-teaching, accessed on 29/01/2025.

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Case Study 1. Bridging the Void :Building research skills for BA Fine Art from library induction to dissertation attainment

Posted on 25th January 2025 by Grace O'Driscoll

Using evidence-informed approaches to know and respond to students’ diverse needs,

Background

Since disruption to schedules caused by Covid-19 lockdowns during 2020 and 2021, and followed by significant cohort size growth in 2022, BA Fine Art courses at Camberwell have not offered whole-cohort research or information skills sessions in year 2 or 3. In my now second year as Academic Support Librarian to Fine Art I have observed consistent and significant disparity between the number of 1:1 librarian tutorials requested by Fine Art Y3 students for Unit 9 Element 2 (the dissertation level project) compared to Design, who do schedule these sessions for all students.

Current provision

The higher numbers of students needing 1:1 help indicated to me that a skills and information-based need is not being met for all Fine Art students as they progress through courses, and raised an alarm that provision is not equitable if only those that are aware of 1:1 provision, and who feel confident to request it, get the information needed to research effectively at UAL. Reliance on extensive provision of 1:1s also causes me a workload issue and reduces my availability to students who may need the most help.

Fine art has a higher-than-average participation of students managing around neurodiversity and learning differences, with the clear link established between learning differences and creativity (Damiani, 2017) demonstrating the need for accommodation and equity. Additionally, there are high numbers of students studying in second languages who may need provision that accommodates developing language skills and confidence (Liu, 2023). Many of the students requesting direct support are those looking to maximise already well-developed research and referencing skills and who are native English speakers, students who could have learned the skills needed in group settings but were not offered that opportunity.  

Having spoken with dissertation tutors there is an attainment gap now apparent in Fine Art text-based units for several cohorts. Research suggests a correlation between library use and attainment (Stone and Ramsden, 2013). It seems clear that the gap in research skills provision between Welcome Week library inductions and the skills required to attain in these later units is too large in terms of both time passed and content delivered. This gap only works for very independent learners and confident library catalogue users. Using the library catalogue effectively is very different from platforms that may look and feel similar; such as Google and online retail, so users can quickly become frustrated by poor results forming another barrier to return. Students having been overwhelmed in Welcome Week, or learning in a new language environment, may never have got familiar with the library or may not remember the access pages or tips shared at that point. We are also contending with the common inclination, perhaps solidified during Covid-19 lockdowns but long established, for students to rely on Google for their research – despite knowledge that it is an inadequate resource (Becker, 2003).

Moving forwards

I have been offering a more sustainable and consistent programme of research skills sessions to my courses but had not had traction until this term. Now a combination of available attainment data, dissertation tutors’ feedback, and the trust built up in my course team relationships has helped to progress the plan. I have addressed the remaining barriers of allocating session time and finding a physical space to fit large cohorts by proposing bite-sized 20–30-minute sessions aligned to units 7 and 8 for year 2s, delivered at weekly year-group meetings which have whole cohort attendance. Four of my five courses have now scheduled these sessions in for Y2 unit 7 in the Spring term. To keep to the 20 minutes slots I have recorded video tutorials covering more basic and less urgent elements for this unit which will be provided on the unit Moodle pages, in addition to recordings of the content to be delivered in-person which will be added after the sessions.

This means all students will get an in-person explanation of the foundational research skills they need for the unit 7 essay, with a view to building on this with more detailed sessions delivered for unit 8 and 9, again with asynchronous video recordings of these sessions and additional short tutorials on further skills available on each Unit Moodle page. This ensures students who miss the sessions or those would like to revisit details while in progress on their work have access to the content for reference. The further videos and drop-in group sessions will be available to students who need more basic help or who wish to develop a more expert level of referencing, or engage in deeper research (for example external to UAL). Full slide decks will also be provided for those who prefer text base resources, in addition to captioning all video resources to ensure accessibility.

Designing the content

In the sessions for unit 7 research skills I will ensure that the searches used as examples to demonstrate the library catalogue are engaging – including mentioning and demonstrating image searches, streaming content, and practice based resources to emphasise the usefulness of library research across aspects of the courses and units. Preference for online sources will also be acknowledged with a focus on the increasing number of art theory ebooks available. All videos will have clear sectioning for dipping in and out, and will be maximum 25 minutes long.

References

Becker, N. J. (2003) ‘Google in perspective: understanding and enhancing student search skills’, New Review of Academic Librarianship, Vol. 9(1), pp. 84–99. doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/13614530410001692059.

Damiani, L. M. (2017) Art, Design and Neurodiversity. Electronic Visualisation and the Arts (EVA). doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.14236/ewic/EVA2017.40.

Liu, W. (2023) The theory of second language development for international students. Journal for Multicultural Education, Vol. 17(3), pp. 367-378. doi: https://doi.org/10.1108/JME-08-2022-0106.

Stone, G., & Ramsden, B. (2013) Library Impact Data Project: Looking for the Link between Library Usage and Student Attainment. College & Research Libraries, Vol. 74(6), pp. 546-559. doi:https://doi.org/10.5860/crl12-406.

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Striving for constructive criticality (in theory)

Posted on 18th January 2025 by Grace O'Driscoll

In my last post I related one of my objectives in taking the PGCert course as gaining understanding of some foundational ethos’ of education. This week I’m questioning my relationship with theory in light of this. The first learning outcome for this unit lists ‘theories, policies and pedagogies’, so it’s clear that theory is a necessary bridge I will need to cross. I’ve tended to think of the PGCert as a skills-based ambition – learning to better plan and deliver the student sessions I teach in my Academic Support Librarian role. I had anticipated exploring pedagogical theories, which would be new ground for me, I was not expecting so much library-centred content in the course readings.

In preparation for this week’s session I read ‘Decolonising the library: a theoretical exploration’ (Crilly, 2019a). I initially found the article quite frustratingly theoretical (despite its intent being clear in the title). The article discusses critical librarianship, of which decolonisation is a key element. In another text Crilly herself notes critical librarianship as potentially exclusionary in its language and comfort zones of social media and academic writing (2019b, quoting Nicholson and Seale, Hudson and Almeida). I sometimes share this irritation that librarianship can be inward looking, over-relying on discourse with not enough focus on action, impact and change – and this feeds into my wariness of theory without an immediate translation to practical implications.

Crilly herself detailing these critiques of critical librarianship gave me pause to re-appraise the initial more theoretical article. Macfarlane’s clarity of portrayal of unbalanced criticism as a cheap way to achieve status prompted me, on reflection, to re-frame my dismissive reaction as defensive. I tend to be a very practical person, I’ve been previously described as ‘solution oriented’. There are situations when I think this is advantageous – I get things done, I’m comfortable with change, I can be adept at removing or working around barriers. However, it also means I can jump too fast to the nearest acceptable answer and move quickly on. And it means I can find theoretical discourse frustrating and excluding, sharing Appleton’s (2019) feelings of sometimes being an ‘imposter’ with a ‘corporate’ approach to art librarianship.

I have initiated several practical projects at the Camberwell library and across the service that I believe embody the action side of critical librarianship; disaggregating the Dewey scheme for African art and artists (we regularly displayed the book ‘Africa is not a Country’, yet treated it as one in the scheme); initiating and helping to write a collections and content positionality note (UAL, 2024); auditing and cataloguing Camberwell’s Special Collections thus usurping ‘the librarian’s custodian power’ (Brett, 2024). On occasion I have questioned why, with UALs long participation in decolonising discourse in the UK some of these basics had not been addressed in the library. Delving into this article reminded me that the only reason I knew to ‘fix’ these operational elements was having encountered earlier more theoretical arguments and writings based on decolonisation and critical librarianship.

Brett (2024) proposes that critical librarianship can ‘provide a theoretical approach which can open up conversations and ideas that once may not have seemed relevant to librarians’. This encourages me to widen my engagement with theory texts, including re-engaging with critical librarianship theories, that might give me a better understanding of, or new ideas for, the more operational and collections parts of my role in addition to the teaching practice that I am newer to. A timely quip attributed variously to either a French or Irish business context popped up on my social media towards the end of the week : ‘that’s all very well in practice, but will it work in theory?’, I think it’s a helpful filter!

References :

Appleton, L. (2019) ‘Viewpoint: Is critical art librarianship actually a thing?’, Art Libraries Journal, Vol. 44(2), pp. 92–95. doi: https://doi.org/10.1017/alj.2019.10.

Brett, R. (2024) ‘Viewpoint: How critical can librarians be?’, Art Libraries Journal, Vol. 49(2), pp. 71–75. doi:https://doi.org/10.1017/alj.2019.10.

Crilly, J. (2019a) ‘Decolonising the library: a theoretical exploration’ Spark: UAL Creative Teaching and Learning Journal ‘Libraries, Archives and Special Collections’ special issue Vol. 4 (1). Available at: https://sparkjournal.arts.ac.uk/index.php/spark/article/view/123, accessed on 18/01/2025.

Crilly, J. (2019b) ‘A reflexive lens: Critical librarianship at UAL’, Art Libraries Journal, Vol. 44(2), pp. 83–91. doi:https://doi.org/10.1017/alj.2019.9.

Macfarlane, B. (2004) Teaching with Integrity: The ethics of higher education practice. London: Routledge Falmer, p.92.

UAL (2024) ‘Why does my book display a collections note?’, ask: Access and Inclusion. Available at: https://arts.ac.libanswers.com/accessinclusion/faq/256376, accessed on 18/01/2025.

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From ‘counting stuff’ to Objects and objectives

Posted on 12th January 2025 by Grace O'Driscoll

It hadn’t really occurred to me to fundamentally question my preferred metrics-based approach to both work and information until one of the lecturers on my Librarianship MA course casually dismissed some quantitative research approaches as ‘just counting stuff’. Having spent an entire previous career counting stuff ; measuring and reporting on numbers of customers, transactions, items, sales, profits, I was challenged to re-examine my default lens as a limiting worldview. The more time I’ve spent in the Higher Education environment, the more I’ve encountered and understood similar challenges to, and frustrations with, transactionalising and measuring. This was most impactfully articulated by Jheni Arboine listing the ways we metricise our relationship with the student body through data dashboards, in the form of an adapted sea shanty (Arboine, 2024).

Libraries continues to be somewhat (perhaps comfortably for me) reliant on stats and spreadsheets, and I still find it helpful to manage my workload using at least some quantifiable targets and measures. One of my objectives in taking the PGCert course is to develop a greater understanding of some of the more foundational ethos of education, and to set a more informed foundation for my teaching practice alongside these skills. The article I was assigned to read in week one was really helpful in kick starting this rethink, in addition to giving me some really practical grounding tips in delivering Object Based Learning (OBL) which is something I am targeted to increase delivery of as the collections librarian at Camberwell.

My assigned article was a case study examining the potential for social justice elements in OBL and also the effectiveness of online OBL (Willcocks & Mahon, 2023). Both of these strands are really useful for me to reconsider. Due to cohort numbers I am reliant on online delivery for some sessions, particularly year one inductions for larger courses. I share the articles’ concerns about loss of attention and engagement, and potentially depth of understanding online. The suggested engagement strategies discussed for OBL could probably be employed in most library teaching sessions as collections are such a key part of our delivery. Open questions employed to evoke responses to the social justice aspect also looked useful and promising – enabling students to look deeper in their research and to contextualise the materials found – whereas in my current time-pressured approach I often sacrifice this kind of quality questioning for quantity. The suggested advantages of object based teaching and learning such as making ‘abstract concepts more concrete for learners’ are exactly the sort of jumps I am seeking to make, replacing endless repetition.

Following on from the reading and discussion in week one I watched an ArtStor webinar I have been meaning to get to. Here the historian Whitney Barlow Robles used the phrase ‘humanistic questions’ to describe research and learning responses to object and image-based teaching. One of my aims in taking time out to reflect on and restructure my teaching approach this year is to embed my role more effectively into the BA Fine Art courses at Camberwell. I’m hoping to build research skills learning into the BA student journey more consistently, so that students develop their skills from Y1, adding to their portfolio of abilities and confidence at each encounter – rather than a needs-based approach which results in a bottleneck of one to one tutorials in Y3. I will need more engaging teaching content to deliver this and I now hope that both closer unit and project involvement in Y1 and Y2, and the introduction of Object Based Learning alongside image and materials research, will help me to do this in a way that means the knowledge is retained and built on.

References

Arboine, J. (2024) Launch event for the publication Frantz Fanon’s Black Skin, White Masks: Interpretations, Art & Pedagogy. Available at : https://decolonisingtheartscurriculum.myblog-staging.arts.ac.uk/frantz-fanon-launch-videos/ (accessed on 11/01/2025).

Barlow Robles, W. (2024) Picture this: Unlocking the cross-disciplinary potential of Artstor on JSTOR. Available at https://youtu.be/UT9esa7nwOs?si=xs2GWg4DoWa9bnSk (accessed on 11/01/2024).

Willcocks, J. and Mahon, K. (2023) ‘The potential of online object-based learning activities to support the teaching of intersectional environmentalism in art and design higher education’, Art, Design & Communication in Higher Education, Vol 22:2, pp. 187–207. Available at : https://doi.org/10.1386/adch_00074_1

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Sometimes it takes three tries…

Posted on 13th December 2024 by Grace O'Driscoll

Welcome to my PGCert reflective blog. Finally! Setting this up has been an insight into the frustrations of students who come to us with their IT based woes, and a reminder of how as a (slightly) older student I need to allow myself some extra time and several tries to complete some tasks – not all tasks but certainly anything that requires multiple access points, passwords, and login details. I graduated with an MA in library science in 2022 and so I’m somewhat used to being a student quite recently. Prior to that I had a long career in retail buying and merchandising including training work that put me in a classroom-like setting. At UAL I mostly teach research skills to BA Fine Art students, often as 1:1 tutorials. I am hoping to increase the uptake of full-cohort research sessions on my courses as part of my objectives in doing this course. Having moved from the commercial world to H.E. I am still learning every day, and so this chance to reflect on that and develop my skills and ethos is something I’m very much looking forward to, even while sometimes struggling with the immediate tasks in hand. This tension between enjoyment of the topic and content, and frustration with the process of production is something I feel really familiar with encountering UAL students tackling their research work so it’s good to experience a similar journey.

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