Exploration of evaluation and research methods for improving student learning in art and design

This paper is a comment on the problematics of evaluating an ongoing project on the impact of a self-and peer assessment programme on art and design students' approaches to their learning

Enhancing the design curriculum through pedagogic research

Pedagogic research is becoming increasingly recognised as an important aspect of academic life. Many generic studies (Marton, Saljo, Entwistle, Biggs, Gibbs, Prosser, Trigwell et al), focusing on broad concepts of student learning, have found a purchase within particular disciplines. Concepts of 'deep' and 'surface' approaches to learning are now commonplace within subject-based rationales. Approaches to assessment have also benefited from research of this kind. The value of this kind of research is most pertinent when it is used at subject level to explore the learning and teaching axis. Subject-focused research, using these established frameworks and methodologies, is only just beginning to emerge. Inevitably, the application of this new research is not so widespread. Subject-based research asks the questions about what it is that is characteristic about learning and teaching a particular subject. Recent research in creative subjects (Reid A, 1998 and Reid A and Davies A, 2000) has revealed that the quality of learning is predicated on how both students and teachers conceptualise the subject of study. In design, for instance, what teachers think design is determines how they frame the curriculum and how they go about teaching. Equally, students beliefs about what design is underpin their intentions when they go about learning. The research reveals that there are significant qualitative differences amongst teachers as well as students as to what design is. This has an impact on the quality of the outcomes of learning design. This paper explores the implications of the outcomes of thi

Effective Assessment in Art and Design : writing learning outcomes and assessment criteria in art and design

This document has been written to help teachers in art and design who are writing project briefs or unit outlines in learning outcomes form for the first time. It is not meant to be prescriptive but rather a general guide that attempts to clarify the purposes of outcome-led learning and identify some of the pitfalls you might encounter. You will find that the most successful examples of outcome-led learning come from competency-based learning where it is relatively straightforward for students to provide evidence of their learning because the outcomes are almost always skills oriented. Increasingly, universities are adopting the learning outcomes approach (student-centred) in preference to the aims and objectives approach (teacher-centred). Many examples now exist of text-based subjects working with learning outcomes. One of the major challenges for them is to take the term 'understanding' and redefine it in terms of more specific measurable cognitive (thinking) outcomes. In art and design our challenge is greater because we work with rather more ambiguous terms such as 'creativity', 'imagination', 'originality' etc as well as 'understanding'. A significant challenge for you then will be to articulate learning outcomes in a way which promotes these important cognitive attributes but at the same time provides some useful methods of measuring their achievement

Using assessment to improve the quality of student learning in art and design.

The purpose of this ongoing project is to evaluate the impact of a self- and peer assessment programme on students' approaches to their learnin

Using learning journals to identify critical incidents of understanding

Learning journals have been used extensively in Art and Design at University College Worcester (UCW) as a means of evidencing the kind of approach, deep/surface, students have taken to their learning. They are increasingly being recognised as a more reliable means of establishing whether students understand what they are doing than the finished artefacts such as paintings, ceramics and even essays. This paper will outline the role of the journals in relation to the assessment scheme, which is structured around Biggs’ SOLO taxonomy (Biggs J, Collis K, 1982), and explore several of the problematics that arise in both their use and their non-use. The paper will also examine the nature and use of learning outcomes since they play a significant role in the journals themselves

Variation in teachers' and students' understanding of teaching and learning in Fine Art and the broader community

This paper focuses on discerning the critical differences, or variation, in the way teachers and students experience and understand the subject of Fine Art and its relation to its broader community. In previous research (Reid, 1999; Davies & Reid, 2001), relations have been found within the music and design disciplines where teachers and students experience of one of three defined dimensions was strongly related to the ways in which they understood teaching and learning their subject. The musicians and designers (and their students) described their experience of the professional world in three hierarchically related ways. This constitution has become known as the subject 'Entity'. Taking a phenomenographical approach, the paper asks whether the experience of learning and teaching in Fine Art education, both for students and teachers, is consistent with conceptions shared, within the educational community, about the professional world of fine artists. In so doing this research project is intended to reveal the 'Fine Art Entity'. Discerning and describing the 'Fine Art Entity' is intended, not only to provide a basis for enhancement of learning, teaching and curriculum development in Fine Art practice, bit also to make a significant contribution to the subject discourse within the communit

Uncovering problematics in design education - learning and the design entity

This paper attempts to articulate some of the challenges for the curriculum, teaching methods and assessment in design education arising from research currently underway in London and Australia. Taking a phenomenographical approach, the research asks whether the experience of learning and teaching in design education, both for students and teachers, is consistent with conceptions shared, within the educational community, about the professional world of designers. We believe that there is substantial variation in the conceptions held by both students and teachers about what design is and how it should be learned. These variations in conceptions have a significant impact on how students learn and how teachers teach

Teachers' and students' conceptions of the professional world

In the original 'Improving Student Learning' project led by Prof Graham Gibbs in 1991, one of the case studies focused on approaches to learning on a BA(Hons) Graphic Information Design course. The case study, led by Allan Davies, had the modest intention of trying to determine whether a particular curriculum innovation encouraged a deep approach to learning. Our only significant tool then was Bigg's SOLO taxonomy. Eleven years later and the innovators have moved on, the course has disappeared and the research context and methodologies have developed. During this period, research has suggested that both teachers and students describe their understanding of teaching and learning according to their perception of the teaching/ learning environment (Ramsden, 1992; Prosser & Trigwell, 1999). Studies have identified variation in the way that teachers experience teaching (Samuelowicz & Bain, 1992; Prosser, Trigwell & Taylor, 1994 for example) and variation in the way teachers experience student learning (Bruce & Gerber, 1995). More recently, Reid (1997) has widened the context of research by examining the relation between the experience of work and teaching/learning within the music discipline. In further research (Reid 1999), relations were found within the music discipline where teachers' and students' experience of one of three defined dimensions was strongly related to the ways in which they understood teaching and learning music. The musicians (and their students) described their experience of the professional world in three hierarchically related ways. This constitution has become known as the 'Music' Entity. In 1999, following a fortuitous meeting at the ISL conference in York, Davies and Reid conducted a joint enquiry, using a phenomenographic approach, to determine the 'Design' entity (Davies and Reid, 2001). This research focused on discerning the critical differences, or variation, in the way teachers and students experience and understand their subject and its relation to the professional design world. The outcomes of this research has, consequently, begun to impact on student learning through course design and, in particular, assessment. This paper will be a comparative study of the research already carried out by the authors in a number of disciplines in which the same focus and methodology has been used

Tidal and marine energy in the uk– identifying the future challenges for supply chain development

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the current technical and operational supply chain issues surrounding the development of tidal and marine energy production in the UK. The paper outlines the market and growth potential of tidal energy production in the UK before identifying the key supply chain themes surrounding tidal energy production including an analysis of the portability and transferability of current supply chain thinking and development from other renewable energy systems such as wind turbine technology towards the development of tidal energy supply chain systems. The paper closes by identifying the major challenges that the UK supply chain must overcome in order to develop a comprehensive and robust supply chain system

Concussions and Student Sports: A \u27Silent Epidemic\u27

An issue that has gained attention concerns concussions among student–athletes in elementary and secondary schools. In fact, in light of the “silent epidemic” of concussions among student–athletes, in the six month period ending in August of 2011, the number of states that enacted statutes on concussion management jumped from eleven to thirty–one and the list of jurisdictions with laws in place continues to grow. Based on the significance of concussion management, the remainder of this article is divided into two sections. The first part of the article examines the background on concussions while the second offers recommendations for concussion management and prevention. The article ends with a brief conclusion