The two articles I read were, Carrol, J’s (2001) Writing Learning Outcomes: some suggestions http://www.brookes.ac.uk/services/ocsld/resources/writing_learning_outcomes.html

and

Davies, A’s (2012) learning outcomes and assessment criteria on art and design. What’s the recurring problem? http://arts.brighton.ac.uk/projects/networks/issue-18-july-2012/learning-outcomes-and-assessment-criteria-in-art-and-design.-whats-the-recurring-problem

When considering students’ reactions and understanding of Learning Outcomes, where else is better to start than asking the students? So I set out to ask students about their response to learning outcomes and asked roughly 70 2^nd and 3^rd year BA Jewellery Design students about their use/understanding of learning outcomes. After making some enquiries, I was kindly invited by the head of the course to join the private Facebook group of the 2^nd year students to post the question, ‘How do you as a student use/understand the learning outcomes listed in their course and unit handbooks?’ I gave the options for them to post a public reply or privately via email. After being introduced in a post by the head of the course saying I wanted to ask them a question as part of a PGCert assignment, there were two replies enthusiastically within minutes of her post, ‘I would like to volunteer to help!’ and ‘Me!’ – I then posted my question, after 3 days I have still had no response – and my post to date has been ‘seen’ by 24 students.

I could conclude several things from this:

• That maybe the students did not know me well enough to divulge their deepest and darkest thoughts regarding LO’s.
• Maybe there was suspicion – eg they thought a negative response could impact their relationship with tutors/marking of their work.
• They didn’t have the time.
• It was too short notice.
• They weren’t really getting anything in return for their time (it didn’t count towards assessment).
• They were enjoying the last few days of holiday before term started.
• They didn’t understand my question.
• Or they didn’t really know what learning outcomes were or what they thought of them.

And of course there could be, unknown to me, other reasons.

The later point/suggestion, ‘they didn’t really know what learning outcomes were or what they thought of them.’ is interesting and possibly a good argument that the learning outcomes are too confusing for the students to understand, hence a lack of reply – these are 1^st year students going into 2^nd year.  However you would hope they knew what learning outcomes had been introduced to them in their 1^st year Unit 1; Introduction to study in Higher Education and marked using them since. I have not had the chance/nor do I want to delve further into asking why they haven’t replied – especially as I was asking a favour. I would appear a bit intense! So I may never know the reason why.

I did have one response from a 3^rd year student, who kindly replied with…

‘How do you as a student use/understand the learning outcomes listed in your course and unit handbook?’

‘The learning outcomes listed for us are something I use as a check list, a list I go through when I reach the end of a project to gage whether I have considered everything, whether I have asked myself the right questions. From this I tend to write an evaluation with my own questions, whether I researched thoroughly enough, what I could have done differently, what materials I could have used instead, how I structured my time, and this is something I can of course refer back to as a record. I guess you could say the learning outcomes encourage me to analyse my work, force me to look back over a project in stages and pinpoint where I went wrong. From this, those mistakes can be avoided in future work.’ BAJD 3rd year student – I should also point out the student contacted me as she had heard that I needed a response to a PGCert question.

This student seems articulate and proactive and maybe that is a factor to take into consideration when reacting to students’ awareness of and responses to Learning Outcomes. So this is where equality might come into it – LO seems to give an equality across the board so that there is an equal footing with marking for all students. However not all students are as well organised or articulate and individuality must be recognised when it comes to discussing understanding LOs, for example dyslexia or English not being their first language. Although there is support in place to help and encourage such students, I believe it is part of the course tutors responsibility to ensure they receive/know where to find the right help – such things are built into the BAJD Unit 1 LOs.

Organisational skills or understanding of LOs are something that can be improved and worked on over the 3 years. I think this reply from a 3rd year student and the lack of replies from 2nd year students may indicate a development in maturity/knowledge and the repetitiveness of using LO adding to the understanding of LOs and recognition of the importance and use of them.  Therefore, there is possibly a later realisation of how much they are used/understood/appreciated and how they will inevitably have an effect on how a student’s work is marked and consequently what their final degree qualification is.

However, in the article by Davies, A. (2012) ‘Learning outcomes and assessment criteria in art and design.  What’s the recurring problem?’  (a paper on the critical reflection on the development of learning outcomes specifically in art and design) Figure 1 is a thought-provoking table that examines students’ understanding vs. whether LO’s are ambiguous or not and it concludes that students can still achieve and perform well if they do not understand the LOs  as long as they do have an understanding of what is expected of them on the course. Davies also comments how there is ‘no substitute for established learner support systems and other frameworks that help students understand what they have to do in order to successfully complete a programme of work.’[1] I strongly agree with this statement; LOs are useful in the teaching discipline as long as they are used correctly. The student should not be left to fend for themselves after being given the LOs, it should be a culmination of learning support and learning outlines that together give the student the guidance to head in the right direction with their own personal development and body of work to achieve a successful degree.

I asked for the LOs of BAJD and was thankfully sent Unit 1 and Unit 8. Unit 8 LOs are quite specific and are what the 3^rd year student who responded would have just completed. Unit 1’s learning outcomes are more generic for the whole of the undergraduates of UAL which is what the 2^nd year students who didn’t reply would have completed last Autumn Term. I could see similarities in the BAJD LOs layout to what was written in Carrol, J’s (2001) Writing Learning Outcomes: some suggestions, including the Learning Outcomes not just coming from the lower levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy (i.e. knowledge and understanding) but also verbs like analyse, evaluate, demonstrate, that you would expect to see in higher education.

While talking to a Senior Lecturer on the course about the learning outcomes, he commented that they try to link the learning outcome closely with the marking criteria so it is easy to understand the marking and feedback. When I had a look at the learning outcomes myself I found them easy to understand, very clear and well laid out. The LOs aren’t isolated on their own as they are often talked about – but in the setting of a Unit, sandwiched between an Overview of the specific unit and Study Programme which outlines specific requirements from the students eg tutorials, seminars, presentations etc. and added information including Essential and Recommended Study Materials, and what is required for Assessment Evidence. Before seeing the learning outcomes I was expecting to have to decipher a LO secret code and lots of academic speak when actually it was quite straight forward to understand.

In conclusion, I believe LO are essential for some learning. Not no learning as learning happens through using them as a guideline and not all learning as a majority is learnt is through doing/making, researching, creating, listening, experimenting.  It cannot possibility all be learnt from reading and abiding by Learning Outcomes. In contrast, I believe they are vital as a universal guideline for assessing learning, as long as they are used by the tutors and students as guidelines, and the tutors help the students to understand the LO and give them a framework and support system that develops and encourages the students understanding of what is expected of them to successfully complete the course.

[1] Davies, A’s (2012) learning outcomes and assessment criteria on art and design. What’s the recurring problem? [online] Available at:http://arts.brighton.ac.uk/projects/networks/issue-18-july-2012/learning-outcomes-and-assessment-criteria-in-art-and-design.-whats-the-recurring-problem[Accessed 25^th September 2014].

At the first unit workshop you will team up with other participants and discuss your responses to the different readings you have been given. You are advised to use the following questions to prompt your thinking and help you to structure your response:

1.If you had to summaries Dall’Alba’s article in three bullet points, what would they be?

• Theorizing teaching – focusing on transforming and enhancing ways of being university teachers, through integrating knowing, acting and being.

• The paper explores and illustrates how this focus on ontology is enacted on the course – ‘Epistemology is not seen as an end in its self, but rather it is in the service of ontology’.

• Several strategies of integration (knowing, acting, being) – eg promoting participants in a community, dialogue about educational practice, interrogating teaching with reference to educational literature, peer feedback/assessments – are outlined and analysed in the paper with the help of student feedback reports and literature references.

2. What connections can you make with this article and things you already know, have read before or experienced?

The connections I made are between the course we are currently about to undertake (UAL – PGCert) and the course mentioned in the article, there seems to be (from what I have read and heard) quite a few similarities in the strategies eg; promoting participants in a community, dialogue about educational practise, interrogating teaching with reference to educational literature, peer feedback/assessments.
3. How did the points raised in the article relate to your own thoughts and feelings about staff development in general, and your own forthcoming studies in particular?
A PGCert is something I very much wanted to do – to improve/develop/learn strategies to teach at this early stage in my career – and it is a benefit I can do it while working at UAL. While reading the article it occurred to me that people are doing it for a variety of reasons and are from a variety of backgrounds – which is interesting and will hopefully enrich the experience for all.
In relation to my own forthcoming studies, the article touched on some apprehension to online based activities and a colleague collaboration perspective to teaching rather than ‘the teacher as authority’ – this made me question my own attitude to this predominantly new way of learning for me. I am used to more contact with teachers in the past and this makes me slightly nervous – I think due to a slight lack of confidence (possibly from dyslexia) in my own ability and tendency to react well to encouragement – while I know may sound naïve there is an inherent fear of going ‘off track’ – and not knowing/having it realised until it is too late to recover.
In contrast I am also enthusiastic and excited to collaborate and build relationships with colleagues as I know that there is a wealth of knowledge, experience and creativity on the course and this could not only be beneficial for our current studies but possibly lead to exciting ventures in the future – which was mentioned as a positive by participants in the article, ‘participants as a source of knowledge’ and is something I could relate to.

I am currently in the student facing role of Technician at Central Saint Martins in the 3D Small Workshops and have ambitions to become a lecturer in the future. I would like to complete the PGCert as I believe it will give me the right implements and confidence to best facilitate learning and teaching currently in the workshop and later the studio.

In the workshops we supply over 1000 students with the practical advice and materials to aid the developments and manufacture of their work – which is a very creative position to be it . The workshops predominately cover model-making (wood, metal, plastics and digital manufacturing). The role varies significantly: one day could involve giving technical advice/demonstrations to a mix of student from different courses, years and abilities where as other days can be more structured with induction projects for specific courses and outcomes.

The teaching experience I have had  apart from technician include – Job shadowing ( BA Jewellery & Silversmithing CSM)UAL, a self-initiated project for Glasgow School of Art, Brighton School of Art, ‘Revival’ – ReachOut – Royal College of Art and Azzan Bin Qais International School, Oman.

I hope to gain a further understanding of teaching techniques, methods and ways of implementing them  in Higher Education and by doing so I hope to improve my professional development. By the end of the PGCert I would like to consider myself as being able to give informed and creative teaching while encouraging innovation in the students.

When I can I work on my own practise in jewellery and related objects, having graduated from the Royal College of Art in 2012.