Record of Observation or Review of Teaching Practice
Session/artefact to be observed/reviewed: MSc Applied Psychology in Fashion’s Research Methods 1 unit
Size of student group:
Observer: John O’Reilly
Observee: Young-Jin Hur
Note: This record is solely for exchanging developmental feedback between colleagues. Its reflective aspect informs PgCert and Fellowship assessment, but it is not an official evaluation of teaching and is not intended for other internal or legal applications such as probation or disciplinary action.
Part One
Observee to complete in brief and send to observer prior to the observation or review:
What is the context of this session/artefact within the curriculum?
Lecture link: https://ual.cloud.panopto.eu/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=6d2c5904-58c6-4f38-b635-b12b00b04c78
This session is a recorded lecture from the 11th of November, 2023 (academic week 9). The lecture represents an introduction to statistics and covers the basics of some of the things the students will be learning (and applying) over the next 6 months. Typically, some of the students in the classroom are familiar with some of the concepts, via previous undergraduate degrees. However, the lecture material will be new to most of the students.
Please note that the students were presented with the full screen of each slide (not the presenter view as can be seen on the lecture recording).
How long have you been working with this group and in what capacity?
Given my role as the course leader of the given course, I have known the students since September 2023.
What are the intended or expected learning outcomes?
- Some instructions regarding submitting assessments
- Basics of statistics (what is statistics?)
- Descriptive vs. Inferential statistics
- The basics of descriptive statistics
- Data visualization
What are the anticipated outputs (anything students will make/do)?
Students are not asked to produce anything during the lecture. However, sections of the lecture are interactive and students are encouraged to speak out and interact with the tutor.
Are there potential difficulties or specific areas of concern?
The biggest concern is that many students may be intimidated by statistics before learning anything about it. The tutor’s role is to provide a gentle introduction to the subject without sacrificing academic integrity.
How will students be informed of the observation/review?
(not relevant since this is a recording of a previous lecture)
What would you particularly like feedback on?
Method of delivery, student interaction, and the accessibility/readability of the slides. However, other suggestions are welcome.
How will feedback be exchanged?
The feedback will be exchanged via email exchanges (via completion of the sections below) and will be discussed via a chat.
Part Two
Observer to note down observations, suggestions and questions:
A pedagogy of confidence-building in a liminal space
It is more challenging to do a teaching observation without the seeing the how the lesson is circulated – the space and the bodies which circulate and animate the lesson. That said one of the many interesting ideas that sit with and around this session is an idea that Young-Jin noted in our tutorial discussion – the idea that as someone interested in both art and science, someone whose course teaches fashion and psychology, that this hybrid disciplinarity can create the feeling among colleagues from the two disciplines and domains, that one is not quite part of either. That both domains and disciplines regard the hybrid discipline, and perhaps the practitioner of empirical aesthetics as an outside. And while course, MSc in Applied Psychology in Fashion, has a very graspable concept and boundary, I wondered if the ‘liminality’, the in-betweenness experienced by Young-Jin might be experienced by the students in their research? That in creating an exciting hybrid of the arts and sciences, that this liminal identity might be something lived and worked through and wondering if this experience is addressed in the teaching context? This liminality as experienced by the student in absorbing ways of thinking and figuring from another domain?
I was partly drawn to this thought by the care by which Young-Jin took to define and locate spaces and boundaries for the students throughout the session.
It felt to this observer that great care was being taken to help the students locate themselves within the technologies and concepts being taught. Throughout the lesson there was constant checking in around the orientation of the student. Beginning with: the recap of the concepts of the previous lesson; then the housekeeping highlighting the previous submission; and explaining the feedback processes; explaining the moodle process which can feel tricky for students, especially MA researchers coming back to study in the university. And especially with respect to the latter how Young-Jin called attention to the issue of accidental plagiarism, how students could find a practice are in Turnitin. Then checking in about resources and the SPSS software which students are required to use.
Young-Jin’s approach was a reminder to me that while we do sometimes assume people have acquainted themselves with the basics – the brief, moodle, learning resources – one can never assume everyone is up to speed and his approach to housekeeping created such a sense of inclusivity. He checks in about resources about the ways in which people are accessing statistics software accounts – via the restricted ‘free’ version from the company log-in or the unrestricted version the students have access to via their university account. All of this is such a valuable way of highlighting the management practice required in developing research – it might be worth highlighting and naming this practice as part of what it is to create individual research spaces and noticing the devices and languages by which research is made/formed – like an artist would with choice and decision-making around materials.
Young-Jin continues this inclusive pedagogy in introducing the idea of statistics by opening up the class to the assumptions people make, the discursive baggage people bring with them to the idea of ‘statistics’. He asks students to name the the first word that comes to mind when thinking of ‘statistics’ – such a simple and productive task, this ‘naïve’ response takes the pressure off people feeling that they have to know this: “Data”, “Numerical Data”, “Mathematics”, suggest some of the students. Young-Jin checks for voices from different parts of the room which, again, is really inclusive and valuable in drawing in other voices that haven’t been heard: ”distribution”, “Choice”, “Data Visualisation”. In previous analogue days lecturers may have captured these suggestions on the blackboard – is there a way of archiving these responses which are useful in positioning the social imagination of statistics? As Young-Jin says, “We are surrounded by statistics.”
Young-Jin works through the slides, each one calling attention to a single thought or idea.
‘Statistics is a science of variance.” The arrangement of the slides reminds me is that what is really helpful for focus, attention and memory as a student is the simplicity and minimalism of the text.
He scaffolds this last part of the session really effectively, initially locating it in the concept of statistics and data, then zooming out a little to give the students a wider view. 1) Statistics as a picture or measure of the way things change, as a tool with which to explore and predict change. 2) Statistics is a storyline, “reflect on the basics and you will find the connections.”
The exercise on reading news stories, graphs and data visualisation is really effective in drawing out the sense-making aspect of using, and contextualising statistics. After a discussion of ‘p-values’ and inferential statistics, Young-Jin leads into the break emphasising again that newcomers to statistics may find it ‘intimidating’ and ‘confusing’ but in a few months time, people will be familiar with these ideas and have a rough understanding.
On this course, with perhaps many art-school grads not used to the language and formulae, such continual affirmation feels really important and valuable to help students orientate themselves and their developing practice. It may already be happening on the unit, as many students come from a practice-based, but if not it might be worth positioning the students ongoing learning for in terms of a developing practice, substituting numbers, visualisations and stories for textiles, colour and shape?
FYI
Holley, K.A. (2018) “The Role of Threshold Concepts in an Interdisciplinary Curriculum: a Case Study in Neuroscience”, Innovative Higher Education, vol. 43, no. 1
Orr, S., & Shreeve, A. (2017) ‘Knowledge and knowing in practice’, Art and design pedagogy in higher education: Knowledge, values and ambiguity in the creative curriculum. Taylor and Francis Group
Thrift N. (2010) ‘Understanding the Material Practices of Glamour’, in Gregg M., Seigworth G. J. (eds) The Affect Theory Reader. Duke University Press.
Part Three
Observee to reflect on the observer’s comments and describe how they will act on the feedback exchanged:
I would like to thank John for having gone through the lecture to provide such detailed and insightful feedback. I am grateful that John brought up the notion of ‘liminality.’ I believe the in-betweenness is very much an identity of the field and course of fashion psychology. The efforts toward inclusivity yet academic rigor are at the core of these practices; after all, doing something interdisciplinary can occasionally develop into a lack of belonging (“we are not part of any core discipline”) and I am learning the hard way (since my knowledge in fashion is still very low) that good cross-disciplinary work cannot be done without mastery into the respective disciplines. In this sense, both the sense of inclusivity (in the sense of making sure everyone is on board, creating a sense of belonging wherever possible, and trying to create a sense of ease in the lectures) and scientific rigour are crucial in my teaching. I am glad this was picked up by John but I also realise that these are aspects I will continue to focus on to develop my pedagogic practices.
I am also grateful that John shared the Holley 2018 case study paper on how neuroscience can be incorporated into an interdisciplinary curriculum – I have shared this with my colleagues and will use this literature for future curriculum development plans. I will also continue the use of everyday examples to demonstrate how “we are surrounded by statistics”. I will also continue working on slides that are minimal and digestible (now with self-awareness, without being, hopefully, too self-conscious, since I would like to keep things natural and with ease). Last but not least, I will take on John’s last sentence of his feedback to consider how visualisations and stories can be substituted or reinforced with textiles, colours, and shapes.