Maria's blog

How can I make it easier for the Bespoke Tailoring students to learn specialist vocabulary?

Creating an image based glossary for Bespoke Tailoring (and a Pictionary style game)

Introduction

In this action research project, I explore how I can make it easier for Bespoke Tailoring students to learn specialist vocabulary. I hope to even out the playing field for the First Year students on our course, and mitigate some of the disadvantages students encounter because of neurodivergence, differences in cultural capital and proficiency in English. I will make a prototype of an image based glossary that can also be used to play a Pictionary style game. Through observation, peer feedback and a questionnaire, I will investigate if the students find this resource useful and if there is a possibility to co-create the glossary with them.

My Positionality

I am interested in languages and the social psychology of communication. As a foreigner and an alumni of the Bespoke Tailoring course, I am familiar with the struggle of navigating unknown vocabulary and cultural references. (See Thelin, 2025)

Though I arrived in London as an industry outsider, through my studies and professional work I could now be considered an insider by my students. As a lecturer I hold a position of authority, while as a tailor I have worked for many years for Savile Row (See Thelin, 2024).

With authority comes responsibility. In the case of this action research project, it means a responsibility to ensure that the glossary includes the correct information. I do not want to reduce the richness of tailoring terminology or reproduce (or even create) a hierarchy by favouring certain terms over others. I want to balance the complexity of language with the need for clarity.

Context: Student Experience and Bespoke Tailoring Terminology

“In my Bespoke Tailoring course, this language gap became even more evident. Many technical terms and professional expressions were completely new to me. When the tutor explained garment construction, tailoring techniques, or fabric composition, I sometimes found myself lost (…) At times this made me feel overwhelmed and even question whether I could keep up with the course.” (Bespoke Tailoring Student, 2025)

The above quote is from a reflective statement from one of my international students. Many of our students express through their reflective statements and personal tutorials how their understanding of the vocabulary influences their overall comprehension of the delivered content, as well as their ability to talk about their work and ask questions. Because of the specialist nature of the terminology, the difficulty is even shared by many students who have English as their first language.

During their first week on the Bespoke Tailoring course, our students are presented with more than 100 words of tailoring terminology, including tools on their equipment list, materials and garment parts. Though more concentrated at the beginning of the year, the exposure to specialist vocabulary continues throughout the course, and also include trade jargon (Aldrich, 2011, Cabrera, 2022, Savile Row Bespoke, 2025). Currently, words and expressions are explained mainly through written text in technical presentations, glossary lists and worksheets. Though we introduce the terminology during our sessions, many students struggle to learn the vocabulary.

References:

Aldrich, W. (2011) Metric Pattern Cutting for menswear. Fifth edition. Chichester: John Wiley

Bespoke Tailoring Student (2025) ‘Refective Statement’. Assignment for Introduction to Bespoke Tailoring, BA (Hons) Bespoke Tailoring, UAL. Unpublished.

Cabrera, R and Meyers, P.F. (2022) Classic Tailoring Techniques for menswear: a construction guide. 3rd edition. New York: Fairchild.

Savile Row Bespoke. Tailoring Terms. Available at: https://www.savilerowbespoke.com/about-us/tailoring-terms/ (Accessed 23 May 2025)

Thelin, M. (2025). IP Unit: Reflective Report – An Imaged Based Glossary. Available at: https://maria.myblog.arts.ac.uk/2025/07/18/ip-unit-reflective-report-draft/ (Accessed 17 December 2025) 

Thelin, M. (2024). Introduction. Available at: https://maria.myblog.arts.ac.uk/2024/12/ (Accessed 17 December 2025) 

Cultural Capital

“With the weight of history bearing down on any man who cares to walk down Savile Row, it is understandable that it has gained a reputation as a forbidding street for any chap who isn’t a military man, a skilled equestrian or blue-blooded”. (Sherwood, 2008, pp14)

What the fashion critic James Sherwood describes here is how exclusionary Savile Row, and by extension, the bespoke tailoring industry can be, and how nearly everyone lacks the social and/or cultural capital to feel comfortable within it.¹ According to Bourdieu, a person’s background influences their tastes, skills, ‘habitus’ (including how you talk and behave), and cultural references. Social, economic and cultural capital is transformational – one can give you the other (Huang, 2019). If we can increase our students cultural capital within the bespoke tailoring context, we will help them secure industry contacts and a job.

In educational settings, “scarcity of social and cultural capital” is one of the factors behind the degree awarding gap for students from “lower socio-economic backgrounds and minority groups” (Banerjee, 2024). While we as educators must make sure not to favour or promote certain identities over other, or imply that our students should change who they are, we can give them confidence by bestowing them with knowledge (Thelin, 2025, Mesthrie, 2011). One way of doing this is by demystifying the terminology and jargon used by tailors. Defining key ideas or terminology at the beginning of a course makes a significant contribution to mitigating the differences in cultural capital that students can arrive with (Bamber & Jones, 2015).

Intersectionality and neurodiversity

Our student body is very diverse with a richness in linguistic backgrounds, neurodiversity, genders, and socio economic and educational backgrounds (UAL, 2025). Various characteristics can intersect creating potential disadvantages² (Crenshaw, 1991, Nichols & Stahl, 2019).

Since many of our students are dyslexic, visual learners or speak English as a second language, it suggests that creating a glossary using images and a dyslexia style guide³ should be helpful to them.⁴

Community, gamification and co-creation

Using the glossary to play a Pictionary style game will combine the advantages of using drawing to enhance memory (Salamon, 2018) and promoting community, which can help in reducing the awarding gap (Banerjee, 2024). In addition, gamified learning has been repeatedly shown to increase the engagement and the motivation of students, and help them learn more effectively (Thelin 2025, Christopoulos & Mystakidis, 2023). 

Co-creating the glossary with the students could have many benefits. It would give me insights into what kind of vocabulary needs explaining, and would create an environment of active participation that “recognises their agency and help flatten the hierarchy” (UAL, 2024). Hopefully it would lead to a glossary including terminology from a wider range of environments, thus avoiding reinforcing traditional ideas about what is “correct” vocabulary. Though bespoke tailoring has its origins in Savile Row, our students will go on to working in various different contexts, such as the international fashion industry, costume, couture or styling. A tailoring glossary would ideally reflect the complexity of the wider tailoring world while being presented in a way that makes studying and revision clear and easy.

References:

Bamber, V & Jones, A. (2015) ‘Challenging students: enabling inclusive learning.’ in H Fry, S Ketteridge & S Marshall (eds), A Handbook for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education: Enhancing Academic Practice. 4th edn, Routledge , Abingdon, pp. 152-168.

Banerjee, P. (2024). ‘Connecting the dots: a systematic review of explanatory factors linking contextual indicators, institutional culture and degree awarding gaps.’ Higher Education Evaluation and Development, Vol. 18 No. 1, pp. 31-52

British Dyslexia Association (2023) Dyslexia Style Guide 2023. Online. Available at: https://cdn.bdadyslexia.org.uk/uploads/documents/Advice/style-guide/BDA-Style-Guide-2023.pdf?v=1680514568. (Accessed 17 July 2025)

Crenshaw, K. (1991). ‘Mapping the Margins: intersectionality, Identity Politics and Violence against Women of Colour.’ Stanford Law Review. Vol. 43, No.6 pp. 1241-1299

Christopoulos, A. Mystakidis, S. (2023) ‘Gamification in Education.’ Encyclopedia 2023, 3, pp. 1223–1243. Available at: https://doi.org/10.3390/encyclopedia3040089. (Accessed 18 July 2025)

Huang, X. (2019) ‘Understanding Bourdieu – Cultural Capital and Habitus.’ Review of European Studies. Vol. 11, No. 3. Available at: https://doi.org/10.5539/res.v11n3p45. (Accessed 18 December 2025.)

Mesthrie, R. (Ed.). (2011). The Cambridge handbook of sociolinguistics. Cambridge University Press.

Nichols, S & Stahl, G (2019) ‘Intersectionality in higher education research: a systematic literature review.’ Higher Education Research & Development, DOI:10.1080/07294360.2019.1638348

Salamon, M. (2018) UAL ‘Drawing Laboratory: Research workshops and outcomes’. Spark: UAL Creative Teaching and Learning Journal. Vol 3/Issue 2 pp. 131-141

Sherwood, J (2008). The London Cut. Savile Row Bespoke Tailoring. Pp.14

UAL (2025) Attainment Profiles. Available at: dashboards.arts.ac.uk (Accessed: 23th May 2025)

UAL (2025) Student Profiles: Characteristic. Available at: dashboards.arts.ac.uk (Accessed: 23th May 2025)

UAL (2024) Supporting inclusive and developmental crits: a guidance for staff at UAL. Available at: https://www.arts-su.com/news/article/6013/Crits-and-Inclusive-Learning-at-UAL/ (Accessed: 6 March 2025).

Undy, C. (2025). Blog Post One – Disability. Available at: https://pgcertclaireundy.myblog.arts.ac.uk/2025/04/25/blog-post-1-disability/ (Accessed 17 July 2025) 

1. This quote is from The London Cut (2008), a book by an established fashion critic about Savile Row style and history. It is almost 20 years old, from the time when I started studying bespoke tailoring. Though the industry has diversified somewhat during this time, Savile Row is still an intimidating place for many of our students. The fact that Sherwood doesn’t even consider the “chap” might be a woman, even less trans or non binary, is telling. The inclusiveness of the bespoke tailoring environment throughout history would be an interesting area to investigate. ↩︎
2. For example in the case of the underrepresentation of Chinese students in the disability statistics (Cheah et al, 2024, Undy, 2025) ↩︎
3. For example the Dyslexia Style Guide by British Dyslexia Association (2023) ↩︎
4. Autonomy supportand well-organised, clear learning activities have been found to relate positively to student engagement, which in turn enhanced study results. (Banerjee, 2024) ↩︎

Early trials

My initial idea was to create flash cards, with a word on one side and an image on the other. These could be used for both vocabulary revision and playing a Pictionary style game in groups. I employed a dyslexia style guide to create a layout template. I made a trial version in Word, where I could set up a grid and print double sided sheets to create flash cards. I also made a version in Powerpoint, where each page shows the terminology alongside an image of the object, making it suitable for sharing digitally with the students. 

I started to make an inventory of the specialist vocabulary used during the first year. The words were from our teaching resources, mainly the equipment list and technical presentations from the first introductory tailoring sessions. I quickly gathered more than 100 words from the material we use during the first week, and realised I would not have time to finish a complete glossary. I also realised how much terminology we bombard our students with when they arrive. I marked words with an asterisk that the students were most likely familiar with. This was in preparation for the trial of the Pictionary style game during the Welcome Event, the first in-person meeting that the students attend just before the start of the course. 

Pictionary style game

I tried the game out with my colleagues after a team meeting. I added a few words for comic effect, including the name of the course leader and some specialised tailoring vocabulary (‘inside leg seam’). It was a busy team meeting, and everyone was very tired by the end, but kind enough to endure my experiment and give feedback. My colleagues liked the game, had fun, and thought it would work well as an ice-breaker. They especially enjoyed the ‘fun’ words, and pointed out that it would be more practical to have the word and image on the same side of the cards.

I updated the vocabulary cards in preparation for the Welcome Event. Just over half of the student cohort attended, and the attendance list revealed that many international students had not yet arrived.

At the end of this session, I divided the attendees into 3 teams, with 7-8 students in each. My colleagues assisted me in managing two of the teams, passing on the cards and helping them to follow the rules. Instead of stopping the game after 5 minutes, we continued until they had finished all the cards (10-15 minutes). If a student did not know what a word meant, they could ask for a new card.

The game worked well as an ice-breaker, allowing the students to do something active while interacting with each other. It also encouraged the students to stay in the room after the presentation, and continue to interact with staff members and each other. The amount of questions being asked and general chatter in the space notably increased.

Unfortunately, our unit briefings were online so I did not get the opportunity to repeat the game. I prepared a shorter version with only five words to play at the end of a standard tailoring session, with content related to the days activity. However, the increased class size this year meant I could not find the time and space necessary to reintroduce the activity.

References:

British Dyslexia Association (2023) Dyslexia Style Guide 2023. Online. Available at: https://cdn.bdadyslexia.org.uk/uploads/documents/Advice/style-guide/BDA-Style-Guide-2023.pdf?v=1680514568. (Accessed 17 July 2025)

Time and prototypes

I underestimated the amount of vocabulary my students were being expected to absorb, and the time it would take to source images for each word. I realised I would not have time to finish a complete glossary, and instead set out to make a prototype.

The glossary is divided into thematic chapters, and the ‘Tools’ chapter is complete with terminology and images. I made it available online on the students’ Moodle page and put up a printed copy on my classroom wall.

I used existing teaching resources to gather terminology and images. Many images from these resources were not of a good enough quality to use. I gathered alternate images using free online image archives (Pixabay, 2025), my own photos, and where necessary Google searches.¹

The complexity of language

Language is a social construction, and words have the meanings that we agree they do. These meanings depend on relationships with other words and the context that they are used in. They also evolve over time (Saussure, 1916). Many words have several meanings, and many things have several names.

Thus, many of the objects used in tailoring have several names.² The terms used may differ depending on the context, for example if you work in costume or fast fashion. Sometimes there is a different word in American English.³ Not all our students aspire to a UK-based career in tailoring and this must be taken into account when teaching them terminology. I have started to have discussions with them about the complexities of terminology, and I am considering no longer using the expression ‘correct technical term’. However, this glossary does not pretend to illustrate every meaning of a given word, only how it is used in the context of this course.

A lot of tailoring terminology refer to physical objects, lending itself well to being represented by images. In the first prototypes, I did not include words that needed a written explanation (they have a section in the Padlet, see below). But representing some words clearly with one image still proved complex.

In the glossary, all the objects are removed from their wider context, such as having a bobbin case without a sewing machine. I assume the students who the glossary is aimed at will have some previous knowledge gained from attending sessions and engaging with the learning resources. 

Not all things can be described with one image. To illustrate a word like wool, I chose to use several images. For the material Silesia, I added a short sentence, as well as a physical piece of fabric stapled to the printed glossary.

Other vocabulary has a common meaning which is different from the tailoring context, such as ‘ham’ (a press cushion), ‘fork’ (crotch area on trousers) and ‘mitre’ (a small triangle cut when making pockets or the Popes hat). I opted for the below representation:

Co-Creation

A Padlet for co-creation has the potential to reflect the complexity and variation of the terminology in a way that the glossary does not. Several words and images can be added to describe one object. Students would bring their own cultural capital to the images they choose to include, widening the perspective and decolonising the resource.

To test the interest levels of the students in co-creating the content of the glossary, I set up a Padlet where they can upload pictures of vocabulary and words that they want included. I wrote a disclaimer to inform the students that if they share content then they consent to the material being used, and that this is not part of their assessment course work.

Link to the Padlet: https://artslondon.padlet.org/mthelin/co-creating-an-image-based-glossary-for-bespoke-tailoring-7ig0ctl68n05uumq

References:

Saussure, F. (1916) Course in General Linguistics. New York: Columbia University Press

Pixabay (2025) Available at: Pixabay.com. (Accessed: 22 December 2025)

1. I hope I am not infringing copy right. ↩︎
2. The ‘ham’ for example is also called a ‘press cushion’ or a ‘baby’. ↩︎
3. For example braces/suspenders, jetted pocket/welt pocket. ↩︎

• Make glossary prototype Done

Add to glossary prototype (ongoing)

Share Tools chapter on Moodle Done

Print finished pages and put up in the classroom Done

• Try out Pictionairy game with colleagues and get feedback Done

Refine activity Done

Try out Pictionairy game with students and get feedback from colleagues Done

Prepare mini Pictionary games Done

Play mini Pictionary games with students – no time.

• Write Ethical Consent Form Version 1 Done

Respond to feedback Done

Write Ethical Consent Form Version 2 Done

Get feedback and finish Done

• Write consent form Done

Get it cleared Done

• Set up Padlet for co-creation Done

Write disclaimer Draft

Get it cleared Done

Research how to set up Done

How to share Done

Organise sections Done

Put up the disclaimer Done

• Write questionnaire Done

• Write blog posts Done

Proof read Done

Edit Done

Post Done

• Analyse questionnaires and feedback Done

• Prepare presentation Done

• Add Presentation slides to this blog Done

Observation

I found taking part in the activity (the Pictionary style game) and presenting the resource (the glossary) all-consuming. I was too distracted to make observations and field notes that could make any claim to being thorough or objective. Feedback received from colleagues was very helpful, but also generalising and interpreting (Tjora, 2006), such as the observation by a colleague that “the students were having fun”. The feedback, together with informal chats with students and my general impression, gave a sense of how the resources where received. But this methodology was not “systematic and rigorous” enough to “produce validated evidence” (McNiff, 1995) to support any claim of having improved practice.

I considered testing the students’ knowledge of vocabulary at the beginning and the end of the term. However, there wasn’t enough time to prepare such a test and get ethical approval from my tutors before the arrival of the students. I was also worried that a test, especially before you have taught the students the content, could be stressful and perceived as judgmental. I could have made the test anonymous, but then it would be difficult to identify participants and analyse their development. In addition, such as test would not ascertain if knowledge was gained from the new resources or by some other means.

Designing the questionnaire

Instead, I created a short questionnaire to investigate which resources the students had found helpful. Convers and Presser (2011) provided guidance:

Having “a clear set of research purposes”(Ibid):
My research question provided direction. I focused on finding out what would make it easier for the Bespoke Tailoring students to learn specialist vocabulary.

Pretesting:
I checked the questions with my tutor and peers to avoid confusing or leading language, and to make sure they were easy to answer. In my first draft, I phrased several questions in a leading manner and provided answers to choose from, unintentionally steering the responses.

Avoiding repetition:
While designing the questions, I balanced format variation with “the ‘start-up’ cost of explaining a new question format”(Ibid.). While open questions can be demanding, “[c]losed survey questions inevitably simplify and stylise the life and thought of individuals”(Ibid.). I provided ‘other’ and ‘maybe’ as answers for the closed questions, and followed with several open-ended questions and provided space for comments. 

The risk of misremembering:
While “retrospective measures are sometimes essential”, as in the case of the question about the Pictionary style game played several weeks earlier, they should be asked “without illusion that we [will get] exact measures of the past”(Ibid.).

Placing ‘background’ questions at the end:
I reduced the background questions to one: Is your first language English? I don’t want to imply that certain identities might have more limited vocabularies, and I think that making students tick boxes about social background, disability, nationality or ethnicity after a questionnaire about learning vocabulary would do exactly that.

Link to online questionnaire

Presentation

Before asking the students to fill in the consent form and answer the questionnaire, I presented the project to them and made sure they knew which resources the questionnaire referred to. In addition to asking for feedback about the image based glossary and Pictionary style game, I also wanted to investigate their views on other means of learning specialist vocabulary. I prepared a short Powerpoint presentation for this purpose. When presenting the project and asking the students to answer the questionnaire, it was important to me that the exercise be as fast as possible (see appendix 1). I gave the students the option to choose if they preferred to answer the questionnaire on paper or online (see appendix 2).

I was surprised to find myself uncomfortable asking the students for help with this project, and slightly embarrassed. I ask them to do things all the time in class, but never for a personal project. Though this project aims to improve their learning experience, I had to make it very clear it was voluntary and not part of their assessment. It was humbling and changed the power balance for a moment. It was also ultimately rewarding, because many of the students engaged in the activity.

References:

Converse, J. M. & Presser, S. (2011) The Tools at Hand. Survey Questions, pp 48-75. Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications

Tjora, A. H. (2006) Writing small discoveries: an exploration of fresh observers’ observations. Qualitative Research. Vol. 6(4), pp 429-451. Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications

McNiff, J. (1995) Action research for professional development. Concise advice for new action researchers.

Appendix 1: Keeping it brief

Since participation was voluntary and not part of the students assessment, I did not want the presentation to interfere with their tailoring sessions or free time. A short introduction during class, however, would be beneficial to the students, reminding them of the technical resources available, and introducing them to the basics of a small research project. I stayed for an hour after the end of the session to make up for any missed teaching time, and to make sure no one left feeling that they did not get all their tailoring questions answered that day.

I was also hoping that keeping it short and presenting it during class would improve my chances of getting participants. Just as with the Pictionary style game, it was difficult to find the time during my sessions to present the project, despite having prepared a presentation that would take less than 10 minutes. Ultimately I did it towards the end of a busy day. The students were polite, but tired after absorbing a lot of information. It was helpful that I had made both presentation and questionnaire short and to the point.

Finally, by keeping the presentation as brief as possible I hoped to avoid giving away my own assumptions and prejudices. In hindsight, I suspect the briefness of the introduction to the new resources might also have effected the answers. I discuss this further in blogpost 6.

Appendix 2: Paper vs digital 

I gave the students the option to choose if they preferred to answer the questionnaire on paper or online. A questionnaire on paper gives you more freedom to give a nuanced answer. For example, you can tick between two boxes and scribble an explanation in a margin. Such answers are more difficult to analyse, but “simplify[…] the thought of individuals” (Converse and Presser, 2011) less. On the other hand, some students prefer typing to writing by hand. Also, translation tools are easier to use digitally.

A couple of students asked me to email the presentation to them so they could fill in the questionnaire later, which I did.

Respondent profiles

I received 20 responses to the student questionnaire.¹ This represents 45% of the cohort, and drawing conclusions from the answers must be done with caution. 

65% of respondents said that English was their first language (L1 students), leaving 35% as secondary speakers (L2 students).

As discussed in blog post 5, I included no other background questions for ethical reasons.

Though the questionnaire was anonymous, I can tell from my consent forms which students responded (but not what they responded). All of these students have a very good level of English, most of them equal to first language proficiency.²

Comparing resources

1. Which of the following resources do you find helpful when learning tailoring terminology?

The technical presentations and worksheets, which are pre-existing resources, were found to be most helpful when learning tailoring terminology.³ See blog post 7 for analysis.

The image based glossary was slightly less popular but still received a favourable response.⁴

Playing the Pictionary style game was considered ‘very helpful’ or ‘helpful’ by the majority (60%) of respondents. 40% were more cautious about its educational value, and this is also reflected in their comments (see below).

Books are considered ‘very helpful’ or ‘helpful’ by 55% of the students, a smaller cohort than those who found the Pictionary style game ‘very helpful’ or ‘helpful’.

Google/AI is notably less popular than other mediums.⁵ See appendix 1.

Comparing L1 and L2 students

It is possible that the students answering the questionnaire are those who benefit from existing resources (and are confident in both interpreting the resources and filling out questionnaires). To examine if language background influenced resource preferences, I compared L1 and L2 students. Note that having English as a second language (L2) does not necessarily affect someones English proficiency.

Image Based Glossary. Comparison L1 and L2 students:

Google/AI. Comparison L1 and L2 students:

A noticeably larger proportion of L2 students found the image based glossary ‘very helpful’ compared to L1 students (57% vs 38.5%). L2 students were universally positive about the glossary, with a clear majority finding it ‘very helpful’, and no one finding it unhelpful or unsure of its helpfulness.

The response to using Google/AI was markedly different between the two groups, with most L1 students finding it ‘not helpful’ (38.5%) or ‘a little helpful’ (38.5%). Most L2 students found it ‘helpful’ (42.9%) or responded ‘I don’t know’ (42.9%).

Comparing the two student groups meant splitting an already limited response pool (13 L1 vs 7 L2 students) and firm conclusions can’t be drawn from these results.

Comparing formats of the image based glossary

2. Which of the following resources would you be interested in using?

When it comes to the format of the image based glossary, the most popular option among the students was a physically printed glossary in the classroom (65%). The second most popular option was an online image based glossary (60%). 

The respondents were less sure if they would use a Padlet to co-create the glossary.⁶ It takes time and effort for a student to add to the Padlet, so this was unlikely to be a popular option.

The glossary turned into a game app was also a less popular option.⁷⁸ Considering the effort involved in making an app, I will not make it a priority.

Thematic analysis of the comments

With the guidance of Braun and Clarke’s (2018) 6 steps for thematic analysis, I analysed the open questions and free comments. Because of the limited amount of data and variation in responses, identifying themes was relatively uncomplicated.

3. How did you find playing the Bespoke Tailoring Pictionary?

Many students found it fun (11) and helpful for learning vocabulary (9). 4 commented that it was not helpful for learning, and 4 commented on the positive interaction. Two comments suggest it would be good to play later in the year. For example:

4. What else might help you learn tailoring terminology?

Repeated use during sessions was mentioned 11 times. Other suggestions included:

5. Do you have any additional feedback?

There was very little additional feedback. Students either commented that the practices already in place are good, or the answers were unrelated to the research question.

References:

Clarke, V & Braun, V (2017) Thematic analysis, The Journal of Positive Psychology, 12:3, 297-298.

Clarke, V & Braun, V (2018) Thematic analysis – an introduction. Lecture, University of the West of England, Bristol. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kv7C53yvLqk (Accessed 30 December 2025)

Appendix 1: Negative attitudes towards Google searches and A.I.

Google/AI is notably less popular than other mediums when learning tailoring terminology (very helpful 10%, helpful 20%, a little helpful 30%, not helpful 25%, I don’t know 15%).

This answer to question 4 indicates that students might have been taught that using online definitions, and looking things up on Google/AI is not considered good practice. The perception that online knowledge is less valuable could have influenced their answers, resulting in an underreporting in the use of Google/AI and making the printed version seem more popular than it is in reality. Also, I suspect that I have few respondents with a low proficiency in English (see blog post 6), and that the students who did not respond to the questionnaire probably use Google/AI/translation tools more often.

After trying a few AI assisted Google searches, I found the tool was not always accurate at defining tailoring terminology.

1. 12 students responded on paper, 8 online. This weighting could have been influenced by the the responders familiarity with physical craftwork, or the fact that the internet connection at East Bank is patchy. ↩︎
2. I collected only 15 consent forms, which means 5 respondents either did not fill them out or hand them in. With hindsight, I could have made the consent form part of the questionnaire. ↩︎
3. All respondents report finding the technical presentations and worksheets ‘very helpful’, ‘helpful’ or a ‘little helpful’. ↩︎
4. very helpful 45%, helpful 35%, a little helpful 15%, not helpful 0%, I don’t know 5% ↩︎
5. very helpful 10%, helpful 20%, a little helpful 30%, not helpful 25%, I don’t know 15% ↩︎
6. ‘yes’ 35%, ‘maybe’ 15% ↩︎
7. ‘yes’ 45%, ‘maybe’ 30%, ‘no’ 25% ↩︎
8. The answers are probably influenced by the way the Padlet and game app were presented to the students, which was very briefly and just before answering the questionnaire (see blog post 5). The Padlet is available on their Moodle page, but I have not promoted it further. No student has added to it yet (January 2026). I don’t want to influence the students ‘natural’ behaviour by asking them to use it, but on the other hand, it is our normal teaching practice to keep reminding the students when we add a new technical resource. ↩︎

My teaching practice

The technical presentations and worksheets are very important if you miss a class, but I was surprised to find how much the students find the existing resources helpful when learning tailoring terminology.¹ Although the worksheets feature illustrations and diagrams, they are rather text heavy and students sometimes find it difficult to interpret them. I have wondered if going through technical presentations is a waste of workshop time and sending the students to sleep. Instead, it seems to be an effective way to remind them of terminology at the beginning of a session, and something I will prioritise in the future. 

The Pictionary style game was perceived as fun and led to positive interactions. I will play it again with the students later in the year during in-person unit briefings, when their grasp of tailoring terminology will be broader and the game more rewarding.

Most students found the image based glossary helpful, especially the printed cards in the classroom. I will expand this resource.

It would be interesting to have more in-depth discussions with the students about terminology, language and representation. However, with the current timetable and cohort size, this will have to happen outside of sessions.

I think using the Padlet for co-creation of the glossary could help to better tailor it to student needs and widen the range of terminology included. Though the student response to the idea has been weak, I would like to see if promoting it more might change that. I will also ask if other members of staff would consider adding glossary material via the Padlet.

The research

To gain more knowledge about the students thoughts about learning terminology, it might have been better to ask a focus group of volunteers to stay after a session to answer the questionnaire and discuss the project. My worry was that I would only get participants who do not need extra resources. Since answering the questionnaire is voluntary, this seems to be the case anyway (see blogpost 6).

It would be interesting to interview alumni about which educational resources they used and whether an image based glossary would have been helpful. A recent alumni might have more perspective than a student in their second month of study.

The same day that I presented the questionnaire, I received an email from our students Language Development tutor telling us that not one student had attended the Language Development sessions. It would be easy to deduce from this poor attendance that students are uninterested in further language resources. But my experience with the image based glossary suggests something more complex is happening. Whether English was their first or second language, the students clearly had fun engaging with the glossary, and a sizeable pool were happy to give feedback confirming its educational usefulness, as well as a strong inclination to keep using it. Perhaps by bringing other resources into the workroom space, and including some element of gamification, these other important resources can attract the student audiences they deserve.
 

1. All respondents report finding the technical presentations and worksheets ‘very helpful’, ‘helpful’ or a ‘little helpful’. ↩︎

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