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