Observer: Jasper Shuoyang Zheng
Observee: Ignacia Ruiz
Session to be observed: Studio day during Part 3 personal project
Size of student group: 31
Folded mini-book I made while following Ignacia’s demonstration.
Part One: Context Provided by Ignacia
What is the context of this session/artefact within the curriculum?
This session falls on the second week of part 3 of the course, where students write a personal project proposal (PPP) to research and execute for the remaining 8 weeks of the course.
Students have handed in their personal project proposal and are carrying out independent studio work to realize one of their outcomes. The tutor is giving informal feedback and facilitating the session.
How long have you been working with this group and in what capacity?
I’ve been working with this illustration group since November 2024.
I am the lead tutor seeing them 2 days a week – They have an AL lecturer seeing them 1 day a week.
What are the intended or expected learning outcomes?
- Work independently during the session with their proposal with a self-initiated action for the week. This can include drawing, writing, photographing etc.
- Receive and reflect on feedback on their work done during the week by their peer group in an informal crit format.
- Act upon received feedback by tutor during the session.
- Draft a plan of action for the following week using feedback as a starting point (materials to bring, questions they have ahead of hand in)
What are the anticipated outputs (anything students will make/do)?
Studio work from the day. This will vary student to student – can be a series of drawings, riso prints, digital work or 3d work etc.
Are there potential difficulties or specific areas of concern?
Students are working independently on self-set goals for the day and this could lead to some students losing sight of their intended aim for the week.
How will students be informed of the observation/review?
I will verbally inform them at the beginning of the session, saying that there will be a colleague in the room, clarifying that it is part of my PGCert and that they are not being observed or graded in any way.
What would you particularly like feedback on?
Mostly if peer to peer learning is happening while I focus on tutorials, something that has been more challenging for me this year.
How will feedback be exchanged?
Ideally written by email so I can have a record of it.
Part Two: Feedback from Jasper
I observed the first hour of Ignacia’s studio session. It was a lovely Thursday morning, the studio room was arranged into small groups of tables, and students arrived and greeted each other – it was a vibrant environment. The session started with Ignacia calling for students’ attention and giving a brief of the session’s aims and weekly plans. The briefing took around 10 minutes, and eventually, it connected to printing facilities and printed samples – a very nice transition from things like field trips to projects.
Then students diverged to work on individual projects, and Ignacia walked around to give one-to-one feedback. While I walked around with Ignacia during her one-to-one conversation with students, I tried to stay within a distance that was not too far or close to avoid distracting the conversation.
Students generally have an idea of their project and some work-in-progress sketches or experiments on the materials. So the conversation typically starts with students presenting their ideas, and then Ignacia comments on the work.
Ignacia did well in directing students to move from ideas to actionable and solid plans. For instance, prompting them to think about what kinds of material/technique/canvas they would like to use. I think this is very helpful to ensure students’ engagement in the process, and it is also a very good point of reflection for them. In one of the conversations, she demonstrated the canvas-folding technique to figure out the sequence and orientation of pages in a book, which was really informative (and fun!). Something I noticed is that Ignacia tends to give students a timeframe to work on. This could involve short-term plans for the day (the next two hours, before lunch, etc), or some general guidance on how long a process might take (e.g., “some steps might take two days”). This temporal aspect is something I would definitely benefit from if I were working on new materials/techniques – to have someone more experienced to give me a rough timeframe.
In the meantime, Ignacia knows individual students’ progress very well, causally checking on missing submissions from students to ensure they are on track, which I think is an effective strategy for pre-degree teaching so that students won’t get lost and have the “push” to stick to the progress.
On some tables, students have casual chat with each other. Some tables were quieter – student mostly working on their stuff with headphones on. This working-in-parallel setting gave a very nice studio vibe. My observation hasn’t reached the time when students share or
talk to each other about their work; maybe this is something that will emerge as the day unfolds, or maybe it needs a bit of a prompt. But having students working on shared tables like this seems to be a very nice approach to peer-to-peer learning since they are able to have a peek at each other’s progress easily.
This was a wonderful experience for me to learn about studio work! Thanks so much Ignacia for the session!
Part Three: Ignacia’s Response
It is always helpful to have an outside observer sitting in on sessions. Once I get over the nervousness of having someone in the room, I understand that there are many things that are embedded into my teaching I don’t notice.
Jasper mentioned how I occasionally give set timelines to students to finish tasks (‘in the next two hours’ ‘by lunch time’) and tend to clarify timelines (might take 2 days)
With a cohort I know well, giving timeframes to complete tasks has worked well. The current project we are working on is self-led and some students need little to no encouragement and with some needing more support to clarify their aims for the day.
In general, I try to manage expectations in terms of how long processes take – if a student wants to make a 3 colour screenprint in 1 day it is probable that it won’t be possible, so I outline that that idea might take 2 days or more to gage if the student wants to commit to that timeline or consider other options.
I do, however, need to keep an eye on not structuring the timings too much; some students might in fact finish a task in 2 hours, but some might need 4. I’m also not accounting for students changing the aim as they make and discover, which is something that happens during a studio day.
Jasper also pointed out something I hadn’t considered – to have points on the day where students check on each other’s progress with more intent or have students engage with someone they have less knowledge of their project. I would like to try and do this after the lunch break, when students need to re-engage with their work and it can take a while to get going again. Looking at someone else’s work before starting again could be good to re-engage with the day.
I’m pleased that he mentioned that the atmosphere in the studio is vibrant and friendly.
After lockdown and teaching online, it was important to rebuild the sense of community and bring emphasis to being together. It has taken a few years to achieve, but creating an environment where students want to come in is important to me as a tutor, and it has proven to be conducive to engagement with the course, leading to better retention and ultimately better results.