This week’s topic on “Groups” has been really insightful, as with high student numbers, it’s such a vital aspect of learning and teaching in arts, design and filmaking. It is, of course how we spend our life’s, collaborating and negotiating in groups of friends, family, work colleagues and teaching partnerships. It’s a subject we can all relate to. During my working life the longest group I collaborated with was for 12 years working in a very tight group of designers in the BBC presentation department. We all had designated roles: a leader and subordinates. We were paired into creative teams, split and reformed by project and then worked collectively as a whole group.
In teaching I’ve taught students many times in groups and recently set a project where the students worked in groups on a film production project where the objective was to teach them the different roles required to work together in a professional group:
Together to be creative, organized, disciplined to deliver a film on time and on budget.The group were mainly international students so one of this weeks topics interested me especially: “HE academy.ac.uk on international groups”. I also wanted to understand more about the theory of groups so read “Learning in Groups” by David Jacques, Gilly Salmon.
On P5: “Individual people are the raw material that go to make up groups, not all collections of individuals will have a sense of belonging to a group, though outsiders may perceive them as such, the collective identity.” I have found this to be true when teaching a group project. Some students feel quite alienated within a group, it unsettles them and being “artist – creative” this rang true, “they often struggle to input they’re ideas into a group project and don’t feel motivated within a group dynamic”. In fact I would say it demotivates in some instances.
On Page 6: “Group exists with these qualities – Needs, shared aims, interdependence, social organization, interaction, cohesiveness, membership.” Not sure I agree that group members are interdependent in so far as they are affected by and respond to any event that affects any of the groups members. But I do agree – members influence and respond to each other in the process of communicating.
Freud claimed “ that people are drawn into and remain in, groups because of emotional ties between members, and that one of the principal mechanisms in the effecting of such ties is identification – the process by a person wants to be like his parents.”
I’m not sure I agree with wanting to be like ones parents but I do agree that working in groups, helps emotionally in sharing the responsibility working on creative briefs. The advertising model works, where a Creative Director leads a group of creatives, pairs of copywriter and art director, and creatives are bought together to form a group to “brainstorm – brain dump – blue sky think” ideas.
On Page 7 “Security and protection can derive from the designated leader or any member who is accepted in the role. The group unconsciously assumes that some sort of magic resides in the leader. I.e. way students defer to tutor remarks to exclusion of their colleagues contribution”
I don’t agree that students believe “magic” exists in a tutor / leader but they rightly assume that this person knows what they’re talking about and can impart knowledge and help the students in the task they’ve been set. In the advertising world – the creative director is paid handsomely as they have to produce “magic” and led their group to create “magic” although what is produced is often along way from Magic!
On Page 19 Jaques discussed the role of tutor within the group i.e. Authorative (leader is dominant, Directing, Informing, Confronting Versus Facilitative (less obstructive, releasing tension, eliciting, Supporting & more discreet) I found this interesting and would put myself in both camps.
I touched on the subject of internationalism in a response to a C1 group’s blog for Topic 1. It fascinates me the way the profile of the students has changed in art colleges over the last 30yrs. When I studied at LCP & RCA there were very few international students, which is very different to the Graphics and film courses I’ve taught on for example at LCC. I’ve been struck how much of the intake is made up of international students and how a significant percentage are Korean & Chinese. What I found relevant to this weeks topic is how the international students interact with UK students, tutors and participate in the classrooms. The Asian students seem to thrive and integrate very quickly and certainly the effort we go to integrate them into social groups from Day 1 seems to pay off.
Graphic from a Government paper
However, If left alone I’ve found in general that naturally international students tend to stick within their nationalities as the HE Academy paper says “ Majority of students, left to their own devices, are likely to with students they perceive as culturally similar to themselves…A minority …develop friendships, broaden their perspectives and learn skills suitable for a diverse and globalized world”
On the film project, the students were assigned groups; each group was 3-4 students mixed up with UK Nationals and Internationals, male and female. As tutors we socially engineered this to happen. It was interesting to see how international students performed within the group dynamic. I found that a number of the international students were quieter, as they we either not confident with the English Language, and as people naturally quieter and not used to being so vocal and opinionated. To quote HE paper “ Cross cultural work, conducted in a language where everyone is not equally comfortable, requires resilience, effort and additional time.” I’m also mindful that one needs to be really careful not to make sweeping statements and generalizations of particular nationalities and not fall into stereotypes.
I see huge benefits for the current generation of students studying in HE Arts, Design and Film, to quote the vice chancellor of Liverpool, “ the main benefit of the globalization of HE are not financial but intellectual and cultural. The HE paper also challenges the metaphors of international students which discusses whether international students work in “ global villages” or ‘silos” (containing those from the same country or region of the world & or speaking a similar language.)
I was interested in the suggestions the HE paper makes to help international students mix within the classroom and on courses.
- Teachers re-designing group based coursework – requiring co-operation and collaboration.
- Teachers mixing up students so they understand this is normal.
- Student support specialists, induction activities, staff developers – who collectively can help international students.
Running the group film project it forced students to work together and as it was over a number of months involved them spending time often socially or weekends which bought them together and helped them. Talking to international students they were able to reflect that it was meaningful and authentic project and had enjoyed working in a group. As the HE paper says, “It’s a mix of formal curriculum with informal curriculum which helps break barriers.”
Finally I asked a tutor at UAL a few Q+A’s on teaching International students.
Q How do you find teaching International students?
I find teaching international students may need a little extra work at the start but it does pay off. International students need help in identifying cultural places in London (for instance) that will reassure them and assist with their research processes which can really help in the development of a project. This is often practical advice but showing that extra care and level of help starts to create trust between student and tutor. For instance I have a Brazilian design student. Another Brazilian photography student needed a designer to work with. I introduced the two and it was that act of care and thoughtfulness, which made a difference to both student’s attitudes and trust of me –It was the facilitation of an opportunity, which they appreciated rather than the practical act of twinning.They have been excellent students since.
Q What are the positives and negatives?
The negatives are isolated international students. We tell all our students from Day 1 that being ‘global citizens’ is vital to their progress as professionals. The opportunity to understand different cultures is an enormous advantage. They have a ready-made team of people who understand regional semiotics. They are surrounded by students who may be their life long professional network – this is an enormous opportunity. Good projects should prioritise and highlight this in the brief. International insight is very valuable.
Q What are the challenges as a tutor?
The challenges for a tutor are finding that extra time for international students without affecting the parity of care given to the group as a whole.
Q How will UAL adapt over next 10yrs to the globalization & internationalism of HE education.
There are many ways to adapt but it is important that UK Education is unique and distinctive – adaption to fit the ‘perceived’ needs of international students could be a mistake.
Care with induction, brief writing and explantation and terminoilogy used in assessment are key initiatives, which would be very useful as we adapt.
