Introduction & Background
During the first week of Year 1 welcome activities, I led an activity including the whole MA1cohort (54 students). Prior to this activity, students were asked to bring a piece of clothing, garment, or accessory. At the start, students were given paper and pencils/pens. The workshop lasted 2 hours. One by one, students described their chosen garment in detail without revealing it, using as many descriptive words as possible. Meanwhile, the rest of the group had 30 seconds to sketch the garment based solely on the verbal description. Once finished, the garment was revealed, we compared the sketches to the actual item and engaged in a brief discussion on the results.
Evaluation
MA Fashion at CSM is an extremely high-profile course and often students feel intimidated by peers, tutors and their perceptions of the course expectations. My challenge is to create an engaging and welcoming environment, allowing students to meet me, get familiar with my role and skills and build connections with their peers. This welcome activity allows students to express their personality and creativity, while also allowing me to gain initial insights into their needs and learning styles.
Moving Forward
As this is one of their first activities on the course, maintaining a relaxed environment is essential. Incorporating a drawing activity alongside object-based learning proves to be a more effective approach in achieving this, rather than overwhelming students with a data-heavy lecture.
The activity encourages participation, but instead of students taking turns in a predicted pattern, the order was sporadic by asking students: who wants to go next? Some students did not want to take part. I found the random order to be more relaxed, inclusive, and productive. It allows students that are more outgoing and braver to go first and allows the “quiet ones” to go later and have a bit more time to prepare. Working in order can cause anxiety, while students wait for their turn. This created a safe space and a relaxed mood, with minimum pressure.
Assessing skill level and specialist vocabulary:
Students from “non-Fashion” backgrounds were hesitant due to lack of specialist language. By reassuring them at the beginning of the session, they should describe garments to their best ability and knowledge and not worry about the correct wording. Also, instead of trying to find the correct word, they can make comparisons to other, more familiar things. For example: in …the style of…, …feels like…, …shape is similar to…, …square like…, …circle like…
This part of the activity can be less useful for the assessment of the skill level, due to the language barrier, and anxiety to perform.
Language barrier:
Some international students were shy and nervous due to the language barrier. It took them longer to find the correct words to describe the garments. If a student’s level of comprehension or spoken communication raises concerns, I will recommend that they seek additional support from the UAL Language Centre.
Drawing/skills:
Drawing used to be an essential part of any Fashion course. Drawing was used as a means of communicating ideas, design solutions and in presentations. In recent years there is less, and less drawing and students use other techniques to express their ideas. I still encourage students to use drawing when they can, whether they know how to draw or not. Any sketch is better than no sketch and illustrations are a great visual aid in learning and teaching. And like Salamon discusses: “[drawing is] used as a research tool for developing thinking, improving concentration and enhancing memory.”
When we started the activity, some students were quick to say: …I am not good at drawing… and …I don’t know how to draw… and started with hesitation. I have explained that due to 30s limit the sketches should be quick and not perfect. Soon, everyone was drawing and they all ended up with almost 54 sketches.
References:
Harris, K. (2022) Embracing the Silence: Introverted Learning and the Online Classroom. Available at: https://sparkjournal.arts.ac.uk/index.php/spark/article/view/161
Salamon, M. (2018) Drawing laboratory: Research workshops and outcomes, Spark: UAL Creative Teaching and Learning Journal / Vol 3 / Issue 2
Willcocks, J. (2018) Object based learning. Available at: https://www.arts.ac.uk/colleges/central-saint-martins/about-us/museum-and-study-collection