Teaching Beckett: Critical Practice in Television Part 2 by Dr Simone Knox

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Having sketched out my pedagogical interest in combining the teaching of critical practice with a close study of Samuel Beckett’s work in the first part of this blog post double bill, let me now tell you more about the actual teaching project itself: after a series of lectures, seminars, presentations and workshops, I give the students a poem by Beckett, and ask them to devise a piece of drama in response, about which they subsequently write a piece of reflective documentation. I keep the instructions on the brief deliberately open, and the students develop their ideas, shoot and edit, in consultation with me. You can watch one such response, to Beckett’s “What Is the Word”, directed by Matthew Andrews, Leila Pourhosseini and Olivia Witt here:

With the allusions to Beckett’s own experience of aphasia, the use of stylized movement, ambiguous space, pared-down narrative and rhythmic repetition, Beckett’s influence is evident. But the piece also develops a distinct aesthetic identity: Beckett’s work often has the camera capturing action unfolding on a stage-like space, whereby, as my colleague Jonathan Bignell has argued,

“the duration of camera shots and the common use of long shots giving access to the completeness and depth of the space militates against the camera’s restriction of choice about where to look, so that the camera’s agency as an instrument of selective perception is diminished.”[1]

Here, the camera has an investigative, active agency that probes into the space, which, together with the rhythmic editing, addresses the thematic concept of (obscured) vision and its relationship to knowledge, in a particular way.  Here, Olivia Witt thoughtfully remarks in her documentation that the intention was “that the shadows on the male character’s face would depict his obscured knowledge in a way which could not be expressed through a complete lack of light, as shadows require light to exist, thus the male character’s knowledge is not absent, just concealed.”

Through the bringing together of the range of expertise and resources we enjoy here at the University, I have been delighted to facilitate the making of such research-driven, critically reflective student work that I hope you agree vividly demonstrates the students’ skills and understanding. What it shows is that creative (and, indeed, playful) experimentation and the current emphases on professionalization and employability are not binary opposites; in fact, one can, and should, meaningfully inform the other.

[1] Bignell, Jonathan. Beckett on screen: the television plays. Manchester: Manchester UP, 2009, p.141.

Teaching Beckett: Critical Practice in Television part 1 by Dr Simone Knox

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Here in Film, Theatre & Television, over the last couple of years, I have been fortunate to be able to devise an interesting teaching project that draws on the Department’s long-standing expertise in teaching critical practice, the Faculty’s expertise on the work of Samuel Beckett, as well as the University’s unique resources, including the facilities in the Minghella Building and the Beckett Collection.

For those of you who may be less familiar with the term, the teaching of ‘critical practice’ means the teaching of practical work in such a way that practice is a methodology for exploring critical and conceptual issues in concrete terms, whereby “‘creative’ practice and ‘critical’ analysis are conceived as mutually supportive activities”.[1] Having been closely involved in the devising of critical practice for television over the last decade, I decided to set up a project that inflects this with a focus on Beckett, especially his work for television. My pedagogical reasons for this were manifold, and included the following:

Firstly, because the modernist aesthetic of Beckett’s plays for television is unlike anything undergraduate students come across in their own television viewing, approaching Beckett’s work places in-depth research very readily on the students’ learning agenda. To be able to come to grips with the abstract textures and complex sound-image relationships of programmes such as Ghost Trio (1977), a close study of Beckett scholarship is essential.

Here, research visits to the Beckett Collection, very helpfully facilitated by archivist Guy Baxter, have also been extremely useful for the student learning experience. These visits to the beautiful building on Redlands Road have not only made my students more aware of the breadth and depth of what their University has to offer, but more specifically, have vividly demonstrated the precision Beckett used. So, for example, in Quad I + II (1981) the movement of the hooded figures is through Beckett’s own notes revealed to have been timed to the second. With such detailed planning laid out in front of the students, it is clear that their own work will have to be carefully considered.

Secondly, by encountering work that so decidedly move away from the dominant realist aesthetic of television, engaging with Beckett encourages the students to take a step away from what has become naturalized and self-evident, both in terms of the medium itself and their understanding of it. This critical distance encourages them to adopt a mindful use of, the conventions of television, both for the rest of their undergraduate study and beyond.

Thirdly, engaging with Beckett, who worked across different disciplines, also encourages students to draw on their studies in other parts and modules of their degree, such as in theatre and English literature. Of course, studying Beckett also means that students see the published research of a range of their tutors, and making students more aware of staff research (and the fact that staff do research!) can only be a good thing.

Because this is turning into a rather long post already, I have decided to turn my reflections into a two-parter, and will say more about the actual work the students have gone on to produce in the second part. Stay tuned!

[1] Lacey, Stephen and Pye, Douglas. ‘Getting Started: An Approach to Relating Practical and Critical Work’ Studies in Theatre Production 10 (1994): p.21.

Digital literacies for student employability: Spotlight on work placements by Nadja Guggi

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I have been working with a placement student, Rachel Glover, a third-year undergraduate in Politics and International Relations, to carry out research into digital literacies for student employability, focusing on the University’s extra- and in-curricular work placement schemes.

This research is part of the Digitally Ready project (www.reading.ac.uk/digitallyready), a JISC-funded initiative under the Developing Digital Literacies Programme (http://www.jisc.ac.uk/developingdigitalliteracies) to help staff and students at the University to prepare for life, work and study in a digital world. More information about our research can be found at http://blogs.reading.ac.uk/digitallyready/resources/wrp/.

Rachel and I were invited to speak at the Teaching & Learning Showcase on ‘Assessing work placements’ here at Reading on 11 October. (http://www.reading.ac.uk/internal/cdotl/NewsandEvents/InternalEvents/cdotl-TeachingandLearningShowcaseSeries.aspx) The showcase events are a series of informal lunchtime gatherings which provide an opportunity for colleagues to share T & L practices and ideas. The format is three speakers talking about a common topical issue for ten minutes each, with time for questions and discussion at the end.

Rachel and I were up first, followed by Cindy Becker (English Literature) and Hannah Jones (Agriculture, Policy and Development). Organiser Joy Collier had asked us to set the scene a little bit, so we thought we would share some of the insights from our research into digital aspects of work placements, and to show our colleagues the model that we use to evaluate students’ digital experiences. Our presentation slides can be found here.

The framework we use is adapted from Rhona Sharpe and Helen Beetham’s ‘Developing Effective E-Learning: The Development Pyramid’ (2008) which describes the development of digital literacies in terms of access, skills, and practices as prerequisites to becoming a critical, informed, expert user of digital technologies.

Digital literacies and work placements, adapted from Sharpe and Beetham (2008)

If we apply this to work placements, it becomes about affording students digital opportunities. Work placements can provide opportunities for students to experience and explore digital technologies (access); to develop technical proficiency in using digital technologies (skills); and, crucially, to apply these skills in a professional, ‘real world’ context (practices).

This is where the real value of work placements lies – in bridging the gap between students’ learning and how this is applied in a work environment, and in making that connection in the student’s mind, too, so that they are digitally ready and so that they have the awareness and the ability to articulate that readiness in order to make stronger applications, perform better in interviews, and, ultimately, better able to do their jobs.

Developing those higher-level attributes and attitudes – digital literacies – requires reflection. Cindy and Hannah spoke about the ways in which they encourage students to reflect on their placement experience and how this is linked to assessment, which surely then ought to be based on students’ ability to draw out and illustrate their learning and development rather than a descriptive account of, say, the company or their day-to-day tasks while on placement.

Hannah’s closing comments, which suggested that perhaps students should not actually be marked on this at all, that being able to truly reflect on their experience is enough, I found particularly thought-provoking.

My own closing comments were twofold: firstly, to encourage anyone involved in planning, assessing and evaluating placements to consider what digital opportunities might be embedded in them.

And secondly, to consider whether the development pyramid might be applied to planning, assessment and evaluation of work placements more generally, not just to look at the digital angle. After all, having the right tools for the job, learning how to use them and knowing what to do with them, are the building blocks required to develop any sort of professional competence. Thus the development pyramid might provide a useful framework for designing WRPL activities. I will say more about this in another blog post.

Embedding Employability in the Department of History: Historic Themes in Practice by Professor Lindy Grant

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The Department of History has been running a module for Part 2 students called Historic Themes in Practice (HTP) for the last three years. It is an innovative module in conception, organisation and structure. It is designed to make second year students enlarge their views of career possibilities, particularly within the heritage sector, and learn to work together in teams to bring a group project to fruition: in short it is designed to embed employability into the teaching of history. And it takes employability one stage further. Every year, the options from which students choose their group project includes at least one group placement, working to a brief provided by an institution within the heritage sector.

This all sounds like a bit like heavy corporate-speak, so how does this module run? What do the students actually do? Continue reading →

Using technology to find low-tech solutions by Mary Morrissey

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Like a lot of people, I do not consider myself particularly savvy about technology: when I find that something is useful to me, I learn how to use it. That said, I think we can use learning technologies to come up with ‘low tech’ solutions to our teaching needs. Among the advantage is efficiency in terms of time and money: we already have the kit, and we know how to use it. I offer the following as an example.

It is often difficult to make sure that students are aware of detailed regulations that affect their work but which cannot be summarised or displayed easily. Conventions for writing and referencing are a good example in our department.  Last summer, Pat Ferguson (our Royal Literary Fund fellow whose role in the department is to help student improve their writing skills) observed that we had excellent advice on essay writing, but it was in our large Student Handbook, distributed at the start of the first year. Pat suggested that we make this information available separately.

I thought this was a great idea. I noticed there was other information in the handbook that students need through their degree too: there was information about our marking criteria; there were some very helpful examples that showed the difference between plagiarism and poor academic practice. I took these sections, and I created three separate documents with titles that I hoped would be self-explanatory: ‘Style Guide for English Literature students’; ‘Understanding Feedback – Marking Criteria’; and ‘Plagiarism’.

I uploaded all three documents to Blackboard’s ‘Fileshare’ area for the department, and I created links from the Blackboard courses for all our Part 1 and Part 2 modules. (I am working on the Part 3 modules, but there are over 50 of those!) I also posted the documents in our central ‘Information for English Literature Students’ Blackboard organisation, on which all staff, undergraduates and postgraduate students are enrolled. By keeping the documents in ‘Fileshare’ I can update them every year, to include new ‘standard paragraphs’ for example. I overwrite the old file with the newer version, and all the daughter versions linked to it update automatically.

This isn’t rocket science, but I think it has helped us make useful information more readily available. Having in posted in most of our Blackboard courses makes it more visible; having three small documents (in pdf format) makes them easier to download and print.

Where would I go from here? Students have told me that they like a website with exercises that help with grammar and writing skills that we recommended. It’s based in the University of Bristol:  http://www.bristol.ac.uk/arts/exercises/grammar/grammar_tutorial/index.htm

I would like to create an interactive resource like this, and I know it can be done. The University of Aberdeen took the paper-based ‘Guide to Written Work’ (on which we all relied when I worked there!) and turned it into an internet-based resource with exercises: http://www.abdn.ac.uk/writing/

If anyone knows any low-tech ways that I could do something similar, please let me know!

What it means to me to be a National Teaching Fellow by Helen Bilton & Professor Julian Park

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By Helen Bilton, Institute of Education (NTFS 2012)

I had never heard of the National Teaching Fellowship Scheme, nor the University Teaching Fellowships, until a colleague who had achieved the status of University Teaching Fellow came and talked to our research group about the achievement. I actually was having a very bad day and missed the talk and arrived in a foul mood not knowing what anyone was talking about! When the meeting had finished Carol turned to me and said ‘you should apply for that Helen you have done so much with students’. I didn’t think much more about it until she sent through the information. I wouldn’t normally have bothered but the encouragement from this colleague, who also said ‘what have you got to lose’ was enough for me to say ‘go for it’. To say I was gobsmacked when I was told I had achieved the status of Early Career Teaching Fellow was to say an understatement.  When the opportunity came around to apply for the more heady status of National Teaching Fellow having been encouraged initially by Carol gave me the impetus to say to myself ‘why not?’.

Moral of the story: there are always people about who think a lot of themselves! But there are so many people who are brilliant but never think to shout about it. We all need to keep a look out and shout about our colleagues’ achievements. Without my colleague being aware of and happy to help me, I would not have become a National Teaching Fellow. I now look out for others and say ‘go for it’. If all of us could encourage one person, that would be a lot of people being acknowledged.

Being an Early Career Teaching Fellow meant I was exposed to some really nice people-always a bonus! It also meant I became more involved and felt more a part of the University. I came into contact with some amazing people across the University, many of whom I’d not met before. Being a Fellow has meant I feel even more confident about what I do with students; some of the things I have done are ‘creative’ and ‘a bit out of the box’ and the achievement has encouraged me to realise my beliefs are correct. It has also meant my passion for the last 33 years-children playing and learning outside has been recognised.

By Professor Julian Park, FDTL Life Sciences (NTFS 2008)

As a committed educator I applied for a University Teaching Fellowship because I believe it is a key route to ensure high quality teaching and learning is promoted within the University. The award provided funding to develop the engage in feedback website, which is now used internationally.  My UTFS award quickly led to the opportunity to apply for a National Teaching Fellowship, which I was delighted to receive in 2008. As well as providing a great opportunity to network with like-minded individuals, it was a useful additional piece of evidence to support my promotion to Professor in 2010. Collaborations with other National Teaching Fellows has led to the award of £200k for the Enhancing Fieldwork Learning project, which is still on-going.

Developing students’ digital skills through placements – Maximising student engagement by Rachel Glover

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I have previously blogged about my trip to ALT-C in Manchester. In the same week I went to the RAISE Conference in Southampton. The Researching, Advancing & Inspiring Student Engagement day was my first opportunity to speak about some of the findings of our research so far.

At the last-minute, my supervisor Nadja Guggi had to take sick leave, but I felt confident enough to talk about our research and step up to the challenge of delivering our presentation on ‘Developing students’ digital skills through placements’  on my own.

RAISE presentation

I focused on five key areas that had stood out for me so far, addressing each theme in turn: confidence, time, participation, social media and value.

After my presentation I opened the floor to questions. This was a particularly valuable experience. One member of the audience queried a point I had made about students’ social media skills. With hindsight, I could have made a clearer distinction between skills and practices – the difference knowing how to use social media, and using social media in a professional context, as part of a communication strategy. This is something to take forward for future presentations.

RAISE Students

Another delegate wanted to know if I had asked students about how they initially heard about their placement opportunity. I had indeed done this, with the majority of students hearing about the placement from a friend. The delegate had also done some research with similar findings. It was really valuable to hear about other research projects and to discover similarities between them.

See the clip below for a summary of the common themes addressing my RAISE presentation. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90-WurbS5-4&feature=youtu.be

Teaching and Learning Away Day Reflections by Dr Cindy Becker

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As usual, it was great to see so many colleagues at a Teaching and Learning away day – it always reminds me how much we all care about this important aspect of our lives as academics. I enjoyed this session especially because I met several colleagues with whom I have never worked before. Two of us even discussed the possibility of a joint module.

I was a little disappointed that the day did not relate as much to Part One engagement as I had expected. I was expecting to hear lots of ideas about how departments other than my own keep their Part One students engaged and enthusiastic. Having said that, I enjoyed the chance to consider how students might engage with all aspects of university life and I will raise some of the ideas generated by the day with colleagues in my department.

Staff Development and Internationalisation: learning from each other by Clare McCullagh

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The term internationalisation is thrown about very easily in HE nowadays, so I enjoyed a recent opportunity to sit around a table and discuss pedagogy and policy in detail with two visiting academics from the Sudan University for Science and Technology (SUST). As Academic Staff Development Managers in CSTD my colleague Nina Brooke and I were invited by Dr Tabarak Ballal, Director of undergraduate programmes and Lecturer in Building Technology, to develop and deliver a tailored and condensed introduction to T&L in HE. We were tasked with providing a focus on teaching large groups, curriculum design, quality enhancement and application of learning technologies.

Our visitors, Dr Yassir Mohammednour Elfadul Abbas and Dr Elsadig Elhadi Elhassan, are in the process of establishing at SUST a new MSc in Construction Management. The School of Construction Management here at Reading is supporting them in this process, led by Dr Tabarak Ballal and funded as part of the British Council funded Sudan Higher Education Quality Improvement project (SHEQuIP). SHEQuIP supports links between Sudanese and UK universities focusing on the theme of quality improvement under the Internationalising Higher Education Programme (IHE). IHE establishes new generation partnership models to develop global knowledge economies.

Nina and I enjoyed learning about the teaching context in Sudan, drawing comparisons and contrasts with our own situation here, and discovering that we share many similar challenges. Other staff from SCME, including Tabarak, joined the programme and also contributed to the content; these real examples are what bring a workshop to life. For example, Dr Emmanuel Essah charted his journey in setting up a new Career Development module involving industrial placements for undergraduates and Steve Mika demonstrated how his Building Pathology students develop the skills required to assess causes of building decay through ‘virtual’ site visits. Tabarak demonstrated a variety of teaching and learning strategies that she adopts in her delivery of Construction Technology, including the use of Blackboard, to inspire her students to be active learners. We also had the pleasure of meeting a Part Three student, President of the Construction Society and co-founder of ConstructionChat website, Connor O’Connor, who is a shining example of student engagement with so many exciting ideas about student support, employability and module design that he hardly paused for breath.

Our visitors said that they had learned a lot and were taking away plenty of ideas and food for thought. I also felt that I learned a lot from everyone who contributed. When you work in a central department it is a great privilege to spend some time within a School getting to know some of the staff and their work in a little bit more detail.  Many thanks to Tabarak for all her work in organising the visit, and to everyone who contributed.