Contextual Background:
I assess Studio, Professional Practice and Theory on the BAACC course. Feedback tutorials are post-assessment and to effect improvement I have scheduled “draft” submissions for the Theory component prior to assessment. Accidentally, draft essay feedback tutorials were scheduled alongside the Professional Practice assessment, which was advantageous in combining in-person and written feedback.
Evaluation:
The challenge is to offer feedback that supports students across practical, professional, and theoretical areas. After reading Mark Barrow‘s Assessment and student transformation: linking character and intellect (Barrow, 2006), I wanted to try the Foucauldian “confessional” approach for self-development. The draft essay tutorials and Professional Practice Presentation question time was a perfect opportunity.
Writing feedback is time-consuming, especially draft dissertations internal comments. For time management, I created a guide developed from Davies’ Writing Learning Outcomes and Assessment Criteria in Art and Design (Davies, 2000) to write “live” feedback during the presentations and focus on how understanding, originality and imagination are evidenced. This effectively enabled active listening for assessment, and notes were finessed later with grading. (see Doc-A attached). This informed the draft essay feedback, which could be discussed in-person with the online written feedback (see Doc-B attached). I used the “confessional” approach to understand the deeper obstacles for improvement. A key area identified was the historical experience of students previously working in corporate environments which influenced the aesthetics of their presentations and caused conceptual generalisations in their essays. Another area was related to cultural appropriation owing to a student’s understanding of “human life” from a Buddhist perspective that informed her sculptures and writing.
Moving forwards:
Scheduling cross-module feedback
Feedback across written and in-person discussions was incredibly effective for improving understanding across multiple modules prior to crucial assessment points. Moving forward this is something I will request my Course Leader schedules purposively for the following academic year and check if it is something we can do for the upcoming final studio and theory projects across all BA year levels.
In-person tutorials
I want to implement the “confessional” approach regularly to capture conflict areas pertaining to previous professional experience at West Dean as the students are predominately mature. This will be applied to forthcoming feedback tutorials prior to the final essay and studio assessments. I will continue to monitor the effectiveness of this to ensure it functions as an “individuating tool” and not therapy however, I can also see its pastoral care uses. I also tested its use in recent CSM Foundation Painting Pathway Part 3 Progress Tutorials to gauge how it might apply to young adults and it effectively revealed illnesses and diversity creating inconsistent working patterns, which will be supported by ISA’s and student support.
Guide for live assessments
Writing live feedback during presentations was a time-saver. I believe I can apply this to graded studio presentations. The guide I developed included the list:
- originality – within practice / within history / within peer group
- Imagination – purposeful decisions towards an idea
- description – process, methods, materials
- explanation – appropriate uses/interpretation
- analysis – reflection and problem-solving
This correlates to the assessment matrix which means I can use it for forthcoming final assessments in April/May/June.
References
Barrow, Mark (2006) Assessment and student transformation: linking character and intellect, Studies in Higher Education, 31: 3, 357 — 372
Davies, A. (2000) Writing Learning Outcomes and Assessment Criteria in Art and Design. ADC – LTSN Learning and Teaching Fund Project: University of the Arts London
