Re- negotiating group work.
A workshop for the Teaching and Learning conference Jan.2012
Introductions:
Andrew Cox
Prue Chiles
Leo Care
(See Andrew’s paper - Using a creative visual method to explore students’ group work needs, in the
context of internationalisation Cox, Chiles, Care, Herrick, Keating, Li, Mawson, Thrift
Note on authorship: the data collection was conducted by Care, Chiles and Cox; the text written by Cox,
but was an attempt to represent and respect the analytic ideas generated in discussion among all the
persons cited as co-authors, in accordance with BERA guidelines on authorship.)
We have proposed this workshop building on a collaborative project we carried out that used creative
visual methods to explore student needs with respect to group work. The research is at an early stage
and we would value your
views - from experience you have had and so we are asking you to do a similar exercise to the one we
So we have looked at the physical environment our Chinese students find themselves in and how this is
reflected in the way they work; questioning whether different spatial and aesthetic considerations or
expectations of the use of space could be a specific cultural issue.
We examined whether different experiences of space may be a good way of examining cultural mixing.
We suggest there may also be a good indirect way of examining cultural mixing - since the use of space
reflects largely un-conscious assumptions about learning and shapes learning as a concrete set of
embodied practices.
We were asking whether there are different cultural aesthetics or expectations among both home and
Chinese students around learning space that could impact on group work. In order to discuss this we
would like to encourage the attendees to do a short version of the workshop we did and then to discuss
the results.
A constructed space recursively moulds social practice. Space and time are enmeshed, as space/time, or
spatiality, because the meaning of space is an accomplishment, constantly being remade over time. And
the forces shaping the local in such processes include much wider social relations and networks than has
previously been acknowledged. “Knowledge, power, space/place closely intertwine to frame our social
practices” Wilson and Cervero (2003: 124)
Assumptions (from experience and others research) :
In more transformative perspectives of internationalisation there is a recognition of the potential
international students bring to change local practice.
5 reasons (from Andrew’s paper) were discussed of benefits of this approach:
1.
the exercise itself fitted the research questions: which were about space. It is easier to explore
and explain ideas about three dimensional space by actually making a model rather than just
talking.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Since the method was not primarily verbal, its use addressed the inequality in English language
skills among participants. The approach prevented the discussion being dominated by UK
students with their superior command of the lingua franca
The method’s ability to explore emotional and controversial aspects of participants’ views of
space. Getting participants in research to articulate aesthetic and symbolic experiences of the
organisation, or organisational space as such, is hard (Jones 1996, Taylor 2002, Halford 2004).
As a creative process, model making could be seen as escaping the potential negativity of a
verbal discussion that would be likely to repeat given discourses that effectively reproduce the
problem. Rather than focussing on current problems and complaints about group work, it
focussed on a positive new design overcoming the problems. Ethical research should itself not
reproduce the problem it is investigating.
The model making documented the research, in the form of a model and brief text, outputs that
were available to be shared within the research team (arguably helping to unlock their creative
engagement in the research) and as a secondary benefit produced objects that have high impact
in dissemination of findings.
But we realize this is a is a contested field with many potential problems of interpretation and limitations due to students saying what they think we want to hear and conforming to clichéd notions of colour and
fashion etc etc.
The approach also recognises that there are multiple experiences and narratives of any space (Thomson
2007).
Visual culture research is gaining currency
09.01.12 Handout
Re- negotiating group work for inter-cultural encounters
Andrew Cox, Prue Chiles and Leo Care
Introduction - 10 mins
Prue will introduce the workshop and the interdisciplinary project
Andrew says a bit about the literature on Chinese/Uk students – and how this leads into what we did in
the project, in terms of a focus on group work and space - 5 mins
Model making – a space for group work and inter-cultural encounters - (25 minutes)
In small groups and using the images provided discuss ideas and for ideal space for group work and intercultural encounters particularly for uk and Chinese students and make a rough 3-dimensional model from
the material provided.
The following prompts may help:
What do you see first when you arrive in the room
How light and airy is it?
What makes it feel comfortable and condusive to focused work?
What is the focus of the room?
Are there different places to sit and talk and listen
What technologies are ideal for making the most of the teaching space.
What is a good shape for the room
What does the room feel like
What about the floor and the ceiling – how can they add to the feel of the room
Plenary of groups – (10 minutes)- facilitated Prue/Leo
Each group will present their proposal and ideas
Round up of findings from our project - (5 mins) - Andrew
Closing discussion – could you make a more visual task appropriate in your department maybe the
creative task cannot fit every course - what else works in terms of getting international students to discuss
how they are going to do group work?
(5 mins)