This term, due to illness, a member of the permanent staff was signed off, and I was invited at short notice to lead a unit for second-year students. The course leader informed me that the unit required revision, as the previous year’s substitute tutor, unfamiliar with the content, had struggled to deliver it effectively, resulting in poor student feedback. Consequently, I was asked to revise the unit guide to ensure I felt confident leading it.
The unit focused on collaboration, and given my experience teaching two other collaborative units, I decided to build on what had worked in those courses. A key lesson was the importance of allowing students autonomy in selecting their collaborators. In previous courses, mandatory group assignments led to dissatisfaction, as students with differing interests and working styles were paired together. This often left some students feeling overburdened by others’ lack of engagement. For this new unit, I felt it was crucial to give students the freedom to choose their collaborators, despite the potential risk that they might not self-organize effectively.
After the initial briefing, I designed four sessions introducing key concepts of collaborative practice, including theory, methods, and group exercises. I also asked students to draft emails to potential collaborators, outlining project details such as deadlines and expectations. To encourage external collaboration, I invited students from other courses within the school to attend the final hour of our sessions to pitch their project ideas. This resulted in a much higher level of interest than anticipated, with 50 students attending to present their ideas. However, only three of my students chose to collaborate with other UAL students, while the majority opted to work with their external networks. This left me disappointed, as it meant the external students who came to present their ideas were not engaged. Reflecting on this, I would reduce the number of sessions dedicated to external collaborations in the future and limit the number of courses I contact.
In the final session before the Spring break, I asked students to present their collaborations and initial ideas for the unit project. However, I became concerned when three students still had not found collaborators. With the next session scheduled after the break, I worried that this delay could hinder the development of their projects. This raised questions about the balance between offering autonomy and ensuring adequate support to keep students engaged.
In his book Together: The Rituals, Pleasures, and Politics of Cooperation (2013), Richard Sennett argues that skillful cooperation requires listening, empathizing, engaging in dialogue, and embracing complexity and uncertainty. Reflecting on this, I hope that in future I could apply these skills as a collaborator in the course myself, by actively listening to students’ preferences on collaborators and initiating dialogue about their needs throughout the course design process.
Looking back on this unit, I recognize that while offering students the freedom to choose collaborators promotes independence and personal responsibility, it also places the burden of organization on them. Moving forward, I aim to strike a better balance between autonomy and structure, offering students clearer guidance while fostering collaborative opportunities that enhance their learning experiences.
Refs:
Sennett, R. (2012) Together: The rituals, pleasures and politics of cooperation. Yale University Press.