The learning activity I am reflecting on is a group work activity I titled ‘agents of change.’ Overall, I am really pleased with the outcome of the activity and received positive feedback from students and colleagues. However, in reflection there are few ways I could adapt the format to elevate future delivery. With this in mind, I've opted to base my reflection on Gibbs’ framework (Gibbs, 1988) to help make sense of and evaluate the activity.
Details:
This activity was delivered to our year one cohort within their fashion buying and product development unit where students act as fashion buyers developing three range plans for a retailer of their choice. During the unit, students map the buying and production process for their chosen retailer creating a supply chain report that concludes with a sustainable and ethical analysis of that process.
My learning activity stems from the cognitive constructivism (Future Learn, n.d.) learning theory. I designed the activity to create an experiential experience where students linked previous knowledge and assumptions of the fashion supply chain and co-constructed (Petty, 2015) this to create a group proposal advocating ways brands and retailers can be more ethical and sustainable within the supply chain. I designed the activity to get students to develop effective objectives through guided discovery, an activity method typically used to “explore values, attitude and behaviour and must involve the [students] emotions as well as reason, and must offer an opportunity for correction practise in opinion forming” (Petty, 2009). [K1]
Description:
Before
The students were given an advanced organiser (Study.com. 2009) in their previous lesson to research a topical article and share it to Padlet. I hoped this would create a flipped learning scenario, as Bergmann suggests, where students do the research independently then grouped together in the classroom to analyse, evaluate and create with the help of peers and tutors (Bergmann, 2016). Only half of the class completed the flipped learning ahead of the lesson but were encouraged to pin articles throughout the activity.
During
I commenced the class with an icebreaker sustainable fashion infographic posting a few questions in the chat feed challenging students to think about whether they consider themselves to be a conscious shopper? I wanted to try to connect the students emotionally to the subject by putting Quinlans’ theory into practice that “when students see the value of a subject or relate it to their own experiences or goals, this connection increases motivation, curiosity, and enthusiasm” (Quinlan, 2016). Throughout the activity I wanted to act as a guide on the side (McWilliam, 2009) learning with my students so I added my own answers to encourage discussion and instill confidence that there's no such thing as a wrong answer in this activity. “When students feel safe, exploratory, challenged, supported, and confident, miracles often happen” (Jensen, 2008).
I pre-assigned students into groups of five of mixed ability and to encourage students to work with new peers. Sian Beilock recommends “to solve problems best, look to smaller groups with bigger diversity” (Beilock, 2021). Beilock continues “brainstorming with others brings alternative perspectives together and, more often than not, leads to the optimal solution”. Which is exactly what I wanted to achieve during this activity. I was also conscious about establishing “a supportive learning environment, in a cohort where differences are treated as resources for collaborative working” (Beetham and Sharpe, 2020). We have a cohort with broad neurodiverse needs and I wanted to make sure that everyone felt encouraged to get involved and contribute to their group's outcome. [K2, V2]
Once working in their groups, I asked students to discuss each other's strengths and weaknesses and assign each other team roles accordingly. Kevin Kelly talks about the importance of encouraging students to recognise “the diversity within their teams [by] identifying their individual strengths to complete a team activity. I am going to be the presenter … because…” (Nave, 2019). [V1]
After
The intention of the activity was to make students aware of a broader spectrum of issues related to the fashion supply chain than they came to the session with. I hoped that they could then take these ideas and apply them to their written supply chain reports. From peer feedback on the activity I became aware of the importance of checking each student's individual understanding of the subject. The students have the opportunity to submit a draft of their submission a week before summative and I feel this is a good opportunity to confirm each student's understanding and address any gaps in vocal feedback.
Feelings:
Throughout the initial acquisition of the lesson I was overwhelmed by the amount of discussion that was ignited by this topic. I had only allocated a few minutes for this in my original lesson plan but ended up allowing it to run its course as the students' views were so interesting and I was getting points of view from those who seldom contribute. This might be due to the fact they had more time to observe, build confidence and prepare before commenting. This “reflection in action” (Schön, 1999) resulted in the student having a little less time to research but did not impede on the overall outcome of the lesson.
In the lead up to the activity I had been concerned about rallying and maintaining the same amount of imagination and engagement that's created in a traditional classroom environment. “Allied to imagination is the notion of engagement. Exercising imagination is inherently engaging, so a classroom in which students use their imaginations to study content, play with ideas, and imagine new possibilities should be an engaging one” (James and Brookfield, 2007). I felt that breakout rooms created the best possible alternative to discussions around a table and as I circulated around the groups offering support and guidance I was encouraged to see students with their cameras on, all with assigned job roles, engaged in discussion.
I wanted students to explore their research from any angle they wanted, enforcing my previous direction that no answer is a wrong answer. “Although teaching and learning designers may provide guidance, different learners will have their own ways of interpreting the requirements and proceeding with the resources they have available” (Beetham and Sharpe, 2020). While adopting this guide on the side style of teaching I was also concerned about appearing unpresent or falling into McWilliams’ ‘passive childminder’ category (McWilliam, 2009). While I continued to circulate the breakout rooms I wonder now if it would have been beneficial to have taken advantage of zooms announcements and posted questions to the rooms to reassure students I was present and available for support at the click of a button. [V1]
Evaluation and Analysis:
I believe the activity was really authentic with students acting as true agents in the activity. I feel the activity fulfilled Schmidt’s theory “that a problem should: (1) be authentic; (2) be adapted to student’s level of prior knowledge; (3) engage students in discussions; (4) lead to the identification of appropriate learning issues; (5) stimulate self-directed learning and (6) be interesting and relevant” (Schmidt et al., 2011: 795). Additionally, the format of the whole day's activity covered the six types of learning; acquisition, inquiry, practise, produce, collaboration and production (Laurillard, 2019). [V3]
The overall student engagement and participation far exceeded my initial expectations. I considered universal design for learning (Ahead, 2017) greatly and tried to incorporate different technologies within the activity to be as inclusive as possible to all our students. While not everyone completed the flipped learning activity, there was a lot of participation in the chatfeed discussion and the reaction to the mentimeter recorded results from all but one student. Furthermore, by asking a question and listening to the discussion I was able to measure the students' learning incomes and “avoid spending too much time telling the class all sorts of things they already know” (Race, 2014).
The student presentations were thorough and in-depth. All the presentations were delivered with enthusiasm and passion including many solutions advocating for change. I had initially budgeted 3 to 5 minutes for each presentation however they ended up being 8 to 10 on average. Again, I didn't want to cut students off as the ideas were so inspiring and I could see they students were engaged listening to everyone's ideas, however this did mean the class overran by twenty minutes. I now feel I should have assigned a 5 minute time limit during the activity briefing and I should also have said at 3pm that anyone who needs to leave may do so.
Conclusion:
As stated in my educational philosophy; I believe it's my duty as an educator to help drive for a more positive, inclusive and sustainable future within the fashion industry whilst preparing students for the future. “The world is changing all the time. It's up to us as teachers to help nudge things in the way we hope things will go” (KPU Teaching & Learning Common, 2020). While it was evident students entered the session with some learning incomes in sustainable and ethical fashion it was clear these ideas were surface level. As these topics can be interpreted as disheartening and negative I was acutely aware that I needed to inject positivity into the session. I continually emphasised that the students really could be agents for change by applying their ideas in their future careers thus making the activity authentic too.
Beecham and Sharp define a learning outcome as an “indefinable change that is anticipated in the learner” (Beetham and Sharpe, 2020). As a result of the students' presentations I was able to observe the various different approaches students had undertaken to produce solutions and assess how they had developed their understanding of the topic.
Equally, the broad selection of solutions the student presented took into consideration the majority of the sustainable development goals set out by the United Nations (THE 17 GOALS | Sustainable Development, 2020). Chandrika Bahadur discusses the risk of being subject specific when teaching SDG’s within higher education stating that “one of the fundamental principle of the [SDG] goals is they are not pick and choose goals they are a collective'' (UN DESA Sustainable Development, 2020). In the presentations students were looking more broadly not only at the environmental and human welfare connections but also wider issues connected to the supply chain such as gender equality, conscious consumption and poverty. Bahadur goes on to acknowledge the challenges of delivering such big ideas within a limited time and the importance of allowing students the time, energy and focus to really explore the wider issues surrounding SDG’s which is something to consider for future delivery.
Student feedback on the activity also confirmed students became aware of a border aspect of the subject with one student saying “I have only ever thought about ethics and sustainability as a consumer. Meaning if a brand presents themselves as sustainable I had extremely high expectations. However now I see it from another side. I understand the lengths it goes to make a brand sustainable and ethical” (Barnwell, 2021). [V4]
Action Plan:
If I deliver this activity again there are a few things I would reconsider to elevate the delivery. Feedback from my mentor and peers brought to my attention that I need to make sure I am assessing the learning of all of my students considering the large size of the cohort and it being a group work activity. Maybe creating a quiz at the end that records individuals learning outcomes could be beneficial?
Within my immediate reflection in my journal I noted that adding a trigger warning at the start of the presentations and encouraging the students to do the same may be beneficial. Lots of the imagery relating to human welfare, in particular, could be potentially triggering for some students. I also noted that lots of students had worked through their lunch break. While it was great to see so much enthusiasm around the subject I needed to make sure students took a break and that they had enough time to realistically complete the activity.
After witnessing such enthusiasm for this activity I now wonder if it lends itself to something bigger? Should I embrace the possibilities of cosmopolitanism (Appiah, 2006) this activity ignites and allow students to enter the third space (Gutierrez, 2008) as true agents? It would be great to explore the possibility of creating a broader connectivism extending outside the boundaries of the university, maybe making it the subject of an elective in collaboration with another university from a different field. Looking at the depth of the presentations it wouldn't be inconceivable for the student to do this activity over a week creating a mini documentary that could be shared outside of the university.
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