This is a sample of reflections on my day to day teaching practice and informal conversations I have with my colleagues on this subject. I use it to note questions and issues that I notice students struggling with, and ideas on how to improve on delivery of workshops to help students in their learning of garment construction skills.
Monday October 2, 2023– Jacket Workshop part 2 (group A and B). Live demonstration and live video stream of demonstration (small camera and poor lighting in new studio). For some of the operations, we asked students to gather around my machine so they could look more closely at how I was constructing a welt pocket. Students stood around the machine, some in front and some to the side of the machine where the demonstration was taking place. When they went back to their machines to replicate the procedure on their sample garment, I noticed many more students than normal had attached the pocket mirrored backwards. Could this be because of the view point they were seeing the demonstration from? They were looking at the sewing desk from the front, therefore seeing the garment upside down. The point of view could be affecting the interpretation of what they were seeing.
Thursday Oct 5, 2023– Jacket Workshop part 2 (group E and F). Live demonstration and live video stream of demonstration (small camera and poor lighting in new studio). Camera was functioning better this time. Student cohort were asking a lot of individual questions about whether they were doing the steps correctly. The majority of this cohort of students had english as their second language. Was their understanding of the steps affected by language competency, or my manner of speaking? I have noted that some students from different cultural backgrounds express heightened fear of doing things ‘wrong’ and were looking more for reassurance than because they did not understand. Could this be the reason for the questions; issues of self-confidence?
Friday Oct 6, 2023– Machine Induction. We were teaching students how to thread the sewing machine, wind the bobbin and operate the machine. Many students attempted to thread their machines at the same time as our demonstration. We had to ask them a number of times to just watch first and to practice after. We gave them sufficient time to complete the tasks, breaking down the operation into smaller chunks. There were a number of students who did their threading incorrectly, or had to ask us for assistance. This is common, however, and there did not seem to be a higher than usual number of mistakes.
Monday Oct 9, 2023– Jacket Workshop part 3 (A/B). In informal conversation with a colleague, she said she noticed that many of her students had accessed the video guide that our department has made available to help them complete the construction of the jacket. However, she felt that using only the video to complete the work, affected the quality of the work produced. She thought it was messy and more inaccurate than students who viewed our live demonstrations first. She felt the video most benefitted students once they had seen our demonstrations first, building an understanding of the process. Then they could use the video as a reminder of what they had seen as they practice making their own sample. To be used instead of notes.
Thursday Oct 12, 2023– Jacket Workshop part 3 (E/F) At this point, quite a few students are working at different stages of the sample. This means some students are accessing the video to work ahead of the main group. I am having to demonstrate each stage multiple times to smaller groups so that more of the students can work at a pace that suits them. Pace is an issue. Students don’t want to ‘waste’ their time waiting for others to catch up to them.
Monday Oct 16, 2023– Jacket Workshop part 1 (Group C/D). I tried stitching the welt on first and the lining of the welt from the reverse to see if this alleviated the problem of the mirrored positioning. I noticed that there were far fewer welts incorrectly positioned. But instead, this made it more difficult for a few students to leave enough seam allowance evenly spaced on either side of the welt. So 6 of one, half a dozen of the other! However, if I explain further about the positioning of the lining, possibly this method will be easier for students to understand.
Thursday Oct 19, 2023– Jacket Workshop part 1 (FPC). It was instructive to see my colleague deliver this workshop. There were a number of finer points which she demonstrated differently from how I do it. The mitred cuff is completed first before closing the back sleeve seam and I can see that this makes it clearer to students where the fold line should be located. I will try it this way the next time I deliver this jacket workshop and see how my students do.