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Blog Post 2: Learning outcomes. (256 words)

As an Academic Support Librarian I am not tasked with any student assessment but in my student support activity I often need to help them interpret defined learning outcomes to help identify and interpret learning resources. The tension between meeting the outcome and producing creatively satisfying work often proves testing for the student. Over the last calendar year library staff have adopted guidance on setting information literacy learning outcomes, these are loosely structured under the UAL Creative Attributes Framework. This has been a welcome development in great part for the understanding it offers library staff of the structures obtaining on academic units and sessions, it has resulted in better informed librarian engagement at revalidation meetings and clearer communication on collaborative sessions with academics. However, without the clarity offered by the breakdown of Workshop 2B and an awareness of Bloom’s Taxonomy and other frameworks that might be fitting to information literacy it is at the broad level of CAF categories, not the session specific level of learning outcomes, that discussion has taken place leaving their setting a somewhat inconsistent practice.

However inconsistent or not the learning outcomes we define are shared with our students at or before (via Moodle) the point of delivery. The guiding document states that this ‘enables us to more easily match our teaching to the aspirations of the courses themselves and to more persuasively explain the employability benefits of time given to information literacy teaching.’

Fig. 1. LCC Student Sessions 2025-26 spreadsheet.

Reflecting on content of Workshop 2 I have rewritten the learning outcomes for my microteach.

Learning outcomes: Indicate evidence of physical changes and continuities between manuscript and print culture with reference to design features of the books on show.

Image list:

Figure. 2. Clarke, G. (2026) LCC Student Sessions 2025-26 spreadsheet [Photograph].

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Blog post 1: Referencing diversity (252 words)

I have lately been booked to deliver a series of referencing sessions across BA and MA photography and Art Direction courses. Employing David A. Kolb’s experiential learning cycle I reflect on past sessions and note planned actions to ensure the sessions will be informed by critical and inclusive pedagogies.

Concrete Experience:

  • Delivery largely in the teacher-oriented, lecture model.
  • Bookings came late, close to hand-in dates.
  • Attendance was poor.
  • Time: Needed 90mins, allowed 30-45 mins.

Reflective Observation:

  • Engagement: minimal, sometimes followed up with 1-2-1 teaching of same content.
  • Learning outcomes: verbally assessed, responses positive, more a measure of politeness than understanding.
  • Citational Justice: felt tacked-on not integral to the session.
  • Language: Suspicion of a lack of comprehension. English a second language for up to 80% of some photography classes.
  • Diversity: Insufficiently diverse references limiting possibility of personal student engagement with the content.

Abstract Conceptualisation:

  • Revise delivery to a student‑centred, facilitative model of learning (Hooks, 2010) thus accommodating a wider range of learning styles (I am sceptical of the value of Kolb’s categorisations).
  • Diversify referenced works integrating and modelling citational justice practice.
  • Test with colleague for clear and accessible language.
  • Enquiry and object based learning e.g. students to source references from photobook colophons before looking to catalogues and online resources.
  • Case study to demonstrate legal and moral consequences of a lack of referencing, underline professional and moral aspects.

In the upcoming classes I will adopt John Mason’s discipline of noticing practice to monitor effectiveness of new approach and ensure informative note-taking for further reflection.

Reference List:

Hooks, b (2010). Teaching critical thinking: practical wisdom. New York and London: Routledge.

Mason, J. (2002). Researching your own practice: the discipline of noticing. Routledge.