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1.
Pamela McKinney p.mckinney@sheffield.ac.uk
@ischoolpam
Chloe Cook: Undergraduate student in the Economics
department
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2.
Introduction
Motivations for the study
An Arts Informed visual research
methodology using the Draw-and-Write
technique
Selected results
Questions
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3.
Motivations
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4.
Motivations
Group work does not always go smoothly:
Variable levels of commitment
Freeloading
Personality clashes
Enhanced admin & teaching work if groups
encounter problems
Often we assess the product of group
work while knowing very little about the
process of group work
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What conceptions do
students have about working
in groups?
How can we better support
students in their group work?
Research questions:
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Arts Informed Visual Research
Methodology: the draw and
write technique
Dr Jenna
Hartel,
Associate
Professor,
University of
Toronto
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The isquare corpus:
conceptions of information
http://www.isquares.info
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Data Collection
Data collected in 2014-15 from students
in the Information School
1 x Undergraduate module and 3 x
Postgraduate modules: 164 isquares
collected (12 x UG; 152 x PG)
Students had all experienced group work
as part of their Information School course,
and may have had prior experiences in
other courses/institutions
Large number of international students
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SURE: Sheffield Undergraduate
Research Experience
• SURE scheme funds a 2nd year
undergraduate student to work
on a research project with an
academic for 6 weeks in the
summer vacation
• I recruited 2nd year BSc
Economic student Chloe Cook
• Chloe made exact replicas of
each isquare, undertook
compositional, content and
thematic analysis. Interviewed
students, transcribed & analysed
the interviews
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Data Analysis
Compositional interpretation using
categories defined by Engelhardt (2002)
Content Analysis
Thematic analysis
Theoretical analysis
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Motif/Graphic representation Number
Stick figure 82
Arrows 59
Circles 53
Table/Desk 26
Thought/Speech Bubbles 26
Paper/Writing 18
Technology 16
Reading/Books 13
Hands 10
Building/Structure 8
Parts/Puzzles 7
Question Mark 5
Lightbulb 4
Whiteboard 4
Trees 4
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12.
Figures around Table/Desk
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13.
Use of Laptops/Technology
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14.
Multiple information inputs /
outputs
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Paper/Writing
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16.
Hands/holding hands
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17.
Question mark
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18.
Lightbulb
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19.
Buildings/structures
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20.
Parts/Puzzles
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21.
Circles
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22.
Leader role/Hierarchy
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23.
The ‘process’/stages of group
work
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Negativity
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Different
Cultures/Languages
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‘Freeloading’
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Positivity
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Summary
Face-to-face working is an important part group work
Students work creatively with various technology and
non-technology based tools and information inputs
and outputs
Free-loading and communication problems are
significant barriers to effective group working,
although students may not be sympathetic to outside
commitments
The drawings reveal interesting conceptions of group
work i.e. “solving a puzzle” and “building”
Students can view group work as a process, and a
set of defined stages
Some students see a need to have a hierarchical
group structure with a named leader and specific
group roles
Although negative views about groups are
expressed, many of the drawings present a
reasonably positive view of group work.
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29.
Reflections
An interesting and quick way to collect
data
Prompts students to reflect on their
experiences with group work
A way to identify sources of problems in
groups (e.g. language & communication)
A way to stimulate discussions about
group work with students
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Questions?
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References
Engelhardt, Y. (2002). The language of graphics: A
framework for the analysis of syntax and meaning in
maps, charts and diagrams. (Unpublished doctoral
dissertation). Institute for Logic, Language and
Computation, University of Amsterdam, The
Netherlands.
Hartel (2014) An arts-informed study of information
using the draw-and-write technique. Journal of the
Association for Information Science & technology 65
(7)
Weber, S., & Mitchell, C.A. (1995). That’s Funny You
Don’t Look Like a Teacher: Interrogating Images and
Identity in Popular Culture. Routledge: London.
Association of graduate recruiters put group work at number 4 in their list of graduate skills
Other stated benefits of group work are:
The ability to share ideas and experiences with other students and work with students from different cultural & social backgrounds
Lecturers can offer more complex assignments
Research has shown that groups can increase the quality of output
Group work can help build problem solving capabilities and time management skills
Students can learn how to deal with challenge & conflict
provide a supportive environment for challenging work and gain different perspectives on a subject
Make friends & develop communication skills
Arts informed methodology incorporates novel modes of inquiry into the research process – the outcomes can be accessible to more people. In visual research we use images to learn about the social world, we can use images as data, images cane be a “springboard to theorising, images can be used to elicit or provoke other data.
This technique first developed in 1980s in field of child health. – historically been employed in an education context e.g. Weber & Mitchell asked teachers to draw teachers and has also been used in health care, engineering, environment science, geography, industrial design and psychology
Enjoyable for participants and generates a rich and unique visual data set. Although critics have claimed issues with the mthodology in that people simply draw what is easy to draw, may be affected by the others around them or may desire to please the researcher (these claims could also be made about more traditional spoken or written data)
Protocol designed by Hartel, the tools used can help the researcher to control the outcomes of the drawing
10cm x 10 cm card, 10 minute time frame ensure images aren’t overly complex or sprawling
Participants given the card and a black ball point pen and asked to create a drawing of the concept under investigation on one side and write a short description of their drawing on the other side
“Draw group work”
“Please write a short description of your drawing” In this presnetation we are just going to look at the drawn data.
Ethical approval and permission sought to share and reproduce the images in diverse contexts. No demographic or identifying information sought from participants.
A small identifying number was written on the back of each drawing and the data regarding the module code used to create an excel spreadsheet. Other data was added suring the course of the analysis
Compositional interpretation has its roots in Art and art history, and part of the approach is to assign categories of graphical representations to the drawings. Interesting but ultimately it was felt that the content & thematic analysis would be more interesting for this particular audience.
The content analysis is a quantitative approach where particular items in the drawings are counted
Thematic analysis similar as for textual data where emerging themes from the drawn data are identified and refelected upon
Theoretical analysis – looking at the drawings in the light of relevant theories of groups or teams – e.g. Belbin’s team roles. This has only been done at a cursory level
Half of drawings contained some form of stick figure (unsurprising!) and other popular graphics used were circles and arrows.
Some overlap between the content and thematic analysis so the two will be handled simultaneously in the presentation going forward.
Importance of face-to-face communication, working in what many would see as a traditonal fashion – importance of group meeting spaces in building such as the IC and the Diamond
Lots of ci
Laptops are shown the most but what about phones – only one iSquare includes a phone, why haven’t they been included more?
Need for electricity, connectivity and online virtual meeting spaces e.g. google Docs
Face to face meetings supported with technology
The isquare on the left probably reflects most the technical mindset of some ischool students – technolohy is pictured but no people!
Middle isquare shows how f2f meetings are supported with laptops
Students here are pictured using books as well as online sources of information, working creatively with whiteboards and producing varied outputs both tectual and in PPt format for presentations.
Bottom left – so much energy and enthusiasm in the group.
The production of artefacts is seen to be an important part of the group work process
Arrows show the contribution of individuals towards the group output
The connections between individuals
Sense of strength from the group
Showing confusion and uncertainty experienced as part of group work
Sense of frustration
114 [1]
141 [2]
36 [3]
4 [4]
83 [5]
46 [6]
14 [1]
149 [2]
100 [3]
155 [4]
93 [5]
142 [6]
Circles indicating the bounded group, the individuals within the group
Represents connectivity/communication?
Belbin role – ‘Coordinator’
The presence of arrows classifies these graphical reperesentations as link diagrams
Itop left – students expressing varying negative emotions, and the professor underneath saying “This is so valuable!”
Focus group – overall is group work seen as a positive or negative experience?
30 [1]
76 [2]
129 [3]
161 [4]
Group members no contributing are often depicted as being asleep or even In bed while the other members are having their group meeting (bottom right)
Using “sleep” as a way to signify on engagament, Other reasons for not attneding group meetins are not explored – other commitments, which may disporpotionatly affect mature studenst or those who have to workl while they study. Very negative.
Six Sigma: common team problems – reluctant participants
2 [1]
5 [2]
6 [3]
10 [4]
7 [5]
13 [6]