Essay Ideas

UKPSF Areas of Activity for focus:

A2: Teach and/or support learning
Multiple ability levels in one class: how to ensure everyone's time is being used productively when you have to focus more directly on a student or students at an earlier level of learning

Just Giving Them the Answers: challenges surrounding engaging with pedagogy in a busy workshop, when you know their tutor asked them to do some research and all they managed to do was just ask me. Students such as EM, who have no patience for question-based engagement, RM who questions your motives at all times, SM students who would rather ask you than look it up or even think about it.

Identifying levels of starting ability among learners (or Please Hammer This Nail into the Table): advanced skill level (what do I do with you?), developing skills, ready to learn skills, unready to learn skills (resentful) (unaware) (unwell)

A4: Develop effective learning environments and approaches to student support and guidance
Equality and neurodiversity in a hazardous environment: two specific examples of challenging students due to attention deficit, find not necessarily answers, but identify approaches that have been successful, and the extent to which they have been successful.

Recently-obtained access to relevant documentation to allow for tailored teaching and pastoral support where necessary for diverse students (and finding out why they honoured the request this time! how it has already impacted our relationships with students).

Supporting student groups when readiness to learn is unknown: starting things gently, seeking cues from students.

Students who have no patience for pedagogy: Quite a lot of the time by the time a student gets to asking me for or about something they're done with being asked to think about it and just demand answers. EM

Noise control (equipment upgrades, ear defence, implementing clear lines of communication among students and staff with regard to sudden, loud, and harmful noise, my prohibition on workshop radio advertising and encouragement of MP3 players and music subscription services so the students hear what they find most motivating)

The Kataba: a Japanese hand saw that works on the pull stroke, allowing students to cut cleanly and effectively at waist-height, using your core (abdominal) muscles instead of your shoulder and neck, with reasonable-to-moderate effort. In Layman's Terms: a women-friendly saw that looks like a katana. Physical diversity can be not just accommodated for, but enjoyed.

Title Graveyard:
Mechanical Pedagogies: A Holistic Approach to Hands-On Learning in a Hazardous Environment with Specific Reference to Safety, Pastoral Care, and Dyspraxic Students

Beyond Safety: Teaching and Maintaining an effective Learning Environment Full of Spinning Blades and Toxic Chemicals

Learnshop: Practical and Analytic Skills Development in the Scenic Workshop

Please Be Careful Around the Tools: The Immobilising Fear of Marginalising a Dyspraxic Student Who is Nevertheless About to Hurt Herself