Knowing and Responding to Your Students’ Diverse Needs
Contextual background
GMD LAB: Drawing for Design is a 4 hour workshop for full-time students from across all year groups studying BA(Hons) Graphic and Media Design at LCC.
Student places on GMD LABS* are bookable on a first-come-first-serve basis and are independent of core curriculum and formal assessed units.
A significant proportion of the 25 students attending the workshop session are international students with English as a second language (ESL) and the activities are devised to accommodate a range of diverse needs as detailed below.
Within the context of the LAB, I aim to know and respond to students’ diverse needs through the acknowledgment and proactive support and development of the following:
- Language skills and comprehension – highlighting, explaining and checking understanding of key words, allowing time for Q+A during the intro briefing and throughout the session
- Technical and creative ability – there are different levels of ability in the studio, activity devised to be accessible to all levels
- Social and practice-related confidence – encouraging supportive peer learning and teamwork, creating a ‘safe space’ to test new processes, methods and to make ‘mistakes’
- Learning experiences and differences – differing prior skills and levels of knowledge supported and developed, with achievements celebrated via regular verbal rewards

Current strategies
Language: I introduce myself to the group then clearly describe the activities and running order. As visual reference for the whole group and to aid students who arrive late, I stick written prompts (action points) on the studio wall so that students can visualise the activity and running order as they arrive.
Cultural diversity and inclusion: My chosen subject matter for this object-based workshop is a collection of curated food packaging examples from around the globe, reflecting and celebrating home, European and International student cohorts alike (Fig.1). Students are invited to choose the food packaging they are most drawn to, for example:
- Familiar
- Unusual
- Favourite
- Interesting
- Fun
Technical and creative ability: I assure students the workshop isn’t a showcase or a test of their drawing abilities, but rather an opportunity to explore and develop drawing and mark-making as an experimental visual mapping tool. My aim being to reduce anxiety and put the less confident students at ease, to create a supportive and friendly studio atmosphere, and raise overall inclusivity and participation.

Material processes and methods: I encourage students to be ‘playful’ as they explore and experiment with a range of combined dry and wet drawing materials, working loosely and at large scale. Students create 2 separate A2 outcomes: 1 x black and white and 1 x colour; to develop skills and confidence in both monochrome and full colour image making processes (Fig.2).
I remind students that the ‘transferrable’ skills they are utilising can form a part of their visual communication ‘toolkit’, with the potential to be repurposed in future GMD projects, creating potential to raise overall grades and levels of attainment.
Time management: At regular intervals, I remind students of the time so they can manage their time efficiently and complete the activities within the given timeframe. I check-in frequently with individuals and the whole class that they are working to schedule, clear about the activity requirements, while also creating regular opportunities for questions and shared feedback.
Final outcomes: The final task is to grid and cut up the 2 x images and create collaged responses to explore and visually communicate core design principles, for example:
- Scale
- Symmetry
- Hierarchy
- Balance
- Contrast
Interestingly several students find the concept of cutting up their artwork challenging, so I encourage them to view the work as visual data or original content for further iterative design testing and development, in the form of large-scale collages (Fig.3).

Documentation: I encourage students to visually document/photograph their working processes and methods during the activity, emphasising this as potential portfolio submission content and an opportunity to create and evidence independent learning, creating potential to raise grades and attainment levels.
Student feedback: The session concludes with a pin-up and informal peer to peer/tutor presentation and discussion. I encourage students to support each other, and create opportunity for those who are less confident at speaking up, to feel comfortable sharing their progress and development with the rest of the group.
Overall students respond positively during the session; they are focussed and motivated and seem relaxed, happy and confident in the class environment. Feedback received as below:
‘Drawing is all about trial and error… not to be afraid of making mistakes.’
‘I learnt through Kelly’s instructions… as well as seeing how other students approached this workshop.’
‘Learning to experiment and explore… a fun and exciting LAB to do!’
Moving forwards
Bamber and Jones state: ‘there are now many more students, larger classes and a much greater range of students attending university.’ In my view and to conclude, knowing and responding to students’ diverse needs is an important, on-going and ever-changing scenario. I am committed to continued positive action, in discussion and consultion with the GMD staff team, to ensure students’ needs are met in all areas of current and future pedagogic practice: teaching, learning and assessment.
Reference
Note: *GMD LABS: each year GMD tutors are invited to author and lead a workshop to share knowledge of their specialist practice, and introduce students to new ways of working. As a practicing artist, I devise Drawing for Design as an exploratory image-making workshop where students use drawing as a primary visual research tool to test combined mark-making processes and materials – as an integral part of the design process.
Bamber, V. and Jones, A. (2015), Challenging students: enabling inclusive learning
Gillies, R. M. (2013), Responding to students’ diverse needs
Link: https://moodle.arts.ac.uk/mod/scheduler/view.php?id=1367994