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Hi folks, we are here in the garden in the middle of George Square in Edinburgh.
This is one of the points that one
might consider as the, the center of the University.
Round the square are buildings, which house many of
the Schools in the College of Humanities and Social Science
but we're here today to show you the
Edinburgh Labyrinth, which is over behind us here now.
We want to
use the labyrinth as a metaphor for the way that we'd
like you to think about the final assessment for the course.
The word "labyrinth" is often associated with the word
"maze", but actually the two are quite, quite different.
The maze has many branching paths and blind alleys.
The labyrinth though, if you look at the pattern, has only one
path, and if you trust yourself to that path, the path will take
you right into the middle of the labyrinth and
then it will return you to outside world again.
So, the maze is a puzzle to be solved, but the labyrinth is a tool for reflection.
The reason that we have a labyrinth to walk in the middle of the
garden at the University is because it was a vision that our recent past chaplain
at the university, Di Williams, had. To provide the university with
a space and an opportunity and a focus for reflection.
So the labyrinth is not a puzzle. It's a
[NOISE]
tool for reflection and that's the way that we'd like to think
about the final assignment for the course as a tool for your
reflection about the course, and a means of exploring some or, or
all of the ideas that you've been working with on the course.
So, we have to say a bit about the
assessment process, and about the giving and receiving of feedback.
Above all in providing feedback on the work of your peers, you
should be trying to do so in a positive and constructive way.
This is not to encourage any insipid lack of criticality, but
is about the way in which your feedback comments are framed.
Criticality remember doesn't imply negativity,
You may remember various primary school, elementary school
mantras; such as, "Two Stars and a Wish".
Start with a positive observation, follow with something
you would like to have seen but didn't.
And close with another positive observation about the work.
If you want someone to hear, to be influenced by your suggestions, you
should try not to place them in an anxious or defensive state of mind.
Anxiety, we know, tends to close our thinking,
and incline us to stick with familiar solutions.
We know too that task-focused feedback can be
very much more positively beneficial than ego-focused feedback.
So, for example, if you say, your piece failed to do such and
such, that's going to be received quite, quite
differently from saying, your story might have
been improved if it had included something else.
So think about how you phrase the feedback that you give to your colleagues.
Creation and feedback should be a conversation engaged in freely
and collaboratively by both or, or all of the parties.
Think about how you would wish to receive comments on your work.
And frame your feedback comments accordingly.
To a very great extent, this is about self-discipline.
Think again about the labyrinth, if you like.
There's nothing to stop you stepping over those lines.
You just decide and determine that you're not going to.
Some earlier participants on the course seemed to
think that the assignment we set was too easy.
It can be as basic or as rich as you choose to make it.
We're not here to tell you how hard you need to work.
That's up to you and about what you're trying to get out of the course.
But look at some of the previous examples of participants' work.
We've put some links online to some collections.
Then tell me it's too easy.
So don't be sucked into doing exactly what you've seen other people doing before.
Be inspired.
We, we certainly were, by the the efforts of your, your earlier colleagues.
But give us what you've got.
So I hope this helps you in your thinking about the
assignment, and in the business of giving feedback to your colleagues.
I hope you'll enjoy it. Have fun.
[BLANK_AUDIO]