Who’d believe that English literature students can’t understand Shakespeare? Certainly not the English students themselves. But the Faculty of English was aware of a problem – their well-developed skills in reading for theme, characterisation and imagery were blinding the students to the fact that they often didn’t understand what the more obscure words actually meant. The result was that a lot of the play’s richness of language was being lost. At the same time, the Faculty didn’t have the face-to-face teaching time available to work on the problem with the students. They came to CARET for help
Led by Harriet Truscott, CARET researched the students’ behaviour and needs in detail. One of the first findings was that the students often didn’t realise how much they didn’t understand. Simply carrying out an exercise known as ‘glossing’ (explaining the meaning of key phrases) transformed the students’ awareness, both of the play itself and of their own learning needs. Accordingly, CARET designed a tool, Exegesis, to support students in glossing, but also recommended that the Faculty should hold a lecture to explain the role of glossing in understanding Renaissance literature. (It’s proof of how well the research identified students’ needs that the first ‘glossing’ lecture was besieged by eager students, with people having to be turned away.)
Since the Faculty’s teaching budget was limited, it was important that the tool did not take up more than a designated amount of teaching officers’ time. Exegesis was designed to allow students to collaborate and learn from each other: students can either share their own work and in exchagne see that of other students, or keep their work private and not see others’ work. “Glossing isn’t about getting the right answers, but instead about understanding what a good gloss is and how to get to that point. By looking at each others’ glosses, students quickly realise what makes a good gloss and what is inadequate, and can work on improving their own skills,” says Harriet.
Other Faculties wishing to use the Exegesis tool should contact Harriet Truscott for more information.
