Inquiring About ‘Stuff’ — An Interview with Dr. Katie Bradford
Despite the rising popularity of social media and digital media, imparting undergraduate students with the vital media literacy and critical thinking skills remains a vital part of the University of Texas at Austin’s mission. “Communicating with Stuff”, which carries an Independent Inquiry Flag, focuses on how we utilize “material objects as means of communication, particularly in the public realm.” Staying true to the Independent Inquiry Flag’s purpose, “Communicating with Stuff” seeks to challenge students to engage with the holistic inquiry process over the course of the semester. While a final project is an important aspect of this Flag, these courses aim to reinforce that Independent Inquiry is the culmination of a semester’s work rather than just a single exercise.
According to the course’s syllabus, this course gives students the opportunity to “demonstrate an understanding of messages in public conveyed through material objects, to investigate and analyze an example of communication with stuff, as well as to collaborate in a team to create a cohesive presentation in a visual form and demonstrate an understanding of the implications of your research and its translation to practical applications.”
Taught by Instructor Dr. Katie Bradford, the course is broken down into two parts. In the first part, students are taught the frameworks and methodology needed to successfully conduct their independent research project using both Deyan Sudjic’s The Language of Things: Understanding the World of Desirable Objects and Robert Walker’s Buying In: What We Buy and Who We Are — works selected by the course’s designer and original instructor, Dr. Barry Brummett. In the second part of the course, students complete a series of writing assignments designed to help reinforce their learning and ease the way for combining their knowledge into their final project. In the past, Dr. Bradford’s students have crafted some fascinating projects on topics such as “men’s suits and their role in identifying membership in distinct sub-community”, “word-of-mouth communication and the creation of a shared identity”, and “the color burnt orange and how it defines the UT community”.
While not the course’s original developer, over the last two years, Dr. Bradford has worked diligently to shape “Communicating with Stuff” into something uniquely her own. She credits her professional background as an editor as an important aspect of her teaching strategy. As a former professional editor for textbooks, Dr. Bradford has developed an eye for detail, especially when it comes to written communication.
“I always tell my students that I have a high expectation of their writing quality,” Dr. Bradford stated, because “writing is something that will set you apart [as a professional].” With this intent in mind, Dr. Bradford encourages and orchestrates her assignments to help her students refine and improve their writing skills. She said that “I think with practice, just like with many other things, you can become a better writer.” To help translate this intent into reality, this previous summer Dr. Bradford worked closely with Dr. Evangeleen Pattison, the Independent Inquiry Flags Senior Program Coordinator and Curriculum Specialist, here at the Center for the Skills & Experience Flags.
The two were introduced when Dr. Bradford received a Course Development award to support her revision efforts, and Dr. Pattison spoke fondly about their collaboration over the course of Summer 2021. “I enjoyed working with Katie on her course,” Dr. Pattison raved, “Her commitment to her students, eagerness to learn about pedagogy, and passion for the subject matter was refreshing and made our collaboration fun and fruitful!”
Dr. Bradford credits Dr. Pattison’s introduction to “scaffolding” — the pedagogical strategy of breaking larger assignments into smaller, more manageable ones — in helping her better implement the principles of Independent Inquiry to the course. With Dr. Pattison’s guidance, Dr. Bradford added five, smaller writing assignments to her syllabus which were designed to help ease students into the larger task of an original research paper and reduce instances of plagiarism. These assignments are designed to allow students not only reduce feelings of anxiety about the immediacy of a large assignment’s due date but to help students better exercise their independent inquiry skills and knowledge. “I think Dr. Pattison’s recommendations of multiple, ‘low-stakes’ assignments have really helped students think through their process and break down the work into something far more manageable.” A post-semester follow-up with Dr. Bradford confirmed she had seen fewer cases of plagiarism than before.
Dr. Bradford similarly sought to make the source evaluation aspects of her class more robust, enlisting the help of the Liaison Librarian for Communication Meryl Brodsky — who introduced her and her students to the amusingly named C.R.A.A.P Test. Standing for “Currency, Relevance, Authority, Accuracy, and Purpose”, the C.R.A.A.P Test challenges students to rigorously engage with their chosen sources to measure how reliable they are for the research process. “While peer-reviewed articles and scholarly texts are vitally important, much of the research of the students may also have good, reliable sources from unexpected places — like blogs,” Dr. Bradford said. Citing an instance of student research from a previous semester — about wedding dresses — to make her point, Dr. Bradford detailed, “I wanted students to better understand how and what makes their sources credible.”
These efforts have not gone unnoticed by her students, and praises Dr. Bradford’s pedagogical reforms are reflected in student feedback. One student praised particular scaffolding assignments to help him “get a head-start on the structure of my essay.” “It made [writing the final paper] much easier,” another student remarked, as “it made me realize the gaps I still needed to fill in my research process.” Yet another point of praise for Dr. Bradford’s use of ‘scaffolding’ came from how it helped students better understand the course’s strategic objectives. Specifically citing the ‘Research Plan’ assignment, a third student remarked how it “helped me envision how I would incorporate the class concepts into my inquiry.”
While Dr. Bradford is still searching for ways to improve “Communicating with Stuff”, one aspect that is likely here to stay is the course’s asynchronous format. Despite affirming her passion for in-person instruction, she notes that the class largely attracts seniors and students with positions that may have them living outside of Austin. On these kinds of students, Dr. Bradford stated, “I really love that this class is for [these kinds of students] because they find that it is a test of their self-discipline and serves as a great test for the skills they have developed throughout their undergraduate careers.”
Editor's Note: Story updated on 2/2/22 to include section with student feedback.
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If you would like to know more about the Flags program at UT Austin, you can find more information at the Center for the Skills & Experience Flags website.
If you are an instructor at UT, you can find resources to help teach Independent Inquiry Flags through Canvas. The Center for the Skills & Experience Flags offers individual instructor consultations, Flag-related resources, and instructor development workshops for all Flag content areas.
