I feel that a lot of students do not like spending much time on accurately and precisely referencing their assignments, because they don’t see a point in it. If you are a first year university student, and you started reading an article found on Google Scholar or your university online library, the name of an author, and perhaps the content of this article might seem so abstract, so remote from your life. Who is this person writing the article? What is she trying to say? And why do I need to acknowledge her in my essay? The article can be a complete mystery, and referencing it properly can be the last thing the student will have on her mind. I was in the same position myself, when I got in trouble for not referencing properly a dozen of articles I used in my International Relations assignment during my Bachelor degree. Soon enough I learnt how to reference properly, but only much later I understood, what the real reason for acknowledging academic literature was. It is basically a gesture of showing respect to someone who shared their knowledge with you. It is like saying thank you for spending years of research and then putting it online for you.
Choose a style guide that is readable and relatable
The most important thing I’ve learnt while teaching how to reference is that every student needs to find a document or a website with referencing rules that suits his or her individual preferences. There is a lot of material out there on how to reference, finding a resource that resonates with your needs is the key.
For example, this is a list of referencing guidelines that worked for me and for some of my students.
There are a lot of websites for generating references automatically, but I think it is important to know how to reference from scratch, using original guidelines. Otherwise, it is easy to fall prey to inaccuracies and misleading information that are inevitable online.
The best tip I can give about improving one’s writing is to do proofreading work for someone else. I worked a lot on my own writing skills when I was a student: I had consultations with academic writing advisors, received feedback from my tutors and lecturers. I also asked my friends and family members to proofread my work and give me advice. When it still wasn’t enough, I used online proofreading services to ask for a feedback from experienced tutors. All these methods contributed their bit, but it wasn’t until I started teaching and consulting students on how to improve their writing, when I realised what can really push me to improve. Proofreading someone else’s work taught me how to detach yourself from your own writing, and how to be able to ask the right questions in the right time, which can ultimately lead to finding fresh and sound solutions to overcome common writing mistakes.
The best way to learn how to write well is to help others write. It might sound contradictory and time-consuming, but it works. Moreover, helping others to write can and will expose you to a range of writing styles that you might not have explored otherwise. Plus, usually, you would allocate a specific time slot to work on someone else’s writing, meaning that it would be in your best interest to find solutions quickly. Writing and rewriting in a quick pace is an essential skill to success. It’s like making super gestural one-minute sketches with charcoal: you feel less responsible for making mistakes and less precious about the final outcome, which surprisingly can give you great final results.
Give it a go: find a friend or a friend of a friend, who needs help improving their writing, and even if you feel you aren’t good enough as a writer, offering someone your help can be impetus to research new writing styles and structures, plus, working together on a piece of writing is much more fun, especially, if you struggle with it. A sense of shared responsibility can be magical.
Sharon got in touch with me in May 2020 via the UNSW Mentorship platform that was launched the same year. She and I had a lot in common instantly: I completed the Graduate Diploma in Education (Secondary) in 2015, she is in the process of studying for the Masters of Teaching (Secondary) now. I was banging my head against the wall trying to figure out how to stay in Australia with my partner, family and friends throughout 2013-2016, she has been navigating similar challenges in 2020. She has a lot of questions about professional practicums in Australian high schools as part of initial teacher training, I had similar questions in 2015.
Throughout our sessions we have covered:
Going through the initiation into a teaching profession: the first two placements at schools.
How to interpret Australian Professional Standards for Teachers in order to collect the required evidence during professional practice at school?
How to take a critical stance on the Standards and think about them as a set of guidelines that could be further improved? It’s our professional duty to make a contribution into how student teachers are assessed, and what characteristics and behaviours constitute a well-prepared teacher who can work with children and their parents.
What to expect in a report written by a supervising teacher at the end of a professional placement?
How to communicate effectively with all members of the school eco system: head teachers, classroom teacher, and administrators? How to practise finding answers to your questions in a timely manner without overthinking and being overly self-reliant? As a new teacher, we have questions that already have answers. It’s wise to learn from the experience of other teachers who are often keen to share. Our questions need to be brief and specific, so that our colleague teachers could give us precise advice and recommendation as there is very little spare time at schools.
How can a teacher maintain her authentic self while facing students with challenging behaviour?How to resist making instant judgements and instead take time to understand the reasons for such behaviour and where it fits within a larger social and cultural context?
How to have a change-maker mindset in a classroom setting? Every problematic situation has a solution and through collaboration with other teachers, these solutions can be found and applied.
How to make science lessons engaging by addressing students’ kinaesthetic needs? Theoretical and practical scientific exploration can take a form of a jigsaw activity that helps the teacher to create scaffolded tasks that encourage teamwork.
How to design a science lesson based on a Youtube video that can inspire students to create something of their own? Videos can have power to entice young learners to imitate the technique or process shown.
Practising resilience, patience and creativity: habits required to settle in a new country
How to think strategically and realistically about complex and constantly changing immigration law in Australia and how to draft an achievable roadmap?
What are the requirements for successfully passing the Credentialed Community Language Test (CCL) and how to prepare for it? Where to find a tutor who would give practical tips for the test and would be able to assess the candidate’s current level of interpretation skills? We tried reaching out to NAATI registered interpreters who specialised in Cantonese to English, but couldn’t find anyone who could help. We also wrote to several AUSIT registered interpreters, but the result was the same. I recommended Sharon to reach out to Sydney Language Solutions that run courses to prepare for CCL and NAATI tests. Sharon quickly found a tutor who was able to help with CCL preparations. After practising diligently her interpretations skills with the tutor and independently, she successfully passed CCL Test, which gave her 5 points.
How to make a jump from C1 level writing in English into a near-native C2 level? A magical word is “collocations”. How to use the combinations of words that are natural to the English language? How to emotionally detach from your own writing to scrutinise every word bit by bit to improve sentence structure and flow?
Over the course of our three-month discussion, Sharon and I came up with strategies that can support us in our personal and professional lives. Through regular practice of externalising my thoughts about teaching, learning and immigration, I developed a vocabulary to talk about complex issues.
We make decisions on a daily basis, and it’s a real gift to have an opportunity to share this decision making process with someone who can benefit from it. While communicating with Sharon, I was able to zoom out on some sections of my life and conceptualise them, put them into a larger context, which helped me to make sense of seemingly chaotic situations.
Weiyi Zhang, a curator based in Beijing, China interviewed a London-based abstract artist Arina Zinovyeva
A Bull Fighting with a Dragon near Lake Taihu | Acrylic paint on canvas | 50 x 40 cm | 2020 London
As an artist and a language teacher, born in Russia and based in Australia, Arina’s life is amazing and enviable to me. Today, we are going to talk about her abstract artworks and transitions in studying as well as career life and to explore her artistic ideas associated with a wonderful life.
Weiyi Zhang: What do you think of the influence of different cultural backgrounds (Russia, England and Australia) on your paintings？
Arina Zinovyeva:Well, that’s a good and broad question. An artist probably doesn’t realize how exactly she is influenced by her physical environment when she goes to another country. This is definitely my story. I never consciously realized how much each country affected my art practice. I would say that the main influence of these three countries is their pace. Each country has a unique rhythm. I think the external pressure or lack of pressure is the main factor affecting my work.
For example, when I was in my hometown Russia, there was not much external pressure for me to create a final product, so I felt more relaxed to make mistakes and experiment with rough sketches or drawings. But there was a completely different story when I was in London. I felt that if I started a painting I needed to produce a high quality image with balanced colours and designs. No one was telling me to fulfill requirements but I felt under pressure that was probably generated by the city’s energy.
Weiyi Zhang: Did you choose Australia for your future life because it has an atmosphere suitable for a creative process?
Arina Zinovyeva: Yes, Australia is definitely a great platform for experimentation, where I feel free to be both a teacher and an artist. Besides, the Australian culture is welcoming, and its pace is not as high as in London.
Weiyi Zhang: What’s your favourite abstract artist and why? Is there any artist that has inspired you?
Arina Zinovyeva: This is a tricky question, because artists that inspired me were mostly my university peers. When I was studying in Australia, there were other students who were creating artworks by my side. It was not necessarily their style or an art philosophy that inspired me, but their dedication that was shining through when they were working on their art, being completely immersed in the process. I also like Post-Impressionism, for example, Paul Gauguin. This is an art movement where I gain ideas; I like seeing how elements from realism are combined with abstract bright colours.
Weiyi Zhang: What about your typical creative routine, do you usually have a clear understanding of what you want to draw? Or do you figure it out on the go?
Arina Zinovyeva: Actually, I don’t consciously think about this. But in the past two years, I’ve noticed that most of the time I feel an impulse or push to create and express something that had happened to me or others. And I want to externalize it into something visible. So, generally I don’t see a finished drawing in my mind, instead, I have a strong intention to bring out an emotion or visualise an intellectual exploration. Most of the time I don’t really know what my paintings will look like.
My paintings combine emotions and my understanding about others. What especially drives me to create is experiencing complex and challenging social situations. It gives me great joy to decipher societal codes that are full of ambiguity and unpredictability. Relationships change over time. When I paint, I attempt to understand people’s intentions and motivations. What do they want? What do they need? Why do they act in certain ways? I want to find a language for my intellectual and emotional exploration, and that’s why I turn to other professionals like quantum physicists to see how they describe humanity. They give me a language and a system to understand the world.
Weiyi Zhang: I noticed that in many of your works, you combined a variety of media（ink, pencil, gel, etc.). Is the process of working with mixed media different from using a single medium?
Arina Zinovyeva: Every medium ignites a certain thought. For instance, ink is diluted and flowing. Naturally, it expresses aliveness, freedom, and the ease of making decisions. Whereas, other media like pastel, which has more texture, has resonance with emotions such as doubt, hesitation and confusion. By using multiple media in a single artwork I am able to express a whole array of human thought and emotion.
Sometimes a painting encompasses the summary of a complex situation. The process of painting is similar to reading a ten-page long article and having to condense it into one paragraph. The medium of charcoal, for example, is a perfect way of summarising a complex set of emotions and experiences. This fragile medium makes you work fast and think on your feet.
A rabbit and a planet | Acrylic paint on canvas | 40 x 50 cm | 2020 London
Weiyi Zhang: How do you attribute different parts of a painting to a specific medium? For example, in which part of your painting would use ink? And where in the painting would it be better to use pencil? Could you give us some examples?
Arina Zinovyeva: There is one painting where I use ink, gesso and charcoal. A pre-story: I was working in the office before March 2020, and although I had well established routines, I also had some freedom of completing my tasks in a way that was suitable to me. The environment was fluid yet and established, so I compare it with ink, a medium that is both controllable and mutinous. To create a work-life balance, I need support from someone I can lean on, for example, my family or my partner. I compare this solid support with gesso. When I paint, I notice that gesso can restrain the fluidity of ink, just like people who support us can put some boundaries on us either consciously or unconsciously. There has to be a balance between free experimentation and daily responsibilities.
Weiyi Zhang: Some of your works are related to quantum physics, which is an area that most artists will not be involved in. Why are you interested in advanced science? How do you relate art to physics?
Arina Zinovyeva: I got interested in quantum physics when I met my partner who is a physicist and a mathematician. He and I would discuss his research on a daily basis, and I started reading some scientific papers and books. I was studying for a bachelor degree then, and when my professors and tutors learnt that I was interested in visualising theoretical quantum physics, they were intrigued, and I got support from them. Quantum physics definitely provided me with a system of language. By reading peer-reviewed articles, I learnt about a new language to describe the world. Scientists have their own jargon to express processes happening on a subatomic level; this jargon can also be translated into social sciences. There is a cross-disciplinary study that explores the relationships between quantum physics and society. In the process of creating abstract paintings, I look for a language to express what happens in society, and quantum physics can break down complex processes and provide me with a new way of looking at the world. I use that scientific language to explain what happens in abstract art. Science is my anchor.
Rhombus| Acrylic paint on canvas | 40 x 50 cm | 2020 London
Weiyi Zhang: Besides quantum physics, are you planning to use other advanced science in your paintings in the future?
Arina Zinovyeva: It’s possible. If I start to focus on another branch of science, I will need to research more about science such as biology which has so much information. What I’m going to do after is something deeper, deeper interpretation of statistics and experiments. What do they mean for us? What is the implication of these experiments in labs? I’m looking for ways to bring the deeper meanings of science into our everyday lives.
Weiyi Zhang: Why did you decide to teach languages? Do you find any inspiration for your paintings in the teaching process, and how does it inspire you?
Arina Zinovyeva: Language is something that is very natural for me to teach. I learned English in my early years as my second language, and I’m passionate about passing this knowledge to others. I am a native speaker of Russian, and I love sharing my culture with foreigners. I think teaching languages is a really good way to connect with people on a deeper level. When you teach Russian to someone who doesn’t know much about this language, you observe how people deal with their vulnerabilities, how much they are able to push themselves, how they motivate themselves to overcome numerous little problems. As a teacher, you learn how to motivate people so that they can keep learning.I enjoy supporting people who decided to follow this journey. Through teaching, I learn to understand people better. Having some clarity about certain social situations inspires me to paint; certain discoveries about people and their character gives me fresh ideas for my abstract painting. The more I experiment with abstraction, the clearer this journey becomes. Abstract painting is not random; there is certain logic in it. I really love to record my discoveries in a form of painting. Working with abstraction allows me to follow my instincts and create something I truly believe in; it also allows me to be honest.
Weiyi Zhang is a curator from Beijing, China. In 2021, she will graduate from UNSW Art & Design with the Master of Curating and Cultural Leadership. She specialises in connecting international artists with the art market in China. She is knowledgable about both Australian and Chinese cultural sector.
Let’s practise communicative skills and get to grips with grammar
I feel very lucky as a teacher to have a student like Tony. He is dedicated and forward thinking. Not only is he disciplined to learn Russian on a weekly basis, he is also looking for opportunities to expand his understanding of the Russian language and culture by practising with native Russian speakers outside of the classroom. He is also planning to spend some time in Russia in the future to have a fully immersive cultural and linguistic experience. What is so good about Tony’s strategy to learn are his daily efforts to surround himself with the Russian language.
What can I offer to a student who is already so self-disciplined and dedicated? – Exposure to new grammatical concepts and learning resources that are clear and informative; inspiration to practise complex linguistic concepts and providing plenty opportunities to practice pronunciation; and finally creating moments to test the acquired knowledge through exercises and mini quizzes.
This is a brief outline of our lessons and some of their highlights.
Communicative practice adapted from Lebedinsky S.I., Gonchar G.G. “Russian as a foreign language: a textbook for the international first years students”. Reading dialogues together is one of the best way to start practising speaking.
Grammar practice adapted from Petrov D. “16 Russian lessons”. We covered essential verbs, such as жить, любить, знать, работать, путешествовать, спать, пить, есть and their conjugation.
Pronunciation practice: diphthongs, stressed and unstressed vowels, voiced and voiceless consonants. Lots of examples, repeat, repeat, repeat.
Communicative practice. Reading dialogues adapted from Nadezhdina O. “127 Live Dialogues”.
Grammar practice: Contextualising the accusative and prepositional cases through dialogues.
A continuous cycle goes on: we make one step forward, then we go back and revise; we make another step, learn something new, then crystallise this knowledge by practising and looking at lots of real-life examples. We listen, repeat, retrieve from our memory new and old words. For me, as a teacher, it’s important to present information in an easy visually clean way to remove any obstructions from perceiving and absorbing information.
We can achieve so much if we take one step forward every day.
Weiyi and I started working together through the UNSW Career Ready Mentoring Program that was launched in May 2020. We’ve been on an incredible journey since then, and every meeting opened up new opportunities for both personal and professional growth.
Weiyi studies the Master of Curating and Cultural Leadership at UNSW Art & Design, a university based in Sydney, Australia. I am an alumnus of UNSW and applied to be a mentor for a student who is in the process of finishing their degree. The UNSW Alumni and Engagement Team matched me with Weiyi as our academic paths and career aspirations interrelated. We’ve had weekly meetings where we exchanged ideas about the art world. Due to COVID-19 and current Australian travel policy, Weiyi is not able to study on site in Sydney, but she continues to study online. I am located in London at the moment, and in a good position to show Weiyi the possibilities that her career in the arts can bring. Through our flexible approach to mentoring sessions, our open mind and positive attitude, we were able to support each other in our creative lives. This is what we discuss and work on together:
Artist interview. What to ask an artist? How to research the artist’s practice to understand the depth of their creative process? How to record the interview online and edit it?
To practise this skill, Weiyi researched my art practice, came up with a number of questions and interviewed me. She wants to write an article that explores the influences of geographic locations on the artists’ style.
Galleries in the UK, China and Australia. How to approach galleries if you are a young curator?
To establish a connection with a wide variety of galleries around the world, I recommended Weiyi to create a website where she could showcase her understanding of the art market. She is now in the process of creating one.
Relational art and socially engagement art practice. How to connect with artists, curators and the community and engage them in a meaningful way.
I talked to Weiyi about a local community project that I was involved in. It is an environmental campaign to save The Happy Man Tree. Although the campaign is not explicitly related to practicing art, it has strong elements of socially engagement practices. I wanted to show to Weiyi how to think outside of the box and gain inspiration from immediate environment.
Grants for curators. Where to look for funding for young curators? How to apply for them? How to meet the criteria of funding bodies?
We looked at the Arts Council in Australia and the UK, and identified their key criteria for applying. Weiyi is now in the process of putting together an application.
UNSW Career Ready Mentorship program allowed me to share my experience with Weiyi who really needs this extra support right now. In the process of talking to her and looking back at how I got from point A to point B, I put my professional experience into the prospective. It also allowed me to gain a higher appreciation for what I’ve achieved so far. Weekly meetings with Weiyi kept reminding me of my values.
Together we stand.
This is how Weiyi felt about having me as a mentor.
The idea of multiple intelligences might be familiar to teachers, but do students know about it?
Here, I will present a strategy that will help you move forward with your learning.
Everyone has a unique way to learn, and it is up to an individual to figure out the best way to do it. I am offering this 6 days challenge, by the end of which you will have a better understanding of what method works for you when you try to learn something new.
For example, you want to learn 10 new words in English. How do you go about it?
Day 1: SOLO LEARNING
Read an article of your interest and pull out 10 words that you need to learn. For example, I took my words from this art history article about Productivism. Write down these words and their definitions, like so:
Read these words and definitions out loud several times, then cover the words with a piece of paper, like so:
Read the definitions and test if you were able to remember the words.
Then cover the definitions to check if you could define these words in your own way. You can also put the words into sentences to contextualise them.
Day 2: TEAM LEARNING
Check if you can remember the words you learnt in Day 1. How many were you able to memorise? The best way to test it is to look at the definitions of these words to see if you remembered the terms, and then put the terms into sentences. If your retention rate was 70% and more, you found your perfect way to learn words, and you can repeat the same method day after day. If, however, you were able to recall less than 70% of the words, then try this method:
Ask a friend to read the definitions for you, and see if you can remember the terms. This way of recalling the words relies more on your auditory memory. However, you might be picturing these words in your mind, while your friend says the definitions out loud. Notice, if any visual associations are triggered when you hear the words; or, perhaps, by hearing the definitions, the rhythm and melody of words trigger your memory, and evoke examples from your life where you could use these terms.
DAY 3: ACTIVE LEARNING
Ask the same friend to read the definitions for you to see how many words you can recall. The same logic is applied here: if you remembered 70% of words or more, you found the most effective way to train your memory. If not, let’s try something else.
Put on your comfy shoes or running shoes, depending on your preference of physical exercise. If you bike, free up some time to do a few circles around your neighbourhood. Pick the first three to five words from the list and memorise them. Because there are only three to five words to keep in your memory, it is realistic — your working memory can retain it for a few minutes. Then, go outside for a walk, and keep repeating these words in your mind, spinning them around in your head, or if you feel comfortable, you can mutter them under your breath. Keep walking and keep repeating the words.
DAY 4: VISUAL LEARNING
Go for a walk the next day to see if you can recall these three to five words. Did it work?
The next strategy is to test whether you are a visual learner. Perhaps, you have some synaesthetic qualities: when you see a word, it triggers the vision of colours or textures in your mind. For example, for me the word “ensue” has ochre colour, or the colour of sand on a sunny beach in Sydney, Australia. These colours and textures have very little to do with the meaning of this word: “happen or occur afterwards or as a result” (Oxford dictionary). But I can create a sentence that will combine the visual associations naturally triggered in my mind with the word that I want to memorise.
The decision to apply an ochre colour onto my new painting ensued from my recent visit to Coogee beach.
After writing the sentence that is so personal to my natural inclination to imagine, and to my personal memories, it would be hard not to remember this word, because I situated it into my life.
DAY 5: AUDITORY LEARNING
First, test if you remembered the word “ensue”. Are you able to use it in a sentence?
Then, record your 10 words and their definitions on your phone or computer and save the audio file. Play this track to yourself, repeat the words out loud. For some people, recording their own voice and replaying the audio file can be a very effective way to memorise new information. For example, this is my recording.
DAY 6: CONTEXTUAL LEARNING
Test if you remembered the words from the previous day.
Put the list of 10 words in front of you. Type the first word into Google, and open a website where this word is mentioned. Read the sentence with this word and surrounding sentences. See if you can absorb the meaning of the word by looking at the context where it is used.
You can also type “ensue in a sentence” into Google, and the website Yourdictionary will show up. This website will give you a few examples of sentences with this word. Read these sentences to deeply understand the meaning of the word and how to use it in a sentence.
It’s all about testing and learning what works best for you! If something doesn’t work, move on to the next method until you find the perfect fit.
