what do we know? what do we need to know?€¦ · exploring possibilities through simulation...

Helping students become creative & reflective learners:

What do we know? What do we need to know?CRA/PEDRIO April 2015

Dr Alison James, Associate Dean Learning & Teaching LCF, NTF 2014National Teaching Fellow 2014

Finn StoneLego Stilettos

Student learning and engagement: transformative learning, identity & self authorship, reflection & self regulation, planning and recording

Spaces to think

Creativity, imagination and play in

Practice*PedagogyReflectionResearch

How do they differ and interlink?

How is creativity taught or nurtured in 2, 3 and 4?

Is it always taught in or through 1?

Where are they in eportfoliodesign and use?

Our definitions

creativity

• The making of newness, including adoption of thinking processes or borrowing from one domain to enhance another

• Joy, flair, value

• Not just wacky

imagination

• Conjuring possibilities

• Fanciful, not necessarily fantasist

• Other ways of being, seeing, doing and becoming

• Extending and fulfilling

Play(fulness)

• A childlike, not childish, mode of enquiry

• A means of exploring possibilities through simulation

• Re-energising and freeing

1. PDP – what do we know

followed by some things we may need to know:

2. Creative, imaginative, playful and object-based reflection within the disciplines

3. Boundary crossing between on/offline

The recording & assessing of reflection is predominantly text-based

Reflection, self monitoring and evaluation are expected curricular components

Teaching/developing reflective capacitybenefits from being explicit &/or ongoing

Models and styles of reflection vary

Assessing reflection can be hard

Student engagement & interest varies

Professor Stephen Brookfield

Critical reflection, intellectual tradition and creativity…

(press play on next slide for video)

(Photo taken from LCF London Instagram 14/04/15)

How do the intellectual traditions of our subject inform the design of our eportfolios and engage students in reflection ?

Some aspects of an intellectual tradition*

Origins

Influences

Features

Values

Methodology

Philosophy

Needs

Motivation

*and what constitutes intellectual or academic?

Protection, modesty warmthSocial status and role,Garments, accessories, changing cycles, social beliefs, moneyTaste, aesthetic, gender, differentiation,Make/cultural/subcultural decoding, hybridity, trends, conventions Self definition, differentiation, belonging,

“the hand is so widely represented in the brain , the hand’s neurological and biomechanical elements are so prone to spontaneous interaction and reorganization and the motivations and efforts which give rise to individual use of the hand are so deeply and widely rooted that we must admit we are trying to explain a basic imperative of human life”

(Wilson, 1998:10)

Nathan Sawaya: two works from The Art of The Brick

“For teachers, our notion of imaginative teaching necessarily entails them trying to see their pedagogic actions and reasoning in new and creative ways”

(James and Brookfield, 2014:11)

(Image Squid Tree Yarn Bomb CC by 2.0 LornaWatts)

http://www.thecraftycrow.net/2012/09/homemade-playdough-recipe.html

Object and material analysis

Jules Prown

• Description

• Deduction

• Speculation

Where (else) is LSP being used?

• to explore team identity • For student PPD• To think about student

engagement • To reflect on roles • To think about progress and

planning• In industry collaborations• To understand topics better• For academic support• To understand threshold

concepts• For annual course monitoring

• To develop consensus and share ideas

• To build trust & connections between people

• To explore sustainability • To share conceptions of how

we motivate learning• In doctoral study• For professional development

outside the university/abroad• To explore optimum modes of

evaluation• In a Community of Practice

“The tractor of authorship – I’m really starting to get this technique a whole lot better” Stephen

Things students found beneficial

• Using metaphor helped them think more creatively• Ways of listening and responding• Improved attention and concentration• Deepening of analysis of experience• Visualising actions and emotions• Planning next steps in 3D• Broadened English• Good for students with dyslexia/ADHD• international students felt more included• Relationship building

So, how does all of that relate to eportfolios?

“No wonder learning is so hard to control, so easy both to direct and to misdirect. It is brain and hand and eye and ear and skin and heart; it is self alone and self-in-community, it is general and specific, large and small.”

Wilson, 1998:295

David Gauntlett’s 8 principles of fostering creativity via digital platforms

Embrace because we want to

Set no limits on participation

Celebrate participants not the platform

Support storytelling

Some gifts, some theatre, some recognition

Online to offline is a continuum

Reinvent learning

Foster genuine communities

Our dispersed digital spaces for PDP

• Social media: Facebook, Instagram

• Twitter/Todaysmeet

• Promotional platforms such as Showtime

• Workflow

• Moodle

• Blogs (including Wordpress)

(Ebricks miss out on the 3D)

Our planned project for digital PDP

• Personalised

• Co-designed

• Customisable

• Flexible

• Structured and open

• Linear and iterative

• Free/directed

Illustration courtesy of @juliagamolina

a.james@fashion.arts.ac.ukhttp://www.engagingimagination.com

@alisonrjames