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