Week 1
Duly logged on at 9am with a mild dose of trepidation. The class moved at pace through the ‘getting to know you’ stage and neatly segued into discussion about some pedagogic topics drawn from material introduced to the groups during individual presentations. There was a really lovely circularity to the class structure.
I can see some parallels between the lesson plan and the creative process. Like you would when designing, there was an introduction of the brief. Then the lightning talks by colleagues which presented some ideas and the discussions that followed, were similar to the research and development stage. There was an assessment of ideas and narrowing down of subjects, which compares to the stage of refining and experimentation. Finally in the class, we did produce a padlet of ideas which could compare to the conclusion of the design process which culminates in creating an object.
Our smaller tutor group is a varied and vastly impressive group of artists and scientists with interesting educational, professional and personal experience. But the thread that seems to run through them all, which I found most inspiring, is the social engagement that drives their involvement in education. In just a lightning 5 min presentation, I found inspiration and insight into so many different areas of pedagogy that I cannot wait to delve deeper into. Now if only I had enough time to follow all those paths to their destinations.
I had chosen a journal article Wood, N., Rust, C., & Horne, G. (2009). A tacit understanding: The designer’s role in capturing and passing on the skilled knowledge of master craftsmen. International Journal of Design, 3(3), 65-78 to read and present to my tutor group. The article explored some research into creating digital resources for teaching traditional crafts. I found some relevant parallels between this research and the development of my own teaching materials in my work at LCF.
The researcher, Nicola Wood, undertook some case studies, working with skilled knife makers. Her main conclusion was that there tended to be a high degree of tacit knowledge in the craftsmans working practice. Tacit means implicit or internalized knowledge learned through personal experience.
The craftsmen were not necessarily aware of how they were going about their tasks, and sometimes found it difficult to articulate what it was they were doing. It was a useful reminder to me that I need to continually examine and elaborate on my working practices because some things which may seem obvious to me, may not be clear to others (students) and I will need to find a way to explain it to them.
It did spark some discussion into the value of tacit knowledge as compared to academic learning. Towards the end of the class, when we broke into smaller groups to enable us to exchange ideas on this topic, there were some perceptive points raised about how to give legitimacy to tacit knowledge, as something which is not easily tangible or quantifiable.
Ideas raised in some of the other presentations that excited my interest included pedagogy around giving space for silence in the classroom, how to teach creativity, the awareness of cultural backgrounds in learning styles and education as a means for promoting social change.
I made a note of some literature that my classmates mentioned that I would like to read: Paulo Freire’s Education of the Oppressed and Reimagining Conversations by Victoria Odeniyi.
A lot of these topics related to areas in the readings about creative education that ‘sparked’ my interest, when looking through articles to present in my own mini-talk. I was fascinated by the article Cowdroy,R. & Williams, A. (2006). Assessing creativity in the creative arts. Art, Design & Communication in Higher Education Volume 5 Number 2. It concerns how to define and quantify creativity in able to objectively assess creativity in an academic setting. It also identifies difficulties in the creative education sector regarding commodification of arts qualifications in a world of education as a consumer good, something that is bought and paid for. This was also examined in Danvers, J. (2003), Towards a Radical Pedagogy: Provisional Notes on Learning and Teaching in Art & Design. Danvers looks at some of the tensions between academic structures and ways of giving space for critical interrogation, diversity of expression, improvisation and dynamic innovation. Another area that concerns me, is intercultural understanding and inclusivity within the western arts curriculum and as something that affects well being and attainment for overseas and BAME students. I had time to scan a few case studies in the Sixth issue of Spark: UAL Creative Teaching and Learning Journal, published April 2018, which introduced me to some of the research going on in this subject and which I will be able to incorporate into my interactions with students in my teaching practice.
I look forward to following the trail of information and discussions down the rabbit hole to new worlds of knowledge and understanding.