Month: March 2023

Bruce Macfarlane a & Lesley Gourlay b

As part of our lecture on observations on teaching practice, I read the paper entitled ‘The reflection game: enacting the penitent self’ by Bruce Macfarlane a & Lesley Gourlay

https://moodle.arts.ac.uk/pluginfile.php/1503958/mod_resource/content/1/Macfarlane%20%20Gourlay%202009.pdf

Bruce Macfarlane & Lesley Gourlay (2009) The reflection game: enacting the penitent self, Teaching in Higher Education, 14:4, 455-459, DOI: 10.1080/13562510903050244

Is reflection in educational practice the academic equivalent of a game show? Bruce McFarlane seems to think so, although this article dates back to 2009, the very height of the reality show boom, it still contains pertinent points to pedagogy.

He states the intention of the article is to “open up a debate about the use of reflection in the assessment of students in higher education”.

What debate? My whole educational practice is driven by reflection. Are we giving our students the tools and knowledge they need and expect? I hope so.

To win at the ‘Reflection game’ McFarlane gives 3 tips: 

Tip 1: eat humble pie

Reflective exercises impose certain expectations. The requirement for us to point out the failings in our practice, anxiety, talking at, rather than to, students and all the many perils and pitfalls the modern educator faces.

He then goes on to say…

Tip 2: revelation brings conversion.

“Through penitence comes learning” Your whole perspective on teaching is changed due to an interaction from a peer or mentor, or possibly the views of a student. 

Espousing various ‘commitments’ evidences your ideological conversion: to encouraging ‘deep’ as opposed to ‘surface’ learning, to ‘andragogic’ principles, to widen participation, use e-learning in your teaching and, indeed, anything else that might currently be in vogue within your university’s strategic plan (insert flavour of month).

Bruce Macfarlane & Lesley Gourlay (2009) The reflection game: enacting the penitent self, Teaching in Higher Education

His final tip,

Tip 3: toe the line…or else!

Taking issue with any aspect of this conventional pot-pourri of received wisdom is a dangerous strategy.

Questioning the ‘Status Quo’ of learning, or being happy with your currently delivery, is seen as a ‘no no’.

The line that resonates with me the most is this:

“While learning and teaching certificates are often portrayed as independent postgraduate programmes, the reality is that many are ‘aligned’ very closely with institutional expectations. Passing the certificate (which is often a condition of your probation too) requires demonstration that you are ‘committed’ to the institution’s espoused values.”

As someone who screams non-academia, this is currently my path view. 

Mcfarlane then goes on to state, from his own university experience has made him increasingly doubtful of the merits of imposing this particular form of assessment on students. 

“It promotes conformism to a narrow set of values which are left unexamined and can also impact negatively on students from certain disciplines (and cultures) schooled to write in a more formal and technical manner. For these students a reflective style of writing – with the need to be personal and self-revelatory is essentially alien to their disciplinary discourse. This can result in a higher relative failure (or referral) rate among such groups. “

Mcfarlanes referenced and evidenced cynicism may have been relevant at the time but here is the kicker, at time of writing, university fees, at £3000, were 66% less than the £9000 plus that they are currently (2023). Relevant? Maybe. Pertinent, definitely.

A poll from the guardian in Aug 2022 stated that

‘The poll of nearly 1,500 adults found that just over half said the current level of fees in England and Wales was bad value for money, while only one in five said it was good value.

Graduates were more likely to agree than non-graduates, with 69% of graduates saying that £9,250 was bad value, compared with 47% of non-graduates.”

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2022/aug/31/england-and-wales-university-fees-bad-value-for-money-survey

Lets be honest, reflection works, according to Anu Sööt and Ele Viskus:

“Developing students’ reflection on their learning is currently one of the major learning goals in higher education. Today’s students need to be prepared to function in the rapidly changing world of professional practice. In line with the above, reflection is currently a key concept in teacher education.”

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.04.591

The reality is, at this price, we are both educators and service providers. Our students have an expectation that we need to fulfil now more than ever. If our students want the reality show they have paid so highly to be a part of, we have no choice but to air it for them. 

In the undertaking of the PGCert (and even on this blog) I often refer to myself as ‘The Digital Woodwork Teacher’ because that’s how I feel surrounded by and being taught by so many academics. 

I don’t teach theory, I teach actuality. 

During my teaching practice, I’ve been advised to include more academia…”If it doesn’t relate to academia, should they even be studying it at university?” Was one question posed to me by an academic colleague. 

To answer this more clearly than I could, I referred to Ken Robinson, author of the book ‘Creative Schools’ quoted in a ted talk from 2006 (https://www.ted.com/talks/sir_ken_robinson_do_schools_kill_creativity?)  

This is how I feel partaking this particular strand, I am torn between producing amazing journalists, and producing amazing journalists who will get paid adequately.

Whilst I don’t necessarily agree that formal education is guilty of strip-mining young people’s minds solely for particular commodities that help students get into college. I do believe in Ken Robinsons challenge to educators and teachers (especially ones like myself) to be willing to try something different.

Brandon Busteed,(Forbes magazine https://www.forbes.com/sites/brandonbusteed/2020/08/23/with-passing-of-education-luminary-sir-ken-robinson-his-call-for-creativity-lives-on/#5cac08e55253) said on Ken Robinson: 

“Can we stretch our own thinking about the kind of thinking we want students to engage with? Can we create more opportunities for them to ‘draw from a blank canvas’ and put their ideas into applied action? Can we find more ways to allow students to flourish in their own unique ways using their own unique strengths?”

My own experience is still tainted by the creative arts not being seen as a ‘proper job’ especially by those such as myself with immigrant parents for who quality education is seen as the major solution to all of life’s practical problems. 

With societal odds stacked against you from the onset, why wouldn’t you arm yourself with as much education as you can muster? Get a good job, be a productive member of society? I still think this is true, but the definition of ‘proper job’ has changed.

The average social media influencer salary in the United Kingdom is £32,680 per year. In comparison, bloggers in the UK make nearly £30 thousand. 

In 2019, around 30% of British influencers made between £100 and £250 per sponsored post, 27% charged £100 per post, 11% earned between £251-£500 and 6% made £501-£1000 for promoting brands through their content.

Olajide Willaim Oltunj, aka KSI , the 26-year-old British YouTuber gamer has 9 million followers on Instagram and 22.4 million subscribers on Youtube.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KSI

The young gamer has now started a career in music and amateur boxing and has already shared fights with other famous influencers, including the American Paul brothers. He also stretched his YouTuber career by having a collaborative channel with his friends.
KSI is estimated to have a net worth of £20 million

(https://dontdisappoint.me.uk/resources/lifestyle/how-much-do-influencers-make-uk/)

Median household disposable income in the UK was £32,300 in the financial year ending (FYE) 2022, a decrease of 0.6% from FYE 2021, based on estimates from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) Household Finances Survey. (bit.ly/ONS_Survey_2022) 

We need to train the next generation to flourish and in order to do that, our teaching practices must be adaptable 

What challenges does this pose? especially with TikTok, the worlds 6th largest platform boasting xx subscribers currently banned from a number of US universities and most government devices across the world.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship_of_TikTok

Even woodworking can assist in the brain’s production and reception of dopamine, serotonin, and endorphins. As you engage your muscles and mind in activities you enjoy, your brain will release healthy doses of these neurochemicals. They regulate mood and ease mental illness symptoms.

And cut…

Values and Ethics in Teaching

Todays session was based on reading and discussion around a chosen article.

The article our group chose to read was the research Paper ‘Drawing Laboratory’: Research workshops and outcomes

Published 2018-10-31 by Michelle Salamon

https://sparkjournal.arts.ac.uk/index.php/spark/article/view/99/

The paper was centred around DRAWING AS MEMORY and its use as a research tool for developing thinking, improving concentration and enhancing memory. 

The paper noted that since the times of de Boisbaudran (1848), drawing has been considered a vital technical skill, essential to the role of the artist whose work predominantly centres on observations. The opening line of John Berger’s On Drawing is written in capital letters: ‘FOR THE ARTIST DRAWING IS DISCOVERY.’ (Berger, 2012, p.3). Berger argues that drawing is an efficient tool for enhancing experience, especially when viewed as ‘an autobiographical record of one’s discovery of an event- seen, remembered or imagined’ (ibid). 

Drawing also acts as a way to approach complex attitudes towards our memories. ‘Emotional arousal and personal involvement in an event seem to be two factors that have a large impact on the likelihood that a vivid memory can be maintained over time’ (Holland and Kensinger, 2010, p.11). 

The paper then added evidence that drawing is essentially a personal activity that can invoke emotional arousal. The act of making a drawing to document an event or experience can help maintain a vivid memory of the experience itself. The experience of making a drawing becomes part of the experience of remembering and so, combines the act of remembering with the raw memory. 

We then each had to present a group summary of our article to the neighbouring group. 

The neighbouring group presented their reading which was “Escobar, A. (2018) Designs for the Pluriverse – Introduction

File (https://moodle.arts.ac.uk/pluginfile.php/1535648/mod_resource/content/1/Introduction.pdf)

The book centred around Social context and design and highlighted four key areas: 

• Design is everywhere (It is human nature to design things)
• Social context is important in design 
• Design can make a difference
• Everyone designs and is a collaborative event 

The summary discussion included points such as the construction of uniformity. The book was based of years of study of living conditions in Latin American countries. It also covered the historical and cultural background, civilisation and great transitions as well as covering community. 

Readings Escobar’s introductory text basically presented the bulk of the cultural evidence as to ‘Why?’ Why was this happening? Why Now? Why here?

This discussion immediately struck a chord with me, especially being seated at LCC in Elephant and Castle, merely glancing out of the window and witnessing the hypergentrification of the area, which is design based capitalism.

Tearing down low income housing with no provision or desire to replace it and changing the very nature of the area. It lead to further discussion on emotive subjects like cladding around Grenfell and other such capitalism based design projects and the danger of this pattern of thinking.