#LTHEChat 294: Enabling meaningful reflecting on teaching: what can we learn from talking to creative arts lecturers?
With Annamarie McKie Introduction As an academic developer, I have long espoused the power of reflection to transform teaching experiences, actions and thoughts. As I introduce creative arts teaching colleagues to various theoretical concept…
As an academic developer, I have long espoused the power of reflection to transform teaching experiences, actions and thoughts. As I introduce creative arts teaching colleagues to various theoretical concepts for reflection, I also encourage dialogue on the connections between reflective theory and practice. The rich discussions that follow suggest a keenness to engage with models and frameworks for reflection, but a hesitancy on how these might be worked into busy teaching routines. One also detects a reluctance around the language of reflective teaching, especially from dual professionals who may not have received formal training in pedagogy. These observations have led me on a quest in my own research to locate more meaningful forms of teacher reflectivity, which encourage creative arts faculty to make positive associations, connections and applications to enhance pedagogic practices. This investigation culminated in an EdD research study (An exploration of how creative arts lecturers talk about reflection in their teaching – see Figure 1) to explore the social and cultural components influencing reflection in teaching.
Figure 1: Analysis of reflective teaching talk in the creative arts
What might we learn from talking to creative arts lecturers?
It was through my analysis of lecturers' talk that I gleaned understandings of the strategies developers might employ to enable meaningful reflectivity. These insights are encapsulated as a set of 'Oblique strategies for reflecting on teaching' (Table 2) for lecturers undertaking professional development in teaching.
Use your own ideas
Apply reflective practices that are personally meaningful and that connect with the realities of your educative context. These might include reflective thinking tools that consider other creative pathways and modalities.
State the problem in words as clearly as possible
Talk through your educative challenges with your colleague (s) aiming to distill from each other's dialogue, your understanding of the problem. This might involve asking powerful questions to enrich understanding and challenge assumptions.
Work at a different speed
Put your teaching into slow motion to locate previously unconscious material or see familiar aspects in fresh ways. For example, you might consider engaging in a teaching observation with an academic colleague outside of your discipline or working with a librarian or technician.
Turn it upside down
Disrupt reflection on your educational practices by thinking about it as a provocation, a story, poem or a metaphor. Narrative techniques to help you do this could include the use of free writing, writing a postcard to self, or telling the story through your students' viewpoints.
Don't avoid what is easy
Set up safe spaces to deconstruct teaching terms, experiment with educative technology and "un-learn" practices. These might include setting up a 'sandpit' to play with pedagogy or creating a 'what if' forum to discuss links between disciplinary practice and inclusive pedagogy.
Use an old idea
Locate an idea from your disciplinary practice to put a fresh perspective on your reflection as an educator. Your discipline, for example, may be more receptive to radical pedagogies, which embrace social justice or social purpose, and which by nature are more dialogic and interrogative.
Table 2: Oblique strategies for reflecting on your teaching.
My findings suggest that how creative arts lecturers talk about reflecting on their teaching might be better understood through their dual identities and disciplinary practices in the creative arts (Drew, 2004; Orr and Shreeve, 2017; Shreeve et al, 2010). The lecturers I interviewed talked about the social and interactive nature of their teaching and learning contexts and their tendencies to contest reflective practices that do not take account of their workplace contexts.
'What is this about, what is the inspiration, what's the research behind this, why does it look this way? You need to know where you are coming from.' (Participant A)
My study also highlights the tendency of lecturers to more likely accept as legitimate reflective activities that emerge from everyday work, and which potentially connect with colleagues' values because they concern teaching practices that make a difference (Loads and Campbell, 2015; Roxa and Martensson, 2009):
When, it's not that the whole thing is new, it's just understanding "oh, all right, okay, there's something theoretically that supports what I'm doing there. (Participant E)
These insights suggest that rather than struggling to engage busy teaching staff with unrelatable educational schemas and frameworks, developers might utilise a combination of 'oblique strategies for reflecting on teaching' (McKie, 2022) to evolve a more meaningful development of criticality and reflectivity. By working with faculty in this way, another route is offered to integrate reflective teaching practices into local pedagogies and shift mindsets for positive improvements in learning and teaching.
Guest Biography
Annamarie is Associate Dean Student Experience at London College of Fashion, University of the Arts London. She is a mentor for the UAL Professional Recognition Scheme and also leads university work in student transition and retention. Prior to this, Annamarie was Interim Head of Learning, Teaching and Student Engagement at the University for the Creative Arts, where she attained Principal Fellowship of Advance HE for her work in the student experience and reshaping teaching and learning development. With over twenty years leadership, educational enhancement and research experience in further and higher education she has led, developed, and managed, dispersed professional teams in libraries, academic support and educational development.
Resources and further reading.
Drew, L. (2004) The Experience of Teaching Creative Practices: Conceptions and Approaches to Teaching in the Community of Practice Dimension in 2nd CLTAD International Conference, Enhancing Curricula: The Scholarship of Learning and Teaching in Art and Design, April 2004, Barcelona. Available at: https://ualresearchonline.arts.ac.uk/id/eprint/644/
Loads, D. and Campbell, F. (2015) Fresh thinking about academic development: authentic, transformative, disruptive? International Journal for Academic Development, 20 (4), pp. 355-369.
Orr, S. and Shreeve, A. (2017) Art and Design Pedagogy in the Creative Curriculum. London: Routledge.
Roxa, T. and Martensson, K. (2009) 'Teaching and learning regimes from within: Significant networks as a locus for the social construction of teaching and learning', in: Kreber, C. (ed.) (2009) The university and its disciplines: Teaching and learning within and beyond disciplinary boundaries. London and New York: Routledge.
Shreeve, A., Simms, E. and Trowler, P. (2010) A Kind of Exchange: Learning from Art and Design Teaching, Journal of Higher Education Research and Development, 29 (2), pp. 125-138.
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