Some thoughts on Critical Reflection

I thought the following might be of interest when undertaking your Critical Reflection:

1. You might consider providing each section with a sub-title to indicate to you and the reader the focus of learning being explored, e.g. First main paragraph could be 'Developing my Critical Reading Skills'. Then fully explore this.

2. Only include description that is absolutely necessary. Blow by blow account of 'what happened' is less important than what was learnt.

3. Don’t make statements about ‘agreeing with the Reader on ‘X’ or person 'A's comments. Rather focus on how the Reader might have altered your perspective, viewpoint, and knowledge.

4. Avoid general ramble through ideas. Be specific and focused.

5. You need to put yourself into a position of arguing the relative merits and usefulness of particular ideas … indicating any level of measurement in your judgement …

6. The main point of Critical Reflection is to encourage you to question the views of others and those you hold in a critical way, which means to stay engaged with an idea, exploring from different angles, constantly questioning it, assessing its likely value (truth; usefulness; meaning) to you and / or others. Also see this as a practice not a ‘text’. It is something to develop, something that is learnt, not something you already know and simply need to express.

7. Your text needs to be two things. Firstly a means to explore ideas, as the object to be crafted as your thinking develops and deepens. Secondly, the representation and means of communicating your ideas. So see a piece of critical reflective writing as both the means to craft your ideas (through drafting and iteration), and the sum of your thinking at submission date (but with the intention that the work is not finished, but an idea in progress).

Further thoughts on reflection

Previously I have done some work with students on their own explanations on the process of reflection. You may be interested to see what they had to say in my previous Blog post.

Critical Reflection on The Networked Professional course reader

I thought it might be useful to signpost an example of a critical reflection, in this instance by Ross Dunning (although there are numerous others across the programme community).

I think it is really worthwhile to read and comment to Blogs to help your developing critical thinking. Blogging your ideas and then commenting builds a dialogue with yourself and others, and like any conversation, has the potential to build deeper understanding and insights.

You might like to see my comment to Ross. I have tried to indicate an area for further thinking.

Here's the link to Ross's Critical Reflection on The Networked Professional course reader.

Do try and keep up the effort in Blogging and commenting even if it seems a little artificial at times. Remmeber, what we are doing is trying to build critical reflection as an ongoing practice so it is as important to keep going as it is to produce exemplary work.

From E-Learning to M-Learning

One of the paradigm shifts appearing in the literature on learning is the shift from e-learning to m-learning. I think this might be as critically important to university learning strategy as it is to individual learners, whether they are on a university course, or engaged in professional practice.

Where the 'e' stood for 'electronic' now we are witnessing the potential of 'm' for 'mobile' learning.

Regrettably, I think there is absolutely no hope for universities, locked as they are in conventions of teaching stuck in a classical mentality where information was so scarce you had to attend a lecture to gain access to that information. E - learning has hardly impacted on that paradigm and now things speeds up again, with mobile technology providing new ways to engage in information gathering, synthesising and codifying.

For learners at university (if that actually means anything anymore) or in professional practice, mobile technology offers the means to access and use information anywhere at any time. There are many significances to this, not least of which is that the hierarchical ‘approval’ of knowledge (by say a learned journal) is challenged by newly emerging criteria, for example, whether the information is current.

However slow universities move, the professional needs every edge he or she can find, and m-learning adds to this armoury.

Bryan Alexander's Educause article set out some of the principles a whopping 4 years ago ... ancient history now I guess!

Creativity and education

If you had a chance to look at the two Ken Robinson podcasts, then do revisit my Blog post to see some excellent comments and analysis by Jo, Stephie, Laura and Cerys. I can't recommend the podcast enough, especially if you have an interest in creativity and education.

Theorising professional networks

Just a quick post to encourage you to visit the excellent professional network maps created by groups at the BAPP campus session October 2010. There are three sets so do search them out on Paula's Blog. These provide a rich picture of a variety of ways of thinking about professional networks.

A useful exercise would be to re-read the course reader of ‘The Networked Professional’ and use the theoretical perspectives therein to explore the various maps created at the session to create your own map.

During the session I was thinking about the maps and a network theory perspective seeing my network as a ‘system’ and thought this might add something:

1. My professional network may be thought of as having points (nodes) and connections. Connections can be rich in quality, frequent, have travel in one or both directions. Nodes and connections can form complex systems;

2. These may strengthen or weaken over time or be seasonal in nature;

3. My professional network may be thought of as having people, sources and resources and different distances from me. Some are close, important and which I sustain. Others are more distant, less used, and less important;

4. The quality and frequency of interaction between me and another person / information source are not the same. I may have frequent and low importance linking in my network, while important links may be infrequent;

5. While I might have all sorts of feelings about individuals within my network, I can also think of it objectively using this sort of network-systems approach, which can help me to plan and maintain my professional network?

What reflection might look like?

I came across this TED talk by Sir Ken Robinson and I think it captures so much of what I feel about the challenge for educationalists, whether university lecturers or dance teachers. As your explore reflection on practice as a concept, I would be really interested to know your thoughts on Sir Ken's talk. You could look at his previous TED talk from four years ago, which I found inspiring, hilarious, but truly challenging as a teacher working within the education system. Sir Ken produced a seminal report on creativity in the curriculum, which you may wish to look at. I attach it as a PDF to Libguides (module WBS 3002).

Feedback on Part 1

I hope you have had a chance to look through the Blogs of new students on BAPP. Easy enough to view using Google Reader (check the Getting started with Web 2.0) on Libguides if unsure.

The first two weeks ‘tasks’ are clearly about getting you to feel part of a learning community, to get some Blog content, images and video up online and to explore the technologies. I am impressed how many students have got to grips with these and who have managed to post worthwhile, thoughtful Blogs. Where I have identified particular work I want to emphasise this is because I have seen a particular quality that I want to communicate to you. Please don’t see this as some sort of patronage if I mention you, or failure if I don’t! My purpose is only to offer my observations on some of the good practice, good ideas, good processes etc. I strongly recommend spending an hour viewing and commenting on other people’s Blogs as there is already a lot of valuable ideas and perspectives out there.

Flickr

I though some good examples of good use of Flickr are Cerys and Ross. I thought in their own ways, they capture the feel of Professional Dance and Musical Theatre well, and reminds me that these disciplines are visual as well as kinaesthetic.

YouTube

In terms of YouTube, I thought there was some really good work. For clarity and coherence I thought Alana’s was very good. This mixed media in an interesting way and had a polished quality. I was also particularly impressed with Stephie’s video. The focus of Stephie’s video is herself, talking about her aspirations. The video captures her ability to communicate effectively and the content of what she says is mature and convincing. As a visual artist, Stephie is able to articulate how she is going to make use of the wider creative community within BAPP.

Pros and Cons of Web 2.0

Many Blogs provided some very good evaluation of the Web 2.0 tools and their potential and actual roles within our professional practice. I thought Melissa in particular makes a good set of arguments and Mark does an excellent job taking us through the arguments. Also, the various groups at our first campus sessions put together some very good clips looking at the pros and cons and well worth a look (Campus Sesion 1 summaries from the groups).

Overall, those students who have engaged the first part of the programme have already created excellent online presence, and started the work of thinking and reflecting in a critical way… which incidentally is the topic of part 2 of BAPP.

taking a Case Study approch to a WBL project .... making arguments?

I have had a really interesting discussion with Grace Hoy about Case Study approach. While there are different ways of conducting Case Studies, I waned to post about the focus of the discussion with Grace. One of my thoughts on Case Study is that it is a ‘flexible’ research design. It’s often suggested as such in the literature. I suggest that what this means is that the tools you use to gather and analyse data are variable. One case study might place emphasis on interviews, another might emphasise observation.

However, I believe all good case studies should present ‘arguments’ and I hope to explain why.

When I read a Case Study I expect certain things:

· I expect the researcher to have some expert understanding of the ‘instance’ to be studied;

· I expect the researcher to develop certain ideas that they transmit to me as arguments to explain the phenomena or ‘instance’ under study;

· I expect the arguments to hang together effectively;

· I expect the arguments to be supported by evidence from the data gathered and cited so I can follow up on interesting ideas;

· I expect the arguments to be supported by measured reference to the appropriate literature;

· I want to know how the researcher relates to the questions, and specifically to be assured they are seeking to be as objective and balanced as possible, or to explain why they are promoting certain ideas;

· I do expect to have the arguments and any counter arguments explained, and for the researcher to say to what extent they think we should balance these. E.g. ‘X’ is clearly evident in the evidence, or ‘we can be certain /sure/fairly sure about ‘X’. This means as the reader, I can easily grasp the extent to which the researcher attributes certainty to the arguments (and usually expect the evidence to be cited at this point).

· I expect to be treated as an intelligent, but otherwise, non-specialist reader;

I suggest we might see Case Study as having two different aspects to the ‘case’. Firstly, we might interpret case as to mean the ‘instance’ under study. Secondly, we might also see it as the ‘Case’ being made by the researcher … that is the particular explanations that the researcher derives from the analysis of evidence.

I’d be happy to hear your comments on this.

Delicious tags to support your projects

I have been tagging links that I think are interesting and worthwhile, with specific focus on WBL projects. Of the various tags I have been using I always include 'bapp' as a tag as this means anyone searching on Delicious using this tag will find my tagged links. If you do the same, we can very easily share links.

a journey of ...'Self discovery?'

Thanks Sandy for your Blog comments and bringing the idea of self-discovery to the Blog community. I fully agree with your statement about the need to see learning as something we gain through engagement rather than thinking in terms of being 'spoon fed'. For me, most training, and all too much formal education is spoon fed in that the teacher decides on what constitutes 'appropriate learning and standards'.

In higher education we are trying to foster independence, critical thinking and ‘self discovery’ which we believe underpins professional practice. You see it all the time in those commensurate professionals that you meet: they are confident in what they know; they are comfortable with not knowing; they find different ways to explore and develop their own knowledge and insights; they can work with complexity and they try to think and act ethically… and more of course.

It might be worth thinking about these and other attributes as you develop your online profile?

I have also posted this to Sandy's Blog comments ... it might be good for you to try posting a comment to someone else's Blog as a practice?

The Teacher's tale of Blogging ...

This Blog contains a number of links to Blogs and other sources and are the ways in which I think Blogs have been used in a university programme to enable learning and teaching.

1. Firstly, over to Jess and a short description of her WBL Project to set the scene.
(0.0 – 51 seconds)


2. Google Reader. As a teacher I use this to bring all my students', colleagues' and other external Blogs and content to a single place. That's why a 'reader' is often also termed an 'aggragator'.


3. This is a link to one of my Blog posts and provides an example of how I share resources with my students. Nothing radical here, just a way of ‘teaching’ by providing links to resources.

4. In this example, a colleague delivers a 'content' element of the programme.

5. This is a bit more exciting. here students and staff from anywhere in the world, are commenting to a student assignment. This asynchronous posting of Blog and comments allows students and staff to build a collective understanding in a learning network.


6. In this example, I am providing generic feedback on an assignment by identifying good examples. It may be that there are 5 key points you want to put across in an assignment. Rather than giving individualised feedback (often repeated to individuals) I provide generic feedback linking to specific good examples. This draws students away from 'doing what I tell them' and gets them thinking about what the assignment is asking them to do.


7. Finally, we believe in making learning open so learning tasks can be engaged from anywhere, at anytime (prior to enrolment, after graduation) and that anyone can join the learning community. Anyone who comes across this Blog can engage in learning, or see the quality of thinking the student has engaged in.

Making use of your Blog over the summer

One of the things we noticed over last Christmas was the number of students who continued to use their Blog even though formal 'teaching' had ended. 30% of BAPP students in year 1 continued to Blog. This shows perhaps that for some students, the Blogs were of intrinsic value beyond their use of the programme.

For those of you moving into your project phase, it might be very helpful to share your ideas with other students, and noticing who is either researching a similar subject, or using similar research tools.

You could do worse than to post up a brief summary of your project to see what support and exchange of ideas you might get?

Survey Monkey

Its worth going to Abbi's Blog and to take the survey

What research methods should I use?

Shortly you will be getting posts from people attending today’s campus session. This will include links to the PowerPoint presentations from Rosemary and Paula. But I want to raise an early issue that seems important to me …

How do I decide what research methods I should use?

One of the principles of research is that the research method should follow the nature of the questions we ask. Let me suggest some practical examples:

Question: I am interested in the values held by dance teachers and how these influence the planning of a dance class?
What research method is implicated here?

In this example we need to consider where the insights and answers to the question reside. For example, do we think the answers lay mostly in the literature? Or with children learning dance? Or dance teachers themselves? Do we think the answers are not actually known by anyone and need to emerge following a development process?

So lets tackle these in turn and see what methods are implicated and why:

a.The answers lay mostly in the literature: Ok how likely is that? It doesn’t sound particularly convincing as a source of insights unless there is a lot written by dance teachers about their values? Perhaps we could do a brief literature search for this example?

b.Children learning dance may be able to provide some insights from their experiences of dance classes, but can they say much about teachers’ values? It doesn’t seem a likely source of knowledge and insight?

c.Perhaps dance teachers themselves can speak about their values? Yes, this seems a good option, as the teachers may be able to speak about their values that then inform how they plan dance classes. However, they may not be used to thinking in terms of their values, perhaps because these are accepted uncritically from their own teachers?

d.Perhaps, thinking about (c) above, that perhaps some ‘processes’ to help dance teachers explore their values might be helpful to draw out insights?

Ok, so what emerges from this is that perhaps we might interview teachers to draw out their views. This might reveal some real insights, but may also indicate gaps or superficial grasp as well as deep and effective values translating into curriculum. If you thought the development process also might help, then a focus group meeting of dance teachers might also help.

So in tacking this question:

‘I am interested in the values held by dance teachers and how these influence the planning of a dance class?’ we can suggest that two methods might draw out useful data and analysis: interviews and focus group informed by a literature review.

I hope that helps you to see how you might link the appropriate method to the type of question or issue you have.

‘Systemising' our thoughts

I believe a key aspect of effective learning is the ‘systemisation’ of information. I believe, well actually we know that our brains are exceptionally well adapted at noticing patterns. I think this means amongst other things that we can use the creation of patterns to enhance our learning. This can happen by forming information into a system. A system can be a list, or map, or diagram or an argument. The act of forming information into a system is to make it easier for the brain to make sense of it and draw it into memory.

OK this is all pretty obvious. But what then if we use it intentionally and playfully to try out different patterns?

Creating lists is to create a hierarchy. This means we intentionally place information into certain locations. These locations sit ‘above’ or are ‘higher’ order ideas than the information, and hence a hierarchy is created.

So try to organise, and reorganise information and ideas into patterns as this will help you to ‘make sense’ of even the most complex material.

An example of a hierarchy is Ciera’s Blog.

And how is this relevant? Well research is information that has been systemised by you the researcher ... so worth thinking about?

Experinces of a BAPP student

Jessica Clipp kindly offered to ‘speak about her experience as a BAPP student’. I think this shows the impact this had on Jessica as a learner, and also how it influenced her employer to give her a full time job.

Example of a WBL Project

Now we are thinking about the topic for projects, I though it might be worthwhile to see a graduate speaking about a project. Jessica Clipp graduated last year from BAPP and works at the Chickenshed Theatre. Here is Jessica speaking about her project. Jessica undertook by any standards a complex project that had many dimensions. It might be a helpful exercise to listen a couple of times to the video and note down what you thought the issues might be.

The Virtual Revolution

Check out The Virtual Revolution - 1. The Great Levelling?

Quoted from the BBC (accessed 1.40pm 1/2/2010) Twenty years on from the invention of the World Wide Web, Dr Aleks Krotoski looks at how it is reshaping almost every aspect of our lives. Joined by some of the web's biggest names - including the founders of Facebook, Twitter, Amazon, Apple and Microsoft, and the web's inventor - she explores how far the web has lived up to its early promise.

In the first in this four-part series, Aleks charts the extraordinary rise of blogs, Wikipedia and YouTube, and traces an ongoing clash between the freedom the technology offers us, and our innate human desire to control and profit.

Handing in / arrangements due to bad weather

The bad weather is causing severe difficulties with travel, and is likely to continue for the next few days. This may mean work posted to the University will arrive later than expected. Campuses are closed today (Wednesday 6th January) and may remain closed further into this week.

If you have already posted your work, you need take no further action. Work arriving late due to difficulties with postal deliveries will not be penalised.

If you intended handing in your work to Cat hill campus today (Wednesday 6th January), please keep your work with you and check the University web page after 9.30am (www.mdx.ac.uk) each morning to see if the to see if Cat Hill is open. If the Campus is open, please deliver your work to the Student Office if you are able to do so. Please do not take risks travelling if the conditions are dangerous. When conditions permit, please deliver your work to Cat Hill campus. Do not post work after today (Wednesday 6th January) as deliveries are likely to be delayed.

Please note that you will not be penalised for late delivery of work for assessment. We ask that you make reasonable effort to deliver work if the campus is open. Realistically this may be towards the end of this week when the forecast suggests a slackening of snowfall.