Tuesday morning we had a
campus session for Module One
looking particularly at the Reflection part of Module One (Reader1). We
see the people who come to the campus sessions as representatives of the
student body, or a think-tank of people who will talk about and develop ideas
from the module and then shared this with the learning community through blog posting. So here is what we talked / thought
about.
We began by introducing
ourselves and we had a guest Advisor from the MAPP (Dance Technique Pedagogy)
course –Helen http://www.helenkindred.blogspot.co.uk
It was nice to link-up with
the MA people.
We then did an exercise
where you describe what you think other people do, from hearing how they identify
themselves. This is work in pairs, so for instance your partner might identify
themselves as ‘a Choreographer’. Then you write a list of all the things you
think ‘a choreographer’ does. Likewise they write a list of things they think
you do according to the title you have given yourself. Then you give each other
your lists. It is quite nice to see someone else’s vision of your profession
and often reminds you of the things you take for granted. Importantly it can
help you start look at what things about your activity you forget to remember because
you are so used to what you do. This is about seeing reflection as SEEING THE
FAMILUAR AS UNFAMILUAR, AND THE UNFAMILUAR AS FAMILUAR. This helps with this
section of module one, where we are wanting to start to look at the essence of
you where You are in the mists of what you Do. See http://seraclops.blogspot.co.uk
Next we did an exercise that
involved learning a new skill (balancing sticks). We noticed how we addressed
learning the new skill and used that experience to look at the three theories
in the handbook on learning. We looked at Kolb in terms of what we did to begin
the skill confidently, some people needed to watch how others tackled it and
felt this was an example of Abstract
Conceptualisation, some needed to talk to their partner to plan as they
were beginning the balancing task and felt this was Active Experimentation, some just started the balancing and dropped
the sticks a couple of times and felt this was an example of Concrete Experience, nobody felt they
had begun with Reflective Observation.
You may or may not agree but what is most useful is the idea of considering how
you have attempted to engage with something new as a way to notice yourself. We also talked about the sticks exercise
in terms of the theory of Gardner. For example some people tried the balancing
then noticed they were responding to how they had experienced their partner was
using the sticks and adapted their balancing to respond to their partner they
felt this was Interpersonal. Lastly we talked about the stick experience in
terms of the Honey and Mumford theory discussed in the Reader.
Past groups have done
something called a silent tour at this point in the campus session but that was
when we were are Cat Hill and Trent park there was more place to wonder. The
new Hendon campus is very exciting with lots of people all studying different
things. It is not conducive to a silent tour though. So we used post cards. We
split in to small groups. Each person chose three post cards and found a place
to display them in the room then toured their group. The rest of the group
wrote a response to the tour and gave it to the person whose tour it was. This
exercise was used to discuss a number of things that we related to the task of
journal writing or keeping a reflective journal (because you don’t have to
write to do this). We talked about the idea of capturing a moment – both how
the pictures together as well as where they were placed created information (an
experience) that seems only to able to captured in images and also how the tour
giver could have an idea and it was communicated to the people who tour more
deeply than the tour giver had thought it would be. I feel this is because You are
much more vivid than you realise and it is being more aware of this that this
reflection section is hoping to encourage you to do. This is so you start to
question yourself, your assumptions and your influences. We talked more widely
about journals / reflective diaries.
You do not have to use them to record your daily activities, you can capture anything. Doing
everyday is a good discipline but this could take the form of writing yourself
texts throughout the day about things you think and then just collecting them
at the end of the day. Or taking a few moments to take a picture each day, or
writing a poem (which some people at the campus session found really hard /
funny – the poem does not have to rhyme or be forced it can just be a task that
allows you to play with words).
Some people talked about old
diaries they had found from when they were much younger and how they had
brought back memories. One person said they had found an entry where they had
put it was too secret to even write in the diary and now they had no idea what
it was about. It is for these reasons we are asking to keep a reflective
journal because your learning process is very alive as you live it day to day
but as you go through the course (and the rest of what you do!) you will be a
different by the end. You are likely to forget moment or remember then
differently. But at the end of the module we are asking you to recall the
journey. The reflective journal is like keeping snap-shots of the journey you can use to recapture the moments and
you can use to illustrate. Later when you are in module two and three you will
need the reflective journal for the same reasons as well as to help you capture
first impressions of research activities.
As artist you might find it useful within your professional practice to
develop methods to have an on-going ‘conversation’ with yourself.
At the end of the session
each member of the group agreed to write a blog post on at least one thing they
found useful from the session – Go visit their blogs, listed below.
We also captured six things
we felt were interesting ideas that had been raised. These were;
1)
We can hear what other people say, not so you
can decide whether they are right or wrong answers but so you can see how they
connect to your ideas.
2)
Experiences help
you understand something.
3)
You do not have
to be too serious; fun can be just as useful. It can be fun to find ways to
reflect and capture moments.
4)
We had talked
about different ways to be present; I had asked people to make comments at
points in the session by writing about either what they see, notice or think.
Each of these is a different way to engage with a situation and reflect on it.
(see list just below)
5)
Theories are
like tools to help you understand something
6)
Being interested
in other people; they don’t have to have the same perspective as you.
7)
Kolb’s learning
cycle can be envisioned as happening at different speeds and layered. So you
could be in a month long learning process but also be in a minute long cycle at
the same time. The minute long
cycle might be something you quickly learning like how to respond to a puddle
as you are walking the month long cycle might be learning the journey to a new
place.
Things people wrote for what
they saw: ‘See’
Long Green sticks
Team work
People messing about with
sticks
Trust
Circular
Things people wrote for what
they noticed: ‘Notice’
People concentrating and
having fun
Concentration
Use of different dynamics
while using the sticks
Observe, connect, trust,
have fun
People smiling
Different peoples reactions:
shy, confident, embarrassed
People bonding and forming
relationships
In the bigger groups
whenever a stick fell we all, without realising, waited for the circle to be
complete again.
Energy
Different levels of
concentration to number of participants.
Fluid
Things people wrote for what
they thought: ‘Think’
Less though the better
Patience, concentration,
work as a team, cooperation
Cooperation? Involved?
See how people think in
different ways; some think in colour coordination, some in meanings, some
random
Some people take it on as a
challenge to make it as complicated as possible without dropping it. Some
people are more careful
Each person in tune with
left and right partner physical negotiation
Here are the blog links to
people who were there.
http://melaniebrown10.blogspot.co.uk http://chelsiejohnson1990.blogspot.co.uk http://todikomoubloge.blogspot.co.uk
And Russ who has just got
his blog going so visit as soon as we post the address and say hello!!!
What do you think?
Adesola
Thanks for posting all of that, Adesola :) As I read through each section I found I could picture the events again and this helped me to make more concrete connections to the learning that went on during the session. I've read everyones' blogs too, and found them equally as brilliant! The main thought that kept popping into my head was - although we were all in the same room at the same time we all seem to have attended to parts of the session in a different way to each other. This really reinforces for me how we all frame our experiences differently depending on who we "are"
ReplyDeleteThanks Adesola - really thorough comments - I have linked all of your Campus session blogs to the Libguide Module tabs. Bw
ReplyDeleteHi adesola, great to see what you've written. it was a great interactive session. I wrote everything up last week just to clarify everything for myself and others and reading yours has just furthered that really. so thanks :)
ReplyDelete