Creative strategies to support student engagement

a ‘taster’ of the sessions offered at the Look/Make/Learn conference, 12 May, hosted at London Metropolitan University

Creative strategies to support student engagement

a ‘taster’ of the sessions offered at the Look/Make/Learn conference, 12 May, hosted at London Metropolitan University

Dr Debbie HolleyReader, Education & Technology Department of Education

Anglia Ruskin University(Developed from ideas shared by Pauline Ridley and Sandra

Sinfield)

Introduction:A cohort of BA Primary trainee teachers anticipated difficulty and struggle in their forthcoming ‘Preparation for Research’ module, and were fearful and hostile to the tutor in the first session.

The students identified three areas of concern:• Identifying and overcoming potential barriers to completion• ‘I can’t write’ the ‘blank page scenario’• Understanding methodological terms

This presentation reports on the design, operation and evaluation of the series of creative writing workshops, and their transformative effect on the student learning.

Creativity – a contested pedagogic area

Jackson (2006:5] notes, although academic staff might recognise the value of creativity in

student learning, they may be reluctant to take on the extra work that is perceived to be

associated with more creative approaches to teaching and …..there are institutional barriers

that might also frustrate such attempts.

Q: for participants – what are your own/ your institutional barriers?

We will address this in our ‘mini’ collage session

Workshop (1)Identifying and overcoming

potential barriers to completion

http://drdebbieholley.com/creativity

Collaborative drawing and image making activities - can develop communication skills, encourage reflection on experience, professional and personal development planning.(Ridley and Rogers 2010:1)

Collaborative drawing and image making activities - can develop communication skills, encourage reflection on

experience, professional and personal development planning (Ridley and Rogers 2010:1)

I uploaded onto Picasa and the

students downloaded as evidence

for their

teaching portfolios

Workshop 2 ‘I can’t write’

Speedwriting and speeddating – www.WriteNow.ac.uk –

focuses on the act of writing(Peter Elbow work)

Workshop 3 ‘Methodological Monsters

‘Collage seems to work best when we move from the intuitive to the conceptual…..an iterative approach helps students review their thinking over time and reflect on their learning’Ridley and Rogers 2010:6

Instructions for making your team ‘monsters’

http://www.learnhigher.ac.uk/research-skills/doing-research/research-terms-glssary/

1. Please scan this QR code to access the glossary for terms you can use

2. Start with the ‘head’ in groups draw a head and annotate/ add your own definitions of ontology, epistemology and methodology

3. Draw round a colleagues right and left arm – label up qualitative and positivist paradigms by annotating

4. Add in a heart for ‘mixed methods’

5. Start to map out different research methods – attach to the hands of your arms

EvaluationAll the sessions were photographed (with the students permission) and the photos uploaded onto the Virtual Learning Environment, as well as loaded onto youtube as a short video. It is interesting to note that the students then ‘tagged’ the relevant images for their on facebook accounts, and

also for evidence for their QTS (team work) and to share the ideas across the whole group.

(1) “Helped raise issues that

may need to be considered before they

become a problem” (2)

“This session has really helped me through communication with

other students. I have been able to talk to

others who I wouldn’t usually communicate

with and given useful ideas and help!”

(3)“Loved the hands on work,

makes something very confusing approachable”

Email debbie.holley@anglia.ac.uk for full report & lesson plans

References:Elbow, Peter. (1998)Writing without teachers. Oxford University Press, USA Jackson, H. (2006) Cited in Johnston, G. and Ridley, P.(2007) "What Counts as Creativity?" Creativity or Conformity? Building Cultures of Creativity in Higher Education Cardiff 8/10 January available electronically from: http://www.creativityconference07.org [accessed 06/01/2013]Reid, M; Frith, L; Hill, P; Holley, D; Ridley, P, Sinfield, S; Sentito, E (2010) Engaging subject academics in Learning Development: Different partnerships enabled by different models of LD Panel presentation at the ALDinHE conference, University of Nottingham 29/31 March Ridley, P. and Rogers, A.(2010) Drawing to learn: Business, Education, Management & Social Science Available electronically from http://www.brighton.ac.uk/visuallearning/files/7612/8048/4869/D2L_BusinessEd_LOW.pdf Visual learning CETL http://www.brighton.ac.uk/visuallearning/drawing Write Now CETL http://www.writenow.ac.uk/

Scan QR Code to access website with students

images and work