Learning & Teaching

It’s been a while since I have reflected in this manner and I must confess that it has been difficult to restart, especially since I have only just returned to teaching. This in itself is a point I will return to in a later blog i.e. How to encourage my students to reflect outwith term time?

“Education is not filling a bucket, but lighting a fire.” (Yeats)

As part of my final assignment on the PG-Cert course I decided to take on the challenge (opportunity?) of embedding Personal Development Planning (PDP) within the School of Drama. Most undergraduate and post-graduate courses within the school have some degree of PDP already in existence, the methods were somewhat fragmented and scattered. I chose to introduce the concept of ePortfolio learning to the whole school first, by redesigning an already existing introduction session hosted by two of my colleagues (Jamie McKay & Christine Murphy). Thankfully they were both open to the suggestion and based on student feedback from last year, we went about developing the session. It was agreed that the length of the session had to be re-assessed so we moved from one three hour session to four consecutive sessions, each lasting 1.5 hours. These shorter sessions were more manageable, especially as the School of Drama intake had almost doubled, with several new courses coming online this year. We decided on 4 main themes that we wished to cover, these were:

• Evidence Gathering
• Reflection
• Goal Setting
• Employability

However, we wanted to allow the students to explore what PDP meant to them. They were to be reorganised into four groups and given the question “What is PDP?” We were aware that some secondary schools and certain employers had instigated PDP frameworks in their respective environments already, we wanted to ascertain if the students had been exposed to these processes already. The students were then asked to write down keywords that captured the essence of their understanding. The results were surprising, nearly all 16 groups, throughout the day, had a grasp of the concept already and few required prompting. A few of the groups had no experience of PDP but still managed to find most of the keywords. Most encouraging was the fact that all of the groups seemed to understand the link between PDP and reflection.

We then presented the QAA definition of PDP:

“a structured and supported process undertaken by an individual to reflect upon their own learning, performance and/or achievement and to plan for their personal , educational and career development.”  QAA (2002)

As expected we were met with blank stares, so we launched into our own interpretation of this sentence. I had ’spiced’ up the old PowerPoint slides with bright and colourful graphical animations, which were designed to catch the eye and hopefully be retained in the memory. Feedback from the session seemed to support this. I then presented another quote, which specifically summarised the process of reflection:

“Follow effective action with quiet reflection. From quiet reflection will come even more effective action.” (Drucker, 1909)

This allowed me to outline reflective practice in it’s simplest terms and lead me to suggest 3 simple reflective questions that the students should consider as a starting point for their own reflective learning. These were:

1. What did I do well?
2. What didn’t I do well?
3. What will I do next?

The next slide outlined learning progression and the transition points that the cohort may have encountered on their way to the Academy. I emphasised these points as being both goals and barriers that had to be overcome before they could progress. I also pointed out that the students would have had to exercise elements of PDP in order to break down these barriers and achieve their goal. The slide also served to emphasise that learning (through PDP) doesn’t stop after graduation from HE, but continues through a framework of CPD, during employment.

To further impress upon the cohort the importance of reflection and how it relates to three main aspects of their lives (Personal, Academic & Career), Jamie showed how these three can come together and where the overlap happens between any two, we suggested questions to reflect upon. Where all three converge, reflection through self review becomes central to the learning process.

The following slide simply showed where the individual fits into the learning process i.e. student centred with a Personal Academic Tutorial system acting as the next immediate framework for support which in turn is embedded in PDP. Finally the students chosen subject forms the underlying foundation on which to base their learning.

It was at this point that I took over and explained the advantages of using an ePortfolio as a tool to drive PDP. I had already delivered this content before to my PG-Cert class as a Pecha Kucha, so I knew it all inside-out. This time, I slowed it down by taking out the timings and any irrelevant slides. The result was encouraging, there was a host of interest from the students, with lots of questions to answer after each session. The critical incident form I posted on Moodle seemed to back this up.

Christine then went on to explain the PAT system within the Academy. This was probably the least thought-through aspect of the sessions and I felt that we lost the momentum that had been built up until now. We had no supporting images, but most importantly, hadn’t adequately linked PAT with PDP. Much more work needs done on this for next year. We need to work more closely on how to marry PAT to PDP, this year it became an afterthought. I think this was due to the fact that PAT had already become fairly established, so we neglected it, leaving it to languish unsupported. The result was a muddied, confused  experience for the students. Again, the CIQ feedback supported this. Most of the criticism of the session was aimed at this portion of it. The responsibility for addressing this must be shared between the three of us and learned from for next year.

To further compound the problem, we then asked the students to fill in a PAT form without much guidance on how to. The reason for this was to a) give the students a first try at completing one, b) provide a base-line for the PAT process to build from and c) begin the process of PDP. It wasn’t until the final session that we tried to change the format and provide guidance for each section of the form, prior to cohort filling them in. This seemed to help the students a little. Further reflection is required on how to deliver this more effectively in future.

We had decided to print business cards with both the Mahara & Moodle URL’s on them, along with the number to call for absence reporting. This was in an attempt to help the students remember these important bits of information and perhaps also remind them to at least try Mahara. Moodle is all but useless to them if their courses don’t provide content, the absence number in mandatory, the only aspect of the card that the students have any control of is the Mahara address. A faint spark, but a spark nonetheless.