matthewrogersdotnet.files.wordpress.com · Web viewSS-W explained how the Creative Advertising learners are required to enter their work into the D&AD competition every year, which

Matthew Rogers PGCHE - ED120 May 2016

Assignment 6 - Critical Evaluation of Professional Practices

ResearchThis assignment required participants to reflect upon and present evidence of a course level response towards the ever-growing pressure to supply undergraduate learners with integrated and meaningful access to experience of professional practise. For this project I (MR - Associate lecturer BA(Hons) Digital Media) was collaborating with an Assistant Team Coach from the BA(Hons) Business Entrepreneurship (EO), and a Course Leader from BA(Hons) Creative Advertising (SS-W).

The preparation for this project began with an informal meeting in the Café at the Woodlane Campus in Falmouth where all participants were able to freely discuss their personal reflections upon the nature of the brief and to voice their individual engagement with professional practise within their separate course areas.

The conversation revealed the following central points of interest:

o SS-W stated that within the entire subject area of Creative Advertising an attempt is made to place ‘professional practice’ as a central, core element to the learning experience. SS-W has very recently made the transition from industry to education and therefore carries with him years of personal experience of working with clients towards a professional brief that directly informs where his pedagogical practices originate and also where he feels most strongly that he is able to offer the most practicable benefit his students.(A1, A4, A5, K6, V4)

o The Falmouth Business School has ‘professional practice’ running through almost every element of it’s course – ‘like a stick of Blackpool rock’. EO informed the group that BA(Hons) Business Entrepreneurship places students in the position of starting up and running their own companies at level 2 of the course. However, level 3, which as of May 2016 has no students enrolled, because the course has only been running for two years, has been designed to be especially focused towards preparing students for the leap into industry. EO also brings an interesting international perspective towards course development and has been involved with course development enabling her to contribute from her experiences of Tiimiaktemia, which is a Finnish pedagogic model of team working and learning through

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doing. EO also brings years of professional practise experience to her teaching, as both and employee and entrepreneur.(A4, A5, K1, K6, V4)

o MR is an Associate Lecturer on BA(Hons) Digital Media whose tenure at Falmouth University began as a direct linkage between his exterior roles as a manager of a local community radio station with over 100 volunteer presenters and MR also produces a series of 6 live performance events every year called ParkLive. Digital Media has a more praxis-based model of pedagogical leaning to Creative Advertising and Business Entrepreneurship. Digital Media offers learners a more open and exploratory, Arts based environment throughout the majority of the undergraduate course structure, which has been designed to encourage learners to investigate the relationship between visionary thinking, theory and interactive design technology. However, the course acknowledges the need for students to align their post-university aspirations inside the formal framework of the course structure before graduating. Therefore learners are required to engage at level 3 with a module titled DGM320 - Research and Professional Contexts, which requires learners to develop a ‘road map’ for their level 3 coursework, which runs from preparation of their dissertation and minor and major portfolios through to presenting their work in online portfolios and looking towards post-graduation employment and/or future educational opportunities. Anne Grove-White (2003, pg60) tells us that in order for students to feel engaged with pedagogy they must feel that it is relevant to them.(A1, A4, A5, V4)

Evaluation and PlanningIt became apparent through conversation that the three different courses took a similar but distinctive approach to engaging with the subject of professional practise.

Some of the differences between the 3 courses were:

o Placing learners on work placements with industry partners (SS-W). (K2)

o Requiring learners to start up and run their own companies (EO). (K2)

o Requiring learners to consider how their work is presented in an online portfolio (MR). (V4)

o Tailored sessions with Jon Christie from the Falmouth University Careers Department (MR). (V3)

o Linking learning outcomes to industry required expectations e.g. C.V. preparations (MR). (V4)

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Some of the similarities included:

o Requiring students to enter into exterior awards as part of their coursework (MR & SS-W). (V4)

o Offering learners access to the industry level experiences and current professional engagements of lecturing staff (All). (A5)

o Bringing in industry level professionals to talk with learners (SS-W & EO). (A1)

From this preliminary discussion EO, SS-W and MR were able to identify a theme for their shared presentation, which would allow each member of the group to speak to a different area of involvement with professional practice and thereby create an engaging and distinctive narrative for the presentation.

The proposed presentation narrative was located within the following areas of discourse, which are specific to the experience of the three different members of staff:

o SS-W to open the session with a nomothetic illustration of BA(Hons) Advertising at course level. SS-W to propose an intrinsic linkage between the BA(Hons) Advertising course structure and industry which occupies the central modus operandi of the entire course.

o EO to follow SS-W with an illustration of the proposed structure of the BA(Hons) Business Entrepreneurship at level 3. It was anticipated that this narrative development would allow the narrative to drill down logically towards a more refined understanding of how courses structure their involvement across and entire year.

o MR to close the session with a presentation of how BA(Hons) Digital Media requires students to engage with professional practise at module level within level 3 Digital Media. It was anticipated that this narrative development would allow the narrative to drill down further towards a more refined understanding of how courses structure their involvement within a single module.

After the initial meeting all participants returned to their departments to prepare a 3-minute-long section of a 10-minute presentation, taking as central to our presentation this quote from Thomas J Shuell (1986)

“If students are to learn desired outcomes in a reasonably effective manner, then the teachers fundamental task is to get students to engage in learning activities that are likely to

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result in their achieving those outcomes… It is helpful to remember that what the student does is actually more important in determining what is learned than what the teacher does.” (Biggs and Tang, 2011)

EO, SS-W and MR met two more times before the presentation. Once was to go through in detail the individually selected material for the presentation and to time the delivery of the individual elements. The second meeting was an hour before the presentation so that the group could discuss the introduction and closing statements.

DeliveryMR introduced the proposed theme of the presentation as a 3-stage investigation into the relationship that 3 different courses hold with professional practice from 3 different observation points. SS-W led the presentation with an introduction into a course level relationship with professional practise on the BA(Hons) Creative Advertising course.

Figure 1. SS-W Slide 6SS-W called attention towards some of the key learning activities which are central to successful completion of the BA(Hons) Creative Advertising course and linked these to the learning outcomes across the 3 levels of the course.

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Figure 8. SS-W Slide 2SS-W explained how the core team and several associate lecturers from within Creative Advertising all come from an industry background. SS-W explained in detail how this benefits and contributes to the employability agenda as the staff are able to describe with confidence and in detail how the relationship and differences between undergraduate work and full-time employment can be facilitated.

Figure 12. SS-W Slide 3SS-W explained how distance is no longer an obstacle for visiting lecturer staff as the seminar room has been fitted out with

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interactive communication technology allowing the students to see and interact with professional practitioners within their working environments from inside the classroom.

Figure 4. SS-W Slide 23SS-W explained how the Creative Advertising learners are required to enter their work into the D&AD competition every year, which allows industry professionals to meet and hire students based on the quality of their work.

Figure 5. EO Slide 1

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EO described the model of the proposed level 3 study platform as part of the Business Entrepreneurship course. Level 3 is a continuation of the self-directed model of pedagogical entrepreneurship, which has been inculcated throughout the duration of the course.

Figure 6. EO Slide 2Level 3 on Business Entrepreneurship involves a negotiated business project which is related the learners future career choices. Learners are also required to develop a continuous development place which describes a deep reflexive learning on accepting responsibility for future learning.

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Figure 7. MR Slide 1Research and Professional Contexts requires level 3 students to develop a road map for the delivery of their final year at university that ties all the elements of that final year together through to their post university aspirations.

Figure 8. MR Slide #4MR described the rationale behind the development of the Research and Professional Contexts model and described the required learning outcomes.

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Figure 9. MR Slide #6MR described how the delivery of the module is separated into 12 weeks and explained how different members of Falmouth University staff, with different specialism areas, deliver the different sections of the module.

Conclusion and ReflectionOverall, whilst I am aware that this module has at times been achieved in a fairly disengaged and purely pragmatic manner. The process of self-evaluation and reflection on my own and my colleagues’ relationship towards professional practice pedagogy has been a useful experience. It has opened my eyes towards other methods for incorporating engagement with professional practise into future curriculum design. It has also been insightful to witness the manifold ways in which different courses place emphasis on achieving their goals in regards to professional engagement according to the independent ideologies of the different disciplines and the types of students they attract. It appears clear that whilst professional practice might not be central to the BA(Hons) Digital Media strategy it is certainly of growing interest to the wider institution and future HE strategies.

Bibliography

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Biggs, J. & Tang, C. (2011). Teaching for Quality Learning at University - 4th Edition. Open University Press. Maidenhead.

Grove-White, A. (2003). Theory and Practice in Photography – Students’ understandings and approaches to learning. Active Learning in Higher Education. London. Sage.

AppendixFull slides from presentation

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Documents

matthewrogersdotnet.files.wordpress.com · Web viewSS-W explained how the Creative Advertising learners are required to enter their work into the D&AD competition every year, which