I have lately been booked to deliver a series of referencing sessions across BA and MA photography and Art Direction courses. Employing David A. Kolb’s experiential learning cycle I reflect on past sessions and note planned actions to ensure the sessions will be informed by critical and inclusive pedagogies.
Concrete Experience:
- Delivery largely in the teacher-oriented, lecture model.
- Bookings came late, close to hand-in dates.
- Attendance was poor.
- Time: Needed 90mins, allowed 30-45 mins.
Reflective Observation:
- Engagement: minimal, sometimes followed up with 1-2-1 teaching of same content.
- Learning outcomes: verbally assessed, responses positive, more a measure of politeness than understanding.
- Citational Justice: felt tacked-on not integral to the session.
- Language: Suspicion of a lack of comprehension. English a second language for up to 80% of some photography classes.
- Diversity: Insufficiently diverse references limiting possibility of personal student engagement with the content.
Abstract Conceptualisation:
- Revise delivery to a student‑centred, facilitative model of learning (Hooks, 2010) thus accommodating a wider range of learning styles (I am sceptical of the value of Kolb’s categorisations).
- Diversify referenced works integrating and modelling citational justice practice.
- Test with colleague for clear and accessible language.
- Enquiry and object based learning e.g. students to source references from photobook colophons before looking to catalogues and online resources.
- Case study to demonstrate legal and moral consequences of a lack of referencing, underline professional and moral aspects.
In the upcoming classes I will adopt John Mason’s discipline of noticing practice to monitor effectiveness of new approach and ensure informative note-taking for further reflection.
Reference List:
Hooks, b (2010). Teaching critical thinking: practical wisdom. New York and London: Routledge.
Mason, J. (2002). Researching your own practice: the discipline of noticing. Routledge.