Thinking about Critical Reflection

Looking at Kolb’s learning cycle (see p7 of the Reflective Practices Reader) you can see that all the tasks you have been doing and have yet to complete as part of the module are about having a concrete experience. For instance you may have made a 45sec movie clip about what you expect from BAPP, blogged an inquiry task or identified your five most important sources of information. These tasks, at first glance, may appear random and unconnected but towards the end of the module as you approach the assessment task of writing a critical reflection on your professional practice, you will move on to the next stage of Kolb’s cycle and review and reflect on the experience. What impact did these tasks have on your professional practice? What was learned as a result of completing them?

Reviewing all the tasks involves sitting back and making mental or actual notes on each of them. In Dewey’s view reflective thought involves “active, persistent and careful consideration” (see p6 of Reflective Practices Reader for full quote). You may see that there are patterns. For instance, certain tasks engaged you with technologies, while others were designed to actively engage you with peers. But the question to ask is what effect have they had on your professional practice? From all the tasks, certain themes may emerge and you need to identify these through another point on Kolb’s cycle – concluding from the experience (task). This process should provide you with the material you need for your critical reflection.

Another point on Kolb’s cycle is trying out what you have learned as a result of the reflection and identifying what was actually learned. You should be looking for deeper learning in constructing your critical reflection. While you might have learned how to embed a link to a flickr site from your blog, the question to ask is whether this actual activity had any impact on your actual professional practice and if so how? You may find, perhaps, that the process of learning was more about the content of the images of you posted on flickr. You may have noticed through engaging with other blogs that some of your colleagues were more selective in images they provided links to and thus used the opportunity to demonstrate their different skills / aptitudes, while on reflection you posted images which were all slightly different shots of the same event / show. Therefore in constructing a visual CV, on reflection, you may choose to revise what you include on a flickr link in the future.

Key issues to cover in your critical reflection on professional practice are to consider how your professional practice has been changed and this will be the subject of my next blog.

Catching up with Module

It’s early days yet on the programme and some are further on with the tasks than others. There are a lot of good reasons for that but it’s important right now to try and catch up, if you are behind, before you feel overwhelmed. It’s worth recalling that there are 3 strands/themes to the module. The first is Professional Communication Technologies, the next is Reflective Practitioner (which is where we are right now) and finally there is the Networked Professional. Each one of these has the following elements:

Reader
Campus Session
Tasks to do

All the readers are located under the module tab on libguides. The campus sessions have been reported upon on many of the blogs and indeed the blogs also contain many of the tasks. The tasks to do for Part 1 – on Page 8 of the Module Handbook. Tasks for Part 2 – are on Page 14 of the Handbook. It’s good to remember that each theme is underpinned with a reader which introduces the topic to you at greater depth and contains suggestions for further readings for you.

The campus sessions have been reported upon on many of the blogs and indeed the blogs also contain many of the tasks.The First Campus session is well described by Mark & Anthony. Paula has posted the student work produced in that session as well as my blog. Joanna's account of Professional Communications Technologies drew in a range of comments from colleagues and is well worth a look as are the comments. The tasks, in particular, the video clip produced some real creative and entertaining gems. In the realm of photos, Melissa provided a professional overview of her professional practice as did Ross. The videos gave opportunity to fulfil those cinematic urges. Stacey’s video clip is a mixture of the scarily imaginative at the outset transferring to a straight to camera piece. Other clips which cleverly conveyed the message were Joanna’s (who also provides technical advice, Hayley’s & Alana’s .

My earlier post provides an overview of the exercises we did with short video clips for those who were not there. Natalieprovides a good account of Campus Session 2 (Reflective Practice) while Mark’s follow up piece in Reflection in and Reflection on Action is well worth reading.

The sources of learning are becoming evident and they are building up into resources. There are examples of all stages in Kolb’s Learning Cycle (see Reader) contained within these blogs.

Refelction - theme of Campus Session 2

This was meticulously planned by Adesola – and the theme of the session was Reflection which is in the reader for this section of the module. It was a pity that at the last moment, Adesola had urgent family business and so it fell to Paula and I to run the session on her behalf. One of the exercises we did was to imagine another professional practice as follows:

Professional Partners

Partner with someone who does not do what you do - think of ‘what you do’ choose one thing! And put it as a title on your notebook (i.e. choreographer), then swap with partner and list all the things they experience / do. Swap back and read what is said. In the discussion afterwards there was more reporting on the content of what people thought their partner did rather than on the process.

Scary story

The next exercise involved telling a scary story as follows: Scary story – with a partner, tell story then do it with different partner…talk about the experience
In the feedback this time which was more about the process than the content of the story points were made that you had to react quite quickly with little time to think.

Moving with sticks

Using Sticks, in threes (or four) the class had to move from one side of the room to the other and turn inside out. The feedback on this was that teamwork, communication and co-ordination were necessary. The groups merged naturally to try another level of difficulty unprompted.

We then asked participants to jot down one thing from this morning’s activity they could identify with in Kolb’s Learning Cycle which is the Reflection Reader which is part of the module.

Silent Tour

Everyone was asked to plan their own, including three things using three pieces of card. They could include sound, smell etc…. In groups of four everyone to both lead a tour and go on one. In the feedback afterwards, everyone said how much they enjoyed this and the main difference was that they had time to plan this.

The discussion turned to journal writing which is the nature of the next set of tasks – as on Page 14 of the Module Handbook. We asked people to revisit the points they had identified as having experienced in Kolb’s Learning Cycle and after a few days to revisit this and see if anything new could be recorded as a way of stimulating reflective practice.

During the campus session, everyone was asked to make a contribution to the graffiti wall as thoughts occurred to them

Music on the web

As it's the weekend you might wish to chill with some music - here's a link to a search engine called MUNDU on the web I discovered - you can find

Documents
Lyrics
Sound Files
Videos

I've tried it and it's pretty fast...

Technologies in Professional Practice

The opportunities and threats in relation to the above formed the theme of the campus session on 1st October. Teams were formed and asked to consider the issues and prepare a group presentation toward the end of the session. I hovered around the edge of a four person team made up of :

Anthony
Colleen
Nikki
Sandy

I observed them develop and prepare their presentation. They started out by talking around the topic – working to achieve a common understanding of what was meant by both professional practice and technologies. They added theoretical underpinning to their ideas as each of them spent 20 mins scanning and digesting one article from lib guides which they brought back to the group discussion. They developed their original thoughts as a result of this activity and drawing upon the literature they added weight to their argument. Two of the papers, they looked at were:

Lorenzo et al, (2006)

Ullrich et al (2008)

The other papers are all available on the Specific Links tab for the Module

At the end of this process they worked on their story board for the presentation and agreed a structure. In designing their presentation they agreed to frame their ideas in a metaphor of the sea. This dimension brought the presentation into sharper focus and contributed to the professionalism of the team. In the 2 hours 20 minutes available, the four of them traded experiences and knowledge, read and made notes from four articles, constructed a coherent presentation and here is the result - a very good morning’s work indeed.

Team31

View more presentations from Rosemary McGuinness.

Lessons learned from the process

Spend time clarifying the issue/scoping the problem(s), settling on definitions
Team working is more effective than working individually
Digesting other ideas (peers & literature) is worthwhile
Backing up ideas from published work is essential
Deeper learning occurs when ideas are discussed, iterated, explored in texts and applied
Time spent editing and shaping work is necessary

The team made a short video summarising their points (apologies for the dodgy voice sync)



Other teams made very good presentations as well, but I do not have their material to post. A very enjoyable morning indeed - well done everyone!

CV

One of the best tips I ever got was from a book called “What colour is your parachute” many moons ago. And it was this. In telling your story through your CV you should relate your achievements in particular posts as opposed to merely describing your duties. So instead of saying,

“Taught a range of post-graduate modules”,

I would say,

“Developed two new modules in consultation with employers and amended the assessment on another in order to make it more relevant to students’ intended career path”.

The second statement demonstrates a more active approach to work and therefore is more appealing to an employer. Crafting a CV is a vitally important task. It’s getting your foot in the door and it demands that you spend a great deal of time working on it.

Showing instead of telling

While I have not got a CV to hand at the moment, the details of my employment history and education are there for all to see on the LinkedIn site. The LinkedIn site does offer some insight into my career. It provides links to both my tweets and to slideshare where my slides are on public view. Showing my slides could be considered as part of my portfolio. This shows what I can actually do as opposed to merely stating it on a CV.

If you have the opportunity to present a CV digitally, you should consider embedding digital examples of your work as a showcase of what you can do. Nigel Boyce is an actor who has appeared in a range of productions. He has produced a video clip which clearly demonstrates his range of work.



Patrick O'Kane is another actor who has put his CV on his agent's site with a an example of his voice. There is a long list of productions he has appeared in. The two modes of presentation are in sharp contrast. It would be interesting to hear which you think more effectively showcases their professionalism to the greater effect?

Reflection & CV

Producing a CV should encourage self reflection. What is the message you want to convey about yourself? Critically review your own CV and consider how a potential employer might view you. For instance, I am aware that my own CV shows a higher than average number of employers. Anyone reading it might assume that I have itchy feet. Or that I am not very committed. Or even, maybe, that I had to move on. I am aware of these so in telling the story of my work history I try to convey a sense of achievement. And this is actually true. In the process of self-reflection , I conclude that I like starting new things, I thrive on a challenge and I love learning. When I have mastered something new I have tended to move on and start afresh.

The experience of working in a variety of organisations, with different cultures has been very useful as I can bring to a new organisation things I have learned elsewhere as well as the confidence to deal purposefully with a wide range of abilities. It has been a privilege to have been a part of so many great organisations and to have seen how they operate from the inside. Not only did all this experience benefit me in moving from job to job (and usually to a better one), it solidified my academic interest in organisational culture. I was curious to learn more about what makes organisations tick? This led me into my first academic role, teaching Management at Post graduate level. After some time I changed tack again and became interested in the notion of Leadership. This led me into thinking about the difference between Management and Leadership. And this has led to my current interest which is biographical data and uncovering the language (or discourse) of leaders. Carrying out a series of biographical interviews has then led me into evaluating this as a methodology for inquiry.

Hedgehog or Fox?

Isaiah Berlin was a philosopher who wrote a famous essay called the Hedgehog and the Fox about the pursuit of knowledge. The hedgehog knows a lot about one big thing while the fox knows many small things. I believe my work history shows that I have leanings towards the fox.

Photos on Flickr

When I got my digital camera a few years ago I began to store the pictures on my computer and decided to build up an image bank. A few months ago I uploaded some of my photos to the flickr resource. Here is a sample of my photos. I found it useful to organise them into themes; hence I have this set which I have entitled "Adult Learning" and I have one on "Transport" and so on. I have used my images in my professional practice in slide shows which I have developed as learning tools. Another good use I put my images to is the creation of my unique calling cards through Moo - which is relatively inexpensive. Doing this has made me realise how valuable the digital camera is and I make sure I have it with me as much as possible. When I am taking a close up photo of people I ask the subject if they mind if I take their photo. Mostly, people are ok about it but occasionally, they refuse. This I fully respect. Thinking about an image bank has made me look around me a lot more when I am out and about. It has also made me more aware of the everyday events close at hand. A camera is not just for holidays: it's for life!

Those times I do not have my camera I use my mobile phone. In fact, I was so pleased with this image I took on my i-phone that I used it for my calling / business card. I like the fact that it's the confluence of three textures / structural materials. It's taken in my hotel room in Barcelona when I was at a conference there last year. I am sure I was influenced by my god-daughter who had just completed architecture and listening to her talk with enthusiasm about building materials made me look at structures and buildings with a better informed eye.