RAPPORT
WWW.RECORDINGACHIEVEMENT.AC.UK
Issue 2 (2015)
The International Journal for
Recording Achievement,
Planning and Portfolios
Helping students become creative and reflective thinkers:
what do we know and what do we need to know?
Dr Alison James, London College of Fashion
This is an abridged version of the keynote address given at Plymouth University in April 2015 at
the CRA’s fourth international seminar on ‘Researching and Evaluating Recording Achievement,
Personal Development Planning and e-Portfolio’ and the fourth Pedagogic Research Institute
and Observatory (PedRIO) annual conference, situated within the "Spaces to think" strand of the
PedRIO event.
Abstract:
This paper considers how we can bring creativity into our ways of teaching, learning, practising and
researching. In so doing it concentrates on how creative activities and spaces to think help us reflect on
what we know about ourselves, our subjects, and our wider lives. It begins with a short summary of what
we know about personal development planning (PDP) and then focuses on the benefits of adopting
three-dimensional, playful and creative approaches to exploring subjects. Its brief conclusion suggests
how creative and digital reflection can be brought together, drawing on Gauntlett’s eight principles for
fostering creativity using online platforms.
Keywords: Creativity, play, reflection, constructionism, LEGO®, eportfolio
Creativity: there’s a lot of it about
Creativity has become a buzzword and aspiration
in higher education, however what it means to
individuals and institutions will be shaped by many
factors. In this article it relates to the pleasurable
making (or doing) of something new. It can take
shape in thinking and writing, not just making and
sticking, and may be about newness to the
individual, rather than the world; about the
everyday rather than the exceptional. In the
context of university education Stephen Brookfield
and I put it like this: “For teachers, our notion of
imaginative teaching necessarily entails them
trying to see their pedagogic actions and
reasoning in new and creative ways” (James &
Brookfield, 2014. p11).
A Baptism Without Fire
Before sharing examples of how we might do this
I must first tell you about a christening I attended
recently, a special and jovial occasion at a church
in Greater London. We were greeted on arrival by
a sign on its door that read "Wherever you have
come from, and whatever you have brought with
you, you are welcome here". I liked it enormously
for its openness, but also for the warm analogy it
provides for how I hope we invite new students to
join us in our practices at university. The
‘whatever you have brought with you’ has obvious
relevance for our students’ backgrounds,
educational histories, learning dispositions and
preferences and for how they might want to
engage with recording their progress while with
us. I’ll come back to that in a moment.
The sermon was highly interactive, with the vicar
roaming the aisles and asking unsuspecting
members of the congregation what they deemed
to be the purpose of church. (This did make me
review my own ‘friendly’ style of careering around
the lecture theatre with a mobile microphone and
wonder if it was actually more intimidation than
outreach.) Alerted by my daughter that he had me
in his sights I confess I hid my head in my
handbag until the danger was past. This was not,
I stress, out of any disrespect for his question, but
rather that it was so serious it merited a
responsible answer and I blanked completely. I
could only think of the coffee and biscuits we had
been promised five minutes earlier. More vocal
parishioners said it was a place to meet God,
which I had anticipated, however the vicar
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