RAPPORT
WWW.RECORDINGACHIEVEMENT.AC.UK
Issue 2 (2015)
spectrum of these ranges from the formulaic,
which encourages an instrumental or constrained
approach to reflection, to the free-flowing and
entirely private.
Part of the reason for exploring different
approaches to reflection is to try to reconcile two
competing aspects; on the one hand we believe it
is important enough for it to figure in learning of all
kinds, while on the other hand students aren’t
quite as convinced or fired up about it as we would
like them to be. We therefore need to find multiple
ways of bringing reflection to life for them in ways
that match their preferred approaches to learning
and self-expression. Adopting creative methods
to do this is one way of helping students voice
things that surprise them or uncover insights that
may not have become visible through other
means.
Extra-curricular and informal achievement: If
not HEAR then where?
An important aspect of making reflection
meaningful lies in the student’s ability and
opportunity to make bridges between all different
aspects of their learning – the work-related,
academic and social faces of PDP. Certain extracurricular achievements are currently being
recorded in Higher Education Achievement
Reports (HEARs) by 90 or so UK universities and
colleges2. However for those of us who have not
gone down this road as yet the question remains
as to where extra-curricular achievement or
important informal learning is being rewarded and
logged. Some of this will be through e-portfolios of
varying designs. The ‘reward’ part of this is
sometimes open to criticism by colleagues who
fear that the need to persist with difficult learning
for its own sake is being hijacked by a desire to
incentivise every step of the way. This is seen as
undermining any sense that reward enough
should lie in successfully grasping an issue or
reshaping ones beliefs.
However Gauntlett (2012) in offering eight
principles for fostering creativity via digital
platforms argues that recognition is an essential
factor in participation. In recent years digital
badges have been introduced as a means of
marking the moment, or recognising that learning
outside the credit system has value to the
2
The Higher Education Achievement Report (HEAR) is
intended to provide a single comprehensive record of a
learner’s achievement, as recommended by the
Measuring and Recording Student Achievement Steering
Group in the ‘Beyond the Honours Degree – the Burgess
Group Final Report’ (October 2007). At
http://www.universitiesuk.ac.uk/highereducation/Pages/B
urgessBeyondHonours.aspx#.Vij_LtLnuM8 accessed
21/10/2105. The HEAR enables institutions to provide a
individual.
In
other
contexts
gamifying
participation has been used as a means of
encouraging engagement, with points, prizes and
other kinds of benefits available to the ‘players’ as
they move through levels of achievement. Like
creativity, play is being increasingly recognised as
a crucial enabler to free the mind, open horizons
to new possibilities, relax, make connections and
deepen meaning (James and Brookfield, 2014;
James, 2015a; Nerantzi and James 2015). In the
context of making students creative and reflective
thinkers we can think about how creativity and
play enhance learning and motivation and
increase feelings of capability, satisfaction and
ownership.
Lea rning to know, be, do and reflect creatively
in the disciplines
Both Delors (1996) and the authors of the
Signature Pedagogies Project (Thomson et al.,
2012) emphasise the four key elements of
pedagogy as learning to do, to be, to know and to
live together, while Wenger (1998), Gauntlett
(2007, 2011) and Vygotksy (1978) are among
those who have stressed the essential
contribution
of
social,
interactional
and
collaborative modes of learning. Being and doing
within a discipline or field means getting to grips
with the intellectual tradition of that domain, which
may be intricate and have set practices, while also
having its own ambiguities and variations. Play
and creative explorations can be a means of
unpacking these complexities.
The intellectual tradition of a subject, discipline or
field is made up of a number of elements: in Figure
2 we can see how the intellectual tradition of
fashion may be understood through the lens of
Cultural and Historical Studies. This goes beyond
grasping what clothes are made of, who wears
them and when, to understanding complex
theoretical perspectives which shape individuals
and their own knowledge and perceptions. An
intellectual tradition is expressed by certain ways
of knowing and engaging which may involve
reading, writing and examinations at one end of
the spectrum and learning by doing or
multisensory involvement at the other. A museum
curator, cultural historian, pattern cutter, visual
merchandiser and catwalk model will all approach
their participation in the subject from very different
detailed picture of student achievement throughout a
students’ time at university, including academic work,
extra-curricular activities, prizes and employability
awards, voluntary work and offices held in student union
clubs and societies that have been verified by the
institution. At http://hear.ac.uk/about (accessed
21/10/2015)
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