Refining a Teaching Pattern: Reflection Around Artefacts

Abstract

Reflection is a critical component in creative design, but may be difficult for novices to employ or explicitly express. Pedagogy to promote such expression may be enhanced by requiring undergraduate students to explain how they conceptualised, fabricated, revised and consulted though a semi-formal performance to peers. By incorporating spoken as well as deictic gestural expression into their performance, students are readily able to reveal their thinking. This study reports on a longitudinal teaching experiment designed to establish and better understand pedagogy concerned with inducing student reflection around self-made artefacts. A comparison of a single pedagogical pattern over time indicates that a durable and successful teaching methodology was captured and refined. An analysis of in-performance spoken and gestural expression revealed a high density of complex high-level reflection by students. This study has implications for pedagogical design of undergraduate programs requiring reflection and the evaluation of student reflection based on performance.

Appendix 1: RAA Pattern (2013)

1.1 Reflection Around Artefacts

1.1.1 The Problem

In some contexts, students need to see, and at times touch and experience an artefact (something that is produced from their learning activity) to help them reflect on the processes that went into its design and/or fabrication. Creative work that requires the fabrication of tangible artefacts almost always involves intense iterative design. However, reflection in these situations is difficult since it must compete for attention with other activities, such as the processes involved in skill acquisition. Students are so busy that they may ignore the benefits to be gained by reasoned reflection on their own performance. Further, students can easily forget the reasoning behind critical design decisions that they have made unless prompted in some way. Even when students are actively reflecting when engaged in design work, there are still hurdles to overcome when taking part in academic study. They may be asked to express their reflective thinking, initially in dialogue, but later in writing to what might be an unfamiliar genre .

1.1.2 The Context

A performance, where a designed artefact is presented to peers and assessors is an opportunity to prompt reflection. The performance (in the case of Fashion Studies students, a review of a sample/prototype) is a time when the artefact is displayed in a formal setting and an audience prompts the student to express reflective thinking in dialogue. The artefact, the formal setting and the prompting can act together to initiate and then reveal reflective thinking. This is evident when students can be seen to spontaneously point to and gesture around the artefact. In addition to the performance, reflective thinking can occur in the lead-up or afterwards. The “performance” in this case is drawn from the discipline (a review of design) and is reasonably formalised. Most disciplines have characteristic performance genres for example, business students pitching a business plan, education students demonstrating a lesson segment or law students mounting a legal argument. Associated with each of these performances is an artefact, be it a business plan, a lesson plan, a legal brief or (in the case of Fashion Studies) a garment sample.

The key aspect to this pattern is the engagement with an artefact (whether it is a garment, a plan or a structured document) and the leverage that this provides to stimulate recall and higher-order reflection. Depending on the discipline, this approach mirrors real world processes, as prototype artefacts are often reviewed in a team context requiring high level reflective dialogue for issues like product usability, uniqueness of design and possible marketplace acceptance.

1.1.3 The Pattern

• 1. Set up the design task with a realistic time-frame since design, practical and creative skills usually require an extended time, because students need to work through an imprecise number of developmental iterations. A clear task specification is required so that students can begin to know what outcomes are expected, the time-frame involved and the ways in which they will be assessed. Depending on the context, students may need extensive scaffolding around use of time, resources, milestones, and the acquisition of skills.

• 2. For students who have not had introductory experience in formal reflective expression, provide resources (such as the 4Rs model) and opportunities for skill building. Try at least to cover verbal reflection over a range of levels through modelling .

• 3. Ask students to set up a private journal (e.g. a blog or physical record) so that students can record their reflection on the processes involved in designing and making the artefact (these may include multimedia elements). If the artefact is physical (such as an item of fashion design), students may also benefit from a physical journal, as this can allow for tactile elements such as fabric swatches. Scaffold the reflective journaling task with frameworks, exemplars and assessment criteria (if it is to be assessed directly).

• 4. Prepare the presentation event. If you have videos of good performances by past students, use these as exemplars. For the event itself, prepare a running order for presentations, arranging people (such as a profession model, in the case of fashion artefacts), resources, recording and display equipment, etc. Photographs, videos and audio recordings are particularly useful because they can be used to capture dialogue that can serve as further prompts to further reflection, as well as providing exemplar resources in subsequent semesters. Student peers can also be engaged to act as recorders using devices such as mobile phones.

• 5. During each presentation, students individually present their artefact to an audience of peers and academic teachers. They explain and provide a rationale for their design (i.e. reflection) through commentary, but may complement this with other representations (e.g. graphic images, diagrams, plans, patterns). In addition, as the artefact is a tangible object the student can discuss dimensional issues (in the case of fashion, garment fit and silhouette) and may elect to show/reveal internal construction elements that are critical to realise the design. During the presentation, the audience pose questions concerning design (perhaps around how the artefact matches the conceptual plan, commercial viability and aesthetic nuances) and technical issues (around decisions and mistakes they made). These questions serve to elicit verbal reflections that are captured directly (as a recoding) or as a stimulus for recall following the presentation.

• 6. Follow up by requiring reflection after the presentation. Optionally, ask students to make a posting to their blog following the presentation and/or their non-digital journal. This writing can be structured to include multimedia elements (from the presentation). Because it is effectively second-order reflection, if it is an assessable piece, higher-order reflective thinking can be expected. Alternatively, conduct a whole group reflection session couched in terms of what advice present students would give to the next cohort. Student reflections can be transcribed, grouped, re-ordered and displayed on screen to encourage participation. As well as providing students with an opportunity to reflect this can provide valuable feedback teaching improvement.

1.1.4 Related Patterns

• Performer as Reflective Practitioner (PRP)

• Second Order Reflections (SOR)

• Start Talking Reflection (STR)

1.1.5 Notes

In some circumstances students may feel overwhelmed or suffer performance anxiety to present their artefacts to peers. This is particularly the case if the student considers their work to be of a lower standard than their peers and consequential judgmental values that may apply. This may also apply to some international students where they may feel ill at ease presenting to peers, due to language or cultural barriers. Hence, it is important to frame the environment in a collegial context to support open and honest reflective dialogue. Exemplar videos of past students performing and reflecting may also help overcome barriers to presentation.

In capstone units, students are sometimes asked to present artefacts to industry mentors for feedback , in consultation with their peers, and this can present unique challenges for open reflective dialogue. Students may feel threatened to expose flaws in their work in fear of judgemental comments from experienced professionals. In such cases it may be prudent not to assess reflective dialogue at all, or to assess it indirectly (e.g. as annotations to an assessable product).

In some circumstances students are given an extension for submission of the artefact (health issues or unforeseen technical or personal circumstances) and this then does not allow for presentation of the artefact to their peers. If the student is unable to present and/or attend the group presentation, it can be challenging, or impossible, to develop an authentic suitable audience for their subsequent presentation.

Issues may exist for privacy, as some students may not want for personal and/or religious reasons to have their presentation digitally documented with photos or video.

To reduce the marking load when this pattern is used for summative assessment, the first phase marking can be largely mechanical, e.g. based on frequency and spacing of journal entries (rather than their content). In addition, the second order reflective work can be compact and use non-textual forms of representation (images, models, audio & visual productions).