Lead by Alan Durrant, the campus session was focused on reflection and part 2. We spent most part of the session in deep discussion about 'Structured Improvisation' within education. As a group we all explored what it meant to us and various topics came up, when we went off on a tangent, Alan would kindly steer us back to the original subject matter. For the sake of the people who were unable to make it, it seemed a sensible idea to conclude and actually define what improvised stricture actually is. Surprisingly, this took along time and proved rather difficult. The theme of balance was suddenly being tossed about, the idea that both words contradict each other, structure being organised and planned, whilst improvise meaning acting on instinct and spontaneously. So using them together in teaching, would essentially mean having to use each one adaptively to the individual class.
However there was a larger learning to be had, as important and interesting as the subject matter was. What was more important is that we took a subject and carefully, concisely and with argument critically reflected. It was this ethos and energy to reflection that would theme the next part of the module.
What was also fantastic was that as soon as the students got in the room, we couldn't wait to talk/moan about the difficulties of studying and working at the same time. It felt good to speak with people on the same page. There is a real sense of a network community growing with the course...
Hi Ahmet. Yes the campus session on "structured improvisation" was of great interest and raised a number of questions, especially with regards to my own approach to teaching. Each individual person had some valuable experiences to add to the 'spontaneous' group discussion. I 'plan' to further explore structured improvisation within my own lessons. However I am slightly nervous about exposing myself, especially as I have always been so organised and always have a lesson plan to hand. I love your idea about the map, a place to go (A to B) but how you get there/the route you take is dictated by your students. This will inspire me to take more risk with improvisation while maintaining some structure. Do you have any further recommendations? Wish me luck! Feedback to follow. Gemma
ReplyDeletehi ahmet thanks for posting about the campus session! sounds like another good one i missed out on! but am very greatful for you posting up some info on it, it sounds like one i would be really interested in, im struggling to get to grips with task two at the moment i just can't seem to focus myself on the task at hand and get into the flow of journal writting critical thinking ect, also it sounds asif you touched on different teaching styles ect again something i am wanting to be more heavily involved in, so keep up the good posting :) much appreciated, and any more info you have id be glad to read it, as its always good to learn from experience.
ReplyDeleteHi Ahmet,
ReplyDeleteI found the campus session very interesting, although I found myself becoming increasingly absorbed by the subject matter of "structured improvisation" as opposed to my learning how to critically reflect...Having come away from the session confused, despondent and quite wound up by the whole experience, what I later realised, was that I had sub-consciously learnt an important lesson - What is critical reflection? My interpretation is that "critical reflection" is a method or process used to analyse any given subject by means of questioning theories, explanations and evidence. Does that make sense?
Steph - I will do my best to Blog my thoughts and ideas about the session - Alan has given a very good summary on his Blog.
:-)