Dissertation•
The Experience of Teaching in Art, Design and Communication.
01 Jan 2003-
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explored conceptions of teaching held by academics in departments of art, design and communication and explored links between those conceptions and the communities of practice associated with the subject context.
Abstract: The aim of this thesis is to explore conceptions of and approaches to teaching situated within the context of practice-based teachers of art, design and communication. This thesis explores conceptions of teaching held by academics in departments of art, design and communication and explores links between those conceptions and the communities of practice associated with the subject context. It also aims to further investigate how approaches to teaching relate to the concept of communities of practice. The qualitatively different ways that teachers of creative practices experience their teaching is explored. The study focuses on teachers of practice-based subjects in art, design or communication. The data is from an interview study of 44 teachers from eight UK Universities and is explored with a phenomenographic approach. The analysis was grouped into three discrete sub-disciplines, media practice (15), fine art (11) and design (18), through which variation in the practice dimensions could also be discerned. The research adopts a second-order perspective on the experience of teaching a practice-based subject in art, design and communication departments. The important feature of this analysis is the community of practice dimension, in particular how teaching is perceived as contributing to engaging with the social practices which constitute the particular creative practice. Following the interviews with art, design and communication teachers, a slightly revised Approaches to Teaching Inventory (ATI), with the inclusion of skills and communities of practice items, was distributed to teachers in the UK. 73 returned questionnaires were analysed. The results show (a) that the ATI has validity in practice-based areas, and (b) that all teachers aim to develop students' skills, but those with a student-focused approach are more likely to also focus on the practice and the real world problems of the profession. The positive correlation between an emphasis on development for the professions and a student-focused approach to teaching, offers insight for those involved in the further development of teaching practice.
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2,171 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, a study was conducted to understand how tutors, who also described themselves as creative practitioners, experienced the relationship between practice and teaching, and five categories of variation in relations were construed, indicating that variation in relation can impact on what and how students learn.
Abstract: This article reports on a study which aimed to understand how tutors, who also described themselves as creative practitioners, experienced the relationship between practice and teaching. In some disciplines this relationship has been shown to be problematic, but few explanations are given to account for this. A phenomenographic approach to studying this relationship was adopted and five categories of variation in relations are construed, indicating that variation in relations can impact on what and how students learn. Category 1 indicates a focus on transferring knowledge based on skills acquisition, and category 2 on using knowledge in order to develop understanding. In Category 3 the relationship limits the kinds of knowledge students can access. Category 4 indicates an exchange of knowledge between practice and teaching and category 5 integrates practice and teaching in a holistic experience of the relationship.
23 citations
Dissertation•
01 Jan 2016
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explored librarians' perceptions of arts students as learners in the creative arts and explored connections between intentions, orientations, and practice in terms of librarian's approaches to enabling student learning.
Abstract: Academic Librarians, working in specialist arts universities, create resources, design services and provide information literacy sessions to enhance arts student learning. They work collaboratively as hybrid professionals and play a valuable role in supporting students to navigate the complexities of the information landscape and develop as independent learners. This research explores librarians' perceptions of arts students as learners in the creative arts. It further considers connections between 'intentions', 'orientations' and 'practice', in terms of librarians' approaches to enabling student learning. A qualitative methodology was used to identify variation in understandings about these students and an interpretative analysis is offered which examines a discourse of 'difference' and 'difficulty' which threads through the narratives and connects the categories of description identified through this research. Contextual factors are explored and the effect the identified beliefs and attitudes might have on librarians' practice and on their provision of art library services is examined. Consideration is given to how arts librarians might transition from some of their currently held assumptions about art students as learners to a more complex and complete understanding of art student learning. This research finds that academic librarians conceptualise arts students in different ways, namely as problematic learners, practitioner learners, particular learners and proficient learners. Above all they find them to be 'different' to other students and other library users and often 'difficult' to support. The framing of arts student learners in these ways may be indicative of librarians' lack of confidence in the effectiveness of student learning strategies and uncertainty as to their own identity, role and purpose. This study has implications for library research and theory and also for policy, practice and professional development. The research outcomes may enable arts librarians to reflect upon and explore new ways of approaching their practice and improve services to meet the specific needs of arts students and arts curricula. This will entail a transition from a discourse of 'difference' and 'difficulty' to one which is more congruent with the exploratory and experimental pedagogy of art and design.
9 citations
Cites methods from "The Experience of Teaching in Art, ..."
...As one of the aims of this research was to increase understanding of how these perceptions might be interpreted through or applied to service design (Drew, 2003), an interpretative approach was undertaken to probe the discourse used by the research participants....
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Dissertation•
01 Jan 1999
TL;DR: In this article, the authors take a relational view and use phenomenographic and case study methodologies to address the following questions: "what are the teachers' and students' conceptions of teaching and learning instrumental and vocal music?", and "What are the relations between a teacher's conceptions and his/her students" conceptions?".
Abstract: This thesis describes variation in the way musicians and their students experience the teaching and learning of music at a tertiary level. The teaching and learning of instrumental music has a long tradition where students seek out a master musician and ' learn' the master's style. The tradition assumed that master musicians could naturally 'teach' by virtue of their own experience of learning and watching their master, and by virtue of their own formidable abilities. Instrumental music is unusual in that there has been no defined pedagogy, or curriculum, for the field. Research on teaching and learning music has concentrated on the obvious product of learning music, the performance. The quality of performance, and by default learning, has been studied using various behavioural and constructivist methodologies. This research found that the musicians' and student musicians' experience of the world of professional music may be related to their experience of teaching and learning music. The research for this thesis takes a relational view and uses phenomenographic and case study methodologies to address the following questions: "what are the teachers' and students' conceptions of teaching and learning instrumental and vocal music?", and "what are the relations between a teacher's conceptions and his/her students' conceptions?". The phenomenographic portion describes variation in the musicians' experience of teaching and learning as three sets of related categories of description: teachers' experience of teaching/learning instrumental music, students' experience of learning instrumental music, and students' experience of teaching instrumental music. This thesis also describes variation in the way musicians experience the professional music world. This has been called the Music Entity and it is found to be related to the way the participants' understand teaching and learning. Four case studies describe the relations found between individual teacher's experience of teaching and learning and those of their students. Finally, the implications for the academic development of instrumental/vocal teachers, curriculum development for instrumental/vocal music, and understanding teaching and learning in general are described.
9 citations
01 Jan 2012
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors used phenomenography as part of an extensive study in the under-researched area of elearning in art and design in Higher Education (HE).
Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to elaborate on how phenomenography was used as part of an extensive study in the under-researched area of elearning in art and design in Higher Education (HE). The purpose of the original study was to identify the perceptions and practices of lecturers in undergraduate art and design disciplines, as well as the unique characteristics and challenges of the sector vis-a-vis elearning. In this paper, references are made to some of the limited studies of elearning and ICT implementation in art and design. This highlights the need for further research and supports the position adopted by this paper that phenomenography is ideally suited for under-researched areas of investigation. The paper refers to some of the research outcomes in the context of reflecting upon and elaborating on the research methodology per se and the challenges and benefits of using phenomenography to investigate elearning in art and design. Consistently with the phenomenographic approach to research, the original study pursued a second-order perspective, i.e. through a qualitative analysis of semi-structured interviews the research dealt with people’s experiences of aspects of the world. Subsequently, the paper addresses the main tenets and critiques of the research methodology and the overall process it entails. It addresses how phenomenography facilitates the identification, description and categorization of perceptions and practices for the creation of a final outcome space that is manifested as a topology of inter-related categories or groupings of the perceptions and practices identified through semi-structured interviews. The paper elaborates on the main qualitative and quantitative critiques of phenomenography, as well as issues of validity and objectivity. The latter entails dealing with the concept of bracketing and the relationship between the researcher and the process of acquiring and interpreting the data through phenomenographic methods. Finally, this paper concludes that the contribution of phenomenography was invaluable in revealing the spectrum of challenges vis-a-vis elearning in art and design, and in opening up this specific area of study to further research.
8 citations
Cites background from "The Experience of Teaching in Art, ..."
...Drew (2002) suggests that it is characteristic of art and design that the adoption rate of ICTs is generally slow....
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...The author explored some of these themes and referred to ‘recurrent practices and implicit theories of learning and teaching’ that stem from the vocational nature of the related disciplines (Drew, 2003, p. 38)....
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References
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Book•
01 Jan 1998
TL;DR: Identity in practice, modes of belonging, participation and non-participation, and learning communities: a guide to understanding identity in practice.
Abstract: This book presents a theory of learning that starts with the assumption that engagement in social practice is the fundamental process by which we get to know what we know and by which we become who we are. The primary unit of analysis of this process is neither the individual nor social institutions, but the informal 'communities of practice' that people form as they pursue shared enterprises over time. To give a social account of learning, the theory explores in a systematic way the intersection of issues of community, social practice, meaning, and identity. The result is a broad framework for thinking about learning as a process of social participation. This ambitious but thoroughly accessible framework has relevance for the practitioner as well as the theoretician, presented with all the breadth, depth, and rigor necessary to address such a complex and yet profoundly human topic.
30,397 citations
"The Experience of Teaching in Art, ..." refers background in this paper
...The collective construction of practice (Wenger, 1998) makes things possible in the professional context....
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...The collective construction of practice (Wenger, 1998) makes things possible in the professional context. Collectively we make sense of and articulate practice to test and re-test the robustness of our claims. Those new to a practice can only make sense of it in practice and in reflecting on that practice through mutual engagement. Wenger (1998) states that talking about practice is the source of coherence in a community and that newcomers can join the community to further its practice and to construct their identity....
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...The cornerstone of these issues for professional learning can be summarised as learning to practice or becoming inducted into a community of practice (Wenger, 1998)....
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...This literature reviewed here comes from three main perspectives, the first of which looks at the sociocultural aspects of practice (Lave & Wenger, 1991; Lave 1993; Wenger, 1998)....
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Book•
01 Jan 1980TL;DR: In this article, the context of educational research, planning educational research and the styles of education research are discussed, along with strategies and instruments for data collection and research for data analysis.
Abstract: Part One: The Context Of Educational Research Part Two: Planning Educational Research Part Three: Styles Of Educational Research Part Four: Strategies And Instruments For Data Collection And Researching Part Five: Data Analysis
21,163 citations
Book•
[...]
01 Jan 1962
TL;DR: Kozulin has created a new edition of the original MIT Press translation by Eugenia Hanfmann and Gertrude Vakar that restores the work's complete text and adds materials that will help readers better understand Vygotsky's meaning and intentions as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: Since it was introduced to the English-speaking world in 1962, Lev Vygotsky's highly original exploration of human mental development has become recognized as a classic foundational work of cognitive science. Vygotsky analyzes the relationship between words and consciousness, arguing that speech is social in its origins and that only as children develop does it become internalized verbal thought.Now Alex Kozulin has created a new edition of the original MIT Press translation by Eugenia Hanfmann and Gertrude Vakar that restores the work's complete text and adds materials that will help readers better understand Vygotsky's meaning and intentions. Kozulin has also contributed an introductory essay that offers new insight into the author's life, intellectual milieu, and research methods.Lev S. Vygotsky (1896-1934) studied at Moscow University and acquired in his brief lifespan a nearly encyclopedic knowledge of the social sciences, psychology, philosophy, linguistics, literature, and the arts. He began his systematic work in psychology at the age of 28, and within a few years formulated his theory of the development of specifically human higher mental functions. He died of tuberculosis ten years later, and Thought and Language was published posthumously in 1934.Alex Kozulin studied at the Moscow Institute of Medicine and the Moscow Institute of Psychology, where he began his investigation of Vygotsky and the history of Soviet psychology. He emigrated in 1979 and is now Associate Professor of Psychiatry (Psychology) at Boston University. He is the author of Psychology in Utopia: Toward a Social History of Soviet Psychology (MIT Press 1984).
19,246 citations
Book•
01 Jan 2008
TL;DR: The Japanese companies, masters of manufacturing, have also been leaders in the creation, management, and use of knowledge-especially the tacit and often subjective insights, intuitions, and ideas of employees as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: Japanese companies, masters of manufacturing, have also been leaders in the creation, management, and use of knowledge-especially the tacit and often subjective insights, intuitions, and ideas of employees.
16,886 citations
TL;DR: Senge's Fifth Discipline is a set of principles for building a "learning organization" as discussed by the authors, where people expand their capacity to create the results they truly desire, where new and expansive patterns of thinking are nutured, where collective aspiration is set free, and where people are contually learning together.
Abstract: Peter Senge, founder and director of the Society for Organisational Learning and senior lecturer at MIT, has found the means of creating a 'learning organisation'. In The Fifth Discipline, he draws the blueprints for an organisation where people expand their capacity to create the results they truly desire, where new and expansive patterns of thinking are nutured, where collective aspiration is set free, and where people are contually learning together. The Fifth Discipline fuses these features together into a coherent body of theory and practice, making the whole of an organisation more effective than the sum of its parts. Mastering the disciplines will: *Reignite the spark of learning, driven by people focused on what truly matters to them. *Bridge teamwork into macro-creativity. *Free you from confining assumptions and mind-sets. *Teach you to see the forest and the trees. *End the struggle between work and family time. The Fifth Discipline is a remarkable book that draws on science, spiritual values, psychology, the cutting edge of management thought and Senge's work with leading companies which employ Fifth Discipline methods. Reading it provides a searching personal experience and a dramatic professional shift of mind. This edition contains more than 100 pages of new material about how companies are actually using and benefiting from Fifth Discipline practices, as well as a new foreword from Peter Senge about his work with the Fifth Discipline over the last 15 years.
16,386 citations