NB — this post I wrote immediately after the first workshop day in early January 2024 and haven’t edited it, except adding footnotes and a reference, and thus its validity for the submission is debatable. It does however give a diary-like insight to my thoughts at the time.
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Reflections on the first day of the PgCert. In honesty I am feeling quite unsure about what is really expected of me to do, and as my teaching practice really doesn’t have many student facing lessons coming up between now and the submission, its a bit difficult to imagine when I will be able to be meaningfully observed. On top of this I don’t really enjoy the lessons I am teaching as my core teaching and I have taught many of my enjoyable and interesting sessions last term, such as creative expression, tutorials with outgoing MA students, or introduction to typography. Its a shame I couldn’t be observed in the autumn term, alas. This leaves me feeling somewhat overwhelmed right at this moment. Interestingly it’s not the academia, as in the theoretical reading or writing, or indeed the reflection or observation — these all sound somewhat exciting. It’s really my reality that I don’t think I actually like much what it is I teach as my core lesson at LCF, the Creative Portfolio Workshop. Should one enjoy the lessons they teach?*
Workshops 1+2 were enjoyable and it was great to start the course and unpack the beginnings of the pedagogical reflection.
I am really excited about learning more about object-based learning, so I’m looking forward to the lecture/workshop on the 24th Jan. Campbell discussed the paper (Willcocks and Mahon, 2023) he read as part of the preparatory reading which focused on the object-orientated-teaching† which sounds really interesting and I think its by the academic Judy Willcocks who is leading the lecture on the 24th.
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Footnotes
* The answer is yes, we should enjoy the lessons we teach, see blog post 5 and tutor observation.
† Object Based Learning (OBL), of course.
References
Willcocks, J. and Mahon, K. (2023) “The potential of online object-based learning activities to support the teaching of intersectional environmentalism in art and design higher education,” Art Design & Communication in Higher Education, 22(2), pp. 187–207. doi: 10.1386/adch_00074_1.