action research project

PgCLT
Les Bicknell

action research 2009/10

My action research is concerned with delivering students the opportunity to look into themselves. It is to be a vehicle to enable them to define, who they are, recognise what they could be and take control and responsibility for their learning and ultimately their lives.

History – national context
I think it is important to understand the history of PDP, the background and philosophy of why it was conceived and delivered. “Personal Development Planning (PDP) was first conceived by the National Committee of Inquiry into Higher Education, published as the 1997 Dearing Report (NCIHE 1997). Initially envisaged as a two-part means for recording student achievement, the proposed Progress File emerged as part of a national strategy for equipping the UK as a learning society over the following decades. In the 11 years since the report was published, PDP has evolved within a dominant context of employability and skills development, from a planning and recording tool aimed at linking formal and informal learning to one geared towards the needs of the UK as part of the global economy.”
Buckley. (2008) PDP: From introduction to the present.

The context of employability is something I will address alongside the idea of ‘skills development’ an open ended phrase which eventually I will knowingly explore and exploit with a particular vision.

History – local context
Within the past 5 years PDP at Norwich University College of the Arts, formerly Norwich School of Art and Design on the BA Textile course, formerly BA Contemporary Textile Practices, formerly BA Textiles has had a fractured and chequered past. Its initial introduction in September 2003 was confused. The concept of PDP was conflated with diary and sketchbook. This saw the staff having to read endless angst ridden youthful tales of worthless boyfriends and isolation amongst shopping lists for make up and the occasional idea relating to the students work thrown in.
Over the next 4½ years this poor practice continued even with focused and specific group briefings that attempted to direct the confused and overloaded students to be more reflected and more rigorous. This initiative recognised their inability to undertake reflective thinking but did not provide the skills, which they obviously lacked. These briefing sessions were supported with examples of good practice; the more successful PDPs of the previous year’s students and they also examined some writing undertaken by artists. But the sessions did not teach them how to truly approach the task or actually undertake it with any meaning.
In 2008 just before beginning the Postgraduate Certificate in Learning and Teaching course
the idea of addressing the issue of the PDP, by streamlining the process was considered. Subsequently initial reading led to reflective themes and so eager to undertake the PgCLT and identify my action learning I led this reorganisation.

Proposal
Currently the Personal Development Profile element of the BA Textile Course at NSAD suffered from a target driven agenda. My proposal was to develop a system, which clarified the PDP for both the student and staff attending and working on the BA Textiles Course at NUCA. This streamlining would enable students to complete their PDPs without student confusion and enable staff to assess in a shorter period of time whilst delivering appropriate feedback.
Within the textiles teaching team I decided to look at the issue of PDP because of my interest in art practice which involves developing rules and systems. This in turn led to the idea of constructive alignment, specifically Brookfield (1995) Becoming a Critically a Reflective Teacher - Becoming Critically Reflective – a process of learning and change, and a general interest in the development of systems and structures to support communication, learning and understanding, notably the work of Hans Rosling. I identified my action research as an opportunity to use good design to problem solve, something I take from my work within the public art arena.

I started the task by gathering student feedback. I ran a session where I generated student views on PDP with the current 2nd Year Textile BA students. Working in small groups they answered a set of questions appendix 01 and fed them back to the group for discussion, which was very lively and on the whole negative towards the idea of PDP. appendix 02 Examples of comments include “a good waste of paper”, “life’s too short to do something that isn’t marked”, “PDP is ambiguous I don’t know how to answer it” and “just tell me what to do and I can get on with it”. From this evidence it was identified that the students did not understand PDP or engage in reflective action.
At this time (July 09) within NUCA the PDP was marked separately. This was an important consideration when I set out to rethink how both students and staff could engage in PDP. How students undertook the process had to be aliened in relation to how staff would assess. There was a need for simplification and transparency to be instigated. As a way of streamlining the whole process after a series of meetings with the Textiles Team it was decided that the students would be asked to create a separate text, which would be the only item assessed. This writing would directly address the learning outcomes. appendix 03 Using our VLE Moodle system we developed a process for the students to complete their PDPs with the minimum of fuss. Over the period of the unit a system was constructed where they were given the opportunity to write their response to the 5 learning outcomes and get feedback from their cohort and the tutors, (if posted within a specific time frame). At the assessment point they were asked to write a 700-word statement which would need to address the 5 learning outcomes. Their previous 5 answers could be cut and pasted to create this new text, which were in turn cut and pasted from their blog, which they were encouraged to undertake. appendix 04 This successful pragmatic solution meant that the staff no longer had to read the students rambling journals – finding evidence to create marks and the students knew precisely what was asked of them. This was to be my action research project and as the statistics illustrate it was a successful activity.

Evaluation (1)
Unfortunately after more research reading around PDP and working on the PgCLT further to generate a wider and more rigorous understanding of my intervention I realised that this travesty of surface learning, constructed for all the right reasons was to fundamentally misunderstand the value of PDP. The PDP’s relationship to assessment is the factor that students consider; they review the learning outcomes and attempt to fulfil them without engaging fully with the actual learning opportunities that engaging rigorously with the idea of PDP and reflective thinking can offer.
We had created a poor teaching and learning strategy. Although it attempted, through good intentions, to solve the problem of a misunderstood concept (PDP) which had been delivered to a confused body of people, (students) which needed to be assessed within a limited time scale by a time poor group of people with forms to complete (staff). The streamlining of the exercise was successful. The tutors were able to assess the PDP’s quicker with a rigorous attention to the learning outcomes and the formal feedback was specific and directed to the Learning Outcomes. The students as a whole had a directed, successful experience. They had a defined task, which they understood and fulfilled to a higher degree than previous years. The PDP mark contributed to 20% of the final assessment in the final units of year 1 and 2 and was marked separately with its own set of learning outcomes. The cohort that undertook the PDP before the streamlining exercise attained an average mark of 47 in the academic year 2007/08. The following year, 2008/09, post streamlining, the same group attained an average mark of 53. This is a 6% increase. The 1st year cohort for 2008/09 who was introduced to the streamlined concept as part of the final unit briefing achieved an average mark of 59. This is a 12% increase.
This increase in the marks and the fuller engagement of the students through the VLE could be viewed as a success and in fact has been recognised by NUCA through the awarding of a Teaching and Student Support Award to myself for my work on PDP through the VLE. This was awarded in recognition of staff contribution to a high quality student experience at this year’s graduation ceremony.
This success is recognised in the unsolicited student comments I have received – an example of which is, “I have found that reflecting on my work up until now, has allowed me to look at the year as a whole and remind me what has been successful this year and in a wider sense I have been able to establish unsuccessful and successful areas of my projects and by seeing this it has made me question why this could be, it has also allowed me to begin to draw links…much of this year I have been worried about the rate I am progressing but this has allowed me to see where I have developed from last year”. Student Email 08 05 09. Feedback from a meeting with the students after the assessment appendix 08 led to a number of positive comments about the process including “5 tasks is okay – concise and easy enough to complete. Too much convoluted language in the briefs”, “Just have 5 tasks”. These comments will form the basis for change as there is also a number of thoughts which challenge the idea of streamlining from the student perspective.
But I believe this new approach was a diversion or at best a small step to what was needed, it allowed and supported surface learners to strategically engage with the PDP. Deep learners were also misdirected as they could not fully engage with the program as the systems we initiated were so specific, being closely tied to the assessment criteria and learning outcomes. The student therefore developed little or no understanding of the true value of reflective thinking, which is at the core of the PDP experience. As a result of my reflection I decided that a new strategy had to be employed both as an extension to the outcomes of my action research project but more importantly to develop an appropriate and fit for purpose system for the students to undertake PDP and reflective practice.

More history context
In the teaching year 2009/10 BA Textiles will be working with another new framework. Within this structure we are no longer assessing the PDP as a separate entity. It is to be marked from within an embedded position; the students will need to consider how to work with the concept of reflection and the staff will have to train themselves to recognise the students understanding of reflection through this holistic approach. At present we, as staff implementing these changes, have no idea if the assessment will require a specific mark or if it will be a learning outcome within the unit. This indecision/lack of direction from the management of NUCA lead me to develop a PDP strategy that is robust and focuses on the needs of the student and would be successful with or without an assessment. For it to be valued, valuable and sustainable it needed to be a creative experience to equip them both within and after the course.
The context is that we have to accept that students will develop strategies to undertake the course we have to develop a strategy equal to their strategic thinking, which will support the individual students learning. This is all within an altered educational paradigm that of from exclusion to inclusion, massification; an intention from the government that 50% of school-leavers will attend higher education by 2010 as opposed to a lack of targets in 1982 (the year I went to College) where 12% of school leavers attended higher education. The range of education opportunities, cultural backgrounds and general life experiences our current cohort have is vastly different from any time before and it is our responsibility as lecturers to engage in creative, flexible thinking to deliver this inclusive policy to further the cause of societies development.

Conclusion
Action to be undertaken as a result of the action research project.
I will develop a clear program of activities, which at their core will rethink philosophically how the course approaches PDP and as a result of this decide what and how we will deliver PDP within the BA Textile course at NUCA. The aim is to instil in the student’s minds that PDP is a process not an outcome. The initial idea is to make the process rather than the outcome of PDP mandatory attempting to present to the students a more meaningful experience. There will be no separate assessment but attendance at the teaching sessions would be noted and marked.
I have used the feedback I gathered from the initial session as a starting point for the reorganisation of PDP. Here I will outline the proposed intervention and the thinking behind each one. The PDP needs to be seen to be useful yet also integrated with what we are doing – it needs to be sustainable, filling gaps not create more work for the staff and students.
Students need to become engaging in and see the worth of PDP. One very practical strand of thinking to sell the idea to students would be to address the issue of employment. The inaugural Student Living Report, conducted by MORI and commissioned by The UNITE Group plc highlights students concerns around money and employability.

"Today's students focus on gaining good qualifications to help them find the right job. While they are happy with their choice of university and recognise that university studies are a wise investment in their future, they are worried about their debts."
Professor Sir Worcester, Robert. Chairman of MORI.

University is seen by those entering it as the gateway to their future; this includes a way for them to develop their job opportunities, increasing their knowledge and the essential skills to prepare them for their future life. This issue could be exploited to initially engage with and connect the student to PDP by presenting them with an understanding of how PDP links with the world of work and how engaging in PDP fully will enhance their employability. Edwards (2005) The Higher Education Academy Paper – connecting PDP to employer needs and the world of work outlines how the activities within PDP relate directly to the needs of employees. When asked what they looked for in potential employee’s employers listed.
Flexibility, adaptability and the capacity to cope with and manage change, self motivation and drive, analytical ability and decision making, communication and interpersonal skills and team working ability and skills.
It is interesting to note that these skills and attributes recognised as valuable by employers are the very ones that are developed and heightened by a rigorous engagement with reflective thinking within PDP. Although in the light of both current and historical employable rates for art college graduates, specifically at NUCA, it would appear that another role for PDP needs to be developed.
Unable to gain more recent data on student specifics at NUCA, in itself an interesting factor, I looked at Knight (1996). It focused on notions of success in art graduates at what was NSAD. She found that only 3% of graduates from 1991 – 94 were making a living selling their work.

The acquisition of skills is an important factor – there is a view from the student body, noted within feedback systems both official and anecdotal, that little is actually taught at degree level. This perception is evidenced through discussions in individual and group tutorials, reflective essays and committee reports. This has been noted and is a key factor in the development of the new systems that will endeavour to teach the students how to think reflectively – how to engage with the process of critical thinking so that it not only makes sense but so that the student can use it to heighten their potential. The need to actually teach students skills around reflective thinking has led to the creation of 16 specific sessions, appendix 05 which will start in the first week of the first year and continue, into the second year. The sessions, lasting between 1 ½ and 2 hours are mapped closely onto the course structure so that the sessions have practical examples to hand and specific issues to solve within the experience of the course. These sessions address recognised needs from the curriculum and its learning outcomes: presenting a way of navigating the course and of student requests detailed in feedback sessions and formal evaluation points within the course.
After each session there will be an opportunity for extended learning by utilizing the VLE. There will be a set task that will evolve from each session. It will require the student to reflect on the activity and post a response to a specific forum on Moodle. This activity will act as a form of formative reflective activity, illustrating learning and enabling the group to share experiences and for tutors to follow up any issues.

The new PDP support framework I have instigated has grown out of discussions with students and developed from the research I have undertaken around the concept of reflection. I have specifically been looking at how reflective thinking can be embedded within a creative practice to inform the PDP element of the undergraduate framework within the BA Textile course at NUCA. I have also directed my energy to position PDP at the centre of thinking within the course structure. appendix 06

This idea of repositioning, placing the idea of reflection at the centre of ones practice means that both during and more importantly as a legacy after the course, the individual is enabled to continue their own creative journey, either as a professional practitioner or an educated audience member.
My overall approach to rethinking the PDP has been informed by reading a wide range of material. Initially Buckley (2008) was particularly useful. Her overview gives an understanding of the context of PDP both from a historical perspective, recognising a need to introduce such a structure, and the contemporary concerns of how to embed reflective research into ones practice.

Framing thinking
This section of the paper outlines the intention and research that has informed the individual PDP sessions.
The professional practice aspect, that of considering the role of the artist in society and looking at how to look at developing a responsible curriculum to underpin a students learning towards employability, was informed by Edwards (2005). His work ‘Connecting PDP to employer needs and the world of work maps the research he has undertaken in a very pragmatic way. It makes connections between PDP and the ‘real world’, seeing reflection as an essential not an ethereal distraction from the ‘real work’.
Particularly useful was the work he has undertaken on recognising the specific skills that employees are seeking. These skills which are embedded within PDP reaffirmed the deep value I set on lateral thinking, problem solving and the wider approach to creative thinking that I espouse to my students.
The case studies within Connecting PDP to employer needs and the world of work were useful in that one of the valuable aspects of undertaking extended learning, especially the PgCLT has been the connection with other members of the teaching profession – exchanging how we undertake our jobs. The case studies were a direct insight into how to do and also through reflection more importantly how not to. Andrew Holmes at the University of Hull outlines very succinctly the issues that the PDP has to address for the professional. On a wider issue Dr Jayne Stevens at De Montford University writes about how PDP eventually provides the engaged student with the confidence to develop their own learning programme and be less reliant on staff feedback. This is something that I am working towards, developing a culture of support within the student body enabling them to realise that their vision of where or who they want to be is their greatest asset.
Studies undertaken by Mitra (2007) outline the value of learning in groups. His research shows that when individuals learn within a group situation, sharing knowledge and developing their own systems for learning their individual learning is more rapid and more developed. Through a deep engagement with the process of learning they develop ownership and responsibility of their own learning.
The case studies presented within the work undertaken by Edwards (2005) was instructive when setting out an initial session, which will introduce the students to PDP. There were several instances where I recognised many examples from my own experience of both good and bad practice within the paperwork – or should that be appropriate and inappropriate activity? I was able to formulate a direction for how the BA Textiles course at NUCA would undertake the all-important introduction to PDP for the incoming 1st years. Holding the student’s attention is essential. It is important to outline clear directions to new students to instil rigour within the systems that are set up as well as consistency. This request is outlined in student feedback regularly but in this instance the comments within the initial action learning feedback session around consistency was important. Examples from the students include “clearly explain what we need to do, not keep changing” and “overcomplicated, keep changing your mind”. appendix 02

The work of Etcoff (2009) around the pursuit of happiness shows that people are happiest when “in flow with others”, be that engaged in sport, sex or collaborative art workshops. In this century of self where the individual is at the centre of themselves and the world that surrounds them. The individual in pursuit of their individuality would appear to be at odds with us becoming happier as a society. Computerised text analysis of suicide letters notes the proliferation of the first person singular. The argument that not only do individuals learn at a deeper level within groups but they are also happier is the reason for the promotion of group work within the PDP proposals. It was also both a practical solution of dealing with increased student numbers and an intelligent way of devolving responsibility away from the tutor and onto the student.

Overtly practical aspects were underpinned by a more holistic approach to reflection through my reading of Buddhist literature notably the concept of the three characteristics of existence, that of impermanence (Anitya), suffering (Duhkha) and notself (Anatma). These three characteristics are always present in or are connected with existence, and they tell us about the nature of being. They help us to know what to do with our lives.
Exploring the interconnectedness of disciplines, that of using one specialist activity to inform another has been something I have embedded into my own practice.
When developing a specific workshop to explore and illustrate problem solving and lateral thinking within an interdisciplinary context. I wanted to look at strategies that delivered actual solutions to real problems within a framework that the majority of students would understand. Design with its formal structural system, which includes concepts such as the brief, client, and presentation, appeared to fit the current structure of learning outcomes and assessment criteria. But the BA Textile course sets out to encompass fine art thinking and activity so the starting point for research had to be outside an art school discipline.
I have been looking at management theory books and business ‘how to’ bibles by the likes of Levitt and Dubner and Paul Arden. Sutton (2002) provided a number of non-textile examples, which could be easily explained and understood, as they were so extreme and outside the experience of the student’s lives. This enabled the students to reflect on their own practice developing an individuals understanding of what it is to recognise opportunities with which to develop questions which can be creatively solved, lateral thinking provides answers.

The idea of providing skills for the student to undertake reflection is important but needs to be balanced with a wider appreciation of reflection. I rethought Brookfield’s ideas around the 4 lenses set out in becoming a critically reflective teacher and rewrote them to fulfil the needs of graduate students providing them with the basic tools to begin the reflective journey and embedded them within the seminar titled 04: Reflection.

It is important to remember that we as lecturers are humans working with humans. I think the relationship between emotion and reflection is important to consider. The analytical nature of Dewey’s (1933) 5 phases or aspects of reflection are useful but the workshop that specifically focuses on reflection will look to the work of Boud, Keogh and Walker (1985). They reworked Dewey’s five aspects into three – returning to experience, attending to (or connecting with) experience and evaluating experience. By putting the students at the centre of the experience they will connect with the idea and become responsible for their own reflection – it has to come, initially, from memory, from before, the past connecting to the now, the present and projecting into the future, next.

The work undertaken by Maddocks and Newbold (2005) looks at the links between learning agreements and the PDP. Acknowledging that students are strategic learners, looking to the learning outcomes to define their learning needs. I thought that it would be useful to consider this aspect when setting out to deconstruct the language used in the interventions I was proposing. Looking at issues around how learning outcomes are formulated was useful for developing the creation of the session titled Learning agreements - the what, why and how. This intervention set out to pass ownership of the process of determining learning to the students. Davies (2009) offered a way into the subject but reading Hussey and Smith (2003) cemented my belief around the idea of valuing what is unknown.
‘the most fruitful and valuable feature of higher education is the emergence of ideas, skills and connections which were unforeseen even by the teacher’ (p.228) – this relates to the concept of troublesome knowledge and is something to gravitate to.

It was when looking for an entry point for the students understanding of the value of reflection that I considered the concept of critical moments. It was important to give students the tools to build a system which is sustainable and engages long term the idea of the significant moment. Brookfield (1995) was instructive enabling me to recognise that the critical incident Questionnaire is a key tool. This leaves me to postulate that this revelatory moment is when actual learning takes place, the active acknowledgement of a before and after. The critical incident questionnaire identifies the friction of learning where new concepts and ideas rub up against ones already established within one’s own life. It is the process of moving from not knowing to knowing.

The thinking behind the seminar 03: Who are you and how do you think? came from a number of sources. Biggs SOLO taxonomy approaches to studying questioner, was very instructive to my own practice so I reformed the questions for undergraduate students and it is a focus for the session. The experience of teaching within a context of lower resources and less student/lecturer contact time framed a need for students to consider their relationship to the idea of developing their own responsibility for their learning. It is essential for individuals to know themselves and their practice if they are to work to their potential. Know thyself could be the first rule or at least an underlying principle of the seminar.

Proposed Evaluation to be undertaken as a result of the action taken after the action research project.
I will undertake a rigorous evaluation process which will include peer assessment both as an interim measure so that any regulatory issues can be resolved and then again after they have been delivered to look at the content in relationship to the student experience, the course documents and the assessment marks. The set of seminar interventions will be discussed with focus groups made up of students from first and second years. I will ask two sets of questions. The second years will be presented with the same set they had a year ago appendix 01 and the first years will be asked questions which enable the students to review their relationship to reflective thinking and consider how the seminars have supported their learning. appendix 07 The outcomes from these discussions will inform the ongoing development of how reflective thinking is delivered and embedded within the BA Textile course at NUCA with specific reference to the PDP element of the course.

Reflection
I believe that the proposed intervention will deliver a more rounded creative individual more able to function successfully within a world requiring flexible thinking and an ability to learn from and encompass constant change. The criteria around success for this intervention of the intervention could be if the students ask more interesting questions.
The work/life balance is a factor often talked about with students. I talk about one becoming the other. Questions around how the student wishes to live their life has taken over from what do you want to do after you leave college? The interconnected, overlapping nature of creative activity can be reflected on and in a relational context the liminal space that is the edge of definitions can be defined and redefined with each action/experience. There is no then only the now. The artist Roger Ackling summed this up when he questioned where the work is, that he had possibly failed to identify the real work over the past 30 years. He went on to explain that possibly the work was not the drawings he made with a magnifying glass from the power of the sun but the smoke generated as he created them. This open thinking derived from stillness and a deep focused questioning is something I believe we should all strive for. Maybe a question for us all – where is the work?















Les Bicknell