Initial thoughts on module 3835:

Initial thoughts on module 3835:

I have been reading through the handbook and first reader for this module and have come up with lots of ideas but am currently struggling to get link them all together into one line of inquiry. At the moment I am thinking that I would like the main focus of my research to be on the experimentation and use of unconventional materials and techniques in my work and that of other practitioners. I would also like to investigate the transition of students from the study of GCSE to A-level. From speaking to a number of art teachers and students it would appear that a lot of students struggle with this transition and I would like to look into why this happened and how teachers could better prepare the students.  This is the point in my career when I started to experiment with techniques and materials an process which I think really helped me to be successful at A-level and subsequently gain a place in one of the best Art schools in the country.  Could this help other students make a smooth transition?

          Task 4a advises us to come up with a series of question relevant to our practice. Whilst reading the reader I have come up with quite a few, some of which might seem a bit random but I am going to post all of them on my blog and then at the end hopefully after getting some comments on them I will be able to pull them all together into a few broader questions.

Inquiry Questions:

• Is it the schooling system and the manner in which subjects are taught or the students who create subject boundaries and as a result do not automatically take their knowledge learnt in one subject and apply it to another?  For example last term I blogged about a number of yr 10 student who struggled to make the connection between what they had learnt in History about America at the end of World War 2 and the emersion of the Pop art movement.  Is this a common occurrence or something that is more prevalent in the school that I work in? How can we try and encourage the students to make these connections, not only in art but in all subjects?

• How does my work as a practitioner does inform my teaching of the subject and vise versa? Through my initial research into the teaching of art I have discovered that sticking to the styles and techniques that you feel comfortable with can prove to be detrimental to your students and your career advancements. For example as a sculptor if I stuck mainly to the teaching of sculpting techniques and as a result neglected some other disciplines, disciplines that I as a practitioner might not feel as comfortable with I would be depriving the students of a well rounded understanding of the subject. How can I ensure that I don’t fall into the pattern? What causes other teachers to do this? I.e. as a sculputor my area of expertise lies here but i cannot favour this way of working over others.

• In my own work I incorporate a lot of cross pathway disciplines, what initially inspired me to do this? Will encouraging students to do this improve the quality of their work and is so how? Also how can I utilise the evpertise of the other students on the BAPP course to further inform my work and inspire new collaborations?

• What is the relationship between art and education and how does one feel about the other? Sir Ken Robinson has suggested that an unequal amount of focus is put on the academic subjects and the creative arts are considered less important. Is there any further information to back up this theory?

• Raelin, 2008 suggests that ‘organic competencies constitute those that apply to particular jobs, and are specific to the context and language of the organisation.’ What are the possible organic competencies of teaching art and how do they differ from the practice of art?

• How do I perceive that this investigation will further my career and how will it improve my understanding of the teaching of the subject and teaching processes in general? Since starting working in a secondary school last year I have realised that there is more to successfully teaching a subject then broad subject knowledge. By investigating  this w I hope to be able to identify what makes a good teacher? Is it a skill that can be taught?
• I have proposed that a major part of my investigation will look into how experimentation with materials and processes improve your understanding of the subject, but is this actually the case? I can see how it has been successful for other practitioners but has it been successful for my or has this cross discipline work confused where I lie within the practice?

• Experimenting with materials and using them in an unconventional way was a common theme during the surrealist movement. How are this concept and my research relevant to work that is being created now?

• Will the increase in tuition fees increase the number of students choosing to do work based learning courses? Will this have an impact on the credibility of the courses?   In the case of our course all students have already had at least two years of higher education within their practice.  We have already been in an environment where by we were surrounded like minded individuals that we have been able to be inspired by and learn from which is a very different environment form that of the work place. If work based studies courses were to increase in number, popularity and were to encompass the whole of the BA course would they be as successful and would the quality of the graduates be as high, particularly in practical subjects like the creative arts?

• Eraut (1994) says ‘first, getting a degree-entry route established validates the professional’s claim to a specialist knowledge base, and hence to professional status. Second, recruitment through the higher education system is critical for sustaining, let alone improving the relative quality of a professional intake.’ Is this still the case or now are some many people getting Bachelor degrees that they are losing their importance to an extent? This is similar to a question that Ken Robinson posed during his TED conference, the contence of which i will be looking into during this inquiry.