Professional Masters of Education Art and Design with Digital Media

Lorraine Masters

Self-Reflection and the Visual Art Student: When used in conjunction with self-assessment practices, to what extent can consistent, guided self-reflection support visual art students in the development of their visual art practices, as well as supporting their ability to reach educational goals?

The art works shown were created by second year students in response to the theme Imaginative Portraiture: Duality of the Self. Students explored 2 opposing aspects of a chosen subject’s personality through mixed media materials. This project aimed to introduced students to intuitive making and experimentation of materials. Students were encouraged to move away from a rigid, photorealistic method of representation and consider different ways of capturing the essence of a person. They explored the concepts of portraiture, while considering if the use of colours, shapes and objects can express more of a person than a simple representation of their physical form.

My research sought to explore the impact of the inclusion of self-reflective practices as a distinct process in the Visual Art classroom. Self-Reflection within the classroom is most often implemented as a step within self-assessment processes. It is most commonly included at the end of the task, which can often lead to it being rushed, or forgotten about altogether due to time constraints. In order for students to become true reflective practitioners, consistent self-reflection that is guided, personal, and pertinent to the learning objectives is needed. In a busy school environment and a world filled with technological distractions, it is appropriate and timely to consider an effective way in which to give students designated time and space for reflection.

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