Professional Masters of Education Art and Design with Digital Media
Greg Meehan
Professional Portfolio website
My research project, displayed on my professional portfolio website, explores the effect on students’ Visual Art technical skills when given the opportunity to assess and respond to their own work through the use of reflective practice using targeted worksheets. The report is relevant to myself and my peers as it seeks to measure the effect of a formative teaching strategy that may improve students’ engagement and learning. I explored (i) extent to which students’ technical skills improved through a self assessment learning strategy, (ii) how students’ attitudes towards their work changed when given more ownership and responsibility for the direction it took, and (iii) the extent to which a more self regulated learning environment could prolong students engagement during a ten week Unit of Learning. Action Research methods were employed for this research while on school placement during my 2nd year in the PME in Art and design with Digital Media course in TUS Limerick School of Art and Design. Action Research was chosen as I hope to take away many valuable lessons, becoming a better teacher and researcher in the process and sharing my findings, evaluations and conclusions with my peers so that they can contribute to the conversation for the betterment of our practice. The key findings presented in this research report were that students technical skills showed improvement through the use of targeted worksheets, as did their levels of motivation to meet success criteria and their engagement levels throughout the project. It found that students were more likely to engage in lessons and produce successful work when they had the opportunity to see physical examples of good work beforehand. And, it found that students require tasks to be challenging to feel rewarded and fulfilled by reaching the targets set out.