Professional Masters of Education Art and Design with Digital Media

Rebekah Nolan

To what extent can Conversational Pedagogy enhance Students Critical Thinking and Reflective Skills?

My main goal as an art teacher is to generate a passion for art within my students, while enabling them to be as creative and expressive as possible. In order to accomplish this I strove to create projects and Units of Learning which not only taught practical artistic skills but also required students to think critically and reflectively. Within the classroom, I feel it is important to foster a Community of Practice, a safe space where student can share and explore ideas together. It has been through my own artistic practice, that it became apparent how important a Community of Practice is. As an artist, working alongside my peers during the various workshops has played pivotal role in developing not only technical skills, but also in the dissection and reconstruction of ideas.

With this in mind, during school placement I undertook a research project aimed to explore and assess if conversational pedagogy, when implemented frequently in the classroom, can enhance students critical thinking and reflective skills in relation to their own artistic practice. Thus, increasing their confidence and motivation, while also improving overall artistic/academic performance.

The research found that the role of a teacher and the approach taken to develop an open atmosphere plays an essential role in students willingness to par-take in classroom discussion. In order to do this successfully, teachers must value all students ideas and opinions equally in order for students to feel comfortable sharing their thoughts and ideas. Furthermore, discussion was found to be richer and more meaningful without the guidance of worksheets. Importantly, continuous discussion centred around critical thinking and reflective practices enabled students to successfully analyse, dissect and develop their own artistic practice independently.

PREV | NEXT | ALL