Michael's PgCert Landing site

Up date and save 05/01/2025

Last week-Monday 15th to Friday 19th, has been a week of reviewing what I do, how I work; what is my ‘practice’? How do I teach, how do I communicate, how do I give technical instruction; how I manage teaching/material/purchase/technical resources in delivering course curricular? How do support educate…

Here are my thoughts and notes on this:

Looking at pedagogies, and the elements that contribute to teaching; the above questions that I have posed to myself; my practice seems to be centred around the studio environment. With reference to article ‘Teaching practices for creative practitioners’ briefly summarised-the main points are:

Here is a summary of some of the headings:

• The studio as a signature pedagogy. The studio is the physical and social space where learning occurs in art and design disciplines. It reflects and shapes the culture and practices of the creative professions. It is a place where students can experiment, collaborate, and receive feedback from peers and tutors.
• The benefits and challenges of the studio. The studio enables students to develop a critical and evaluative approach to their own and others’ work, to engage in dialogic exchange, and to experience materiality and embodiment of their ideas. However, the studio also poses some difficulties, such as the availability and accessibility of resources, the potential for uncritical reproduction of norms, and the issues of power and exclusion that may arise in the studio environment¹.
• The changing nature of the studio. The studio is not a fixed or static concept, but rather a dynamic and evolving one. The studio may expand beyond the physical boundaries of the university, and incorporate digital, online, and hybrid spaces. The studio may also become a metaphor for the ways of thinking and practising that characterise art and design pedagogies. The studio may also be influenced by the sensory experiences and material conditions of the learners and teachers
• The studio is a physical and social space where learning occurs through collaboration, experimentation, and feedback¹. It is influenced by the professional working environments of artists and designers, but also by the cultural and sensory experiences of the learners and teachers.
• Pedagogies of ambiguity are approaches that embrace the uncertainty and complexity of creative practice, where no specific outcomes are predetermined. Students must learn to manage and work through ambiguity, and tutors must reassure and support them in this process².
• The brief is a written document that presents the learning task or project for the students³. It may be designed to look like a professional design task, and may involve industry partners or community stakeholders. The brief may create tensions between different expectations and requirements of the university and the external partners.
• The live project is a type of assignment that simulates a real-world design problem or situation, where students work with or for an external client or partner. The live project may expose students to the challenges and opportunities of professional practice, but may also create conflicts between the learning objectives and the client’s demands

As you can see these are just a few headings that that comes under this subject.

This I will look into closer as well as reading other articles to help review my practice..

Reference

Orr, S @ Shreeve, A (2017) ‘Teaching practices for the Creative practitioners’: Knowledge, Values and Ambiguity in the Creative Curriculum, Taylor & Francis Group, Milton. Available from: ProQuest Ebook Central. { 1 January 2024 }

The first class left me with several challenging questions about how I teach and deliver technical lessons on my course.  This evening as I type my first blog post in response to the class last week… I feel excited as I have not looked at my practice for many years and this course will allow me, I hope to re-evaluate my teaching skills and discover new approaches to communicate, educate and apply new techniques in learning. Our tutors gave us a historical snapshot of major educational changes and turning points that has happened in Britain and implemented through government to improve education management and delivery within institutes. Please see pictures attached below.

There were several documents that we had to read prior to this class. I chose ‘teaching practises for creative practitioners’ which concentrated on pedagogy and how do ‘art and design technicians conceive of their role in higher education’. These papers I discussed with my fellow student colleagues in small groups. An excited debate and counter debate/discussion ensued; this was an element within the class structure I didn’t expect but greatly enjoyed- I think this is a good teaching tool. Another paper in workshop 1 that interested me within the reading list that was given to us- the heading ‘decolonizing the library a theoretical exploration’, this I intend to looking into further as this has been an ongoing discussion issue / action within UAL for many years and I feel this is going to be raised within our classes at some point.

Here ends my first official blog 15/01/2024 11:30am

There is a lot of documents to choose from… which one should I present?

Up date and save 05/01/2025

My Blog is active

My name is Michael Ste. Croix. I am the Technical Coordinator for Performance, I am based at Central Saint Martins, located at Kings Cross.

I hope to explore my technical and teaching practice while completing my PgCert course-and to share what I am learning.

Looking forward to sharing my learning outcomes

Up date and save 05/01/2025