Critical Thinking
Learning to think and act critically lies behind many aspects of student life. Thinking and acting critically requires willingness to challenge ideas, to make mistakes and to recover, to fail, to express one’s voice and so on. Critical thinking is at the heart of higher education and it is of particular importance in media education programmes. However, getting students to think critically is challenging for educators and learners alike.
The work of the Centre’s Associate Professor, Jenny Moon draws upon the experiences of students and their teachers and Jenny’s own prior experiences of assertiveness training in community situations. Her research about critical thinking covers the range of the topic from theory to the practicalities in the seminar room and lecture theatre. Jenny has presented her work at workshops through Europe and the USA. A summary of her research, We Seek it Here, can be found at www.ESCalate.ac.uk. A fuller analysis is presented in the book Critical Thinking: an exploration of theory and practice (Routledge 2008).
Reflective Thinking
There is a perceived gap between theory and practice by learners and teachers in media education. Getting students to become more reflective learners is one way of resolving this issue. This research theme aims to make sense of the various interpretations of the term reflective learning in order to make it useful and applicable in a pedagogical role – either as a process for study or as a topic in its own right. Based on workshops, this work is interested in the relationship between theory and practice.
Jenny Moon, has been researching reflective learning since the late 1990’s, and her books, Reflection in Learning and Professional Development (1999) and A Handbook of Reflective and Experiential Learning (2004) are now required reading for this research theme.
More specifically critical analysis of a creative product is the culmination of many media practice first degrees. Many students create a media artefact and then have to reflect on various aspects of its production and completion but some struggle to move beyond description. The production analysis is the culmination of many media practice first degrees. Students create a media product and then have to reflect on various aspects of its production and completion. This project is based on the observation that the quality of students’ reflection within the production analysis is often poor - and that teaching staff often do not know how to advise students on raising the quality of their reflective writing. In order to incorporate improvements, a new format for the production analysis is proposed together with supporting exercises on reflective learning. This project was co-ordinated by Jenny Moon and Gareth Thomas.
