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Angeliki Triantafyllaki

Page history last edited by sceptrept 15 years ago

Work-related learning and the development of creativity: finding one’s voice in small-group collaborative activity

Angeliki Triantafyllaki, University of the Arts, London

 

There is a growing body of research around the development of creativity in higher education (HE) and creativity is a key component of the government’s education agenda. Within creative arts HE, there has been a significant focus on work-based learning – the knowledge and skills acquired as students engage in professional activities as part of their course. Yet, little is known of undergraduates’ learning experiences in work-related activities within public and third sector settings. Within collaborative work-related activities, constructing arts-based knowledge involves meaningful exchanges among perspectives within the individual and among members of peer groups. In this sense, learning is about collaborative meaning-making and knowledge construction. In collaborative arts-based contexts, where the creative object (as much as the individual, relations and contexts) becomes the focus of attention, the dichotomy between learning and creating breaks down.   

 

This paper presents and discusses initial findings from a small-scale research study of creative arts students’ work-related learning experiences within educational settings. Focusing on The Sorrell Foundation’s Young Design Programme (whereby school pupils act as clients by commissioning a school design project and HE design students acting as the consultants), data is presented both from previous cohorts of undergraduates and a small group of current participants collaborating on the Programme. The case study employs focus group discussions; individual interviews with student-group members; and participant observation of group members as they engage in within-group work and interact with their client team. Institutional documents and interviews with students’ tutors and organisers of the YDP provide contextual information.

 

Ongoing data analysis reveals strong links between the development of creativity and collaborative work through the need to construct an individual identity; make connections between old and new knowledge; engage with novel ways of thinking; and deal with conflicting interests and constraints. A key outcome of this work-related experience is the development of students’ voice, in that it provides a framework where opportunities to take initiatives and greater responsibility for their own learning abound; and, essentially, an empowering experience where autonomy and independent thought are highly prized as a result of valuing individual students’ ‘expertise’. Implications for learning to be a professional through acknowledging the value of and embedding these experiences within a life-wide curriculum are discussed.

 

Key words work-related learning, collaboration, creativity

 

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