Critical and Creative thinking Strategies:
Professional Development:
Constructing Environments, Situations and Experiences:
Pedagogy and Development:
As a media teacher it is important to identify supporting pedagogical strategies to utilise in the classroom. Furthermore, it is also important to plan for future learning to ensure I am am providing my students with the best education possible. The following are some resources to help support this.
The following resources and strategies are helpful in supporting and promoting critical and creative thinking and practices.
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ACARA (2017) highlight that 'creative thinking involves students in learning to generate and apply new ideas in specific contexts.' By utilising the resources within this portfolio to teach students new methods of creating and encourage them to develop their ideas within these contexts their creative thinking and exploration is supported. Furthermore, the major product assessment encourages students to 'form something original' (ACARA 2017) by refining their ideas and and constructing something from the skills and techniques they have learnt.
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A simple way to encourage creative thinking is to expose students to various methods for creating and examples to inspire them.
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Another way to support creative thinking is to use open questions - This encourages students to find multiple answers, thus stimulating their creative thinking (Bartel 2004).
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Another strategy is to utilise brainstorming before any creative activity so students can explore their options and develop their potential ideas (Cox 2017).
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Another strategy is to 'compare and contrast' (Coz 2017). Students can compare and contrast methods or ideas to further their exploration. This strategy also stimulates critical thinking as students analyse and evaluate their methods or ideas.
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ACARA (2017) highlight that critical thinking 'involves students in learning to recognise or develop an argument, use evidence in support of that argument, draw reasoned conclusions, and use information to solve problems.'Many of the resources and activities outlined within this portfolio ask for students to interpret media products, analyse and evaluate their possible message or intention, compare imagery and explain their methods and decision making.
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One critical thinking strategy is reverse engineering (Crockett 2017). This involves working backwards. This could be utilised within the media classroom by looking at a media product and working backwards to analyse how it was created or what elements created the final message or idea and how.
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Another strategy to support critical thinking is to switch their perspective (Crockett 2017). This involves students looking at a situation from an opposing viewpoint or changing their perspective to that of a person from history or the future for example.
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A major strategy for both critical and creative thinking is collaborative learning. Students can gain a lot from working with others, they are able to share their skills and ideas and support and learn from each other.
Within my Media classroom I intend to construct environments, situations and experiences that that will elicit creative and critical thinking and exploration.
My first method to support creative and critical thinking and exploration is to develop a supportive and inclusive environment. This will be done by encouraging collaboration between students, maintaining a positive atmosphere and fostering positive relationships and behaviours between all members of the classroom.
I will constantly remind students that its okay to make mistakes and that it is part of the creative process in order to support their learning and exploration.
Each resource within this online portfolio has been chosen in order to support students to either create or respond within each of the four strands of the curriculum. By utilising these resources students will be engaging with situations and experiences that support, encourage and utilise both their critical and creative thinking and exploration.
Throughout my career I will constantly be growing and evolving within my practice as a teacher to provide the best education experiences to my students as possible. In order to achieve this I will always be searching for new, relevant, interesting and useful activities and resources in order to construct educational experiences. This online portfolio will continue to be updated throughout my career with useful resources for learning within the media arts.
There are a number of professional development organisations and workshops available in Victoria, the following is some options for the future:
Another way to keep informed is to join Media Arts Teaching communities, ATOM Victoria is one such communities that provides professional development, resources, movie screenings and documentaries for teachers.