Facilitating ownership in visual communications learning : a lecture's self-study.

Abstract

This self-study focuses on investigating and exploring my teaching and learning philosophy and my role as a teaching and learning facilitator in a private tertiary institution, and how that role critically empowers students to shift their attitude and take ownership of their own learning. My motivation and rationale for conducting this self-study is in response to what I had observed as a disconnection between my teaching practice and the learning attitudes of my students. I used Personal History Self-study and Developmental Portfolio Self-study methodologies to explore and reflect on my early educational teaching and learning experiences and my lived teaching and learning practice. My aim was to identify whether or not my lecturing practice encouraged or discouraged the learning ownership of my students. In this study I made use of ‘memory work’ as the primary method for generating data for my study. The data sources I utilised were – letter writing, memory drawing, and artefact retrieval, such as photographs and actual objects. These sources assisted me in reflecting on educational contexts and the people that have made a significant impact on my teaching and learning experiences. From these self-study methodologies, I formulated teaching and learning principles that speak to and reflect my teaching and learning philosophy and ideology and the implications they have for enhancing students teaching and learning experiences. Thus, I have learned that I needed to be critically aware of my teaching behaviour and therefore proactively change my practice in order to foster healthy interpersonal relationships that empower and emancipate my students in their teaching and learning experiences. Through this study, I became aware that a self-study methodology is a lifelong learning tool that is essential for teacher development.