The Learning Ex ... ts at Somerset College.pdf

The reflections focused on the individual issues with which the students were concerned. M wrote
mostly about the private exhibition she was involved in helping to set up and her need to be more
assertive in decision making; A wrote about her emerging recognition that ‘enterprise’ need not carry
commercial connotations but could reflect her own creative and innovative approach to life; J wrote
about her personal artistic development and growing confidence and K focused on college activities
such as the Enterprise workshops, and the module assessment.
The action they planned to improve future learning was therefore also individual and varied. M
focused on being ‘more confident when expressing my opinions’. A and J illustrated the concept of
entrepreneurship as ‘opportunity spotting’ (DCMS 2006 p 18), which is described as part of
understanding how creativity fits into social activity in a wider context. Both students mentioned
making the most of opportunities that arise:
J wrote, I plan to take part in more enterprising activities. She also wrote about the rewards of giving a
talk to younger students wanting to find out about progressing to HE in Fine Art.
A wrote, Look out for opportunities to be involved. In other parts of her log, A reflected on her
participation in community projects.
Enterprise as creativity and innovation was mentioned in other log entries for the Fine Art group, for
example, home schooling, community art, taking art into primary schools and using a puppet show as
a vehicle for a presentation. As DCMS (2006) suggests, this aspect of enterprise could be the key to
increasing the perception of the relevance of Enterprise to Fine Art students.
There were more common experiences recorded in the final log entries. Three of the four students
chose the Enterprise project activity and three chose the assessment of this project. Other
experiences chosen were running an art stall, hanging paintings for a show and the final exhibition.
Two of the students again mentioned gains in confidence in their reflections
Two of the students expressed disappointment, one about how her work was displayed and one about
the mark given for her Enterprise project.
One student described the liberation of arriving at a creative response to the assessment task by
lateral thinking, enabling her “to express the essence” of what her “enterprise” was about. Other
students in this group also referred to vision and creativity, reflecting the view expressed in the DCMS
(2006) p.14 paper that teaching approaches on creative programmes encourage students “to think
creatively and identify opportunities, thus making them more open to entrepreneurial thinking.”
8. Self assessment of enterprising qualities
In the initial self-assessment of entrepreneurial qualities, using a five point scale with 5 as high, the
Fine Art students rated themselves highest on Vision (4.25), Perseverance (4) and Honesty (4),
reflecting, perhaps, the different attributes valued by creative artists.
The areas they wished to improve were in Confidence, Organization and Understanding.
Midway through the module, they rated Communication and Understanding equal highest (3.9) with
Vision and Honesty in equal second place (3.75). At this point the areas they wished most to improve
were time management, adaptability, networking and discipline.
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