A Handbook for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education Enhancing academic and Practice

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Teaching in the disciplines
difficulties (SpLD, commonly referred to as dyslexia), which can slow down reading and
writing and make structuring written work more difficult. Even for staff and students
unaffected by dyslexia, the written word can seem like a foreign language for people
whose native preference is visual communication.
However, written communication skills are an essential transferable skill for life and
employment, and core to aspects of visual arts disciplines and related areas (art history,
cultural studies, media studies, journalism), and as such there has been considerable
effort to find effective ways of supporting the development of literacy in the visual arts.
Key projects include the Writing PAD project (Writing Purposefully in Art and Design),
based at Goldsmith’s, University of London, and with 40 UK partner higher education
institutions. The website includes examples of successful case studies, examples of
students’ work and discussion papers. Writing PAD is actively engaged in developing
new models of academic writing which are more conducive to the visual arts.
ThinkingWriting is another project which supports academic writing across a range of
disciplines with online resources. Based at Queen Mary, University of London, it has been
very successful in improving student writing through structured writing tasks which
allow the challenges of academic writing to be tackled one at a time. It is particularly
strong on supporting reflective writing, which links into Personal Development Planning
(PDP) discussed above, and to the use of sketchbooks in the visual arts.
Reflecting on learning
Reflection is increasingly recognised as essential to effective learning (see e.g. Moon,
2000). Learning journals are now common throughout higher education, although, as
discussed above, because of discomfort with the medium of written communication,
without well-planned support many reflective journals remain descriptive accounts of
process. However, the sketchbook is a long-standing example of reflective learning in
higher education, with its emphasis on enquiry, thinking and reflecting on product,
process, audience and personal meaning. The form a sketchbook takes will be dependent
on local expectations, but the purpose and function of a sketchbook is worth exploring
with your students. It is not until it becomes a personal necessity and portable thinking
tool that its purpose is really understood. Combining written and visual communication
in a sketchbook may be one way to encourage students both to develop their writing
skills and to deepen their learning through effective reflection.
Interrogating practice
How can you encourage your students to develop a personal ownership of
their sketchbook and use it in productive ways? Apart from using a
sketchbook, what other ways can students reflect on practice?