Having had a very busy period over the past week, I'm taking the chance to today to "reflect on my reflections" and solidify the learning that I have done so far on the MAPP course.
As a learner I am starting to realise that although (as I was talking about in my last blog post) I am trying to see learning experiences as a whole, at this stage of the programme I am still finding methods of compartmentalision useful (whilst keeping the bigger picture in mind).
Entering into a wholly new way of thinking (reflective / experiential learning), I have found myself first of all trying to digest some of the key pre-exisiting concepts, theories and work in this field. I started with reading a good chunk of Jennifer Moon's A Handbook of Reflective and Experiential Learning (2004), followed by another good chunk of John Dewey's 1934 text based on his lectures Art as Experience, with these texts leading me to further research (both closely and less closely associated). For my way of learning, I find having at least some prior thinking / theories digested early on in the process make the learning experience much richer when moving forward (as I then automatically have something to relate any initial thoughts I have to).
I have found that my process when reading these texts is quite different to when I have read literature previously, and instead of just taking the words and phrases at face-value or analysing them based on the topic they are specifically focused on, I am trying to unpick them according to my practice - and then apply them to my current thought process to provoke new questions and ideas. By doing this, I am finding meaning through texts which I wouldn't usually associate with applying to me and my practice.
Dewey's text has been particularly fruitful in me finding meaning. He discusses quite early on in the text how art theory cannot be dissacosiated with the experience of an art work itself. This has provoked quite a few thoughts for me. In my thinking I have taken Dewey's thoughts and positioned myself as the art theorist (in my case movement practitioner), and have started to question how the output / result of my practice is positioned in relation to enviroment and experience (politically / socially / historically).
The more I have thought of not dissacosiating my practice and its enviroment and experience, the more complex my thought gets in relation to the impact of each decision myself and others are making. One of the paths I have been down with this trail of thought is choreographic work I have been making - most of the time I delibaretely stay away from making work which is making a "statement" of sorts - however now I see I will always be making somekind of statement and positioning myself - even though to me I may think it insignificant / subconcious. Through this process of decoding and analysing my history and my practice's history, I have been able to find threads that I want to explore on a deeper level for the AOLs I am going to write.
Moving forwards into starting to research, explore and plan AOL essays, I am now starting to look into formalised frameworks (i.e. Gibbs, 1988 and Kolb, 1984) and how these can help me delve into and structure my learning. I am looking to listening and discussing theories and fraemworks tomorrow!
Great Harry, yes there's much here that will fuel our discussions around frameworks and theories, and in practice that is clearly feeding your AOL planning...more to talk about later!
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