Campus session 28.02.2012

For me, this session hugely summarized the opening part of the module and delved deeper into what we should expect as we journey through the remainder of the course. I felt secure and confident in the work I had completed as part of the first part of this Module 1, but soon realised that these were simply just the basic skills and knowledge we each had to gain, in order to apply ourselves fully to the 'real' tasks at hand on this course.

We discussed the theme of 'Structured Improvisation' in great detail, which began merely as a thought and idea spanning from the topic of 'Critical Reflection'. We related it in specifics to teaching, be it in secondary schools or local activity groups we found many similarities in the form that this 'feedback' was issued, both politically and cognizably. We played with the idea that when improvising as a teacher you need the use of both:

                                  COGNITIVE                &                      INTUITION

                                   (based on past experiences/memory bank)

I found all these new ideas that were being catapulted around the room of great stimulation to me as I had newly begun teaching the previous week. It was of great benefit to listen and discuss with others who had far more experience to see how they had applied 'Improvisation' in there versatility and adaptability. To conclude the session we each wrote a question which we felt could relate to or describe our theme of 'Structured Improvisation', and recorded each of them to enable those of us who couldn't attend a chance to make sense of our discussion. My question was as follows:

'How can our aesthetics influence the method or myth of structured improvisation?'

I found this session provided real 'food for thought', spurring me on in the anticipation of the second part of the module. I feel there is a lot more that can be learnt about ourselves and feedback than meets the eye.....