FLEX 2
Active Referencing – using outdoors to teach Citation and Referencing Skills to Level 4 Students
I have engaged with Objects Modelling Gaming workshop, run at MMU Cheshire campus by Chrissi Nerantzi and Mike Lowe, during CELT Festival of Teaching and Learning run in June 2016. I joined this activity, as I aim to enhance my teaching practice with creative approaches such as modelling, use of metaphor and new creative environments. The workshop provided an opportunity to work collaboratively with colleagues to develop new creative ideas aiming to enhance student experience linking to Principle 1 of The MMU Strategy for Learning, Teaching and Assessment (CELT, 2014). The facilitators asked us to reflect on a problem we came across within our practice and worked in pairs to develop ideas, which could solve the problem. As it was a beautiful sunny day, we went outside to enjoy the natural environment of the campus, while working on the task. We were encouraged to use the environment as a creative playground, where we can find an inspiration for our ideas (Nerantzi, 2015). I have been paired with another Student Experience Tutor and together we decided to explore the topic of referencing. We both agreed that although referencing is a procedure, which should easily be applied within academic writing using appropriate MMU guide, and despite explanations offered academic and support staff, Level 4 students often lack previous experience or are not familiar with the requirements expected at MMU. The lack of understanding of higher education processes such as referencing can cause anxiety about starting of the assignment and lead to students’ alienation within Higher Education, affecting student experience and overall marks (Mann, 2001). Proactive and creative approaches are required to make sure that institutional culture and academic processes are introduced to students in engaging ways, for students to relate to the new habitus of the Higher Education Institution and to enhance student belonging and engagement and aid retention (Thomas, 2012).
Academic writing and referencing workshops I designed and facilitated in the past, were timed within the introduction of assignment brief, which aimed at making the referencing more relevant. Workshops explained the use of referencing within the context of academic writing and used a number of exercises for students to apply gained knowledge in practice. Although the information was presented clearly and involved interaction, I came across students who attended the session, but still struggled to use referencing and citation correctly. Feedback from those students suggested that although the academic writing session was engaging, the content was somehow abstract because students did not start working on their assignment and forgot acquired knowledge. For students to comprehend the purpose of the correct referencing and for the appropriate techniques to stick, it needs to be pictured in more creative ways, to allow the concepts to be easily understood and memorised. As James and Brookfield (2014:4) suggest, ‘for learning to “stick” … the fullest range of our imaginative faculties needs to be engaged’. As a solution to this problem, we decided to use surrounding environment, as a location for our new model of the referencing workshop. Various trees in the woodland acted as a metaphor for a range of sources available in the library. Chinese garden on campus acted as a metaphor of a referencing list where all the sources a carefully selected and referenced. Owen (2001) describes the metaphor as ‘… indirect, yet powerful, vehicles for reframing experience from unusual or unexpected perspectives’.
I have later developed this idea into an active learning workshop, aiming to introduce students to the purpose of using citation and referencing in academic work, use exercises to allow students to become familiar with the MMU Harvard Referencing system and put newly acquired knowledge into practice. Level 4 students, were asked to select a tree in the woodland area and to justify their choice through similar criteria considered when choosing an academic source. Here students were asked to think about: shape, colours, textures, age etc. and answer prepared questions about their tree which helped to think about how to be critical in their writing (Who? E.g., Who planted it? How? When? Why? What? … ) and created a short story. In the second task, students worked in pairs: the first person shared their short story, while the second person listened and took notes to be able to create a paraphrase and a quote. The Chinese Garden a centrepiece at Cheshire campus created by a lecturer at MMU and garden designer John Hyatt, was introduced to students as a metaphor of a Reference List, where sources represented by plants are carefully selected and placed within one space. Garden designer have carefully researched and selected the plants and considered if they can grow in Cheshire climate, or if they are able to grow next to the other plants, how much water they would need. Possibly, he created a list to allow other who experienced the garden, or the gardener for them to be able to find out more about the plants. This metaphor aimed to help students to understand that reference list has a specific aim outside of a ‘must against plagiarism’ such as reader being interested in finding out more about specific source used by a student. This puts a positive spin on the idea of referencing and may help students to more easily relate to the habitus of Higher Education. In addition, this suggests to students that reference list can be a very useful source or information when they are doing their research.
The use of the metaphor of trees and garden aimed at helping students to ‘externalise abstract thinking and translate it into a sensory-based tangible representation’ Owen (2001:xvi), which as a result may help students understand the importance of goof use of citation and referencing and stick in their memories. The workshop aimed at using a familiar but unexpected environment, to introduce new and potentially intimidating academic process of citation and referencing in fun and engaging way. Students were given a campus map handout, including examples of citation and necessary links to referencing guide and library search. The map was meant to act as a reminder of the workshop and fun guidance within a referencing. After the outdoor activity, students were brought back to the classroom and worked on using the MMU Harvard Referencing guide to construct citation and reference.
References
James, A. and Brookfield, S. (2014) Engaging imagination: helping students become creative and reflective thinkers, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass
Owen, N. (2001), The Magic of Metaphor: 77 stories for teachers, trainers & thinkers. Carmarthen: Crown House Publishing
Manchester Metropolitan University, Centre for Excellence Learning and Teaching (CELT) (2014) The MMU Strategy for Learning, Teaching and Assessment. [Online] [12/03/2015] http://www.celt.mmu.ac.uk/ltastrategy/standards2.php
Mann, S. (2001) ‘Alternative Perspectives on the Student Experience: alienation and engagement.’, Studies in Higher Education. 26 (1), 7-19.
Nerantzi, C. (2015), A playground model for creative professional development, Creative Academic Magazine, [Online] [04/01/2017] http://www.creativeacademic.uk
Thomas, L. (2012) ‘Building student engagement and belonging in Higher Education at a time of change: final report from the What Works? ‘Student Retention & Success programme, London: Paul Hamlyn Foundation, [Online] [Accessed on 10/12/2015] https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/resources/detail/what-works-student-retention/What_Works_Summary_Report
Marcin Wozniak cpd 