Dear Diary

Today's post is a follow up to my previous partial literature review of "Reflecting on Reflection: Framing a Design Landscape". Following up some of the references cited by Fleck and Fitzpatrick, I came across two books by Jennifer Moon, "Reflection in Learning and Professional Development" (1999) and "Learning Journals: A Handbook for Reflective Practice and Professional Development" (2006).

To reiterate, as it stands my project has two faces. The first as is to encourage greater reflection on experiences within the school of architecture, as and for reasons covered in my previous post "A Question of Sorts". The second objective is in part a means of accomplishing the first, by creating spontaneous interactions between students, that also precipitate a greater sharing of knowledge and expertise between students, encouraging what I currently refer as peer to peer or community learning. How ideas, work and knowledge are to be shared is a design challenge for an installation or system working towards this aim.

Working towards these goals, the latter of Moon's works in particular strikes me as useful. Whilst taking its initial focus on the keeping of "journals", this is not meant to be a restrictive term and is interchangeable with diary, log, scrapbook, notebook or portfolio.

Whatever form the "journal" tales, the important point is that the creator ultimately intends to learn from it. Moon breaks down the study into two parts, dealing with broad issues of how students learn in a formal environment, and subsequently how the keeping of journals creates favourable conditions for both this and additional learning.

Of particular importance in the early pages is the ability of learners to change their cogitative structure in response to new knowledge or experiences. However, in most cases this requires a highly dedicated learner, and complete trust in the material being delivered to them. The majority of students only learn effectively when education is in line with their expectations.

I would posit that this is particularly true within the school of architecture. There is a tendency for students to (understandably) become defensive to criticism of their projects, especially if they consider a criticism to be based on a subjective point or issue of taste. Moon's ultimate assertion is that journals are a mechanism for students to reconsider issues such as these, as a tool for sense making.

As a tool, journals allow students to slow the pace of learning, increasing a students of ownership of said learning, (my own initial research has called for just these things), but also promoting a greater understanding of their own processes. Moon goes onto discuss the method in a specific different circumstances, and offers a range of precedents.

Exploring these, a sort of journal as a driver for my reflective exercise, and as a means of provoking my spontaneous interactions, sounds increasingly plausible.

To be continued...

References;

Moon, J. A. "Learning Journals: A Handbook for Reflective Practice and Professional Development", Second edition, (2006), Routledge, London and New York

Moon J. A., "Reflection in Learning and Professional Development", (1999), Kogan Page Limited, London