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Hi All,

Yes thank you for sharing the ideas below. 

There are aspects of 'invitational theory' that I
like, and have used 'unawares'.

This is probably a digression.......but

In semi-retirement I've had the opportunity to use
watercolours. On a Tuesday morning at The Way in
Dunstable, a Christian community centre, we have three
art groups: one for complete beginners,(some of whom
have never picked up a paint brush since school in
some cases 50 years ago!) and two groups I facilitate
for "Continuers".  

Our mornings are invitational, encouraging folks (40
in the three groups) to have a go......we are all
learners....there are no criticisms, lots of
encouragement and a few suggestions.  We show the
groups our paintings, or demonstrate and then talk
about the the topic, colours, etc etc etc. We try to
bring lots of inspiration, enthusiasm and ideas.

I observe the participants developing their standards
of judgement by watching other artists, through
discussion, by their learning of tips and techniques
passed on,  by what they appreciate and like,and by
glancing through the various watercolour books we
bring, and the videos we watch together.

Of course unlike school or HE courses...  there is no
assessment......the important criteria are enjoyment
and friendship.

Practitioner research / action research has always for
me been about change, improvement and development in
work in school classrooms, as a senior manager, and
latterly as tutor working with trainee teachers.

Criteria of worth or value have been 
-"What has changed?". 
-"What do we need to do next?"
-"How have we been able to improve
teaching/learning/organisation?"
-"What have we learned, or developed?"


Regards to all,

Brian 
--- Pip/Bruce Ferguson <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Hi all
> 
> Warm greetings especially to Susie and Je Kan
> through recent conversations,
> but to you all.
> 
> This email is a response to Je Kan's request about
> the assessment of
> portfolios: "I am completely stumped as to how to
> teach other teachers to
> use and assess portfolios. and  contest the 
> critical allegations that they
> are scrap books filled with the musings of children
> who ramble in their
> reflections with unfocused emotionalism.. I find a
> solution even more
> stressful when you have different cultural ideas as
> the what is or is not
> knowledge."
> 
> When I was involved in staff development at a
> polytechnic, I taught a course
> called "Reflective Practitioner", a one-week course
> as part of a 12-week
> (spread over 3 years) programme, happening while
> busy staff were still
> teaching.  It encouraged them to use journals as a
> form of systematic,
> critical reflection, and this approach might be of
> help to you in the
> portfolio assessment also, Je Kan.  One of my
> students, a nurse-educator,
> put in her journal:  "It is reflection that is able
> to change experience
> into learning and intelligent action" (Moana
> Shortland, 2000) which I
> thought was a wonderful quote.  Below, I have copied
> in a HERDSA Gold Guide
> reference (located from www.herdsa.org.au,
> publications) which we found
> useful as it provides some examples of how
> assessment of what can be quite
> subjective reflections, occurs.  You might also be
> interested in the writing
> of Peter November, a Commerce lecturer at Victoria
> University of Wellington,
> who has used journals extensively and written about
> the method critically,
> for a number of years.  E.G. "Journals for the
> Journey Into Deep Learning: A
> Framework" in HERD, Vol 15, No. 1, 1996, pp.115 -
> 128.  He's a very
> interesting guy and well worth contacting - try
> [log in to unmask] or some
> combination around that, or visit Victoria
> University's website if you want
> to get in touch.
> 
> HERDSA Gold Guide:
> Making Connections: Using Student Journals as a
> Teaching/Learning Aid
> Roy Ballantyne and Jan Packer
> This Gold Guide defines the student journal as a
> learning exercise in which
> students express in writing their understandings of,
> reflections on,
> responses to or analysis of an event, experience or
> concept. It is seen as a
> teaching device which assists students to formulate,
> clarify, evaluate and
> reframe their thoughts, feelings and actions in the
> light of their own
> experience and the information encountered in their
> study. The guide has
> information and ideas to enable staff to evaluate,
> adapt, create and refine
> journal writing techniques for their own purposes.
> It discusses the
> benefits, dangers and difficulties involved in the
> use of journal writing as
> a teaching tool, ways of designing journal writing
> tasks, and forms of
> assessment for which they can be used. A wide
> ranging sample of illustrative
> strategies is given.
> 53 pages,   1995
> 
> The other thing that you might find quite novel and
> VERY useful, as we did
> at Waikato Polytechnic, is a theory that was built
> up in the States by a guy
> called William Watson Purkey.  It's called
> Invitational Theory, and was
> hugely effective in introducing our wide range of
> lecturers - both in terms
> of different cultural and different discipline
> groups - to educational
> theory that they could quickly grasp, apply and
> self-critique on.  Best to
> go to the Invitational website,
>
http://www.invitationaleducation.net/publications/journal/index.htm
> 
> But the theory uses everyday language to capture
> quite complex
> relationships, such as whether our educational
> practice is 'intentionally
> inviting', 'unintentionally inviting',
> 'unintentionally disinviting' or
> 'intentionally disinviting' (why anyone would
> practise that last one beats
> me, but I guess it happens!) There is also a
> component to the theory that
> asks us to reflect on whether and how we are
> practising invitational theory
> in policies, programmes, through people, places and
> processes - perhaps
> check Purkey's own explanation of the basic tenets
> of the theory in one
> journal,
>
http://www.invitationaleducation.net/publications/journal/v11p5.htm
> and whether we are being personally and
> professionally inviting with
> ourselves and others.  There is a sound basis to
> this theory and the online
> journals provide great examples of how educators
> around the world are using
> it.  We were introduced to it by Dr Patsy Paxton, a
> South African (now Kiwi)
> who taught it to us in an Educational Theory course,
> and was a living
> example of what she taught.  I have rarely known a
> more 'intentionally
> inviting' person!  She is now the Academic Director
> at Auckland University
> of Technology.
> 
> Anyway, some thoughts there for you, Je Kan and
> others.  They relate, if
> interpreted narrowly, to journals but I believe the
> same principles are
> readily extended to portfolio assessment, which was
> also common at the
> polytechnic (especially in the creative arts area,
> but not exclusively so).
> We managed to get permission for people whose
> preferred means of
> communication was verbal rather than written, to do
> their journals on tape
> rather than in books (awfully time consuming to
> mark, but awesome
> nonetheless!) And on the final day's presentation,
> where people who had
> shared their reflective journal on the days the
> course met then had to
> present their final 'my philosophy of teaching'
> based on their reflections,
> we had people who chose to dance their learning;
> present it by poster and
> explanation etc.  My enduring memory was of working
> with a tough-as-guts
> building lecturer who thought the whole course was
> wussy as hell and was
> hard work throughout, who on his final day brought
> in his guitar and
> mouthorgan and did a spoof on Bob Dylan's "The Times
> They Are A-Changing"
> sending up his resistance to the process, but what
> he had learned out of it.
> It remains a highlight of my teaching career!
> Go well, all.
> Pip Ferguson
> 


Brian E. Wakeman
Education adviser
Dunstable
Beds