Critical literacy for professional practice

Reflection is a key part of the learning process, particularly in practice-based disciplines such as design. However, too much (or too frequent) reflection can potentially result in student exhaustion with the process itself. If the process seems onerous to the student, this then can have negative flow-on effects such as superficial engagement with the reflective process, plagiarism, and in worst-case-scenarios, the employment of contract-cheating or Artificial Intelligence to create seemingly original (but nevertheless devoid of student input) reflective pieces.

Nevertheless, reflection is key to student learning. Reflection is not just a way of making formal learning explicit but also a lifelong skill that can be applied to a range of situations. Importantly, within design education, these reflection skills are vital in building capacity for reflective practice, preparing graduates for professional design practice. The project proposes to further develop the students’ digital and critical literacies by focussing on reflexive practice skills (e.g. reflective practice that applies learning to future scenarios).