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. Anecdotally, students report that; “I want to do more designing, rather than writing about it”. 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. With the advent of AI writing software (e.g. Jasper, Simplify etc.), the potential for students to sidestep the reflective process by AI-generating written material has substantially increased. Video reflections, however, circumvent this risk as well as the plagiarism of past student reflections. A personal video reflection is easy to do and allows for authentic reflection on one’s own learning and encourages the use of examples unique to one’s personal situation.

keywords: reflective practice; reflexive practice

• with: Emily Wright (lead), Jane Connory, Simone Taffe, Alison De Kruiff
• year: December 2022 – December 2023
• for: Swinburne University of Technology, Adobe Curriculum Innovation Programme 2023