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Memorandum submitted by the Media Education Association (MEA) 1. Executive Summary 1.1. The
MEA is a professional association for those who teach about media with all
phases from 3 to 19. MEA members have substantial experience of teaching and
assessing creative media work by young people.
We are submitting evidence about the creative media work which is
undertaken not only by Creative Partnerships but also in a wide range of other
contexts. 1.2. We
urge the Select Committee to recognise that the development of digital communications
media is opening up significantly new and different kinds of creative learning
for children and young people. We outline the existing situation and identify a
number of issues that we believe require urgent attention at Government level. 1.3. These
issues are as follows. 1.3.1. Over-use of the term "creativity" and widespread confusion about its meaning have compromised its usefulness. We recommend that it should be used with care and linked where possible to clear explanations and evidence. 1.3.2. Too many creative media projects for children and young people, including some of those set up by Creative Partnerships, has paid little attention to the specific nature of creative work with media, to its actual benefits for learners, and to the longer term sustainability of such work. Funding must ensure that both teachers and learners are enabled to reflect on their practice and identify what they need to continue their creative development. 1.3.3. Creative learning about media must not be seen only as work-related, or as merely about gaining technological skills: we recommend that it should be seen as an essential part of media literacy and that therefore that all children and young people should have regular opportunities, within curriculum time, for creative learning about media. 1.3.4. Creative learning should never be isolated from learning about
critical skills and the acquisition of cultural breadth. These three strands of
learning inform and enhance each other, enabling learners to reflect upon their
creative activities and see them in a wider context. 1.4. The MEA also wishes to give oral evidence to the Select Committee.
Introduction 1.5. The Media Education Association is the professional association for all those who teach about the media at any level of education from Early Years and Foundation to the post-16 sector in England and Wales. It was formed in 2006 and its activities include: · providing a forum for the views, experiences, and resource needs of teachers of media; · developing reciprocal links with the media industries and involving practitioners from all branches of these industries in the work of schools; · representing the interests, and raising the status, of media education and Media Studies as a discipline; · promoting dialogue between the varied constituencies involved in media education, across all curriculum areas, and across different sectors of education; · providing a proactive and coherent voice for media teachers participating in current and future educational reform. 2.2 Still in its first year of operation, MEA has a growing membership, drawing particularly on the fast-developing sector of Film and Media Studies teaching at GCSE and A Level, which has seen a steady increase in candidate numbers over the last five years, as shown here: However, these subjects are still taken by fewer than 8% of the 16-18 age group. While the impact of the new Creative and Media Diploma remains to be seen, the substantial area for growth in teaching about media appears to be that of the 3-14 age groups, with the inclusion of film and other media work within the new Primary Framework and the new Key Stage 3 Framework, mainly as part of English but also within Citizenship and PHSE. 2.3 By "media" we mean the modern mass media of film, radio, television, computer games, Internet and mobile telephony. The development of digital technologies in the last ten years means that young people now have unprecedented access, not only to proliferating sources of information, but also to the means of creating and distributing their own media products. It is now increasingly recognised at all levels of the education system that specialist media courses in the 14-19 sector are not enough: all children and young people in the 21st century should be enabled to become fully media literate.[1] MEA therefore represents an area of significant growth, and considerable social, cultural and political importance. 2.4 Although some MEA members have worked with Creative Partnerships, our evidence draws on the wider experience of our membership over many years, in the development of learning about creative work with media in schools and colleges. We believe that we have distinctive and important evidence to provide to the Select Committee, which will inform not only the future of Creative Partnerships but also thinking about creativity in general. 3. Definitions 3.1 We share the concerns expressed in the Rhetorics of Creativity report commissioned by Creative Partnerships from the Institute of Education, University of London, and urge the Select Committee to consider the key questions set out in the Summary of that report.[2] In sum, the term "creativity" is over-used, and in confusing and inconsistent ways, driven by different disciplinary, institutional and political agendas. While we acknowledge that this lack of focus can sometimes enable otherwise hostile or separate agencies to collaborate and to share an ethos of "risk-taking" and "inventiveness", we feel that it is generally hampering proper debate and the collection of credible evidence about what constitutes good practice and real learning, and is offering little consistent benefit to learners. 3.2 We recommend therefore that the word "creativity" should be used with clarity and care. Where it is used, we think it would be wise to take into account the four attributes listed in the 1999 NACCCE report on creativity, which can help to correct the kind of vague thinking that confines creativity to unfettered personal expression within arts contexts only. NACCCE proposed that creativity · must involve critical evaluation; · is as common across science and mathematics as in the arts, although the arts are seen as being unique in their ability to develop and tap into creative 'emotional intelligence'; · is multi-dimensional, involving emotional, intellectual, social, cultural, spiritual, moral, political, technological and economic understanding and enquiry; · is not simply 'free flowing' but involves knowledge and skills.[3]
4. Creative Activities in Media Education 4.1 A significant proportion of assessment (40%-50%) is allocated to creative work in GCSE and A-Level Media Studies and Film Studies for all current examination specifications. Media learning is regarded as creative whether it is theoretical or practical.[4] Creative work takes two main forms:
· In practical productions which are assessed for rigorous research and planning, production skills and creativity, and a reflective evaluation demonstrating critical awareness of students' own skills and of applied theories.
· As an active teaching and learning method, formally recognised for instance in GCSE coursework units with 'writing' in its broadest sense that not only includes formal essays but a range of forms such as storyboards, scripts, film posters, and web pages. The specifications reflect the underlying principle that creative and theoretical learning inform each other through the process of guided 'learning by doing'.
Creativity and analysis are both about the production and interpretation of meaning, and examination courses aim for students to demonstrate independence and originality of thought. The A grade assessment criteria for the Practical Application of Learning in Film Studies, for instance, rewards the combination of 'intelligence and imagination' in 'signature' productions stimulated by thorough knowledge and understanding of bodies of film work.
Media education employs a dynamic 'dialogic' approach to teaching and learning in which 'students move back and forth between action and reflection'.[5] Student decision-making discussions during their production work encompass issues about technology, constructing meanings, referencing students' personal experiences of media texts and school academic learning. Class theoretical discussions can reference students' creative work and guide practical activities in ways that engage their critical understanding more effectively than can be achieved purely through transmission models of teaching and learning.
We welcome the increased weighting of production coursework to 50% in the proposed A-Level Media Studies specifications (2008-). The integration of practical and theoretical learning is also characteristic of Applied GCSE and A-Level Media Studies courses, and in the current consultation period for the new GCSE specifications (2009-) we are challenging the proposed differentiation in coursework weighting that has GCSE Media Studies allocated 25% Coursework (reduced from the current 50%), whereas Applied GCSE Media Studies has 50% coursework. 4.2 An increasing number of opportunities for creative work with media are also being offered to school pupils in the 3-14 age range, but these vary enormously in quality. To a certain extent the ICT curriculum is enabling children to acquire some of the technological skills needed to use creative software and to find and use interactive web sites (although of course many children learn more about this outside school than in it). But to develop their creative abilities with these technologies children need to acquire critical skills and to extend the cultural range of media they encounter. We are concerned that schools are not meeting this challenge: media tend to be seen by teachers in terms of their technological requirements and of the issues of social control and ethics that they may raise, not as part of culture and the arts.[6] 4.3 Where children do have opportunities to undertake creative work with media - particularly animation and filmmaking - these are more likely to be offered outside the curriculum rather than within it. First Light, Media Box, Channel Four's Breaking the News, the BBC's Blast and School Report, as well as Creative Partnerships, have provided a large number of substantially-funded initiatives; in addition there is a wide range of independent providers such as local workshops and community arts centres[7] who also offer services to schools beyond what they may already be doing with First Light or Creative Partnerships. The products created by these initiatives, and their participants' enjoyment and sense of achievement, are widely celebrated. 4.4The benefits of to learners of successful creative media work are substantial. Not only do they gain the satisfaction - common to all creative work - of expressing their own ideas in ways that seem appropriate and original to them, but they gain new insights into the media that surround them, becoming a more active and constructively critical audience. Furthermore, creative media work can enhance and extend learners' competences in speaking, listening, reading and writing, and their general self-confidence as communicators. Creative media work draws on learners' existing skills as media consumers, which are too often ignored by formal schooling. 4.5 But the problems and shortcomings which frequently arise - especially in creative media projects - where arts or media professionals work with schools and pupils in time-limited initiatives, have still not been properly addressed, despite being consistently documented over the years[8]. Too often, funding and planning decisions are made which do not recognise all the project management implications or include an exit strategy. The results are that · Children are only involved in planning and perhaps filming, but not in editing - which is the most creative part of filmmaking - either because there is no time for this, or there are not enough computers available, or both. · Teachers may have little or no relationship with the media professionals, who may "take over" and run the project in their own way. · No one is in a position to either predict or assess the real learning outcomes of the project. · There is little legacy in terms of skills or equipment left in the schools to sustain further work. · Children acquire some media production skills in the course of the project but then have no further opportunity to use them. · The ownership (both moral and legal) of the works produced remains obscure and no plans are made to distribute them on a longer-term basis or to archive them. While we know that some key agencies such as First Light are well aware of these issues and are taking steps to address them, we feel that they are not widely understood and in particular, too many schools are still naively embarking on projects that will generate the same problems. Even where projects seem to have ended positively and are celebrated, the problems listed above may well not have been addressed and the benefits to the learners and the school are short term. In contrast, we would particularly like to draw attention to the work of Cineclub which, despite receiving no public funding at all, has nevertheless established an exemplary set of protocols for creative media work by children and young people.[9] 4.6 The result of these widely-neglected problems in the planning and management of creative media work is that two sorts of perceptions have arisen. Firstly - and often at the outset - it is believed that creative media work by children and youth is extremely easy: just a matter of ICT techniques with little or no artistic judgment involved: it's assumed that 'the kids understand it all anyway'. Secondly - and often after the first set of perceptions has been abandoned - creative media work comes to be seen as highly specialist, difficult and expensive, only possible with extra funding and with the help of professionals. It is therefore believed that it cannot be integrated into the curriculum and must always be an 'extra' or special treat. As a consequence, most children or young people have no opportunity to do such work at all, and those that do, never get a 'second go' at creative media work and therefore do not develop their own skills and talents. As a corollary, there are no models of learning progression or agreed standards. 4.7 We regard these perceptions as unacceptable as well as unnecessary. We recommend that the huge amounts of public funding which are now going into creative media work by children and youth must allow for forward planning and longer term investment in learning. Schools and teachers must be enabled to acquire the necessary skills (given the developments in digital technologies they already have the basic equipment in every computer) and be encouraged to use their own professional judgment to work out how a minimum level of creative work with media can be provided as an entitlement for every child. 4.8This does not have to mean filmmaking in the traditional sense: it may well be that the most satisfying and interesting creative media work that is appropriate for children in schools will be computer-based. It will include the manipulation of sound and (downloaded) still and moving images, animation, website construction and games design. Software to support this kind of activity is gaining in sophistication and coming down in price. We believe that it is now a pressing responsibility for the education sector to address the implications of the creative opportunities for children and young people that are now presented by new digital technologies. 4.9 These implications are substantial. They include fundamental issues about the nature of creative learning in this area, about learning progression, standards and assessment. They will impact on the current review of the curriculum, and will affect decisions about school management and timetabling. Ultimately they will also affect the 14-19 qualifications structure. But we think these implications are worth addressing, because all learners will benefit from a better informed and constructive approach to learning about the media which play such a huge role in all our lives. 5. Recommendations 5.1 That the tensions and contradictions in the usage of the term "creativity" should be more openly and explicitly debated, with greater attention being given to the creative process rather than focusing exclusively on outcomes. 5.2 That public funding for creative media activities by children and young people (including that from Creative Partnerships) should take account of the time needed for children and young people, and their teachers, to reflect on their work and to identify what they need in order to further develop their own creative abilities. 5.3 That creative work with media is recognised as a general curricular entitlement for all children and young people and as a key part of media literacy, linked to critical skills and cultural breadth. It should not be seen as essentially vocational or as merely a set of technological skills. 5.4 That all post-14 specialist media courses should provide opportunities for students to develop the skills, knowledge and understanding that enable them to produce real media products for real audiences: assessment must therefore be based on at least 40% of internally marked coursework.
[1] For a full definition of media literacy see the European Charter for Media Literacy at www.euromedialiteracy.eu. [2] Shakuntala Banaji with Andrew Burn and David Buckingham, Rhetorics of Creativity: A Literature Review, Centre for the Study of Children, Youth and Media, Institute of Education, University of London, 2006. See Key Questions on p 6 of the Executive Summary at http://www.childrenyouthandmediacentre.co.uk/Pics/Executuve%20summary%20-%20Rhetorics%20of%20Creativity.pdf. [3] National Advisory Committee on Creative and Cultural Education, All Our Futures: Creativity, Culture and Education, DfEE 1999. [4] McDougall, J. (2006) The Media Teacher's Book, London, Hodder Arnold, p.11 [5] Buckingham, D (2003) Media Education: Literacy, Learning and Contemporary Culture, London, Polity, p.142. [6] However, the British Film Institute's efforts to change this perception through critical work on film in the primary school have been remarkably successful, reaching more than half the local authorities in England. [7] The BFI identified over 300 in 2001: see Issy Harvey et al, Being Seen, Being Heard, BFI/National Youth Agency 2001. [8] For example in Being Seen Being Heard, in Harland et al, The Arts Education Interface, Arts Council, and in Special Effects, the NFER/BFI report to Creative Partnerships, forthcoming. [9] See www.cineclub.org.uk and in particular the Manifesto at http://www.cineclub.org.uk/cineclub/index.cfm/pcms/site.About_Us.manifesto.cineclub_manifesto/ |