Any Questions?


On Wednesday 23rd September I took part in my first BAPP discussion group, led by Helen Kindred. Beforehand I felt very apprehensive as I was unsure of what to expect, alongside feeling slightly nervous about presenting a discussion topic for the first time. On the flipside, I was extremely keen to hear from people on other modules, since I felt it would help me understand not only my own module but also the following ones and consequently how the whole course fits together. 

 

The meeting started by everyone introducing themselves and their topics that they wished to discuss. I was grateful for this, since it made me feel more at ease and also helped to humanise the other participants, who previously had just been names and pictures on a screen. It was comforting to see some fellow students from Module 1, and to hear that they, like myself were feeling somewhat perplexed and overwhelmed. In addition, I found it fascinating listening to other people’s topics, and was pleased to hear how diverse and wide reaching they were. Previously I had feared that perhaps some of my ideas were too far ‘outside the box’, but I felt reassured and free to really explore and be creative whilst linking it back into my practice. 

 

Other students discussed their ideas, one of which was the idea of questioning and interviewing, what that means, and whether we have an intrinsic bias, meaning we are asking a question to elicit a specific answer. To me this conversation was extremely interesting and perhaps it is an area I will explore, especially in terms of questioning myself and deep-seated habits within my practice (such as imitation cited in my previous blog). I was struck by how confident students on the other modules were, not only in expressing their own ideas but also questioning those of others. I hope to gain this same confidence over the course of each module, and I feel that this confidence will help me professionally too. 

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