Fostering a Creative Social Care Community using CPD
The Creativity and Innovation in Social Care (CISC) network is a voluntary and professional educational body committed to the advancement of creativity and innovation in social care education and practice in Ireland to enhance the learning experience for students and improve the delivery of social care.
In December 2020, the network was awarded €6,000 by the National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education under the Network and Discipline Fund 2020 to support the development of creativity in social care professional work and related educational practices (see https://www.teachingandlearning.ie/2021/01/14/new-initiatives-funded-across-16-networks-and-discipline-groups/). This funding was directed towards the use of ePortfolios to document, reflect on, and evaluate creative teaching practice across subject areas in social care education and in social care practice.
This CPD opportunity comprised of an online seminar titled Exploring Ecologies for Practice, Learning & Creativity in Social Care Education and Practice led by Dr Norman Jackson and three eportfolio training sessions with Dr Orna Farrell and members of ePortfolio Ireland.
The outputs of the CISC 2021 professional development initiative Fostering a Creative Social Care Community using CPD include:
- Publication of 3 working papers, ‘Survey of Perceptions of Creativity in Social Care Work & Education’, ‘Ecological Perspectives on Social Care Practice, Education, Learning & Creativity: Concepts, tools and frameworks’ and ‘Ecological Perspectives on Social Care Practice, Education, Learning & Creativity: Applying concepts, tools and frameworks to practice’ by Dr Norman Jackson, Emeritus Professor of the University of Surrey and Louisa Goss (see http://www.normanjackson.co.uk/cisc.html).
- The development and publication for professional ePortfolios detailing creative practice in social care education and practice.
- The creation of professional videos and a seminar graphic for communicating ‘creative pedagogical practices in social care’ arising from the eportfolios and creative pedagogy training.
- A further outcome of this project is increased membership of the network. The network currently has representation from 10 institutes of higher education in Ireland providing social care programmes, a Canadian college and creative social care practitioners.
Graphic recording of the seminar which formed an important part of CPD for educators and social care workers. Other outputs from this initiative include professional videos and ePortfolios. The main network overview is an introduction to the CISC network. The other 8 videos focus on a teaching or practice challenge during Covid and how each person addressed this challenge creatively.