Using creative writing to explore facilitation skills in practice

Background: Facilitation skills are key to the effective use of practice development strategies. Students on a Masters in Practice Development and Innovation undertake a module on Facilitation skills which incorporates the use of a creative writing piece to explore facilitation. The aim of this article is to critically reflect on the use of creative writing within an assignment from the lecturer perspective.

Critical Reflection: Rolfe et al (2001) model of reflection will be utilised to structure the reflections, considering the questions ‘What?’, ‘So What?’ and ‘Now What?’. This will discuss the concerns about the assessment method, student thoughts, relationship to practice development and evidence of effectiveness of the strategy. Examples of creative writing from the students will be used to demonstrate the diversity of the approach.

Ethics: All students have given permission for their work to be included

Discussion: Using creative writing can be freeing for students as they can use their voice to explore a topic. For the lecturer courage is needed to facilitate this expression but is rewarding as links to the principles of practice development to embed new ways of working. Important within the process is the need to give students ‘permission’ to utilise a non-traditional style of writing and the lecturer may benefit from practising the technique themselves to feel comfortable with the creative writing strategy.

Conclusion: Creative writing enabled an opportunity to explore facilitation in different ways and relate to different aspects of real and imagined life. This paper shows that creative writing can be used successfully by students to engage in novel ways of thinking. However, future actions identify the importance of guidance regarding relevance to academia and ensuring the lecturer is familiar with the aim and techniques of the process when using it for Masters level assessment.