Learning Strategies in Practice-based Courses

Professor Steve Cornwell interviews IAFOR Keynote Speaker and award-winning photographer Dr Paul Lowe of the University of the Arts London.

In this interview Dr Lowe discusses the various instructional approaches he takes with his students in his post-graduate photography courses. The conversation begins with a description of "communities of practice" and the effectiveness of social learning. He also discusses his use of "reflective practice" and describes the benefits of getting students to think critically and honestly about their own work. The conversation finishes with Dr Lowe explaining his technique of "calibrating judgement" and how he exposes his students to multiple forms of critique and trains them to evaluate, filter and put into use the information they receive.


Dr Paul Lowe

Dr Paul Lowe is the Course Director of the Masters Programme in Photojournalism and Documentary Photography at London College of Communication, University of the Arts London. He was responsible for the development and launch of a new part time mode of the course delivered entirely online using web conferencing, blogs and the VLE, launched in 2008. Paul is an award-winning photographer, whose work is represented by Panos Pictures, and who has been published in Time, Newsweek, Life, The Sunday Times Magazine, The Observer and The Independent amongst others. He has covered breaking news the world over, including the fall of the Berlin Wall, Nelson Mandela’s release, famine in Africa, the conflict in the former Yugoslavia and the destruction of Grozny.

He is a consultant to the World Press Photo foundation in Amsterdam, on online education of professional photojournalists in the majority world. His book, Bosnians, documenting 10 years of the war and post war situation in Bosnia, was published in April 2005 by Saqi books. He regularly contributes to international and national conferences in Photography, Media and Education, and has published chapters in edited books on these themes as well.

In January 2015 Dr Lowe became the Founding Judge of the IAFOR Documentary Photography Award.

Dr Paul Lowe was a Keynote Speaker at The IAFOR International Conference on Technology in the Classroom - Hawaii 2016 (IICTCHawaii2016) in Honolulu, Hawaii.

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