You might think that the assessment of your work should be done by an examiner or teacher and should take place as a formal exam; indeed, this might have been your last experience of education.
Although the learning of new skills demands from LSP clear definition of all the activities which make up puppetry, and clear criteria for judging success; LSP also recognises that the complex and sophisticated mental shifts which occur during learning cannot be forced into frameworks of predetermined objectives. From the beginning of training, students are enabled to take responsibility for their own learning by means of a rigorous process of self-determination and an individual learning plan.
At LSP we prefer that the learner is involved at all stages of the teaching/learning/assessment process. Part of your preparation as a professional puppeteer is to be able to negotiate, and collaborate in a team with the tutors and student colleagues, evaluating your learning in a way that exhibits the same sense of freedom and democracy characterized by the course design and learning process itself and indeed the puppetry profession. So how are you assessed?
Continuous peer, self and tutor assessment of rehearsals, performances, notebooks, discussions, portfolio, puppets, equipment, photographs, reports and:
- Short solo and group performances which encompass the skills, knowledge and professionalism necessary to take keep a specific work alive and in demand.
- The knowledge and skills to execute specific types of puppetry in a variety of different contexts in professional life as a performance artist; and in education, therapy and the community.