Take5

To coincide with a week-long run of #creativeHE facilitated by Norman Jackson –  16-22 April 2016 – we are posting a #Take5 from Norman – asking us to join in a conversation about creativity in the disciplines. Join in the conversation in Google+ here: https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/110898703741307769041 #Where Does Creativity Reside in the Discipline? Surveys of academics/faculty in different disciplines (1) reveal that sites for creative thinking and action appear to be available in most aspects of disciplinary practice. Sites for creativity can be connected through the idea of disciplinary inquiry and problem solving. They can also be connected to Dellas and […]

Generating Research Conversation with “The Wheel” Terry Elliot, Western Kentucky University Writing Project, February 2016 I have a semester-long research “thing” that all of my students take part in. I call it a “thing” because it could range from a standard research paper (their default setting I fear) to an extended informational blog to ebooks to collaborative handbooks.  The purpose of this early assignment is to get them thinking first about their personal and disciplinary passions AND connecting those with their immediate community in the classroom.  Passion and connection. I also introduce a really effective sharing technique that I call […]

CREATING ACTIVE LEARNING IN EXAMS Inspired by October 30, 2015 iad4learnteach blog with permission from Simon Bates. In our last Take5 blog, we looked at what makes a great lecturer – this post explores what makes a great exam. Simon Bates is Senior Advisor for Teaching and Learning and Academic Director for CTLT at UBC Vancouver. He has spent time re-thinking classroom practice – AND he has also designed a new two-stage exam that includes both individual and group elements – and that he argues better models real world issues with which graduates will have to engage – and that in the process […]

Sebastian Boo, a former LondonMet student, shares his current LSE-based research into student views of excellent teachers. Yes – they mention clarity, voice, passion and performance… BUT there is also great emphasis on CARE and KINDNESS… Have a read. Students’ views of excellent teachers Who were your best teachers or professors? I remember my primary school teacher, Mr Johnson, for his captivating storytelling, my secondary school biology teacher, Dr Higby, for his knowledge and enthusiasm; and my physiology professor John Stevens’ ready wit and humour. Research indicates that teaching quality is the single most significant factor in determining student achievement […]

Welcome back to Take5 – the user-friendly staff development blog from CELT at London Metropolitan University. This autumn we are launching Take5 by joining in with Chrissi Nerantzi’s open course: Creativity for Learning in HE. Like everybody else we are much too busy … BUT if we don’t make time for some creativity – then what’s it all about anyway? So – we are sharing this invitation with you and hope that you too will make the time – take the leap – and join us… Come on in… the water’s lovely!! Tips: If you are from LondonMet and would like […]

The digital age is predicated on the notion of student as producer (of knowledge) – as opposed to earlier education ages that appeared to position the student (only) as a consumer of knowledge. If helping your students to become digitally capable and proficient, why don’t you set students the challenge of making digital artefacts and/or telling digital stories? Here are some strategies for developing Digital Storytelling that we have used. SEE: http://edtechteacher.org/tools/multimedia/digital-storytelling/ – for school examples to inspire and resource your own practice. Join #ds106 and sign up to the teaching blog roll DS106 – or digital storytelling 106 – […]

What do you do when designing a new course or developing a new assessment or assignment? How do you check that you are working with your own education philosophy rather than against it? How do you prevent yourself from trotting down the same old path, not challenging either yourself or your students? How do you offer students assessment choice? As Howard Rheingold said on #ccourses (http://connectedcourses.net/) – if we aren’t falling off – then we’re not dancing on the edge! So, for this post I am mostly re-posting a blog from Jesse Stommel – on Twelve Steps for Creating a […]

In our last post we suggested that you had a look at Hybrid Pedagogy’s #moocmooc on Critical Pedagogy. This week they are discussing the limitations of an education system totally geared to employment – and ask whether it is possible to create educational alternatives. This is what they say: MOOC MOOC: Critical Pedagogy is a six-week exploration of critical pedagogy. During this fourth week of MOOC MOOC: Critical Pedagogy (MMCP), we will be discussing Jeffery Shantz’s essay, “Spaces of Learning: The Anarchist Free Skool” (chapter 7) in Anarchist Pedagogies and considering the impulse to dissent as seen in Thoreau’s essay […]

In UKHE a significant aspect of the work of central Educational and Learning Developers is to help university staff develop their pedagogy and their curriculum practice. We work with staff to help them become educationalists – to teach and assess more effectively – and to develop their practice to tackle emerging changes in society, in educational policy – and in the aptitudes and attitudes that they encounter in the students before them. Our work involves change: in our practices – of our resources – to our ways of thinking about teaching and learning. Change can provoke disquiet, unease and even […]

So – there we were W7 – and there they were, 63 first years, giving Poster Presentations to an audience of 70+ people. They had explored ‘learning spaces’ and constructed great arguments that referenced the reading (Thornburg and Giroux) and dazzled us with their Posters, their Prezis and their animations… It was thrilling How did we reach this lofty pinnacle of academic practice? Well – a couple of weeks before the Poster Presentations we prepared text-scrolls of just two key articles with which we wanted the students to engage: Giroux’s article on lessons to be learned from Freire: http://truth-out.org/archive/component/k2/item/93016:lessons-to-be-learned-from-paulo-freire-as-education-is-being-taken-over-by-the-mega-rich And […]