Wednesday, October 27, 2010
ISSoTL 2010 - part 1
Last week started with a Canadian colleague holding a SoTL seminar back at base. Nicola introduced us the micro meso, macro, mega levels of SoTL impact which made me think about the relationship to levels of scholarship described by Aswin & Trigwell (2004). Although we all want to make sure that innovations and investigations are disseminated to as wide an audience as possible it won't all be of the highest research quality, but does this matter if what we are really about is improving and enhancing student learning? Can we have one without the other?
After the seminar we headed off to ISSoTL 2010 in Liverpool where we were both contributing papers. Mine was on encouraging engagement with SoTL during and following participation in the Postgraduate Certificate in Higher Education Professional Practice (the mandatory qualification for new lecturers in UK higher education) and how to include those who haven't done the PGCert in SoTL work, both as learners and participants. I discussed how we encourage engagement during the PGCert and how I was developing a CPD offering to continue and sustain that engagement .
I went to a number of interesting sessions the best of which was the conversation with Stephen Brookfield, what a treat! Stephen described himself as a refugee from Thatcher, having lost his job the last time the Tories were in and headed to North America where he remains. He discussed what it means to become critically reflective and how we might tackle issues, such as racism, that are particularly difficult for us by acknowledging and exposing our in-built cultural baggage, our learnt racism or sexism or whatever biases we might find difficult to deal with. He emphasised the importance of having an ethical stance, of deciding what you are prepared to make a stand on. He talked about the use of a critical incident questionnaire for his classes (there are lots of materials like this available form his web site) and how that helped him review what happened in class and tackle issues. It is important to talk to the students about what you're doing and why. All music to my ears as it very much chimes with my own stance and way of doing things.
Ashwin, P. and Trigwell, K. (2004) 'Investigating Staff and Educational Development.' In Enhancing Staff and Educational Development. ed. by Khan, P. and Baume, D. London: Kogan Page ¶ 1:17 pm
After the seminar we headed off to ISSoTL 2010 in Liverpool where we were both contributing papers. Mine was on encouraging engagement with SoTL during and following participation in the Postgraduate Certificate in Higher Education Professional Practice (the mandatory qualification for new lecturers in UK higher education) and how to include those who haven't done the PGCert in SoTL work, both as learners and participants. I discussed how we encourage engagement during the PGCert and how I was developing a CPD offering to continue and sustain that engagement .
I went to a number of interesting sessions the best of which was the conversation with Stephen Brookfield, what a treat! Stephen described himself as a refugee from Thatcher, having lost his job the last time the Tories were in and headed to North America where he remains. He discussed what it means to become critically reflective and how we might tackle issues, such as racism, that are particularly difficult for us by acknowledging and exposing our in-built cultural baggage, our learnt racism or sexism or whatever biases we might find difficult to deal with. He emphasised the importance of having an ethical stance, of deciding what you are prepared to make a stand on. He talked about the use of a critical incident questionnaire for his classes (there are lots of materials like this available form his web site) and how that helped him review what happened in class and tackle issues. It is important to talk to the students about what you're doing and why. All music to my ears as it very much chimes with my own stance and way of doing things.
Ashwin, P. and Trigwell, K. (2004) 'Investigating Staff and Educational Development.' In Enhancing Staff and Educational Development. ed. by Khan, P. and Baume, D. London: Kogan Page ¶ 1:17 pm
