Academic Practice in Context: Update on resource development

Dr Jane Hughes andDr Colleen McKenna

Photo: Andrei Ceru

Provisional themes for resources

Threshold Concepts

Values in HE E-learning/digital practices

Curriculum design

Academic Identity

Textual/ Knowledge practices in the disciplines

Interdisciplinary working

Assessment Enquiring into comparative disciplinary practices

Disciplinary perspectives on internationalisation

Threshold concepts

Sub - topics Sample questions Types of resources PSF mapping

•Curricular bottlenecks

•Curriculum design

•Academic identity

•Implications for learners

•Troublesome knowledge

-What are possible threshold concepts in your discipline?

-How did you experience threshold concepts as a learner?

-Identify a threshold concept likely to be confronted by a first year in your subject. Design a relevant learning activity. -How might curriculum design take account of threshold concepts?

•Annotated resource list•Workshop plan•Presentation• Slides, •Handouts (overview, activities, examples)•Video/podcasts•Guidance materials for workshop/module leaders•Case studies•Assessment tasks

A1, A2, K1, K2, K3

Photo: Sean Wallis

Threshold Concepts: materials overview

Threshold Concepts unit: resources

Introduction to unit and Threshold Concepts

Workshop plan(s) – half or full day sessions

Powerpoint slides

Activities/tasks Assessment prompts (formative/ summative)

Video(s) / podcasts

Case studies

Handouts (introduction; disciplinary examples; activities)

Guidance materials (for workshop leaders/tutors)

Annotated resource list

Photo: Sean Wallis

Introduction

• Aims• Background/context to threshold concepts

research• Characteristics of threshold concepts• Threshold concepts in the field– What concepts arise in different disciplines

• Threshold concepts and learning activities• Curriculum design

Photo: Andrei Cero

Sample slide 1 from TC workshop

Activity: recalling a difficult learning experience

Photo: Don Nelson

Think back to your time as a learner in your subject.

Try to remember a key concept or theory that you struggled with.

Please make some notes about the concept/theory and the experience of learning it.

Sample slide 2 from TC workshop

Some characteristics of threshold concepts

• Transformative – once understood, they should shift one’s perception of the subject

• Irreversible – cannot be ‘unlearned’• Integrative – has the capacity to ‘expose a hidden

interrelatedness’

• Troublesome - potentially counter-intuitive. 'In grasping a threshold concept a student moves from a common sense understanding to an understanding which may conflict with perceptions that have previously seemed self-evidently true.’ (Davies, 2003)

Photo: Kathleen Cohen

Sample slide 3 from TC workshop

Activity: designing a learning activity around a threshold concept

• Please take a threshold concept from your discipline (from the handout or one that you’ve identified)

• Spend some time drafting a learning activity (or a series of activities) around the concept

• Share the idea with up to four other people.

Phot

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Sample slide 4 from TC workshop

Threshold concept – example taskTask 1: Threshold concepts and student perspectives Interview 3-6 students (3rd year or above) about their perception of

potential threshold concepts in their subject. How did they experience these? Did the learning of these concepts seem significant?

To what extent do the students’ experiences with possible threshold concepts accord with the identification of threshold concepts in your field. (That is, do the students recognise the same concepts as those that have emerged in the research in this area in your discipline?)

Having undertaken these interviews, do you see any possible ways in which the teaching of certain topics might be changed in light of the student responses?

Photo: Andre Ceru

Values/ethicsSub - topics Sample questions Types of resources PSF mapping

- ethics- sustainable development- community engagement- HE and social responsibility- diverse learning groups

-What values inform your teaching? To what extent are these rooted in the discipline?

-What does sustainability mean from the perspective of your discipline?

-What are potential community/cross-sector opportunities/responsibilities involving your discipline? -How does your subject engage diverse learning groups?

•Annotated resource list•Dilemmas•Case studies•Narratives•Workshop plan \ presentation,• Slides •Handouts (overview, activities, examples)•Assessment tasks•video/podcasts•Guidance materials for workshop/module leaders

A1, A4, A5, K1, PV1, PV2, PV4

Photo: Kathleen Cohen

Textual knowledge

• Sub-topics– Disciplinary research practices, writing practices,

pedagogic practices, experiences of changing or working across disciplines

• Example: activities around engaging with educational research relevant to the discipline– To introduce sources, including educational research

databases, and tease out search terms– To highlight relevant experiences– To explore disciplinary differences

• Small writing tasks + more extended reading and exploration

Activity examplesFree writing for 5 minutes, followed by discussion.

Topic: Collaborating on writing a paper EITHER with someone from another discipline or very new to yours OR where you were the one who was new to the discipline.

1. Describe a good research paper (e.g. for a respected journal) in your discipline. Do this at three levels:Top level: e.g. content, thought Second level: e.g. expected components or sections; how literature in the field would be used.Third level: conventions, citation styles, use of 1st person.Is there a high level of consensus about these rules or guidelines in your discipline? 2. Now read a paper from another discipline that you perceive to be different from your own (it could be an education paper but need not be). To what extent do your ‘rules’ or guidelines seem to apply to this paper? 3. Find and read a research paper about teaching and learning in your discipline, using the suggested list of sources or others you may know. (This activity is developed with a list of questions to consider when reading the paper).

By U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Matthew R. White [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

E-learning

Books are stronger on advice than evidence

The only thing that matters in

education is the quality of what

learners do

In its discourse, if not in its routine practices, education has tended to

deal with innovation by treating each new idea or technology as if it

is a challenger

E-learning needs to do more than improving

access and learner control. It also needs

to improve the process and outcomes of

learning.

It soon becomes clear that there is no homogenous ‘net generation’. Universities and teachers should not let themselves be conned

by pundits into believing that the incoming ‘digital natives’ know what they need or that their needs are uniform or radically different

from anything we have seen before.Ellis, R.A. and Goodyear, P. (2010) Student experiences of e-learning in higher education: the ecology of sustainable innovation. London: RoutledgeFalmer

E-learning and discipline?

• A disciplinary focus on e-learning (or vice versa)?– Existing open resources, eg OSTRICH; CPD4HE– Possible approaches: multiple topics; enquiry;

technology focus . . . ?• Two themes– Learning spaces• Paper-field-lab-mind-library-coffee shop-VLE- studio-

forum-3D virtual environment-classroom …

– Student experiences of learning

Questions?

j.hughes@hedera.org.ukc.mckenna@hedera.org.uk