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