News Archive

Welcome to this week's edition of the Learning Space. As I mentioned in the last issue, this will be a space specifically to discuss any issues related to teaching and learning and we welcome contributions at any time. These could be thoughts about your own classes, events attended or to be run or you could even invite students to write something about their learning!

This week I'd like to share some thoughts about the system of encouraging best practice in teaching at Higher Education level by inviting lecturers to take part in workshops or courses on education development. This is happening in many different countries, to greater or lesser degrees.

In UWA we have the Foundations of Teaching and Learning course run by CATL, in some Universities/countries there is no such support offered, in some a four day course is optional and in some a one year certificate is compulsory. In many Universities around the world it is considered important for school teachers to be trained, but for the lecturer, it is assumed that we have picked up the skills of ‘lecturing' by giving seminars and following the example of our own professors. Indeed, even the name ‘lecturing' gives away our attitude towards teaching in Universities.

There is a slightly problematic discourse around this, which I have always found intriguing. For some reason, ‘lecturing' or ‘professing' is considered to be what we do at Higher Education level. Our students can sit and absorb the brilliance of the speaker's mind. There is no question that this occasionally does happen, but more often than not, the student is rather bored by sitting in the class, hour after hour, without moving or speaking.

Some argue that behind the introduction of workshops for lecturers, there is a kind of plot by the Government to make us all teach the same way. To my mind it is the converse. In fact, if such a plot were at all apparent I would be the one to oppose it. Indeed, the courses that are offered are usually offering the opportunity to get to know many, many more different ways of engaging students.

When comparing those countries, which have shown varying interest in teaching at HE level, we can see those which have seen a huge shift in the way students are taught, and those which have remained steadfastly behind the podium. Many of us now encourage interaction in our classes and try to engage students so that they take a deeper approach and try to make meaning of what they are learning. There are some wonderful examples of this at UWA.

I sat in on a class of Marco Ghisalberti, SESE, a few weeks ago and was very impressed by his way of inducing students to work in groups and to solve problems by themselves. The students were clearly aware of their role and after a short mini lecture they immediately got down to the task at hand and started to share their thoughts.  This is learning at its best - when students minds are stretched within the classroom.

As one student once said to me, (when I was teaching at a previous institution) 'this is hard, you are making us switch on our brains, we don't have to do that in our other classes'. But for some, this kind of teaching does not come naturally or easily. How do we get the students to think, to question, to be motivated? How can we assume that they will not just start chatting about the party last night?

There are really interesting and important approaches to thinking about how to structure classes, how to relate what we teach to how we assess our student learning, how to excite students. But these do not get taught to a PhD student and if we have never seen this kind of teaching or indeed have never experienced this kind of learning, its hard to imagine it. Having some sort of preparation for teaching, for learning about learning, seems to me to be the basic minimum before we step inside a classroom.

I am currently external examiner for the Post Graduate Diploma in Learning and Teaching at Oxford University, in which lecturers experience a whole series of workshops and discussions sessions, but they also have to do a hands-on intervention with their own class, as well as explore their students experience of this development.

They get observed and reflect on the feedback they receive and they create a written portfolio of work, which demonstrates their learning about learning. They consider what they do in their classes in the light of what they have learned and what the research literature says. It's too much to ask for every lecturer to do this kind of preparation in a climate where they are judged on research output and grant income.

With all the changes that are occurring at UWA over the next few years, let's keep in mind how we might refocus on student learning and realize that we simply can't expect to do a good job with our students if we are working on instinct alone. We would never do that for our research. Let's make sure we generate a system, which gives adequate credit for good teaching and develops an appreciation that if we are professionals we might actually need continual professional development.

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For responses, comments and ideas for future Learning space contributions please email me, Caroline Baillie, Chair of Engineering Education , at [email protected] .