Principles to Practice:
Enhancing Academic Practice

Outline

‘We teach to change the world’ however ‘one of the hardest things teachers have to learn is that the sincerity of their intentions does not guarantee the purity of their practice’ (Brookfield, S)

During this interactive session we will explore and reflect on who we are as teachers and how and why we teach, in short learning to know ourselves. One of the hardest things for teachers to do is to imagine the fear that students feel as they try to learn what we teach and what it is we need ourselves to learn that is new and difficult.  This critical personal reflection will also support those who are engaging with their personal professional development towards professional recognition.

By the end of this session, you will have engaged with and reflected on:

• You as a teacher

• Why and how you teach

• Understanding your students

• Sense of belonging – You and the student

• Making it happen – understanding evidence - the Why, How and What of your practice

• Discussion as a way of learning

Outline

'Everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing it is stupid' (attributed to Albert Einstein)

In this session participants will engage with difficult but simultaneously common questions and mindsets about how our practice, the context and modes of delivery, are influenced by how our students learn. When Socrates said the “unexamined life is not worth living”, he was creating what has come to be famously known as the Socratic principle of questioning. Socratic questioning is a mode of questioning that deeply examines the strength of a definition, justification or logic of a claim, theory, line of reasoning or stance. Lifelong learners seek to examine the claims and theories within their disciplines’ body of knowledge before accepting them as worthy of belief. When creating context and engage with modes of delivery we have to understand and be informed to fundamentally evidence our practice.

We will explore some important questions in this interactive session on how student learning influences the context and modes of delivery in your subject area.

By the end of this session, you will have engaged with and explored:

• Theoretical concepts, perspectives and methodologies in L&T

• Questioned what do we mean by learning 

• Explored if student learning styles is still a relevant question

• Considered and discussed if different students learn in different ways

• Engaged with approaches to small or large groups teaching

• Considered the different theoretical perspectives of group learning and how we can use them

Outline

This session investigates the audience's familiarity engaging students as part of their lectures. For many, using audience response systems (ARS) became a feature of the pandemic to support the student and gauge participation. This session looks are what was before and what came after and how we should investigate the realities of the post-pandemic lecture and classroom. 

The session will demonstrate the practical applications of ARS and how and why they could or should be used. What it means to create a good presentation and be a good presenter.

By the end of this session, you will be able to:

• Evaluate supporting tools that support Face to Face and Online Classrooms

• Assess blended learning approaches within your own subject area and critique those which will support your teaching. 

• Recognise the value of technology as a supporting resource and select the most pedagogically sound approach for the relevant technology.

Outline

Students would not consider statistics to be fun!  Indeed, student anxiety towards statistics is well documented within HE research (Keller, 1988; Perney and Ravid, 1991; HEA 2016).  For many students ‘statistics is perhaps the most anxiety-provoking, difficult or critical subject within their courses of study (Baharun & Porter, 2009).  Against this context, the aim of this session is to share practice around the delivery of statistics and how it can be made more engaging, relevant and fun for students.  The workshop is informed by the results of a six-year longitudinal study involving Level 5 Business School students who undertook a module entitled ‘Data Analysis for Research’ in preparation for their Level 6 Management Project.  Prior to the start of the module, students were asked to complete a survey looking at their familiarity and experience with statistics, their level of competency with software packages such as Excel, Access and SPSS, and finally their attitudes towards statistics and causes of perceived anxiety.  Results from the research reaffirmed the importance of self-efficacy (Perepiczka et al 2011) and that a lack of confidence in maths, coupled with confusion between maths and statistics influences levels of anxiety. The research also suggested that student familiarity and competency around basic areas of numeracy, and the use of Excel is over-estimated, reinforcing the need for the inclusion of numeracy skills as part of transition planning into Higher Education.  The results were integral to the pedagogy of the module and, in particular, the development of resources that allowed students to practically apply statistics to applied business scenarios. 

The session will also introduce a framework to guide curricula development and delivery of statistical learning. The framework is based on four key principles: (i) creatively create and co-create; (ii) construct and contextualise; (iii) capture content; and (iv) curate and communicate.  The webinar will seek to contextualise the framework through reference to specific interventions such as student co-creation around the design of assessment; the use of innovative and applied assessment formats; the construction of bespoke data-sets to aid contextualisation and application; gamification; and the use of screen capture software to illustrate key concepts and the use of statistical software, allowing students to engage and revisit at their own pace.  The framework acts to consolidate a range of interventions that educators may recognise in their own practice, and provides a platform to encourage positive change and inform dialogue across a range of disciplines where the ‘mathematics problems’ remains an inherent issue to be addressed. Colleagues who teach statistics are invited to share examples of their own practice.  Colleagues looking for bright ideas to enhance the delivery of statistics are also welcome to attend.

Outline

The aim of this hands-on and interactive session is designed to provide an overview of some of the core functionality in PowerPoint that can be utilised to really enhance the power of your PowerPoint presentations.

Session Aims:

By the end of this session you will be able to:

• Use animation and transition features to bring your slides to life and scaffold information to support student engagement both synchronously and asynchronously

• Move beyond a sequential PowerPoint using the Section Tool to support navigation within your PowerPoint

• Use editing tools to create really visual infographics

• Guide students to the use of Present Coach on PowerPoint 365 to help support presentation skills

• Work within University brand guidelines to ensure a consistent corporate look to your PowerPoint slides

The session will also introduce a framework to guide curricula development and delivery of statistical learning. The framework is based on four key principles: (i) creatively create and co-create; (ii) construct and contextualise; (iii) capture content; and (iv) curate and communicate.  The webinar will seek to contextualise the framework through reference to specific interventions such as student co-creation around the design of assessment; the use of innovative and applied assessment formats; the construction of bespoke data-sets to aid contextualisation and application; gamification; and the use of screen capture software to illustrate key concepts and the use of statistical software, allowing students to engage and revisit at their own pace.  The framework acts to consolidate a range of interventions that educators may recognise in their own practice, and provides a platform to encourage positive change and inform dialogue across a range of disciplines where the ‘mathematics problems’ remains an inherent issue to be addressed. Colleagues who teach statistics are invited to share examples of their own practice.  Colleagues looking for bright ideas to enhance the delivery of statistics are also welcome to attend.