A DISCIPLINARY COMMONS FOR DATABASE TEACHING

Too many folk to get on slide

What is a Disciplinary Commons?

• Teaching professionals come together and share teaching practice and experience

• Monthly meetings which analyse one particular course from the context of the course thorough to evaluation.

• The participant can reflect on how the teaching is organised, what is taught and how effective it seems to be

• For developing teaching skills

• And for documenting practice.

• Initiative is led by Josh Tenenberg in the USA and Sally Fincher in the UK

Who We Are

Shiela Baron (Southampton Solent

University),

Richard Cooper (University of

Glasgow)

Les Ball (University of

Abertay)

Charles Boisvert (Norwich City

College)

Al Monger (Southampton Solent

University)

Thomas Neligwa (Keele University

Tony Jenkins (University of Leeds)

Petra Leimich (University of

Abertay)

David Nelson (University of Sunderland)

Tugrul Essendal (De Montfort University)

Clare Stanier (Staffordshire

University)

James Patterson (Glasgow Caledonian

University))

John Wilson (Strathclyde University)

Tony Valsamidis (University of Greenwich)

Sally Fincher (University of

Kent)

Aims

• To document and share knowledge about teaching and student learning on database courses in the UK.

• To establish practices for the scholarship of teaching by making it public, peer-reviewed, and amenable for future use and development by other educators: creating a teaching-appropriate document of practice equivalent to the research-appropriate journal paper.

• This is achieved by the development of a course portfolio

Benefits to Participation

• Professional development: Critical reflection involved results in significant and lasting changes to the course and to subsequent teaching

• Community development: To develop a culture of peer review and discourse as is common within research communities

• Documentation of practice: In a course portfolio, participants will have a persistent, peer-reviewed, documented deliverable that can be shared with others both inside of, and external to, their home institution.

Course Portfolio

• A set of documents that "focuses on the unfolding of a single course, from conception to results

• The "is in revealing how teaching practice and student performance are connected with each other“

• Typically includes:– a course's learning objectives– its contents and structure– a rationale for how this course design meets its objectives– and the course's role in a larger degree program

Meetings

• An introductory meeting, understanding the detail and meeting each other

• Meetings every 4-6 weeks to discuss the various stages

• In addition, participants will visit one another's classrooms during the academic year to provide additional feedback.

• The final full-day meeting, in June 2010– for critical reflection– finalizing dissemination plans– and examining general issues

The Stages of a Commons

• Context• Content• Instructional Design• Delivery• Assessment• Evaluation

Context

• The Lecturer• The Students• The Place in the Curriculum• The departmental teaching ethos

Content

• What is taught• What is not taught• What order• What is important• Textbooks

Instructional Design

• Lectures• Tutorials• Labs• Coursework• Which material is taught by what method?• What tasks are the students set?

Delivery

• Lectures

Assessment

• Coursework• Exams• The mapping of intended learning outcomes

to assessment methods

Evaluation

• Formal evaluation• Personal evaluation• How do we determine whether the course has

been successful?• How does the institution values and makes

use of any evaluation

The Database Commons

• Recruitment– Through TLAD and the HEA– Searching departmental web sites– Many people too busy

• Meetings– Peripatetic– Glasgow, Greenwich, Abertay, Leeds, Leeds,

Sunderland, Southampton, Greenwich, Glasgow

Context

• Lecturers– Almost all took round about route

• Classes– From first year to masters– If generalist then still introductory

Content

• From basic introductory material– ER, basic SQL

• To more thorough treatment of database principles

• To internet programming– Database as web site component

• How do we teach normalisation and relational algebra?– or should we even try?

A Common Concern

• The database curriculum has been gradually and systematically eroded at all levels– in order to accommodate various external factors,

• the lack of teaching resources • the pressure to keep up-to-date with new technological

developments

• Database modules squeezed in with other topics such as Web programming and human computer interaction

• The absence of theoretical concepts and mathematical formalisms is a cause for concern

Delivery

• Lectures or not• Coursework structure

Assessment

• Coursework tasks– Like a portfolio or small parts

• Exams– Or not?

Evaluation

• Formal mechanisms for student feedback– Staff student meetings– Questionnaires

• Institutional Feedback Mechanisms• Results

– Did they do well?

• Personal reflection– Did it feel right?

Final Thoughts

• Never enough time!– a stressful addition to an already busy working life

• Lack of timely preparation– which reduced the amount (and therefore the

value) of peer evaluation

• Theory being lost• All felt significant benefit

The Future???

• Possible one year on meeting• But what else?

– Local groupings?– TLAD