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Learning and Teaching Conference 2019
How do we design for and facilitate interaction
and inclusivity?
Monday 17 June 2019 Darwin Conference Suite
09:00-17:00
Programme
09:00 – 09:30 Registration 09:30 – 09:45 Welcome Address
Dr Louise Naylor, Director, Unit for the Enhancement of Learning and Teaching, University of Kent
09:45 – 11:15 Keynote Plenary Workshop: Promoting
academically productive talk in the classroom Dr Marion Heron, Senior Lecturer in Higher Education in the Department of Higher Education, University of Surrey
11:15 – 11:30 Refreshment Break
11:30 – 13:05 Parallel sessions
13:10 - 14:10 Lunch and poster presentations in Suite 1 14:15 – 16:20 Parallel sessions 16:20 – 17:00 Drinks Reception in Suite 1
Keynote Plenary Workshop
Promoting academically productive talk in the classroom
(Dr Marion Heron) Within a sociocultural perspective on learning, the construction of knowledge takes place through social interaction. In an educational context, classroom talk is therefore the tool with which students and teachers make meaning and develop understanding. Classroom talk “has the power to shape knowledge through participant engagement with a range of processes: hypothesising, exploration, debate and synthesis” (Barnes, 2010, p. 7). There is a considerable body of research which demonstrates that critical thinking and deeper learning are supported by certain types of talk, referred to in this workshop as academically productive talk (Michaels, O’Connor & Resnick, 2008). When students and teachers use academically productive talk they formulate ideas, challenge each other, ask questions, justify their ideas, use evidence-based reasoning and listen to each other. Rigorous learning can take place in a classroom climate where all participants understand the rules of participation, are comfortable to make mistakes and where the teacher uses a variety of talk repertoires to encourage students to use academically productive talk. If our aim then is to promote academically productive talk, how can we be sure that this is what we are doing? Self-reflection is notoriously difficult, and even more so when we reflect on transient and ephemeral classroom talk. However, an analysis of classroom talk is essential to exploring how students learn and developing teaching strategies: “...understanding this relationship [goals and talk], and the ways in which tutors and students engage in tightly organised and intricate negotiations of a set of pedagogic agendas lies at the heart of any enterprise which sets out to improve teaching and learning in HE” (O’Keeffe & Walsh, 2010, p. 144). This workshop will demonstrate a data-led approach to reflection and teacher development (Walsh & Mann, 2015) which uses the analysis of classroom transcripts to reflect on the use of classroom talk and interaction in learning and teaching. Transcripts provide evidence of classroom processes and support a metacognitive awareness of talk strategies. In this workshop we will examine classroom transcripts and explore how teachers and students use academically productive talk to co-construct understanding. Participants will be presented with a variety of tools and frameworks to analyse the classroom talk. These tools both support reflection on our own practice, but also provide a shared language to talk about talk. References Barnes, D. 2010. Why talk is important. English Teaching, 9(2), 7-10. Michaels, S., O’Connor, C. and Resnick, L. B. 2008. Deliberative discourse idealized and realized: Accountable talk in the classroom and in civic life. Studies in Philosophy and Education, 27(4), 283-297. O'Keeffe, A., & Walsh, S. (2010). Investigating higher education seminar talk. Novitas-ROYAL (Research on Youth and Language), 4(2), 141-158. Walsh, S., & Mann, S. (2015). Doing reflective practice: a data-led way forward. ELT Journal, 69(4), 351-362.
Parallel Sessions in Suite 2
Parallel Sessions in Suite 3
11:30 – 12:30
Academic Coaching for Excellence (KLS ACE Programme): Reflections and Outcomes Sheree Palmer
Working with student Progress Profiles: using performance data to enhance staff-student interactions Dr Alexander Hensby, Alison Webb, Jan Moriarty and Alex Davis
Decolonising the Curriculum at UoK Project: Reflections and Outcomes Dr Suhraiya Jivray, Dave Thomas and Sheree Palmer
Enhancing student engagement in the digital classroom: An investigation of the interaction between pedagogy, space and technology Dr Alison Dean, Zoe Langstone and Dr Silvia Colaiacomo
12:35 – 13:05
Creating an immersive seminar activity: lessons learned from the LexCarta Let’s Moot! gamification pilot Sue Tarrant
Diversifying reading lists: The self on the shelf Sarah Field, Justine Rush and Emma Mires Richards
Vocal Action Workshops as a teaching method to enhance students’ presentations Dr Dan Petrovici
Interactions with and for information literacy David Bedford
14:15 – 15:10
DADA: A toolkit to design and develop alternative assessment (Workshop) Dr Silvia Colaiacomo, Dr Pauline Hanesworth, Dr Kate Lister and Ben Watson
Promoting attuned interactions in the classroom through Video Enhanced Reflective Practice (VERP): Experiences of social work lecturers (Workshop) Dr Eleni Skoura-Kirk, Dr Andrea Honess, Dr Michelle McCaffrey, Dr Tom Parkinson, Sarah Brown, Anne Kelly, Ruben Martin and Rhian Taylor
15:15 – 15:45
Outreach, Inclusion and Adult Learners: Lessons on teaching disadvantaged students Donna Coyte
A case study of two assessments designed to maximise student engagement with teacher feedback Chloe Courtenay
Beyond the classroom: developing academic communities through co-curricular space Thomas Barrass, Emma Costick and Student Representatives
15:50 – 16:20
Measuring and improving accessibility for all: Embedding Blackboard Ally in Moodle Dan Clark and Ben Watson
Playlists, adopted languages and space races: Inclusion through agency Dr Laura Bailey
Inclusivity in social science quantitative methods teaching: the Q-Step experience Dr Rose Cook and Dr Tina Haux
Self-organising philosophical schools Dr Graeme Forbes
Suite 2
Academic Coaching for Excellence (KLS ACE Programme): Reflections and Outcomes (Sheree Palmer) The presentation will focus on the aims, process and impact of the 2018/19 Kent Law School Academic Coaching for Excellence pilot programme led by Sheree Palmer and funded by April McMahon involving a team of 14 academics delivering coaching-type support to a selected group of 43 students in a structured programme. The aim is to convert students from a 2:2 or lower to a 2:1. An external coach has been brought in to deliver coaching training to this team of academics to enable them to support students more effectively. Students who are most in need of support may be the least likely to access it and this may impact upon attainment particularly for WP and BME students. The ACE programme provides: a working relationship with an ACE coach functioning as a supportive, non-judgemental, critical friend providing a degree of academic and professional guidance. It is posited that ACE will: increase each student’s sense of belonging and engagement; their understanding of effective behaviours for success; increase their ability to ‘navigate the system’ of university, particularly important for BME and WP students who may not yet have the requisite social and cultural capital to do this, as, “institutional culture is traditionally geared for young White students and the middle classes”. 1
The aim is to support students to develop personal behaviours for success, to engage fully with the academic working environment, to utilise strategies for learning; to increase their engagement with KLS and the University of Kent, and ultimately to raise attainment. Qualitative feedback to date from both staff and students reveals the transformative effect of the programme. I will reflect on the impact of the project, the aims, experiences and learning of this pilot project, potential ways to mainstream it in the Academic Advisor system and improvements to the process for the next academic year, incorporating qualitative and quantitative feedback from academics and students. Attendees will learn effective ways to engage students and increase inclusivity in their practice. 1 Nona McDuff, John Tatam, Owen Beacock, Fiona Ross, Kingston University, ‘Closing the attainment gap for students from black and minority ethnic backgrounds through institutional change’, Widening Participation and Lifelong Learning, January 2018, Volume 20, 1.
Decolonising the Curriculum at UoK Project: Reflections and outcomes (Dr Suhraiya Jivray, Dave Thomas and Sheree Palmer) Our presentation will focus on the KLS Decolonising the Curriculum student-led project being led collaboratively by Dr Jivraj with the other two presenters during 2018/19. Its aims have been to facilitate stage 3 UG students of colour to be researchers and co-producers in developing their own curriculum. Being empowered to be change-actors facilitates reflecting on pedagogy that embraces a diversity of perspectives that speak to address a range of experiences and cultural backgrounds. This pathway and approach empowers students, boosts their employability, skills and sense of belonging on campus in a way that avoids the pitfalls and often counter-productive language and deficits related to the ‘BME attainment gap’. We will reflect on the experiences and learning of the project for sharing and discussion with the audience. In particular we will focus on the ways we have forged a consistent relationality giving rise to trust, empowerment and belonging and what this has led to in terms of co-production of knowledge through enhancing student voice and future learning for students and staff.
Creating an immersive seminar activity: lessons learned from the LexCarta Let’s Moot! gamification pilot (Sue Tarrant)
“The game presented an intriguing challenge, and provoked a desire in students to challenge themselves and their team to win … this may be why it motivated such a high level of engagement1.”
Law students have been required to use cases to solve legal problems since Langdell created the
‘case method’ nearly 150 years ago (Langdell 1871). However, it is fair to say that recognising
which cases are relevant, and how they apply to a legal problem, presents a threshold concept that
is significantly difficult to traverse in legal learning (Land, Meyer and Smith 2008).
This presentation will showcase a gamification innovation developed with funding from the UoK
Faculty of Social Sciences Learning & Teaching Enhancement Fund. Although the game aims to
assist students with a ‘troublesome’ legal concept, it lends itself to gamification in other disciplines
due to its focus on traversing threshold skills.
LexCarta Let’s Moot!™ is a group game, played within a single seminar, that is aimed at
encouraging inclusive student and tutor engagement. It has been designed to include active
learning strategies, so that all attendees can take part no matter how well or how little they have
prepared beforehand. It also incorporates role-play to create team spirit, and immerses the seminar
leader into the activity so they can guide but not dominate the session (Schvartz 2001; Exley and
Dennick 2004; Bouki et al 2014).
The presentation will outline how the game was designed and developed, and summarise the pilot
trial undertaken in Autumn, 2018 with Stage 1, 2 and 3 students (n=147) at KBS Canterbury and
Medway. With feedback gained from students and through independent observations, initial results
from that pilot show that:
97% of respondents believed the game was a better way to understand the topic, and an
improvement over the typical seminar activity;
94% felt it encouraged more inclusive participation within the seminar, and helped students
engage who previously had found it difficult to interact;
98% would play the game again, and
100% recommended its adoption for future students.
With the top three emotions recorded by students being healthy competitiveness, enthusiasm and
excitement it is hoped that attendees will be encouraged to explore new ways to engage students
within their own teaching to gain similar positive outcomes.
1 Comment from the independent observer during the LexCarta pilot 2018
Vocal Action Workshops as a teaching method to enhance students’ presentations (Dr Dan Petrovici) The presentation will describe techniques and concepts used in workshops conducted with business students aiming to improve communication skills. The techniques are derived from drama studies and mindfulness. The workshop developed presentation skills by building confidence, developing presence, improving the ability to use the voice, body language and breathing. This novel perspective of approaching presentations has generated engagement and inclusivity in the classroom.
DADA: A toolkit to design and develop alternative assessment (Workshop) (Dr Silvia Colaiacomo, Dr Pauline Hanesworth, Dr Kate Lister and Ben Watson) The DADA (Design and Develop Alternative Assessment) project results from the collaboration between the University of Kent, the Open University and Advance HE. DADA aims to develop and disseminate a framework and a toolkit that can support staff involved in assessment design to map assessment types, identify and develop alternative inclusive assessment formats in line with the principles of constructive alignment (Biggs and Tang, 2011). Throughout the proposed session, participants will familiarise themselves with the toolkit and will develop a better understanding of inclusive assessment (Hanesworth et al., 2018; Keating et al., 2012; Waterfield and West, 2006) through discussion and hands-on experience. DADA is based on a pilot run in collaboration with academics, academic and student support staff and students across a variety of subject areas in different HE intuitions in the UK. DADA brings together case studies and lived experiences of colleagues working with various student populations and within different policy contexts and regulations (including assessment accredited by professional bodies). An essential aspect of the project is its ‘distributed leadership’ (Jones and Harvey, 2017), as it was only made possible by the cooperation of different teams and participants, each contributing with their specific area of expertise. References Biggs, J. and Tang, K. (2011), Teaching for quality learning at University, 4th ed. Maidenhead: Oxford University Press Hanesworth, P., Bracken, S. and Elkington, S. (2018), A typology for a social justice approach to assessment: learning from universal design and culturally sustaining pedagogy, in Teaching in Higher Education, DOI: 10.1080/13562517.2018.1465405 Healey, M., Mason O’Connor, K. and Broadfoot, P. (2010) Reflecting on engaging students in the process and product of strategy development for learning, teaching and assessment: an institutional example, in International Journal for Academic Development, 15 (1), 19–32 Jones, S. and Harvey, M. (2017), A distributed leadership change process model for higher education, in Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management, 39:2, 126-139 Keating, N., Zybutz, T. and Rouse, K. (2012), Inclusive Assessment at Point-of-Design, in Innovations in Education and Teaching International, 49 (3): 249–256 Waterfield, J. and West. B. (2006), Inclusive Assessment in Higher Education: A Resource for Change, Plymouth: University of Plymouth
Outreach, Inclusion and Adult Learners: Lessons on teaching disadvantaged students (Donna Coyte) How do you prepare adult learners from disadvantaged backgrounds for the cultural and social challenges of university life from the comfort of a familiar outreach setting? The Adult Learning Team, (as part of the PDO) is addressing this conundrum through the delivery of its Access to HE Diploma Programme. Located in local schools, the programme uses a combination of high academic expectations, intensive support, challenging HE-level resources and responsive assessment and curriculum design to acclimatise students to the university environment. With a focus on English literature teaching, this session will also demonstrate how curriculum design can address the needs of this group and can harness diversity in the classroom whilst providing a sound basis for undergraduate study. With the programme now in its seventh year, we have seen many students succeed on degree programmes at Kent and elsewhere. Their stories are powerful examples of the impact of our approach and the importance of recognising academic potential. I hope that this session will encourage members of the audience to reflect upon teaching practice within the University, especially in relation to non-traditional learners, and reconsider the relationship between high expectations, responsive support and the importance of always having both.
Measuring and improving accessibility for all: Embedding Blackboard Ally in Moodle (Dan Clark and Ben Watson) This discussion paper will consider how Blackboard Ally has allowed us to meaningfully engage multiple content authors and raise awareness of inclusive practice in Moodle against the backdrop of the rollout of the Public Sector Bodies Accessibility Regulations. Blackboard Ally is a Moodle plugin that supports accessible document conversion; taking otherwise inaccessible electronic documents and adding key functionality in order to make them accessible to everyone. SSW and UELT will describe how Ally can quantify the current accessibility maturity of all key learning and teaching materials held within Moodle. In addition, we will discuss how Ally, which is now in use in nineteen Schools at Kent, has helped us to broaden awareness of accessible content creation and identify opportunities for targeted training to support academic schools and administrative departments to improve the accessibility of all of their content. In this discussion paper we will present data from the first phase of the project along with feedback from academic staff and students and seek to discuss how Ally might be used as part of a suite of approaches to improve learning experiences and inclusivity for everyone. We will discuss the logistics of this large-scale project and how we engaged with key stakeholders and academic Schools. In this session we will use examples from the project to offer practical advice on strategies to anticipate and avoid common barriers to information access and show how accessible documents can improve learning opportunities for all.
Inclusivity in social science quantitative methods teaching: the Q-Step experience (Dr Rose Cook and Dr Tina Haux) The Q-Step Centre at the University of Kent is part of a multi-million pound, nationwide initiative to promote a step-change in quantitative skills amongst social sciences undergraduates in the UK. It has made great strides in getting students interested, skilled and critically engaged with quantitative research. However, a ‘white male’ image still pervades quantitative academic disciplines. How can we improve the participation and retention of women and other under-represented groups in quantitative programmes? The nature and requirements of the Q-step programme, such as the associations with mathematics and ‘getting answers wrong’, present a challenge for students who may have high levels of anxiety around quantitative topics (Williams et al. 2008). Moreover, the cumulative learning required works best for more privileged students. This paper will reflect on these and other inclusivity challenges, sharing solutions we have adopted at Kent Q-Step, many inspired by critical perspectives on statistics (e.g. Ingram, 2019) and problem-based learning. We discuss remaining challenges and strategies we could adopt in the future. The session will be a chance to reflect on our own practice and for others who teach quantitative methods across the University to share ideas and solutions, so that quantitative methods can be genuinely inclusive to all Kent students. We will provide hands-on exercises with sample learning materials which will illustrate the strategies we have used to make quantitative methods more inclusive.
SUITE 3
Working with student Progress Profiles: using performance data to enhance staff-student interactions (Dr Alexander Hensby, Alison Webb, Jan Moriarty and Alex Davis) Student Success (EDI) Project research identified concerns in the accessibility and presentation of information detailing a student’s academic performance. Not only was this found to restrict students’ ability to independently monitor their own academic progress, it has affected the quality of discussion and support provided in academic adviser (AA) meetings. Moreover, these issues were found to particularly affect the University’s Widening Participation students. To address this, the Student Success (EDI) Project has collaborated with UELT to create Progress Profiles (PPs), designed to improve students’ access to their attainment data, and help facilitate more informed discussions with academic staff. A Progress Profile (PP) is a document that provides a clear visual summary of a student’s current academic performance, featuring stage-by-stage module attendance and attainment data, and colour-coded metrics for summarising performance. This workshop will introduce participants to the PP format, and provide exercises that show how ‘student stories’ and corresponding support needs can be interpreted through patterns in the data. From this base, the workshop will provide staff with a toolset for using PPs to facilitate impactful one-to-one discussions with their students.
Enhancing student engagement in the digital classroom: An investigation of the interaction between pedagogy, space and technology (Dr Alison Dean, Zoe Langstone and Dr Silvia Colaiacomo) The discussion paper illustrates and analyses the changes implemented in a Business final year undergraduate module in Corporate and Business Strategy resulting from an ongoing reflection on the interaction between pedagogy, space and technology. Our reflection aimed to develop a better understanding of how and to what extent space and equipment, if part of an interactive pedagogy (Madigan and Sirum, 2006), influence learning dynamics and students’ engagement and inclusivity. An understanding that the dichotomist lecture/seminar model doesn’t suit the needs of a varied student population (Keyser, 2000) was central to the process. In 2018/19 the module’s seminar time was doubled to allow for more opportunities for interaction; whilst the formal lecture was removed and replaced by short recordings made available on the virtual learning environment. The module was taught in the digital classrooms in the Templeman Library. A broader and more tailored use of collaborative technologies was introduced together with a spiral learning approach (Grove et al., 2008) focusing on the identification and reinforcement of previously acquired knowledge. Students could also use different core resources and choose their own team members. Students responded positively to the changes and showed a high level of engagement in seminars and group work. References: Grove, N.P, Hershberger, J. W. and Lowery Bretz, S. (2008), ‘Impact of a spiral organic curriculum on student attrition and learning’ in Chemistry Education Research, 9, 157-162 Keyser, M. W. (2000), ‘Active learning and cooperative learning: understanding the difference and using both styles effectively’, in Research Strategies, 17, 35-44 Madigan, D. and Sirum, K. L. (2006), ‘Enabling Interactive Engagement Pedagogy Through Digital Technology’, in Innovation in Teaching and Learning in Information and Computer Sciences, 5:4, 109-121 Prince, M. (2004), ‘Does Active Learning Work? A Review of the Research’, in Journal of Engineering Education, 93, 223-231
Diversifying reading lists: The self on the shelf (Sarah Field, Justine Rush and Emma Mires Richards) Reading lists are an important representation of the legitimised ideas, theories and perspectives that dominate within a discipline and subject area. Reading lists guide student reading choices, which raises the question about alternative or marginalised perspectives. The desire for diverse curricula has been widely reported, and campaigned for, within UK universities in recent years. Reflecting diverse perspectives are also aligned to key performance indicators within the Teaching and Excellence Framework (TEF) the Race Equality and Athena Swan Charters. The Academic Liaison Services team at University of Kent are working in collaboration with academics, students, professional services and Kent Union to develop our library collections to reflect a diverse student body. Through a number of pilot projects, we are examining ways to achieve this aim. We would like to share the findings of these pilot projects on the route to developing a best practice to diversifying reading lists and demonstrate how we intend to mainstream this service throughout the University.
Interactions with and for information literacy (David Bedford) Librarians define information literacy as “the ability to think critically and make balanced judgements about any information we find and use” (CILIP Information Literacy Group, 2018). It includes skills in finding, evaluating, managing and disseminating information. Others call it something different, but it is a key graduate skill across many disciplines. This paper outlines a number of ways in which librarians at the Medway campus Drill Hall Library have used and encouraged interactions with and between students when teaching information literacy. Examples include:
Group working to help improve literature searches at dissertation level.
Discussion and debate of information quality using a locally-created framework.
Use of a traffic light system to engage students with the affective domain within information
literacy.
Encouraging friendly, low-stakes competition to help illustrate learning points.
Through these activities which encourage interaction, greater involvement with and ownership of information literacy has been generated. Feedback from students and academic colleagues suggests that learners have benefitted from hearing and experiencing a wider range of perspectives, and also from a more meaningful engagement with key information literacy concepts than presentations or solo practice activities afford. Through collaboration between librarians and academic staff, the same benefits can be extended more widely.
Promoting attuned interactions in the classroom through Video Enhanced Reflective Practice (VERP): Experiences of social work lecturers (Workshop) (Dr Eleni Skoura-Kirk, Dr Andrea Honess, Dr Michelle McCaffrey, Dr Tom Parkinson, Sarah Brown, Anne Kelly, Ruben Martin and Rhian Taylor) How can we promote classroom engagement? In what ways can we create interactive, inclusive learning spaces that meet the needs of a diverse student body? These concerns have informed a collaboration between two educational psychologists and a group of social work lecturers, using Video Enhanced Reflective Practice (VERP), a method of professional development that is well established in applied psychology, social service and pre-tertiary education settings, but has rarely been used in higher education. VERP uses video to promote reflection and enhance attuned interactions (e.g. encourage contributions, validate student input, facilitate deeper discussions; Kennedy, Landor and Todd, 2015). Lecturers bring a short video clip to group reflective supervisions (‘shared reviews’) led by the two psychologists and explore positive micro-interactions (e.g. gestures, facial expressions). The team’s experience of VERP is already highlighting the importance of recognising the subtle ways in which lecturers can model inclusive interactions, making visible what happens in these ‘discretionary spaces’. Lectures and seminars are dynamic places of learning, yet some student voices can be missed. The presenting team will argue that VERP can promote a collaborative and inclusive pedagogy. The workshop will familiarise the audience with the VERP model and invite them to consider potential benefits for their programmes.
A case study of two assessments designed to maximise student engagement with teacher feedback (Chloe Courtenay) The problem was engaging students with feedback. We would repeatedly have meetings with students who would say that they didn’t understand their grades, but when we asked them if they had read their feedback, we invariably got the reply ‘What feedback?’. Two assignments have been designed specifically with the aim of making students look at, engage with and act on their teacher feedback. On the Academic Skills module the Feedback Response Task required students to write drafts and reflect. The module taken in the following term, Foundation Project, requires students to produce a reflective journal which is built on teacher feedback. They also use peer feedback and round off the project with a Reflective Interview. The Feedback Response Task has had extremely favourable feedback from the External Examiner and has been well-received by both staff and students. It encourages students to act on feedback and evidences that students know how to access feedback via Turnitin. The Reflective Interview is a new assessment which has had favourable feedback from students as they can see how teacher feedback is helping them develop their journal entries. The audience will learn about ways to engage students with feedback in a number of ways and will be able to see sample assignments and grading criteria.
Beyond the classroom: developing academic communities through co-curricular space (Thomas Barrass, Emma Costick and Student Representatives) Meaningful student interactions don’t have to be confined to the classroom. Place plays an important role in the sense of belonging that students experience at university and the opportunities offered by informal, communal learning spaces to interact with peers and staff are often under-appreciated and under-utilised. As part of the University’s Group for the Enhancement & Management of Space, Kent Union have been leading on a pilot project exploring the current provision, use and benefits to students, of communal spaces across campus. The pilot has been working in partnership with Timetabling, Estates and Information Services departments to introduce two new common room spaces on the Canterbury campus, as well as evaluating the current provision of existing common rooms and informal communal spaces on the campus. The project aims to gather data on the usage of these spaces, feedback from students on how these spaces benefit their learning and facilitate opportunities to interact with their peers and staff, and identify examples of best practice of how staff can use these spaces constructively to enhance the academic experience and learning community. This presentation will outline a summary of the project and its findings, seeking to provide the audience with a better understanding of how impactful informal, communal spaces can be to facilitate greater interaction between students and staff at Kent, as well as outlining practical examples of how staff can better utilise these spaces to facilitate interaction with and between their students.
Playlists, adopted languages and space races: Inclusion through agency (Dr Laura Bailey) This year I taught a new module, Grammar for Everyone, with an inclusive approach that gave students agency and ownership but let them practice it in a safe environment. Students chose an ‘adopted’ language and became the expert in it. This gave a taste of being an independent scholar with ownership of their learning. Teamwork was engendered by dint of everyone doing the same task, and seminars and assessments centred around comparison amongst the languages. Teamwork and ownership were strengthened by cocuration of the reading list in a book choice task with explicit focus on diversity and representation, and co-curation of a playlist based on research (Bailey 2014) suggesting that playing music in seminars creates livelier small-group discussion. ‘Snowballing’ reduced the pressure of speaking up and strengthened group links, and ‘space races’ using Socrative put students into cooperating teams. Mid-term surveys indicate that these measures are popular and increase confidence. Final evaluations, results of the co-curation tasks, and student survey feedback will be available in May. Many strategies described are immediately applicable, such as the reading list task, and feed into a culture in which students have increased agency and engagement with the creation and curation of learning resources. It would be helpful to download the (free) Socrative Student mobile app.
Self-organising philosophical schools (Dr Graeme Forbes) How does one get engagement from everyone in a mixed-ability class of 25, particularly when doing a broad canon-stretching survey course, and students are to apply the work to their lives? I selected four students to lead self-organising philosophical schools. I got students to pick groups (free to change groups at any time), and then got them to build a group identity, based on commitment to philosophical doctrines. I set aside class time a week for the schools to set their own tasks, and engaged with the school (on terms they could control) in a Socratic role as asking questions about what the school thought. I also got the schools to send emissaries to other schools, to challenge their doctrines and report back. This required every member of a school to engage with others on behalf of their school. It also made the students take responsibility for their own learning, to work in a team (dividing labour amongst each other, and acting as a support network for each other). The school set up made students reflect on the homogeneity of ancient philosophical schools, made them critically engage with the doctrines of what was essentially a series of rival schools.
SUMMARY OF POSTER PRESENTATIONS
1 Investigating the experiences of transgender students in higher education.
(Lynne Regan)
There has been surprisingly little research on the subject of trans students in HE, with far more focused on sexual orientation or the experiences of the LGBT community as a whole rather than trans students as an independent group. I am completing Doctoral research at the Open University Faculty of Wellbeing and Education Studies. The aim of my research is to investigate the experiences of trans students in Higher Education (HE) in respect of support services, institutional administration, peers, academics and teaching, social experience, and facilities, with a view to creating a better understanding of the needs of this student group. The project will explore how the needs of trans students are being met by universities and will investigate the policies universities are implementing to support this student group. Findings will be presented from my current pilot study, based on questionnaires and one-to-one interviews. This is being carried out at the University of Kent and will inform a wider study exploring a number of different universities.
2 Use of design thinking to inform the development of a postgraduate educational
leadership module. (Dr Kendall Jarrett)
As academics, designing for interaction and inclusivity within our classrooms can often be as problematic as it is necessary. With constant internal and external pressures affecting day-to-day module delivery (e.g. competing personal and institutional education values, student recruitment agendas, etc.), designing a coherent series of discipline-focused learning experiences with internal validity and external utility can represent a significant challenge - especially when developing a module from scratch. One option available to academics is to utilise design thinking to guide module development. As a strategy for innovation, design thinking is an approach to problem solving that embraces radical thinking and innovative solution finding in a user/learner centric manner. This poster will outline a curriculum design team’s consideration and use of design thinking to inform the development of a new postgraduate applied educational leadership module to be offered as part of the University of Kent’s MAHE elective offering. The five key principles of design thinking namely: empathize; define; ideate; prototype; and test (Dam & Siang, 2019) are used to frame the non-linear design journey undertaken by the team with commentary on key lessons learnt throughout the process aimed at assisting others considering use of a similar process to guide curriculum development. The focus of information contained within the poster relates to the following Conference sub-themes:
- Curriculum or instructional design
- Innovative use of materials, spaces or technologies
- Engaging particular groups of students
Dam, R. & Siang, T. (2019). 5 stages in design thinking process. [online]. Interaction Design Foundation. Available at: https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/5-stages-in-the-design-thinking-process [Accessed 01/03/2019].
3 Decolonising higher education: Challenging existing assumptions about Africa in a
post-graduate module in Politics and International Relations. (Dr Nadine Ansorg)
In the study of international relations theory and history, Africa is often given the role of a negligible periphery, unable to influence what is happening in politics around the world. In mainstream media, Africa is often portrayed as the continent of conflict and poverty, devoid of meaningful politics. In the light of these prevailing (mis-)perceptions about Africa, how can we educate students so that they understand the wide range of ideas, events, and experiences that have contributed to African history, politics, and society? I developed a post-graduate module on “Politics and conflict in sub-Saharan Africa” for the School of Politics and IR. In this module, we discuss and challenge pertinent perceptions about the African continent, its societies and people living in it. The module explores topics and themes in post-colonial sub-Saharan African politics, and incorporates epistemic perspectives, knowledge and thinking from the African continent and the Global South into teaching about politics and conflict in Africa. Extensive student feedback shows that there is a high demand for a more nuanced picture of the African continent, its societies and its people. Students are extremely keen on taking a critical and reflective perspective on Africa, and incorporating this into their study will increase their interactions with the subject, their teachers, their peers and the wider world.
4 Using creativity to promote reflection and wellbeing.
(Dr Jen Leigh, Dr Jo Collins and Nicole Brown)
“Making is connecting” (Gauntlett, 2018). Our teaching activities allow people to connect materials, ideas, and with each other. We use creative methods with home and international postgraduates to investigate challenges, barriers, and emotions to support wellbeing (Brown & Collins, 2018). This innovative approach ensures inclusivity, because the activities are accessible, regardless of disciplinary background or nationality. Creative activities enable new and often unexpected notions of meaning and knowledge to emerge (Barrett, 2007). They also allow us to reflect on our own practice (Brown & Leigh, 2018). We will engage conference delegates in discussion around benefits and limitations, and
advantages and boundaries of developing student wellbeing and mental health. Established
research demonstrates that creative activities contribute to wellbeing by encouraging: engagement
(Seligman, 2011); satisfaction and confidence (Burt & Atkinson, 2011), and belonging (Mayne,
2016). We help students reflect in the context of balancing demands of research, teaching, and
their own life. By emphasizing embodied activities, we facilitate effective reflection rather than
rumination (Leigh & Bailey, 2013). Rumination can lead to negative self-esteem, and related
emotional and physical health problems (Joireman, Parrott III, & Hammersla, 2002). Our creative
approaches allow free and honest discussion and encourage “connectedness” with others
(Gauntlett, 2009).
Barrett, E. (2007). Introduction. Practice as Research approaches to Creative Arts Enquiry. Eds. Barrett, E. and Bolt, B.,
London: I. B. Tauris & Co Ltd., pp. 1-37.
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5 Campus as classroom: The case of the Kent Community Oasis Garden as a living lab.
(Dr Catherine Morris and Emily Mason)
The Kent COG project (Kent Community Oasis Garden) is a collection of students, staff and community members working to create a sustainability hub centred on growing food. This project exists to create a well-used resource for teaching, learning and engagement that provides a test space for a living lab on campus. A Living Lab (LL) is a concept which aims to establish partnerships or programmes which connect academic activities of the institution with non-academic partners either internal or external to the University. Among the plethora of benefits are:
Richer practice-based learning experiences for students that improve professional skills, employability, student retention, and student satisfaction
Knowledge-transfer for sustainable change: benefits of realistic and practicable research to internal and/or external partners
Stronger partnerships between academics and internal estates staff, as well as external partners.
Using the example of Kent COG, we will show how living labs can be used at Kent to enhance the student experience, make innovative use of campus spaces, create activities and quiet spaces for wellbeing and mental health programmes and breakdown barriers in and between schools and professional service departments. The example also showcases the benefits of partnership working including increasing social cohesion and improving relationships with the local community.
6
Teaching Sustainability: Sustainable Teaching. Key findings from the Teaching
Sustainability conference of 1st March 2019.
(William Rowlandson and Dr Catherine Morris)
The University of Kent is committed to embedding sustainability through building the UN Sustainable Development Goals into research, education, leadership, operations, administration and engagement. Yet what exactly does sustainability mean, and in what ways is the meaning encoded in the UN SDGs? By asking this question, we are better placed to develop strategies and practices within the curriculum to embed sustainability and the SDGs. In this workshop we draw on some of the key findings from a conference held in March 2019 entitled "Teaching Sustainability: Sustainable Teaching," drawing on the ongoing discussions, to consider what practices academic staff, students, and professional services have been pursuing in relation to this commitment. This includes covering the co-creation of curriculum content, stand-alone sustainability modules, incorporating sustainability topics into existing teaching and making use of the university campus as a ‘living lab.
