What’s a Dialogue Day?April 2012

Learning and Teaching Lunchtime forum

Why Dialogue Days?History at YSJUThe student engagement literature

Student engagement is concerned with the interaction between the time, effort and other relevant resources invested by both students and their institutions intended to optimise the student experience and enhance the learning outcomes and development of students and the performance, and reputation of the institution. (HEFCE 2008 cited in Trowler 2010 )

correlations between student involvement in a subset of ‘educationally purposive activities’, and positive outcomes of student success and development, including satisfaction, persistence, academic achievement and social engagement (Trowler 2010)

Activity: Lets talk about Dialogue.

Dialogue and the literature

Bohm (1996) “stream of meaning flowing among and through us and between us” … and that this shared meaning is the glue or cement that holds people and societies together”

Shor and Freire (1987) “Dialogue is a moment where humans meet and reflect on their reality as they make and remake it.

Lyle (2008) suggests that Bahktin’s concepts of dialogical meaning making allow the learner to play an active role in developing a personally constructed understanding of the curriculum through a process of dialogic interchange

Relational aspects of feedback

Evaluating dialogue daysWhat the students sayDavid a 2nd year theatre student. “I felt relieved, had lots of

things burning up inside me that I just wanted to get off my chest” “At the end of the day we are all here to mix and mingle and make work together. Everyone is an adult and should be treated in that way.”

Siobhan 1st year physiotherapy “We have to meet a deadline getting the work in to tutors at a certain time so its there is an expectation of getting it back on time.” “It was good to be able to say what you think. The students were on transmit and the staff were on receive”

Michael 3rd year Theatre “Too many people go to university get a degree and not do anything with it and this showed if I do really want something it can happen”.

Themes, places, activitiesWhere WhatHow

Activity: Explore assessment examples

Challenges?The main challenge so far has been engaging

the unengagedGetting some staff to “dialogue” and leave

teacher mode in the classroomActivity: What do you think the other

challenges are and how might you mitigate against them?

Designing your own dialogue dayWhat would you do

ActivityDecide on your theme and aims of the dayWhat do you hope to gain implicitly/explicitlyOkay so what are your activities?How are you going to create the right atmosphere?Where are you going to hold itHow are you going to convince the staff and the

studentsHow are you going to close the loop

Closing the loopHow are we going to tell the students the

outcomeShould we be involving the students in the

process in that the outcome is two way.How would you close the loop?

ReferencesBohm D (1996)”On Dialogue”, Routledge ClassicsSue Lyle (2008): Dialogic Teaching: Discussing

Theoretical Contexts and Reviewing Evidence from Classroom Practice, Language and Education, 22:3, 222-240,

Shor and Freire (1987) What is the dialogical method of teaching, Jorunal of Education, vol169, no 3, p11

Trowler V (2010)Student Engagement Literature review , Higher education Academy http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/assets/documents/studentengagement/StudentEngagementLiteratureReview.pdf