It's that time of year when all that can be heard is tapping of keyboards, the clink of a teacup absent-mindedly being laid to rest on whatever is to hand and the groan as stiff shoulders are rolled back from being hunched over a keyboard for too long. It's marking season!
A welcome break from all of that is the annual event which takes place (every year, surprisingly) at Brunel - the Learning and Teaching Symposium. They're always informative, engaging and I tend to leave with lots of ideas buzzing round my head. This year was no exception.
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| Professor Fiona Denney, Director of Brunel Educational Excellence Centre |
The focus of this year's event was on engaging students actively in their learning. The Vice Chancellor opened the day by giving attendees some history regarding the change in class-sizes and reduction in small-group teaching and the impact this had on student-staff relationships. Her theory being that this was related to the increase in student mental health issues. Going forwards, campuses are designing new buildings with flexible spaces in mind which are designed to get some of this connectivity back.
Engaging keynotes from Dr Ian Turner and Dr Hannah Critchlow built on this aspect of student wellbeing and also the idea of students coming to university to see the lecturer perform and be engaging - a lecture as pantomime.. This ties in with the work we do in our Academic Practice team on teacher identities, philosophies and values.
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| Dr Hannah Critchlow |
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| Dr Ian Turner |
Fortunately, rather than just hearing all about students being active, I was able to experience some of this for myself so I've picked out a few highlights and themes below:
Games
In a workshop with Dr Ian Turner, we worked in teams to develop games for our students. I don't normally like the idea of games as evidence suggests it can remove intrinsic motivation already in place (Hanus & Fox, 2015). However, having a clear idea of the player/audience, their ultimate goal, and some structure to achieving that goal works for me as it connects to coaching methods as well as aligning learning objectives with activities. Seems obvious but you should never assume!
Teams:
The team-based learning workshop with Dr Simon Tweddell continued this theme of small groups, collaboration and interactivity. Individuals would assess their own knowledge then work as a group to come up with the right answers, while developing skills of negotiation and communication. Part of this activity included speaking up and defending their choices to the rest of the class so involved the use of critical thinking and the development of confidence in public speaking - all useful life skills.
Games
In a workshop with Dr Ian Turner, we worked in teams to develop games for our students. I don't normally like the idea of games as evidence suggests it can remove intrinsic motivation already in place (Hanus & Fox, 2015). However, having a clear idea of the player/audience, their ultimate goal, and some structure to achieving that goal works for me as it connects to coaching methods as well as aligning learning objectives with activities. Seems obvious but you should never assume!
Teams:
The team-based learning workshop with Dr Simon Tweddell continued this theme of small groups, collaboration and interactivity. Individuals would assess their own knowledge then work as a group to come up with the right answers, while developing skills of negotiation and communication. Part of this activity included speaking up and defending their choices to the rest of the class so involved the use of critical thinking and the development of confidence in public speaking - all useful life skills.
Technologies and identities:
My favourite session involved the use of Padlet and lots of cutting and sticking. I'm not sure that our PgCAP students would appreciate what may seem like an old-school and childish activity or what it says about me that I enjoyed it so much! We created collages individually, upscaled them into a larger group piece and then shared them via Padlet with the rest of our class. I can see this working really well with distance-learning students or very large groups. I particularly like the idea of using it in a workshop on teaching identities and values for our HEA workshops.
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| Padlet |
These sessions showcased how individual student expression could be combined with teamwork and collegiality. This was summed up perfectly by the panel at the end of the day discussing what educators could learn from comedy. From identifying disconnects, reducing stress and promoting risk-taking to improving dialogic learning and critical thinking skills - comedy has many uses in the classroom. Plus, it can make learning fun!
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Comedy in the Classroom
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