Adventures in Academic Development
Faculty Development, Hochschuldidaktik, Play and Creativity in Higher Education, SoTL
Sometimes Sunday afternoons turn more stressful than one had counted for…. Make sure your dual verification is on and your security cameras live. Security cameras caught these apparent identity thieves we recorded one of them shouting: yeah that’s the house, it is marked. People make sure you have your security cameras on and dual verification … Continue reading Looks as if thieves are on the prowl in Scotland
Auf dem Zahnfleisch kriechend: By the skin of our teeth We made it! Granted: rough and ready, stumbling into the new year, still exhausted and tired from infections, and right away into the emergency room in the hospital. Anxiously waiting for ten hours for my MiL’s life to be saved, which it was. Photo by … Continue reading Happy New Year
Raunächte: Harsh Nights Raunächte begin at winter solstice1–today–and they coincide with the university being closed for the holidays. During this time, work is in this in-between space, it does exist and doesn’t at the same time. It’s rules are suspended waiting to begin anew in January. The twelve nights of Raunächte2 are created by the … Continue reading Raunächte: Join the End of Year Reflections
Don’t jump into the swimming pool Today I was given a great metaphor that helped me take a necessary step back from stressful situations. So I figured I share with you. Literally everyone I am talking to right now seems to struggle. Things feel difficult, the bad news keep coming uninterrupted, and the long dark … Continue reading Of Life Guarding Your Sanity
The quiz This is particularly for colleagues who either undertake SoTL (Scholarship of Teaching and Learning) project or colleagues who support it. Also if you are from social sciences, or education your perspective will be helpful! There is a persistent habit of jumping straight from a project idea to methods, regularly without even formulating a … Continue reading Can you help me break my quiz?
I did not set any goals for this year’s Academic Writing Month. And I believe because of this it was my most productive and most joyful AcWriMo ever. This is the 13th blog post of the month! All I wanted to do was: just write. I just wanted to write again. Without force, expectations, publisher … Continue reading Successful Aimlessness: #AcWriMo2022 Last Words
SoTL is Educational Research SoTL is intrinsically linked to your teaching practice. Whatever this practice may look like from traditional classroom teaching, to supporting learning, and supervision. You are a core part of this process, both in influencing pedagogy as well as in gathering data, analysing it and implementing changes. You might however, beg, borrow, … Continue reading AcWriMo2022: Debunking 4 SoTL Myths
This post is aimed at colleagues who (like I used to be) are mainly social media lurkers; who want to make the next step but are worried about it. Table of Content Introduction Remember my blogpost about the wicked problem of creating space for different voices? Particularly, the point about how to encourage participation? I … Continue reading Public Participation: An Emotional Rollercoaster
Somewhere on the wilderness of the World Wide Web I stumbled across this contemplation about comfort work by Austin Kleon. The idea was so relatable it made me contemplate not only how I work but also if framing things under this light might help with motivation during challenging times. First things first. Austin Kleon defines … Continue reading Writing is Comfort Work
Part two of random writing: Social Network Dynamics I want to share a wicked problem. All that talk about social networks–their value, their issues of late made me ponder this: Maybe the combined perspectives will unearth some insights, so please do comment and share! Even if just to say you have the same questions. In … Continue reading Unsticking my Writing by Pondering a Wicked Problem
Have you ever written something: just because? Just because the words needed out. Just because you could feel your thoughts churning but were not able to grasp them, hold on to the maelstrom of shapeless cognition? That’s me today. The last weeks were full of meetings, and teaching, and movement, and falling down the stairs … Continue reading Just because #AcWriMo2022
Finding your SoTL Writing Voice This post is based on a CPD session I ran today, for colleagues and PGR students who are new to SoTL and trying to figure out just where to begin with it. I am going to share the writing prompts with you. So if you want to use this to … Continue reading Writing about your Teaching Practice: Your DIY Writing Workshop
Maybe not all mindfulness techniques but some of the most common: deep breathing, and body check are not as simple or risk free as you might think: How Deep Breathing Can Worsen Trauma Responses | Psychology Today It is a dreich rainy first November here in Scotland. And at 7 am I am contemplating my … Continue reading Mindfulness is NOT a panacea for anxious students
This year for Academic Writing Month I decided to blog more. That’s it. No specific goals, no three posts a week etc. I didn’t want to immediately inhibit the writing process by setting unrealistic expectations. It’s mid-semester here, there are teaching observations, teaching, running network, struggling with chronic health issues, all of which is usually … Continue reading Writing Creates More Writing
The following infographic reflects the stages of the process I often observe in my practice supporting SoTL, and which we use in our institution to support colleagues familiarising themselves with SoTL. It also made me think more about SoTL as practitioner inquiry: institutionally we are speaking about educational inquiries–rather than educational research–which is a horse … Continue reading SoTL Development: A Pragmatic Approach
Adventures in Academic Development 