During the last months I have often been thinking of my granddad. And today after blurting out crying a couple of times I thought I write up a couple of memories and inevitably learning about teaching. He worked in an agricultural boarding school, after having to stop being a farmer. The young adults—many of which […]
Tag: Academic Development
A Story about Becoming a University Teacher
Living by the Proverb ABSTRACT There seems to be a strong link between developing our identities and storytelling. As humans, we strive for coherence, and this coherence is found in stories (Hermans, 2001). This is an experimental paper telling a story about developing a brave, and authentic self as an educator (teacher) in Higher Education […]
SoTL Definition Conundrum
I have had a bit of frustration with getting a definition sorted. So I made a thinking thing … ‘definitions are living creatures’. That’s the premise.
#ETConf20, The ‘New Normal’ and SoTL
Reflections on this year’s QAA Enhancement Themes Conference Frazzled Thoughts The reflections on this year’s QAA Enhancement Themes Conference are probably going to meander, from idea to idea, like a bumblebee from blossom to blossom. Two of my favourite phrases from the conference came from Prof Sally Krift who stated that we are in ‘a […]
Monthly SoTL-walk: Emergence
I have fallen in love with the SoTL walk. It is a great way to engage in reflective practice and with colleagues across the world. This month’s topic was more challenging than I thought. Once I began writing it grew vines and tentacles all over the place. So instead of sharing directly on the padlet, […]
Emergence
I am going on walks every day, often Nordic Walking–which in Scotland earns me strange looks and the occasional comment. As spring takes hold and the days become longer, if not necessarily warmer, I was thinking about emergence. As educators we are used to being in an autopoietic state (Kidd, 2015), but the process of […]
Coaching Supervision: and Course Development
An accidental insight. I had the opportunity to obtain coaching supervision, and this session led to a profound insight about one of my postgraduate courses: Creative Pedagogies for Active Learning. Brief background: The course has only been in its second iteration, after a complete restructure, and the first year went really well. However, the second […]
Reflective Practice
The view from over your own shoulder Evaluating your teaching. This was the CPD session I ran today for university teachers at all levels. Technicians who ensure that researchers learn to work complex (and expensive) equipment, tutors, graduate teaching assistants, and lecturers. One of the things that strikes me most when teaching sessions on evaluating […]
Being a reflective practitioner
One of my aims for this year was to write a reflective practice paper, and submit for publication. I really struggled with identifying the story I actually wanted to tell. Additionally, I am currently working on my SFHEA application and I just realized that I began my professional journey studying and researching how we make […]
Finding your voice
Finding a new voice for my blog. A quick Hallo some musings and photos from camping in Scotland #AcDev #HigherEd
#EdChat
#Iwrite
#Writing #academicwriting
SoTL is not a Concept
So I am currently undertaking a bit of background reading around Scholarship (scholarly activities aka scholarship sans publication) and SoTL. AdvanceHE put forward in their recommendation: SoTL needs to be discussed and made explicit as a concept to generate some institutional consensus on its usefulness to enhance practices’ (p.8) Fanghanel, J., Pritchard, J., Potter, J., […]
The autopoietic lecturer: a poem
A reflective poem I am becoming evermoreMaturePatientWiserResilientOlderComplexDeeperQuirkierRiskierFunnierCompliantCategoricalUnconsciously professional And that’s just on a Monday. If you are not prepared to be challenged, to question your believes and assumptions, you are in danger. The classroom is not a safe space for a fixed mindset.
First Podcast
So we are creating podcasts now. This one we talk about preparing for the new semester and coping with workload
Prevent students from developing bad habits.
Reflections on participating in our annual Learning & Teaching Showcase (you will find the poster on page two). Prevent students from developing bad habits. That is pretty much the aim of my 1st year academic development module. For my poster I used the cliché of ‘long thin induction’. Clichés have the advantage that at least everyone […]
