Teaching in the Spotlight: Day One
Our Chief Executive Alison Johns welcomed delegates to our annual Teaching and Learning Conference at Northumbria University – three days of positioning the spotlight firmly on higher education teaching in a global context.
A view from the top
Diana Beech, Policy Adviser to Universities Minister Chris Skidmore gave the Day One keynote speech, addressing the audience on Teaching Excellence and the national policy context.
From her unique position at the heart of higher education policy-making in Whitehall, Diana explained why recent Governments have been so keen to recognise and encourage excellent teaching, and how they are going about it – outlining key developments in improving student choice, access, experience and outcomes.
Diana reflected on the evolution of the Teaching Excellence and Student Outcomes Framework asking where we could be going next to enhance innovation in teaching practice? She asserted that good teaching is Assessable, Inspiring, Supportive, Imaginative and Responsive. She called for teaching to be more imaginative, to embrace VR, AR and learning analytics to really drive engaging student experiences.
Emphasising the importance of feedback, Diana highlighted that online feedback can be impersonal or lower rated. She suggested more detailed and personalised feedback should be a part of universities delivering more supportive teaching.
Standing-room-only workshops
Heather Pennington and Emmajane Milton from Cardiff University presented a popular workshop on ‘Teaching excellence and embracing innovative teaching practices to engage and support “hard to reach” colleagues’. Look out for a blog coming soon on this topic.
Speed presenting
Our afternoon Ignite session aimed to enlighten delegates in lightning-quick time. Twenty slides in five minutes that automatically move on - our four presenters stayed focused and kept to time, explaining their approaches to assessment, critical thinking, collaboration and interactions in Health and Social Care.
• A co-creation approach to strategic enhancement of assessment and feedback in Nursing and Midwifery - Hilary Abbott-Brailey from Northumbria University.
• Using a model to develop students’ critical thinking skills - Craig Johnston, Brunel University London.
• Collaborative teaching and learning: Speech and Language Therapy students and trainee teachers learning to work together - Aydan Suphi, Birmingham City University.
• Overcoming the pseudo-individualised approach to student interactions - Dr Tim Young, University College London.
Soapbox challenge
New for this year is the Soapbox Sessions on Health and Social Care. These short presentations are designed to help our specially selected Soapbox speakers find people working in similar areas to collaborate and make connections with those with shared interests.
Further details of all Soapbox projects will be posted on the collaboration areas of Advance HE Connect.
Our Soapbox speakers included:
Dr Tim Young from UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology (IoN) is looking to collaborate with colleagues keen to increase student feedback participation rates through testing personalised email content.
Shakila Devi Perumal from Cardiff University is seeking partners to collaborate with in the investigation of the impact of content and language integrated learning (CLIL) technology in postgraduate curriculum design, assessment and feedback.
Jackie Cawkwell from the University of Nottingham is exploring how to extend engagement with CPD for teaching and learning support colleagues who contribute significantly to the student learning experience but who are excluded from targets.
Pauline Calleja from Griffith University is looking for partners interested in collaborating and contributing to a study using Artificial Intelligence methodology to collect information from large numbers of participants to better understand what can be done to support graduate nurses’ transition into their first year of practice.
