End of the module summary…

At the beginning of the module I was concerned that I may not ‘get’ the course and struggle with some of the softer topics.  In particular I could see that a large proportion of the course centred around personal reflection and reflecting on our learning and teaching practice.  This was quite a strange and scary thought for me as I had no experience or exposure to reflective practices.  Having seen the core module to the end I can’t pretend to be an expert of reflective practice, but I have managed to assemble the process into an order that makes sense to me now and I can see the benefits in applying it to teaching and learning in an engineering environment.  Having been made aware of reflection, I’ve started to notice its inclusion in texts and articles as I’ve expanded my reading circle in alignment with the PGCAP core objectives.  One interesting quote that I feel fits well with my experience is: “Contrary to the cliché, I do not learn from my experience; that is, not unless I reflect on what I have done.” (Mason, Burton, & Stacey, 2010).

Having completed the core module, I’ve also decided to change my optional module.  Originally I had planned on exploiting my inherent nerdiness by selecting the digital learning module, but having been exposed to various pedagogic strategies I’m keen to see them implemented and I’ve changed my selection to help me create and refine existing course modules to give me an opportunity to embed some of the new concepts I’ve learned, particularly Problem Based Learning which I intend to build around a full day workshop.  If I’m careful and focused I’m hoping that I can align this with various Threshold Concepts that engineering students commonly find difficult to help encourage a deeper learning experience.

On the whole I’ve found the course interesting, although I’ve found myself frustrated occasionally given the structure of the course as it’s very different to an engineering degree.  I’ve found the easiest way to deal with my frustration is throw myself in headfirst and just go with the course and taking this approach has opened up quite a few new opportunities for me.  This has happened at a cost though, with it being the first year that I’ve been teaching all of my material has been written from scratch, combined with a PGCAP, a PhD, my volunteering with the British Red Cross, and a young family I’m mentally and physically exhausted, even after a Christmas Break.

As a result of the course I’ve found the confidence to submit a paper to a journal and a proposal for a HEA conference presentation in April.  I’m looking forward to the optional module and I’m looking forward to getting my PGCAP qualification under my belt and seeing some of the good tools put into action.  Once I’ve got a solid set of basic notes under my belt for all of the modules, then I can start to add some more experimental techniques into the mix…  Fred Garnett believes it takes 3 years to get to this stage, I’ve no reason to doubt him, but I feel I’ve been throwing a few things into the mix already like embedding my experience and research into my teaching which aligns well with the professional standards (HEA, 2011).

I’ve also met some lovely people along the way too who I really intend to stay in touch with throughout my professional career.

References.

HEA. (2011). The UK Professional Standards Framework for teaching and supporting learning in higher education   Retrieved from http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/assets/documents/ukpsf/ukpsf.pdf

Mason, J., Burton, L., & Stacey, K. (2010). Thinking Mathematically (Second ed.). Harlow: Pearson.

Observation 4…

This is likely to be a shortish post in comparison to some of my other blog posts.  As part of the PGCAP course I was fortunate enough to observe a peer’s lecture from a completely different discipline.  This was quite exciting for me, as engineers (mistakenly) tend to think that non-scientific degrees can be a little woolly and aren’t as rigorous as their own discipline.  I wanted to witness a non-engineering degree to see for myself what sorts of approaches are taken within the classroom.

I was fortunate in that the lecturer I was observing has been lecturing for a few years and the experience showed in her manner and unflappable state, even when the fire alarm sounded she was calm collected and absolutely in command of the classroom.

One of the biggest surprises I found was that the number of students was much smaller than I am used too, but this gave the group the opportunity to form smaller groups for role-play and practice sessions based around the core themes of the lecture.  These breakout sessions were left for the groups to work in trusted pairs with little supervision being necessary, with a collected group discussion at the end used where the students were asked to summarise and reinforce the key learning points in their own words: a key stage in Kolb’s learning cycle (Kolb, 1984).

It was also interesting listening to the lecturer discuss her experience from a very personal perspective, both from real life and from her professional practice [in alignment with best practice guidance(HEA, 2011)] which helped give the lecture a tangible feel for her students and the visual feedback from the students during these discussions appeared to be one of genuine engagement.

The main things that I took away from this particular observation are summarised below:-

• If you know your material, unplanned distractions such as fire alarms are manageable.
• Engaging the students and treating them as adults can make the break out sessions highly rewarding.
• Listening to your students is a key skill.
• Allowing the students the opportunity to digest, challenge and discuss the materials works well in smaller groups and can make for a highly personal learning experience.

References:

HEA. (2011). The UK Professional Standards Framework for teaching and supporting learning in higher education   Retrieved from http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/assets/documents/ukpsf/ukpsf.pdf

Kolb, D. A. (1984). Experiential learning: Experience as the source of learning and development. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall.