All Ireland Society for Higher Education
| Name: | Lahart , Orla |
|---|---|
| Email: | olahart@ncirl.ie |
| Institution: | National College of Ireland |
Maher, Elaine, elmaher@ncirl.ie
The National College of Ireland (NCI) has placed to the fore student-centred learning, which has arisen from recent changes in Irish third-level education. More specifically the Informatics Department at NCI has successfully developed an innovative strategy for its provision of IT education. This has come about as a result of both a decrease in the uptake of IT courses nationally and a noticeable trend of low retention rates in IT courses. A core feature of this multi-faceted strategy has been the development and implementation of individual faculty Teaching Portfolios (TP), which is pioneering at third-level. A TP is a collection of information about a faculty member's teaching, compiled by that faculty member. The TP exhibits selected samples that illustrate how that individual's teaching is carried out. It is not, in itself, an instrument for teaching evaluation, but a vehicle for presenting information, which may include results of evaluations and new techniques tested. It can be selective, emphasising the positive--to serve as a showcase for the faculty member's achievements in teaching. Additionally, it is important that negative teaching experiments are highlighted. On a weekly basis at the Department level meeting a faculty member is selected to showcase their TP. This teaching vignette allows all faculty present to share ideas and find out what works and what is an ineffective teaching approach to try. The purpose of the TP is also to increase student motivation and collaborative participation within the given learning space. A challenge, which frequently occurs in first year classes, is the social integration of students and this obstacle has been overcome through the adoption of a number of TP techniques. A typical example includes the Magic Wand. The Magic Wand technique works by passing the wand to one student and asking them a simple question. That student on answering then passes the wand to another student in a different row and either they can p ose a follow-on question or the lecturer will use a dialectic approach to draw out the required information. Student reaction to date has been very positive and feedback given has been that students enjoy coming to lectures where they feel important due to their required active participation. We believe that our students, as a result of our use of TPs are now becoming responsible for their own learning. The development, implementation and evaluation strategies of the TP as well as applicable TP techniques will be discussed in this paper.
(Abstract ref: #24.)