All Ireland Society for Higher Education
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Date: |
Wednesday 17th June 2009 |
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Time: |
2.00pm to 5.00pm |
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Location: |
Trinity College Dublin - School of Nursing and Midwifery |
Facilitator: | Professor Ranald Macdonald FSEDA, Learning and Teaching Institute, Sheffield Hallam University, UK |
As academic developers and/or innovative teachers we continually urge our colleagues to adopt more student-centred, active approaches to their practice. However, the techniques or methods we use to do this are often teacher-focused and input driven, though with a nod to interaction, action planning and some reflection.
We similarly advocate presenting a challenge to the learners, whether students or fellow academics, risk-taking and acknowledging that learning may have uncertain and ambiguous outcomes - what Ron Barnett calls "learning for an unknown future".
In this session we will explore some of these issues through actually experiencing them and drawing on the experiences of participants.
Ranald is particularly interested in exploring change in complex organisations such as universities, the use of Harrison Owen's Open Space Technology as an approach to supporting educational change, drawing on metaphors and pictures to prompt more divergent thinking, and engaging with Michael Eraut's notion of informal learningby professionals in the workplace. He is also much taken by Ron Barnett's notion of authenticityas a personal change concept rather than the "real world" rhetoric increasingly being used in institutions. Others will have worked with Future Search, World Café or similar techniques.
The process and outcomes of the workshop will focus on individuals reflecting on and widening their repertoire of academic development approaches to enable colleagues to take greater ownership of their own development and support for educational change. Participants are welcome to contact Ranald in advance about particular approaches they find of use/successful, via r.macdonald@shu.ac.uk.
Ranald Macdonald is Professor of Academic Development and Head of Strategic Development in the Learning and Teaching Institute at Sheffield Hallam, UK. A previous Co-Chair of the UK's Staff and Educational Development Association, he was founder and Chair of its Research, Scholarship and Evaluation Committee until last year. He holds a SEDA Fellowship, was awarded a National Teaching Fellowship in 2005 and held the William Evans Visiting Fellowship, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand in March 2007.
Ranald jointly bid for, established and was Co-Director of the Centre for Promoting Learner Autonomy, one of the English Funding Council's 74 Centres for Excellence, from 2005-2007 and has worked as an academic developer throughout the UK and in a number of other countries.
To register for this event, please email linda.king@aishe.org
Closing date for registration: Wednesday 3rd June 2009.