Keeping youinformed...This edition of ESCalate news comprisesan eclectic collection of articles chosento illustrate the breadth of work beingcarried out by the community to improveteaching and learning in the field ofEducation.

We start with a section focusing onstudents. ESCalate’s mission is, in part,to produce and broker resources whichexplore ways of enhancing the learningexperiences of Education students. Aspartners in this process, students can beseen as a tremendous resource andinstitutions are actively seeking out newways to engage students in bringingabout innovative solutions to teachingand learning challenges.

Our e-learning and e-portfolio eventshave a history of booking up very quicklyand we know that practitioners areinterested in expanding their knowledgein the area of technology enhancedlearning. So, in this issue, we offer twoarticles around the use of video tosupport video conferencing andreflective teaching. Following this,ESCalate academic consultant SteveRose writes a piece about supportingthe scholarly activity of education

Online resource banks for staff and students 28

Showing how events can promote good practice 30

Supporting HE staff in the FE sector 16

Promoting research - project updates from some of our teams 20

Working with and on behalf of students 3

Technology enhancing learning in Teacher Education 12

ESCalate events 36

In Conversation with... Jocelyn Wishart 35

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practitioners in Higher Education inFurther Education (HE in FE) colleges.

Next, we have a section to update youon the progress of the projects we arecurrently funding in the areas of studentwellbeing and teacher educators for the21st century.

Also in this issue we hear fromcolleagues working on the educationalevidence portal (eep) and the HigherEducation Academy’s EvidenceNet. Weall have our favourite resourcerepositories, unfortunately as you willknow, some of these are now under threatwith cuts in funding. One recommendationof the Strategic Forum for Research inEducation (www.sfre.ac.uk, final reportp.36) was that some of these collectionsshould be consolidated into a ‘UKEducation Information Service’ whichshould be online, freely available andcomprehensive. This may be a goodway forward for some as they considerthe sustainability of their resources in thelong-term.

The newsletter of the Education Subject Centre - advancing learning and teaching in education

Issue 18 - Autumn 2010

SupportingLearning andTeaching for

Years10

To finish we have a couple of eventreports followed by an ‘in conversation’piece with Acting Director JocelynWishart. She was recently heard sayingthat ‘in times of change we need tocelebrate our successes and continueto provide support to the benefit of ourcommunity’ or to re-use an old mantra‘keep calm and carry on’ – sentimentsechoed by many working acrossHigher Education in these changingtimes.

ESCalate @ BristolDr Jocelyn WishartLiz HankinsonTeresa NurserDr Fiona HylandDee MilesBianca SoucekLyndsay Grant

ESCalate ConsultantsJulie HughesSteve RoseHenry Liebling

Editorial Team:Jocelyn WishartFiona HylandTeresa Nurser

Get involved withESCalate, It’s easy.

Please look at ourwebsite for opportunities.

www.escalate.ac.uk

ESCalate news is a termly publication.

The views expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of theeditor nor of the partner organisations. The editors reserve the right toedit, amend or abbreviate copy without notice.

ESCalate (Education Subject Centre)Part of the Higher Education Academy Subject Centre NetworkUniversity of BristolGraduate School of Education35 Berkeley SquareBristolBS8 1JA

Tel: 0117 331 4291Fax: 0117 925 1537Email: heacademy-escalate@bristol.ac.ukwww.escalate.ac.uk

An electronic version of this newsletter is available on theESCalate website.

This newsletter is available free of charge. If you do not currently receivea copy and wish to do so in the future please contact heacademy-escalate@bristol.ac.uk. Your details will only be used for keeping youinformed of ESCalate activity and will not be made available to outsideorganisations.

If you have any ideas or copy that you would like to see included in afuture newsletter please get in touch: teresa.nurser@bristol.ac.uk

We are especially interested in items which:• Show innovative practice in your Education Department;• Celebrate National Teaching Fellows and other awards for

teaching and learning;• Showcase student achievement.

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sUnderstandingand supporting thee-learning experiencesof students withdisabilities

Disabled students at the Universityof Southampton have been workingwith researchers to produce anonline resource for both studentsand academics that offers handyhints and tips on technologies andstrategies that can be used to makee-learning easier for disabledstudents. The resource is the resultof a two year project called LEXDISwhich was funded by JISC, under itslearner experience programme.

Using participatory researchmethods, students were involved inall aspects of the research process;from deciding the researchquestions to designing the projectwebsite (Seale et al. 2008a). A key

aspect of student participation wasthe sharing of their technologyexperiences, and in particular thestrategies they have developed toenable them to use a wide range oftechnologies to support theirlearning. The students’ technology“stories” have been integrated intoan online database that can besearched by students and lecturerswho may be looking for ideas orinformation about assistivetechnologies that students use,along with their strategies to solvesome of the issues that arise orapplications that students use (bychoice or as a course requirement)that may cause difficulties.

Working withcolleagues tosupport studentswhilst in HigherEducation is a keypart of ESCalate’sactivity. Thefollowing articlesshow three verydifferent strands ofinnovative work.

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Jane Seale

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Digital agility, agency andempowermentAnalysis of the students’technology experiences suggestthat disabled students are verydigitally “agile”, they are extremelyfamiliar with a wide range oftechnologies and can criticallyevaluate their strengths andweaknesses in relation to theirlearning needs; they use a widerange of strategies to enable themto use the technologies to learneffectively and they have relativelyhigh levels of confidence in theirown ability to use technologies. Inaddition, many disabled studentshave developed a strategic fluencythat enables them to makecomplex decisions about whetheror not to use technologies tosupport their learning. On someoccasions, such decisions caninvolve deciding not to usetechnology (Seale et al. 2008b).

These findings are significant forlecturers and those who work insupport services in terms ofprompting us to recognise theagency of disabled students in

relation to making choices about theirtechnology use as well as to reflect onour assumptions regarding theabilities of disabled students on ourcourses. The findings relating todigital agility can be used to supportan empowerment model of inclusiveeducation and disability supportwhereby the strengths of disabledstudents are recognised and thefocus is less on remediation and moreon supporting learners to pursue theirlearning goals (Seale et al. 2010).

Hindrances and barriers tosuccessful e-learning andtechnology use

Despite the apparent digital agility ofdisabled students, the students in theLEXDIS project did describeinstances where their learning hadbeen adversely affected. There werea number of reasons for this: � Access to appropriate

technologies had been hinderedor denied

� Inappropriate technologies orpedagogies underpinningtechnology use had beenemployed

Screenprint of LEXDIS Home Page

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� Students felt they did not haveenough time to learn how to usesome of the more complexassistive technologies

A prime example of access beinghindered or denied can be illustratedthrough the following quote from astudent who felt strongly that lecturersand universities should be moreflexible in their willingness to provideelectronic versions of learningmaterials:

Having things in electronic format isessential for me to cope with thedemands of my course. I would bedrowning under a sea of paper,otherwise!! I do not have thedexterity to manipulate masses ofsheets. So paper material is difficultfor me to locate, and difficult todisplay properly when writing [..] Ithink they (lecturers) should just beaware that physically disabledstudents may well benefit fromelectronic resources. Theyshouldn't automatically assumethat disabled students will definitelywant things in electronic format.However, they should be awarethat it is likely that many will wantthis [...] There is so much more thanlecture notes, as well [...] Somelecturers are pretty good. They willput up quite a lot in electronicformat, but even the good ones, atthe moment, they don’t put on asmuch as they realise they could. [...]For example, there is something inthe library now that will scan inwhole books, and the library said tome: “Oh well, at the moment weonly use that for academics”.

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‘‘ ‘‘Analysis ofthe students’technologyexperiencessuggest thatdisabled studentsare very digitally“agile”

Examples like this get us to thinkcarefully about what the purpose ofhigher education is as well as toexamine our definitions of inclusiveeducation. For students, highereducation should be a challenge; theyneed to be stretched and facilitated toreach further than they thought theypossibly could. However, it isimportant that lecturers choose theright hurdles with which to challengestudents and not to get students tojump unnecessary hurdles that taketime and effort but afford no reallearning advantage. This is true for allstudents, but particularly true for manydisabled students who are alreadyexerting a great amount of time andenergy “managing” their disability andfind they have to be very strategicabout their learning as a result.

Whilst some resentment existsamongst non-disabled students aboutthe technology that is available todisabled students through theirDisabled Students Allowance,evidence from the LEXDIS projectssuggests that disabled students donot always feel able to take advantageof the technologies, particularly voicerecognition software which can takedays to learn how to use:

… when I got all my software inautumn last year, and they said:“You need to have your training onthis” – as you quite rightly have said– I did feel like I was doing 2courses and that was, frankly, toomuch. I had to stay with my old badhabits because I just didn’t feel Ihad the time to take out to learnsomething new to help me. It was avicious circle, really.

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Examples that students sharedwith us, where being required to usea particular technology could beconsidered practically orpedagogically inappropriateincluded:� Requiring students to learn

curriculum content by accessingmaterial only available viacomplex specialist softwareapplications that can beextremely stressful to learn touse, particularly for students withmental health issues.

� Requiring all students to postcontributions to an onlinediscussion forum, even thoughaccess to the Internet outside ofuniversity hours is problematic forsome disabled students,depending on where they live.

The website gets jammedup and crashes. On MSNyou can see who’s logged on.On there you can’t. If you put amessage on, you can sit therefor 2 hours waiting for a reply. Ihad to continue to go back tothe library. Those who haveinternet at home can check it allday. But, I went to the library inmy pyjamas because it got solate! This is unfair. If you don’tcommunicate on there, youdon’t pass. The studentresidence are the ones whodon’t have the internet. Oursare 40 years old andcondemned.

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Key tips for lecturers onsupporting the e-learning ofdisabled studentsThe examples given here, as well asthe narratives contained within theLEXDIS website, can be used toderive several key tips for lecturersand other academics who aresupporting the e-learning of disabledstudents:

1. Increase the level of provision foronline materials. Despite the fact thatmany students comment on issues ofaccessibility and ease of use of someof the materials online, this method ofsharing resources is vital for thosewho cannot handle paper basedmaterials easily. Scanning and usingoptical character recognition to copewith paper based materials takestime and the results are not alwayssufficiently accurate for easy readingwith text to speech or Brailletranslation.

2. Think carefully about the impact ondisabled students of a huge variationin the “look and feel” of modules orcourses provided via Virtual LearningEnvironments. Offering teaching staffthe ability to adapt the virtual learningto their own personal specificationsmay be causing navigationalconcerns for students who have tospend longer on task to find itemsand work within the various differentVLE courses they are required to use,due to differences andinconsistencies in structure andorganisation across courses.

3. Increase the level of awareness forthe use of alternative formats. Thereremains a lack of awarenessregarding the impact that

Jane SealeUniversity of Plymouth

Jane Seale is Professor of Education atthe University of Plymouth. Jane’steaching and research interests lie atthe intersections between disability,technology and education. Her workfocuses in particular on the factors thatinfluence or sustain the digitalexclusion of disabled learners. Jane iscurrently Digital Inclusion consultant tothe ESRC funded TechnologyEnhanced Learning (TEL) ResearchProgramme where she is working tosynthesise and update currentresearch in the field of Digital Inclusion.Jane worked on the LEXDIS projectwith colleagues Mike Wald and E.A.Draffan from the Electronics andComputer Science department at theUniversity of Southampton.

ReferencesSeale, J., Draffan, E. A. & Wald, M. (2010)Digital agility and digital decision-making:conceptualising digital inclusion in thecontext of disabled learners in highereducation. Studies in Higher Education,35 (4), 445 - 461.

Seale, J., Draffan, E.A. & Wald, M.(2008a). An evaluation of the use ofparticipatory methods in exploringdisabled learners’ experiences ofe-learning. LEXDIS Methodology Reportto JISC. University of Southampton.www.lexdis.ecs.soton.ac.uk\project\reports

Seale, J., Draffan, E.A, & Wald, M.(2008b). Exploring disabled learners’experiences of learning. LEXDIS FinalReport to JISC. University ofSouthampton.www.lexdis.ecs.soton.ac.uk\project\media\LEXDIS_ProjectReport_Dec08final.doc

inaccessible teaching and learningresources can have on disabledstudents. This does not mean thatinnovative teaching materials usinginteractive online applicationsshould be avoided but rather thatalternatives may need to be on offerthat can provide a similar learningoutcome. Even the most basicPDFs and PowerPoints can alsocause problems if they cannot beread on the screen with speechoutput or accessed via thekeyboard.

4. Be prepared to recognise thedigital literacy skills that manydisabled students have and buildon these by providing moreopportunities for improved learningoutcomes through an increasedchoice of multimedia tools andresources.

5. Design and develop learningopportunities and support systemsthat recognise the significant factorsthat influence disabled students’use of technology, notably time. Alldisabled learners cite ‘TIME’ as areal issue that influences theirdecisions about whether to usetechnology and whether to seeksupport to use technology. ‘Just-in-time’ learning seems to be the mostappreciated type of training. Whenstudents have a problem, is whenthey want to learn the solution. Thisneeds to be taken into accountwhen thinking about library training,VLE and other technology trainingsessions.

More information about the projectand further guidance material canbe found at: www.lexdis.org

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sStudents as changeagents at Exeter University

through the research process,helping with ideas, overcomingissues and acting as the linkbetween students and staff. As apsychology graduate, I could usemy experience with quantitativeand qualitative research to assiststudents through data collectionand interpreting their results. Mysupportive role was madepossible through funding from theDeputy Vice Chancellor forEducation at Exeter.

So, to begin, we neededstudents. University studentstend to be very engaged withsocieties and extra-curricularactivities, but many individualsseem less motivated to engagedirectly with academic processesand many are unaware that theycan instigate changes that havean impact on the curriculum. Sowe decided to approach thosestudents who were alreadyengaged with their departments,as Student Staff LiaisonCommittee (SSLC) members.With the help of the StudentsGuild, the scheme was advertisedto those students involved in theSSLC in different departments.

Regular SSLC meetings allowstudents to flag up issues andconcerns that occur within theirsubject. However, many

I was the ‘Students as ChangeAgents’ Coordinator at ExeterUniversity for the academic year of2009-2010. The scheme, nowmoving into its third year, hasbecome an innovative and keyaspect of student engagement atthe University.

The concept of the scheme beganfrom the need to increase studentinvolvement in the teaching andlearning experience. The NationalUnion of Students hadcommunicated to universities theimportance of engaging students inthe process of quality assuranceand formulation of the curriculum.Within Exeter itself, the StudentsGuild was concerned as to whethera true representation of students’views about the learning experiencewas being heard. So the ‘Studentsas Change Agents’ project began in

response to these concerns, tohighlight aspects of teaching thatneeded to be improved and to getstudents actively engaged in makingpositive changes to their course.

The aim of the project was forstudents to choose their own topic ofresearch that addressed an area oflearning and teaching that was ofconcern within their subject andcome up with recommendations forimproving these issues. By gettingstudents to run their own researchand data collection, a betterrepresentation of the student voicecould be made, with innovativesolutions created by those studentsengaged in the learning experience.

My involvement began in October2009, as part of a graduateplacement scheme run at theUniversity. My role was to talk to thestudents involved and guide them

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Harriet Whewell

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students feel that although theSSLC system allows them tocommunicate issues with staff, insome cases changes are slow, orfail to happen. The ‘Students asChange Agents’ concept createda positive reaction among SSLCmembers as it allowed students tochange and improve the teachingexperience directly. For staff,research-based evidence wouldprovide justification for thedepartment to implement certainchanges, whilst the project ethoswould help develop the role of theSSLC to become engaged in aconstructive process, findingpositive solutions for dealing withconcerns, rather than anopportunity to complain.

We received applications from avariety of students; first years topostgraduates, individuals togroups, and representing a varietyof disciplines such asBiosciences, Archaeology, Lawand Engineering. Data was thencollected by students usingquestionnaires, interviews andfocus groups. I then looked at theresults with the students andhelped create recommendationsand solutions to the issues ofconcern. Findings andrecommendations were thenpresented to the department inthe form of research reports.

Projects ranged from academicwriting support in Biosciences,employability in Archaeology,technology aided learning in theBusiness School, assessmentmethods in Law, and improvingsustainability practice andawareness across the Universityas a whole. All of the studentspresented their findings at aConference in June that was

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Harriet Whewell has been acting asthe Students as Change AgentsCoordinator for the past year atExeter University. Prior to this, shecompleted a degree in Psychologyat Durham University. Since finishingher post at Exeter, she has gone onto study for an MA at Kings College,London.

For more information about University

of Exeter’s Students as Agents for

Change project please see:

http://as.exeter.ac.uk/support/

educationenhancementprojects/

change/

Harriet WhewellFormerly at theUniversity of Exeter

attended by fellow students,University staff, Student Guildrepresentatives and visitors fromexternal organisations such asESCalate and the QAA. Students’findings and recommendationswere met with interest and will bedisseminated and implementedwithin their respective departments.

Below are some quotations fromstudents who ran projects, whichshow the impact and implications ofthis scheme on a personal level forthose who took part:

“I think the most exciting part ofthis project has been to see thatit is possible to make a changeeven at such a large institution.Before this project I did notexpect it to be possible to make achange, but this has shown methat with a little work anddedication you can make thingshappen.”

“[The most exciting/interestingaspects to this project havebeen]…Promoting andencouraging debate on big topicson a college level. Seeing ideasbeing shared across the college.Hopefully making a lastingimpact.”

“It has been hard to balance withstudies but glad to havepersevered as has been veryrewarding.”

There have been several impactsof this scheme. Those particularstudents involved in running theprojects have learnt valuable skillsand have benefited from being

involved at a high level within theirschools. Their fellow students havebenefited and will continue to benefitfrom the improvements made as anoutcome of the projects and havebeen made aware of the potential forfuture engagement. Staff and theUniversity as a whole have receivedvaluable and creative input fromthose students involved, withstudents moving more towards beingco-contributors within the University.

And for me personally, I have learnta great deal about the importance ofengagement in University life.Working with such a variety ofstudents was really inspiring. Theirenthusiasm, creativity and dedicationto make a difference to the learningexperience led to the success of theprojects. In fact, working on thisscheme encouraged me to go backto University to study for a Mastersdegree this year and to be involved inthe educational experience as astudent once again.

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With the significant increase inyoung people entering highereducation, interest in issuesrelating to the mental health andwellbeing of young people has alsoincreased. To reach their potential,students must be able to cope withthe rigours of academic study, andengage socially with the universitycommunity and beyond.Institutions too, have a duty of carefor these individuals and thus needto ensure that their strategies forsupporting students are robust andeffective.

I applied to ESCalate to carry outan innovative study on studentwellbeing and mental health. Thestudy employed three methods:first, participation of HostelWardens, themselves students,employed by the university togather information from students;second, a focus group sessionmade up of student volunteers todiscuss issues relating to mentalhealth and wellbeing; and finally, anonline questionnaire whichexplored self-esteem and healthand wellbeing.

Initial analysis would appear toindicate that relative to the studentpopulation, cases of serious mentalhealth problems are minimal.However, it is evident that withinthe population that a large number

Exploring the psychological wellbeingof students in Higher Education

of students, particularly females dohave mental health issues, in themain – elevated anxiety levels anddepressive episodes. Our findingssuggest that when stressful issues doarise they are often related to alcoholand/or communal living. Alcohol,although initially providing a measureof euphoria and disinhibition whichmay be considered helpful in a novelsituation, is also a depressant andcan induce anxiety. Amongstuniversity students, in general,excessive alcohol use is seen as ‘partof the student experience and socialscene’, however, those who mayhave little experience in theconsumption of alcohol may alsohave little knowledge of its aftereffects. The findings also suggestthat ‘communal’ living may havenegative effects in terms of mentalhealth and wellbeing, for examplelack of privacy, noise, relationshipissues etc. The data also indicatethat many students have notdeveloped sufficient coping

mechanisms that might help themto deal with the demands of being a‘student’. The UniversityCounselling Service indicated thatdemand for support over a widerange of issues – anxiety,depression, issues of self harm andemotional distress – recurredthroughout the year.

Our initial findings suggest thatcurrent measures used by theuniversity and common to otheruniversities are reasonably effectivein supporting students though it isapparent that the role of the hostelwarden is pivotal in providing initialsupport and reassurance.

Daphne Evans: Freelance consultantCharlotte Greenway: Trinity University CollegeProject page: Student Wellbeing and Mental Health:http://escalate.ac.uk/7341

Dr Daphne Evans is a freelanceconsultant and part-time lecturer.Her specialist area of interest is thefield of adolescence, particularlyhealth and wellbeing issues.

Daphne EvansFreelance consultant

Daphne Evans

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My doctoral research is in partnershipwith Aimhigher: a Labour governmentinitiative concerned with raising theaspirations of young people from lowersocio-economic backgrounds (DfES,2006). To achieve this, Aimhigherprovides young people with theopportunities to experience universitylife, to show that it is attainable foreveryone (DfES, 2006).

One of the ways this is achieved isthrough summer schools, which aresuggested to be the most successfulAimhigher programme to raise youngpeople’s aspirations (DfES, 2005). Thismay be because summer schoolsconsolidate young people’s exposure toa university environment, raiseawareness and promote an aspiration toachieve (HEFCE, 2008). To explorewhether summer schools may influenceprogression to higher education,Aimhigher Herefordshire andWorcestershire conducted a piece oftracking research, and I along with ValYates, Head of Widening Participation,presented the findings at the FACE 2010conference. Two hundred and forty oneprevious University of Worcestersummer school attendees from 2004 to2009 were sent a postal questionnaire,which included both open and closedquestions so respondents could provide

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Emma is a doctoral studentwho received an ESCalatebursary to attend the Forumfor Access and ContinuingEducation (FACE) 2010conference; a conferenceaimed at examining thefuture of the wideningparticipation agenda acrossthe education sectors andrecognising best practice inlifelong learning during rapidsocial and economic change.

Emma Jackson

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Emma JacksonUniversity of Worcester

Emma is a second year doctoralresearch student at the University ofWorcester. Her PhD is in partnershipwith Aimhigher Herefordshire andWorcestershire and she is evaluatingtheir programme ‘ThinkSmart’. Theprogramme aims to improve secondaryschool pupil’s motivation, self-esteemand engagement in school.

ReferencesAustin, M. and Hatt, S. (2005). ‘TheMessengers are the Message: A studyof the effects of employing HigherEducation Student Ambassadors towork with school students’. WideningParticipation and Lifelong Learning, 7(1), 1-8.

Barclay, S., Todd, C., Finlay, I., Grande,G. and Wyatt, P. (2002). ‘Not anotherquestionnaire! Maximizing the responserate, predicting non-response andassessing non-response bias in postalquestionnaire studies of GPs’. FamilyPractice, 19 (1), 105-111.

DfES (2005). ‘Evaluation of Aimhigher:Excellence challenge Aspirations toHigher Education One Year on’.Department for Education and Skills:Research Report RR651.

DfES (2006). ‘Widening participation inHigher Education’. Department forEducation and Skills: Sheffield.

Higher Education Funding Council forEngland (2008). ‘Summer Schools2008-2010: Guidance for Aimhigherpartnerships and higher educationproviders’. Higher Education FundingCouncil for England: Bristol.

Pennell, H., West, A. and Hind, A.(2005). ‘Evaluation of Aimhigher:Excellence Challenge Survey of HigherEducation Providers 2004’. Departmentfor Education and Skills: ResearchReport: RR6444

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sa descriptive account of theirexperiences.

Respondents were asked to reporton their educational pathway(whether they had continuedstudying after compulsoryeducation); from the respondentsaged 18 or over (46.9%), 69.4% ofthem were either studying or hadcompleted an undergraduatedegree. When asked to explain howthey had chosen their academicroute, the majority of therespondents reported it was due toan interest in a subject or a long-termgoal they wished to pursue. Fromthe responses a minority wrote thatattending a University of Worcestersummer school had influenced theirdecisions to progress to highereducation (“going to the summerschool really influenced my decisionin a positive way as it gave a firsthand experience”), suggesting thatsummer schools can raise aspirationand progression to higher education(HEFCE, 2008). Supporting this,respondents reported how attendinga summer school had “strengthenedthe view that university was right forme” and “I had no idea whatuniversity life was like but afterattending I definitely wanted to go”.

The raising of young people’saspirations may be due to summerschools providing young people withinformation about higher educationand an experience of university life(HEFCE, 2008). The respondentssuggested this was achievedthrough the ambassadors (“the unirepresentatives were supportive andwell informed”) and lectures (“I foundthe lectures interesting, particularlybeing able to do some practical workwhich usually you wouldn't do beforeuni”) thus supporting previousresearch that university

ambassadors are key messengersin widening participation activitiessuch as summer schools (Pennell,West and Hind, 2005; Austin andHatt, 2005). The respondents alsoreported how the residential andsocial activities were a key part oftheir experience; “I loved staying inthe halls and the evening socialactivities, I still laugh looking backnow! Ultimate Frisbee wasawesome.” This may be due to theresidential aspect of the summerschool giving the attendees a tasterof what it would be like to studyaway from home (HEFCE, 2008).

To conclude, the respondentspositively rated their summer schoolexperience (95.9%) because “ithelps give you information aboutstudying and uni life that can beinfluential in the future”. However,the research results are tentativedue to the response rate (20.3%),which may affect whether theresults are representative of thesample population (Barclay et al.,2002). Further tracking of previoussummer school attendees isrequired to explore whether thefindings presented are reflective ofall Aimhigher summer schoolattendees.

Being accepted to present at theconference and being granted theESCalate bursary surprised me as Ihave only been researching in thefield of widening participation forless than a year, but I now knowboth organisations are keen tosupport early career researchers. Iwould like to thank ESCalate forproviding me with the opportunityto attend the FACE conference, asthe enthusiasm that ran through thethought provoking conference hasspurred me on in my doctoralresearch.

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Our study was based on theperceived need to make theboundaries between initial teachertraining in the University Collegeand the placement school lessdistinct. I am subject leader forScience PGCE at BishopGrosseteste University College andI have been looking for ways toensure the training provided is upto date and combines bothacademic rigour with what is goingon in the classroom. One of ourmentors, Jenny, teaches on thePGCE and it was with her wedeveloped and tried out a new ideaof using a video link to contributeto an understanding of bothplanning and Assessment forLearning (AfL).

We started by reviewing theliterature to see what other peoplewere doing in the field. We foundthat the most common use forvideo conferencing in the contextof initial teacher training was to aidin trainee placement supervision(Dudt and Garrett, 1997) and forcommunication between traineeswhen on placement (Hu and

Wong, 2006). However therewas some work on developingsubject knowledge andpedagogy (Coyle, 2004) but thisdid not involve the kind of patternof video conferencing use weintended to develop.

The study was based at a localcommunity school and a groupof 22 Science trainees weretaken by bus to the school. Theschool has extremely good videolink hardware set up within theschool by the Lincoln 7 SpecialistSchools Group. On the firstoccasion the group were able tojointly plan a lesson with Jennybeing able to see how anexperienced teacher considerseach aspect of planning usingthe school scheme of work,National Curriculum guidelines,government strategies and examboard documentation. The abilityto consider all these aspects ofplanning is a difficult thing for anew trainee but actually being inthe school and seeing therealities of the process first handwas a real advantage. They then

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Interactive use of videoconferencing in InitialTeacher Training

Jan Machalski: Bishop Grosseteste University CollegeProject page: Sharing Ideas: Interactive use of videoconferencing in ITT: http://escalate.ac.uk/6800

Technology canincrease thepotential forpractitioners todeliver interestingand stimulatingteaching. ESCalatehas supported thefollowing twoexamples of usingvideo to enhancelearning.

Jan Machalski

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left Jenny’s laboratory and wereable to see how the planned lessondeveloped by watching on a largeplasma screen in the library.Following the lesson the traineeswere able to jointly evaluate theeffectiveness of the planning withJenny. About two weeks later thetrainees returned to the school andfollowed the same pattern but thistime with the focus on AfLimplementation.

Evaluations of this whole processby trainees were extremely positive.Comments included “It gave insightinto how to deliver a structuredlesson”, “It linked theory to practicein a realistic way” and overall “It wasa very valuable and memorableexperience”. To summarise,trainees valued such earlyopportunities to see the reality ofscience teaching in a partnershipschool. They also highly valued theidea of seeing the impact of what

Jan is a Lecturer at BishopGrosseteste University College. Shehas taught on the Foundation Degreefor Learning Practitioners, itsprogression route and takenresponsibility for the coordination ofScience PGCE. Prior to this sheworked in a range of SecondarySchools taking various posts ofresponsibility including Head of Year,Head of Biology, Head of Scienceand Assistant Head Teacher.

Jan MachalskiBishop GrossetesteUniversity College

seems to them very muchtheoretical concepts directly within aclassroom setting.

When we saw the value of thiswhole process we decided to shareour ideas and on talking to ESCalatethey suggested that we apply for asharing ideas grant. This helped uswith the money for travel toconferences and gave us enoughmoney to make a short film aboutthe process which we plan toupload to YouTube. We have nowpresented at the TEAN conferencein Glasgow and the Teaching andLearning conference at BishopGrosseteste University College,Lincoln. These have been valuabletimes when other practitioners havegained from our experiences andhave been able to contribute to thefurther development of our ideas.

The author would like toacknowledge the invaluable supportof Jenny Dobbs in this investigation.

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ReferencesDudt, K.P and Garrett, J. (1997).“Using Video Conferencing toImprove the Supervision of StudentTeachers and Pre-studentTeachers.” Proteus: A Journal ofIdeas, 14 (3), 22-24.

Hu, C. & Wong, A. (2006). Videoconferencing by student teachers:does it make any difference? NewHorizons in Education, 53, 42–56.

Coyle, D. (2004). RedefiningClassroom Boundaries: Learning toTeach Using New Technologies.Canadian Journal of EducationalAdministration and Policy, 32, (July).

‘‘‘‘we developed and tried out a new idea

of using a video link to contribute to anunderstanding of both planning andAssessment for Learning (AfL)

Study participants

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Seeing is believing:How the use of video can supportthe development of student teachers’reflective thinking

Given the importance placed onreflective thinking within InitialTeacher Education (ITE) and theaccessibility of digital videotechnology our ESCalate fundedresearch project set out to identifyhow video technology may supportthe development of studentteachers. We agree withLoughran’s (2002) assertions thatencouraging our students to reflect

is not enough and that experiencealone does not lead to learning. Agroup of 18 students in the finalyear of their undergraduate degreeprogramme in Primary Educationwere paired up to plan, teach andevaluate a series of five enquiry-based science lessons duringschool placement. Each pairrecorded video material of eachother’s teaching during the second

lesson from which they identified anaspect of their practice fordevelopment. Another recording oftheir final lesson allowed any progressto be identified. The students wererequired to edit their collection ofvideo clips, which included videodiaries of their reflections andreferences to relevant literature, into afinal video outlining their reflectivejourney. Questionnaires, semi-

John F McCullagh: Stranmillis University College, BelfastFergal Corscadden: Stranmillis University College, BelfastJames Stewart: W5 Discovery Centre BelfastProject page: Research project 2009: Using video for the identificationand assessment of learning in initial teacher education:http://escalate.ac.uk/6306

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John McCullagh

ESCalatenews 15

John F McCullaghStranmillis UniversityCollege, Belfast

John McCullagh is a Senior Lecturerin Science Education at StranmillisUniversity College Belfast. Hisresearch interests include the use ofvideo and multi-media technologywithin education. He has led researchprojects funded by the AstraZenecaScience Teaching Trust on the use ofbooks and stories in primary scienceand on the role of digital technologywithin science enquiry.

ReferencesLarivee, B. (2008) Development of a toolto assess teachers’ level of reflectivepractice, Reflective Practice, 9 (3), 341-360.

Loughran, J. J. (2002) EffectiveReflective Practice: In search of meaningin learning about teaching, Journal ofTeacher Education, 53 (1), 33-43.

Newton, L. and Sorensen, P. (2010)Research into practice: using digitalvideo to foster pre-service teachers’collaborative reflection around scientificinquiry, Paper presented at NationalAssociation of Research in ScienceTeaching Annual Conference,Philadelphia 2010.

Rickard, A., McAvinia, C., and Quirke-Bolt, N. (2009) The challenge of Change:Digital video-analysis and ConstructivistTeaching Approaches on a One YearPreservice Teacher EducationProgramme in Ireland, Journal ofTechnology and Teacher Education, 17(3), 349-359.

Rodgers, C. (2002) Defining Reflection:Another look at John Dewey andReflective Thinking, Teacher CollegeRecord, 104 (4), 842-866.

Sherin, M.G. and van Es, E. (2005) Usingvideo to support teachers’ ability tonotice classroom interactions, Journal ofTechnology and Teacher Education, 13(3), 475-491

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structured interviews and theanalysis of the students’ post-lesson evaluations written beforeand then after viewing their lessonwere used to gather data.

We found that post-lessonevaluations written after watchingthe video recording differedsignificantly from those writtenstraight after teaching. Evaluationsbased on the video included moreevidence based judgements,made stronger connectionsbetween the student teachers’actions and their impact on pupilsand stated clearer intentions forfuture teaching. Using Larivee’s(2008) descriptors we classifiedtwo thirds of the additionalobservations as Level 3 (on a scaleof Levels 1-4) ‘PedagogicalReflection’ and concur with herview of the importance ofmediation and support indeveloping reflective thinking.

The key advantages affordedby this use of video included:

� The opportunity to get a‘pupils’ eye view’ of thelesson.

� The re-evaluation orconfirmation of initial post-lesson impressions.

� Reassurance that the lessonwas effective or ‘not as badas I thought!’

� Multiple perspectives viashared viewing withtutor/teacher/peers.

The students found that therecording and analysis of thefollow-up lesson and the videoediting task transformed theusually passive process ofevaluation into a moreinteractive, motivating andforward looking activity.

Our findings reinforce theidentified potential for video toenhance detail, perspective andobjectivity (Sherin and van Es,2005) and encouragecollaboration amongcommunities of learners(Newton & Sorenson (2010),Rickard et al. (2009)). They alsoconcur with Dewey’s keycharacteristics of reflection, asoutlined by Rodgers (2002), asa rigorous, meaning-makingcollaborative process driven bya motivation for improvement.Encouraged by the positivefeedback from our students, weintend to develop the use ofvideo across otherprogrammes.

‘‘Quote‘‘Our findings reinforcethe identified potentialfor video to enhancedetail, perspectiveand objectivity... andencourage collaborationamong communities oflearners

16 ESCalatenews

Around 10% of HigherEducation (HE) is deliveredwithin Further EducationColleges (FECs). ‘HE in FE’ is asignificant element of the HigherEducation landscape and playsan increasingly important role inenabling access to highereducation opportunity for ‘non-traditional’ students who requirelocal, flexible and oftenpersonalised provision.

FECs providing HE are notresearch-intensive institutionsand staff working within themare more likely to be teachingpractitioners as opposed toteacher- researchers.

Nonetheless there is anincreasing expectation thatFECs delivering HE will need tocreate and sustain arecognisable ‘HE ethos’ withinwhich staff are able to engage inscholarly activity and research tosupport teaching and learning.Greater emphasis is beingplaced upon appropriate staffdevelopment and updating theprofession in response to therecent introductions of the

Integrated Quality andEnhancement Review process,(IQER), Foundation DegreeAwarding Powers (FDAP) and thedevelopment of Higher EducationStrategies.

The importance of research andscholarly activity as integral factorswithin FECs’ planning andmanagement of their HE provisionis constantly highlighted as anarea for improvement.

Students choosing to study forHE qualifications within a FEChave expectations that theexperience, whilst being differentto that of an undergraduate atuniversity, will not be an inferiorone. FECs have an excellent trackrecord of providing high qualityteaching and practitioners areadept at managing demandingteaching commitments whichspan both FE and HEprogrammes. It is vital that staffdelivering HE within mixedeconomy institutions are (like theiruniversity counterparts) supportedin their engagement with scholarlyactivity and research if they are tokeep up to date with

Making room forscholarly activityand researchwithin HE in FE

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For a long time nowwe have supportedthe FurtherEducation sector indelivering HigherEducation courses.Here, Steve Rosecalls for continuedsupport of scholarlyactivity withincolleges and givesus some examplesof institutions wheregood practice isbeing supported.

Steve Rose

ESCalatenews 17

�

developments in their disciplinesand appropriate HE pedagogies.

There are a growing number ofexamples of how FECs aresupporting both research and staffundertaking scholarly activityappropriate to HE teaching andlearning in order to create a strong‘HE brand’ and an enhanced senseof professional identity. Thesecolleges are making strident effortsto establish, sustain and develop aflourishing research and scholarshipculture as an institutional priority.Examples include Bournemouthand Poole College where an HEResearch Group meets annually todiscuss a theme for researchpapers and then present them at aconference later in the year. AlsoCity of Bristol College, which hasstrong links with local universities,has in place a variety of activitieswhich aim to support staff engagedin research. These include anannual research conference, a smallgrant bursary scheme, regular HEseminars and an electronicknowledge and informationexchange system to keep staff upto date with research activities inthe region. The Research Centre atCity College Norwich supports anannual research conference inaddition to publishing a Researchand Development Bulletin for staff.The college also provides aresearch and evaluation serviceboth externally and internally andsupports staff engaged in teachingHE by bidding for and securingexternal funding for projects.

These examples are now well-established beacons of goodpractice in the HE in FE sector but

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18 ESCalatenews

just how does an FEC withaspirations to create and sustain itsown HE ethos begin to create aculture of research and scholarlyactivity which will engage teachingstaff and enhance the experienceof its HE students?

A good place to start might besimply to establish a dedicatedspace within the college where staffteaching on HE programmes canwork either individually orcollaboratively to pursue theirresearch interests either aroundsubject disciplines or HEpedagogy. This has been done atHartpury College, Gloucestershire.The College, an Associate Facultyof the University of the West ofEngland (UWE), is a provider ofequine care, animal science,

agricultural and land managementcourses, sports science, foodtechnology and related courses.Fifty percent of the student bodytake degrees and post-graduateprogrammes and this critical massof HE provision supports fully-HEteaching posts within the college.

The college has created adedicated Research andKnowledge Exchange facility inorder to promote a research cultureand share good practice amongstcolleagues. This is a well-equippedroom where teachers can meet andfind a quiet space to undertakescholarly activity and update theirprofessional knowledge. TheExchange regularly publishes ajournal detailing the researchactivities of colleagues, including

presentations given to conferencesand articles accepted for publicationin journals and publications ofprofessional bodies. This facilityreflects the College’s commitment tocreating an HE ethos and supportingstaff by affording them institutionalrecognition for their engagement inactivities which would be consideredthe norm within a university setting.

Research and scholarly activitytaking place within an HE in FEpractice context often relates to‘updating’ subject knowledge, forexample attending conferences orreviewing and contributing toprofessional journals as is done atHartpury. Bringing HE staff togethercan create the additional opportunityto share and develop pedagogicknowledge which may well have

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ESCalatenews 19

Steve RoseESCalate andUniversity of Exeter

Steve works as a Learning andTeaching Adviser (TechnologyEnhanced Learning) within theEducation Enhancement unit ofthe University of Exeter. He isalso seconded for part of his timeto the Education Subject Centre(ESCalate) as an AcademicConsultant with a focus on HE inFE in which he worked previouslyas a lecturer for 20 years.

implications for practice at local oreven national level. Dr Judith Lock,who championed the Research andKnowledge Exchange initiative atHartpury, conducted pedagogicresearch into using her students’comments and feedback to informmodule and programme content anddelivery. The results of this researchwere presented at the 2010 ESCalatestudent conference which drewattendees from across the UK.

Having a recognisable researchand scholarly activity facility such asthe Research and KnowledgeExchange at Hartpury provides afocal point for developing bids madeto external funding opportunities andawards. The Higher EducationAcademy Subject Centres frequentlyoffer small research grants to supportthese kinds of research activities andto facilitate dissemination throughpublications and events.

At Somerset College HE teacherswithin the Department of Engineeringworking within a dedicated researchand development facility were able toevaluate and report on blendinglearning strategies employed todeliver the curriculum. This researchwas supported by the HELP-CETL atthe University of Plymouth andESCalate. Findings andrecommendations from a series ofreports and dissemination activitieshave transferred to other areas of theCollege’s HE provision and partnerinstitutions within the University ofPlymouth Colleges faculty (UPC).

The Higher Education Academyitself is running an HE in FEEnhancement Programme with aseries of workshops delivered within

FECs and aimed at promotingscholarly activity and researchactivities to support teaching,learning and opportunities forprofessional development. Detailscan be found athttp://www.heacademy.ac.uk/ourwork/universitiesandcolleges/heinfe

The workshops will, amongstother things, consider the meaningof scholarly activity and researchand how to build a research ethoswithin an FEC, including creatingand developing that vital physicalspace. Do come along to one ofthese stimulating events or possiblysow the seeds of establishing aresearch and scholarly activity roomwithin your own FEC and see whatgrows!

‘‘‘‘ ‘‘It is vital that staffdelivering HE withinmixed economyinstitutions are(like their universitycounterparts)supported in theirengagement withscholarly activityand research ifthey are to keepup to date withdevelopments intheir disciplines andappropriateHE pedagogies.

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20 ESCalatenews

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Over the yearsESCalate hassupported more thana 120 fundedprojects. The projectteams range fromearly academics tomore experiencedresearch practitioners.Here some of thecurrent project teamsgive an interim updateon how their projectsare going.

Hillier has been in dialogue withpractitioners including lecturers,workplace mentors and studentsupport specialists at all threepartner universities. Emily hasalso been in contact with policymakers in the area of initialteacher education and training.

A review of research andliterature reveals the need tohear the voice of students in thedebate. Emily has set up aFacebook discussion pagewhere trainee teachers areencouraged to contribute todebate and discussion about thestudent experience. Themescaptured will not be used asproject data, but will be used tounderpin debate in student focusgroups which are planned forlater in the academic year. Emilyexplains: “Students from anyuniversity can make acontribution via the Facebookpage. I am running it as student-only space to help us hear asmany student comments aspossible.” For further informationor to join the discussion pleasecontact Emily onehillier@uwic.ac.uk.

Anyone with a working interestin the wellbeing of traineeteachers is encouraged to emailEmily as the project seeks toreflect the rich diversity ofpractice experience.

ESCalatenews 21

Lecturers, students and workplacementors are currently participatingin a research project about thephysical and emotional wellbeing oftrainee teachers. The project, whichis hosted by the University of WalesInstitute, Cardiff (UWIC) and co-funded by ESCalate, seeks toidentify ways in which the wellbeingof trainee teachers can be assuredat both university and schoolexperience settings. Data will beproduced via interviews and focusgroups at three partner universities,the University of the West ofEngland (UWE), EdinburghUniversity and UWIC. Dialogue anddebate were sought across allteacher education and trainingcommunities across the UK, and anonline discussion forum wasfacilitated in the project’s earlystages. Research assistant Emily

Lalage SandersUniversity of WalesInstitute, Cardiff

Dr Lalage Sanders is a Chartered

Psychologist and an Associate Fellow

with the BPS, a Chartered Scientist and

a Fellow of the Higher Education

Academy. She is Graduate Studies

Coordinator for the Cardiff School of

Health Sciences. She has two main

areas of research, lifestyle behaviour and

student engagement and wellbeing.

Lalage is a part of the core team of the

Mental Health in Higher Education, the

Welsh branch of Learning and Teaching

in Mental Health.

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Jan Huyton and Lalage Sanders: University of Wales Institute, CardiffRichard Eke: University of the West of EnglandZoe Williamson: University of EdinburghProject page: Student Wellbeing: Trainee teachers’physical and mental wellbeing: a study of university andschool experience provision: http://escalate.ac.uk/6850

Traineeteachers’physicaland mentalwellbeingJan Huyton andLalage Sanders

Jan HuytonUniversity of WalesInstitute, Cardiff

Jan Huyton has been a Senior Lecturer

at UWIC since 2001, and is a Fellow of

the Higher Education Academy. Jan is

the Cardiff School of Education PDP and

Personal Tutoring Co-ordinator, and is

completing a doctoral thesis at

Edinburgh University which explores the

personal tutoring role in UK higher

education. Jan received a UWIC

Extended Research Leave award in

2008, during which she conducted and

disseminated the findings of a UK-wide

electronic survey researching the

experiences of personal tutors.

22 ESCalatenews

Charlotte Morris is Research Officer atthe Centre for Learning and Teaching,University of Brighton. She has led aproject investigating the wellbeing ofundergraduate students, playing a keyrole in the promotion and developmentof wellbeing at the institution. She alsoundertook research for the doctorallearning journeys project.

Gina WiskerUniversity of Brighton

Gina Wisker is Professor of highereducation and contemporary literatureand head of the Centre for Learningand Teaching at the University ofBrighton. She recently led a NationalTeaching Fellowship Project ondoctoral learning journeys and haspublished widely on supervision,doctoral learning and thresholdconcepts in postgraduate learning.

Our project ‘TroublesomeEncounters’ investigates factors inthe learning of masters anddoctoral students in Educationwhich impact on wellbeing. Whilepostgraduate learning is oftenexciting, anxiety may accompanyencounters with unfamiliarconcepts, referred to astroublesome knowledge. ForEducation students, learning islikely to interlink closely withpersonal, academic andprofessional identities andemotional wellbeing. The study isexploring these links through anational survey, focus groups andsemi-structured interviews tocapture student experiences.Ultimately it aims to identifypositive wellbeing enhancementstrategies for educationdepartments across the sector.

To date, over 200 students haveresponded to the survey, althoughas not all responses are complete,it is currently being re-distributedto maximise responses. Studentrespondents so far have identifiedthat issues with academic work

such as conceptual development,problems around supervision andwriting blocks can have aprofound impact on theirwellbeing. Conversely, whenwellbeing is negatively affected,students tend to lose motivation tolearn and struggle to concentrate.Personal wellbeing strategiesinclude re-prioritising, timemanagement and seeking supportand feedback from supervisorsand peers. Good communication,facilitation of peer support, clearexpectations and recognising theimportance of wellbeing weresuggested as institutionalstrategies to enhancepostgraduate learning. The studyhas noted particular challenges forpart-time, mature students withwork and family commitmentswho may struggle to accessfacilities and support. Theseinsights are likely to benefitEducation departments andinstitutions, helping to ensure thatthe learning experience isequitable for this group ofstudents.

TroublesomeEncounters

Charlotte MorrisUniversity of Brighton

Gina Wisker: University of BrightonErik Meyer: University of DurhamRay Land: University of StrathclydeProject page: Student Wellbeing: TroublesomeEncounters: Strategies for managing the wellbeing ofPostgraduate Education students during their learningprocesses: http://escalate.ac.uk/6828

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Gina Wisker and Charlotte Morris

ESCalatenews 23

Dr Pamela Cowan is the course co-ordinator and tutor for the Masters inE-learning at the School of Education,Queen’s University Belfast and is alsothe course tutor for PGCEICT/Computing and Mathematics.She organises and delivers the onlinetraining for student teachers in coursedesign and creation using LearningNI,a regional VLE available in all schoolsin Northern Ireland.

ReferencesKreber, C. 2001. Learningexperientially through case studies:A conceptual analysis. Teaching inHigher Education, 6 (2), 217-28.

McLoughlin, D. and Mynard, J.(2009). An analysis of higher orderthinking in online discussions.Innovations in Education andTeaching International, 46 (2),147-160.

Palloff, R. M., and Pratt, K, (2001).Lessons for the cyberspaceclassroom: the realities of onlineteaching. San Francisco, CA:Jossey-Bass

With the current proliferation of onlinecourses comes a whole newdimension in our learning culture ineducation. The tutor’s role is vital indeveloping and maintaining aneffective online learning environment.Tutors must encourage and facilitatethe use of online tools and supportswhile enabling active participationamong all students, encouraginghigher order thinking skills, knowledgeconstruction, and facilitating learningthrough online forums (Kreber, 2001;McLoughlin and Mynard, 2009).Tutors must be skilled at presenting apositive, professional persona within asafe and supportive place wherestudents feel both competent andconfident to participate, and feel thattheir contributions are valued.However tutors “cannot be expectedto know intuitively how to design anddeliver an effective online course”(Palloff and Pratt, 2001, p.23) nor canit be assumed that they are willing tomake the change to online teaching.

This research builds on the work oftwo key e-learning theorists, Salmonand Laurillard, and considers theinterfaces between subject context,tutor expertise and participants’ levelof experience online. This project

Pamela CowanQueen’s UniversityBelfast

Face-zine theFuture

focuses on teacher-educators and theskills and strategies required forsuccess online. Phase 1 of the studyhas involved an online survey ofexisting tutors’ experiences of workingonline and the functionality of theplatforms they have found mostbeneficial to support online learners.The next phase will be following upspecific issues raised in the survey andestablishing case studies of goodpractice which will be presented in thefinal phase as an e-zine containingvideo clips and vignettes. A mixture ofWeb 2.0 tools are planned for thesephases to establish an active onlinecommunity of expert practitioners whocan exemplify good practice andpromote continued professionaldevelopment of online pedagogicalpractices. The final disseminationevent will involve a workshop ofactivities which will be disseminated viawebsite links after the conference. It isanticipated that the findings from thisresearch will contribute to an informeddebate about expectations fromteacher-educators in the 21st centuryand will result in valuable staffdevelopment materials for novice toexperienced teachers and/or third levellecturers.

Pamela Cowan: Queen’s University BelfastEileen Winter: Queen's University BelfastPeter Neil: University of the West of ScotlandProject page: Teacher Educators for the 21st Century:Face-zine the Future: Moving to online teaching:http://escalate.ac.uk/6827

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Pamela Cowan

Eileen Winter (standing) at anonline tutor event

24 ESCalatenews

Peter HickManchester MetropolitanUniversity

Peter Hick is Senior Lecturer inInclusive Education at ManchesterMetropolitan University and co-leader of the Centre for SocialJustice in the City at MMU’sEducation and Social ResearchInstitute. Previously at theUniversities of Birmingham andManchester, Peter’s researchinterests include socioculturalapproaches to understanding andpromoting equity, diversity andsocial justice in education.

How well prepared are newlyqualified teachers (NQTs) torespond to challenging issues ofrace and equality in urban schools?Anecdotal evidence suggests NQTsoften do not feel adequatelyprepared for these challenges bytheir experiences of initial teachereducation/training. Yet enablingteachers to deal confidently withdiversity issues is crucial to aschool’s role in promotingcommunity cohesion.

This project aims to exploreteacher educators’ understandingsof race in/equality issues and howthey are addressing them withintheir practice; and to identify waysof supporting teacher educators tofurther embed race equality intotheir work.

The research team consists ofPeter Hick and Lorna Roberts atManchester Metropolitan Universitywith Rowena Arshad and LauraMitchell at the University ofEdinburgh. The team is interviewinga sample of teacher educators inManchester and Edinburgh, whichoffer contrasting andcomplementary contexts: in

Promoting cohesion,challenging expectations

Edinburgh, the school population isoverwhelmingly white; whereas inManchester, schools are more oftenethnically mixed.

The project is making good progress,with interviews and policy contextpapers nearing completion. Regulartelephone conferences have been held,together with our first team meeting inManchester and our second plannedfor Edinburgh in January. Our nextsteps will be analysing our interviewdata and identifying key themes.

The findings will feed into thedevelopment of a Self ReviewFramework to support teachereducators in reflecting on existingpractices. The Framework is intended

Peter Hick: Manchester Metropolitan UniversityLorna Roberts: Manchester Metropolitan UniversityRowena Arshad: University of EdinburghLaura Mitchell: University of EdinburghProject page: Teacher Educators for the 21st Century:Promoting cohesion, challenging expectations: educatingthe teachers of tomorrow for race equality and diversityin 21st century schools: http://escalate.ac.uk/6915

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for use by individuals or teamsas a staff development activityand will be disseminated atseminar events in Edinburghand Manchester in April andMay 2011

Peter Hick

Project team

ESCalatenews 25

combined with insights fromnarrative research, to try tounderstand the working practices ofteacher educators, the materialconditions for their work and theteacher educators’ personaldispositions towards the work. Thefinal stage of the project in February2011 will include participants incollaborative data analysisworkshops.

The project team’s early data hasrevealed the wide variations ininstitutional contexts for teachereducation activity, demonstratedboth in contractual arrangements,salary, expectations of research and

Viv EllisUniversity of Oxford

Dr Viv Ellis is a University Lecturerin Educational Studies at OxfordUniversity and the project leaderfor the Work of Teacher Educationresearch.

The project team have now recruited asample of 12 teacher educators atdifferent HE institutions in Scotlandand England. Each participatingteacher educator has beeninterviewed, has completed a workdiary for a week in May this year andhas taken part in an on-line researchblog focused on the artefacts theteacher educators use in their day-to-day practice. Currently, theresearchers are beginning to observethe teacher educators at work aroundthe UK, combining this work-shadowing with a second interview.The team is using analytic approachesfrom cultural-historical activity theory,

The Work of TeacherEducation

Viv Ellis: University of OxfordJane McNicholl: University of OxfordAnna Pendry: University of OxfordJim McNally: University of StrathclydeProject page: Teacher Educators for the 21st Century:The Work of Teacher Education:http://escalate.ac.uk/6866

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scholarship and cultures ofperformance management.Strong personal commitmentsto initial teacher education wereevident in early interviews, oftenon the basis of autobiographicalturning points and the perceivedpotential for impact on theprofession. Early findings alsosuggest that the project’s on-line research tool was taken upin fairly patchy fashion and theteam is exploring how take-upmight be improved.

The project promises to offer avery vivid picture of the work ofteacher education in Englandand in Scotland at what is clearlygoing to be a critical phase forthe field.

Viv Ellis

26 ESCalatenews

Following the launch in 2006 of theUK Professional StandardsFramework (UK PSF, 2006), highereducation (HE) members of staffcan gain professional status viaaccredited taught programmes orinstitutional professionaldevelopment frameworks.

I co-ordinate two postgraduateawards for new staff that have UKPSF accreditation, and one thattargets research staff. In 2009 ourinstitutional Continuing ProfessionalDevelopment (CPD) framework wasaccredited by the Higher EducationAcademy.

Within our programmes, formalassignments assess professionallearning and support progressiontowards achievement of thesestandards. Our assessmentbalances written assignments withdialogue, blogs, presentations andonline activity.

The challenge for manyinstitutions is how to assessprofessional learning forexperienced members of staff forwhom formal programmes may beunappealing. For these colleaguesthe assessment must encompass a

wide range of practice and subjectperspectives and measure all threeUK PSF Standard Descriptors.Options being used include e-portfolios, teaching portfolios; andsome universities are investigatingdialogic methods.

At the University of CentralLancashire (UCLan) we introduced‘professional dialogue’ to assessthe work-based learning anddevelopment of experienced staffseeking professional status. Weused UK PSF to structure a dialogicprocess between peers in which theapplicant reflects on and isassessed against learningoutcomes (Bowen Clewley, 2000).The process is based on a model byBrockbank and McGill (2007), andBoud and Falchikov (2007) whichuses a phased mentoringrelationship allowing mentees togradually acquire confidence andultimately to determine theirreadiness for assessment usingprofessional dialogue. This takesplace over a series of threeconversations between mentor andmentee culminating in an assessed‘professional dialogue’.

In 2008, we submitted a bid toESCalate to research the use ofreflective professional dialogue toassess professional learning andnine dialogues from four institutionsare currently being investigated.Evidence from transcripts anddiscussion between projectmembers so far suggest dialogueprovides a rigorous process forassessing and supporting learning,and is extremely effective. It is moreopen and flexible than static writtenproducts, and enables probing andreflection that is positive, supportiveand fulfilling for participants.

Dialogic assessment is also widelyused. We have encounteredexamples of dialogue from alleducational sectors: young childrenself-assess and discuss progress;discussion, presentation, nesteddialogue and pair work is widespreadat higher levels of study. Thissuggests the dialogue method canbe used to respond to the flexibility ofprofessional practice-based learning,encourage celebration of goodpractice in teaching and learning,and provide an innovative studentassessment tool.

Ruth Pilkington: University of Central LancashireProject page: Research grant 2009: Using reflective dialogue to assessprofessional learning http://escalate.ac.uk/6333

Assessing professionalstandards

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Ruth Pilkington

ESCalatenews 27

Ruth PilkingtonUniversity of CentralLancashire

Ruth Pilkington is principal lecturer in

Professional Development and Higher

Education at the University of Central

Lancashire. She leads the Postgraduate

Certificate in Learning and Teaching in

Higher Education, the M.Ed. (Professional

Practice in Education) and Ed.D.

professional awards. Ruth has published

on employability and professional

development. Her current research

focuses on the development and

assessment of professional learning for

HE practitioners. She is a Fellow of SEDA

(Staff and Educational Development

Association).

ReferencesBoud, D. and Falchikov, N. (Eds)(2007). Rethinking Assessment inHigher Education: Learning for theLonger Term. Routledge.

Bowen Clewley, L. (2000). ‘Assessingagainst competency standards in theworkplace’. In A. Arguelles and A.Gonczi (Eds) (2000). Competencybased Education and Training: A worldperspective. Mexico: Conalep/Noriega,pages 207-227.

Brockbank, A, and McGill, I. (2007).Facilitating Reflective Learning in HigherEducation. 2nd Edition Society forResearch into Higher Education/OpenUniversity Press.

The UK Professional StandardsFramework for teaching and learning inhigher education. (UK PSF) (2006)Higher Education Academywww.heacademy.ac.uk/ourwork/universitiesandcolleges/accreditation/ukpsf

‘‘‘Evidence from transcripts anddiscussion between projectmembers so far suggest dialogueprovides a rigorous process forassessing and supporting learning,and is extremely effective

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28 ESCalatenews

A helpful new tool is available foranyone interested in getting hold ofresearch evidence for education.The educational evidence portal(www.eep.ac.uk) helps you findevidence from a wide range ofreputable sources using a singlesearch. Praised by Baroness EstelleMorris at its launch in SocialScience Week 2009 as a “criticaltool for developing an evidence-using culture in education”, it hasbeen designed for both theprofessional and lay user. It is beingdeveloped by organisationsdetermined to help make researchevidence more easily accessible forbusy people. They are workingtogether continuously to expand thematerial available and enhance themeans of accessing it.

The portal offers several ways offinding documents. For peopleseeking a wide range of documentsit searches the web areas of anycombination of contributingorganisations (currently 37 innumber). You simply choose whichsources you wish to include in thesearch. For more focussed resultsyou can search the growingdatabase of selected resources. Insome specific topic areas you canget rapidly to key documents andweb links through the specialisedResource Areas, developed inassociation with relevantorganisations on topics such ascareers, work experience and

employment; care, welfare andbehaviour and brain science.

Various filters can be applied tospeed up your search. You canfocus on a specific sector, sayhigher education; you can choosesummaries only and you can buildup keywords to narrow your search.You can also select types ofresources such as evidence-basedguidance materials or reviews ofresearch to suit your need. A threeminute demonstration is availableon-screen to explain just how tomake best use of the resourcesavailable.

The way the project hasdeveloped is itself an object lessonin co-operation. Interestedindividuals wishing to develop theuse of evidence in education cametogether voluntarily to plan theproject and drive it forward. ADevelopment Group comprising adozen interested organisations andusers is led and managed by CfBTEducation Trust. A user groupmade up of teachers, policy officials,researchers and others helps steerthe development work. Funding hascome from a range of organisationsincluding CfBT, DfE, TDA, HigherEducation Academy and Becta. Thedatabase is being developed inconjunction with British EducationIndex and the original software wasdeveloped in collaboration withMicrosoft as part of its Partners inLearning programme. The Evidence

eep – the educationalevidence portal ne

ws

Online resourcebanks for staffand studentsare becomingever moresophisticatedas a means ofaccessingrelevantinformation.In the followingarticles we hearfrom two suchserviceproviders.

Andrew Morris

ESCalatenews 29

Andrew MorrisFreelanceConsultant

Andrew Morris specialises in the

interaction of research, policy and

practice. He currently works with

LSIS, CfBT Education Trust, City &

Guilds Centre for Skills

Development and a range of other

public, private and voluntary sector

organisations and chairs the

educational evidence portal

consortium.

directly to them. At the same timean international collaboration, viathe EPPI-Centre, is enabling eepand other evidence systems acrossEuropean countries to becompared, whilst a projectcoordinated by Toronto University isenabling the use of researchdocuments downloaded from eepand other portals to be measuredand compared.

In July 2010 the launch of the finalreport of the Strategic Forum forResearch in Education proposedthat a UK Educational ResearchInformation Service should bedeveloped by collaboration betweeneep, BEI (British Education Index)and major university libraries. Theproposal is for these organisationsto develop a consolidated nationalsystem for indexing researchdocuments to replace the currenthaphazard approach. This couldreduce duplication, wastage andincoherence by enabling researchfrom all sources, public, private andvoluntary, to be identified andpresented in an easily understoodcommon format. eep is respondingenthusiastically to this proposal.

To ensure eep is suitable for awide range of users – teachers,trainers, parents, employers,governors, community members,local authority staff and a host ofothers – feedback is gathered onusers’ experience. A 160-stronguser panel feeds in ideas as do the37+ organisations contributingmaterial. Use of the portal isregularly monitored, both by astructured evaluation and bystatistical analysis of internet usage.Evaluations show that usersgenerally value it, though of coursethe coverage of content is still

incomplete. Statistical analysissuggests that the service is usedby a modest but steadilygrowing number of users in 146countries. With around 2,000visitors per month (August 2010)it is currently growing atbetween 20% and 50% perannum.

Experience in explaining eepto interested groups shows thatthere is much to be learned bypotential users about searchingtechniques, about eep’scapabilities and about effectiveuse of research evidence ingeneral. In response to this,CfBT Education Trust hasfunded an Evidence SupportProgramme comprising liveworkshops to support suchgroups and online “mini guides”available at any time via theportal.

So whoever you are, whereveryou are, why not try your hand ateep – and don’t forget to let theorganisers know how you find it.

See eep at www.eep.ac.uk/

for Policy and Practice Informationand Co-ordinating Centre (EPPI-Centre) at the Institute ofEducation, University of Londonprovides technical back-up and isleading R&D work to introducenext-generation text-miningtechnology to the portal. Work ondeveloping a universal taxonomy tosupport browsing across allsectors of education is being led bya library specialist formerly at DfE;truly a collaborative enterprise.

Important though the portal is asa practical tool, its developmentcan be seen as part of a widermovement towards an evidence-using culture in education. For thisreason the portal project iscontinually moving forward and thedevelopment team reaching out toother related initiatives. Work iscurrently underway to simplifyaccess to evidence by creating asingle interactive page thatdescribes the many portals anddatabases now available and links

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One of our key aims at the HigherEducation Academy (HEA) is tosupport the use of evidence in theenhancement of learning andteaching in higher education,both at practitioner and policylevel. With increasingly limitedresources available across thesector, it is important that effortsto improve the student learningexperience are based on robustdata and well-founded theory. Akey part of our work in this area iscentred on EvidenceNet, theHEA’s service designed toprovide easy access to therelevant evidence, and to facilitatethe discussion of that evidence.

In ESCalate Newsletter Issue 14 wedescribed the launch of the serviceand the thinking behind it. Thisarticle offers a brief update on somerecent developments.

We are keen to encouragecolleagues to engage withEvidenceNet online, and so wehave added new functionality to thewebsite which allows you as usersto upload your own material.Whether you want to add aresource, an event, or a network,and whether you’d like to add asingle item, several items, or mapan entire website, you can use the“Contribute” section of the site toadd materials (see fig. 1). We have

also created an online form to allowusers to submit short case studies:by filling in five brief text boxes, acase study is created that issearchable and accessible withinEvidenceNet.

EvidenceNet has also supported anumber of Special Interest Groups(SIGs) such as the Evaluation ofLearners’ Experience of E-Learning(ELE) SIG (http://tiny.cc/hv141) (seefig. 2) an international community ofover 1000 researchers andpractitioners. EvidenceNet providedfunds for members of ELESIG toproduce a review of the literatureconcerning the impact oftechnology on learners’ experienceof the transition from school touniversity. We have also providedsupport to the Engaging StudentsThrough In-Class Technology(ESTICT) SIG(http://tiny.cc/lne5comn83) enablingthem to collect, systematise anddisseminate good practice in theuse of technology in the classroom.These SIGs are open to all, simplyby registering on their Ning sites(see fig. 3). As well as engaging withSIGs, EvidenceNet has supportednetworks like Graduate Junction(www.graduatejunction.net) helpingthem to develop an online library ofresources to support postgraduateresearchers.

As EvidenceNet develops we arenow starting to get a more thoroughpicture of its value and the ways inwhich it is being used bypractitioners in a range ofdisciplines. Its function as asignpost to relevant resources hasproved a quick and easy method bywhich academics can get anoverview of a given topic withouthaving to conduct a lengthyliterature search in multiple

30 ESCalatenews

New developmentsto enhance communityengagement throughEvidenceNetne

ws

Alex Buckley

Figure 1.

Alex BuckleyHigher EducationAcademy

After spending several years

teaching as a PhD student, Alex

worked in a CETL dedicated to

developing inter-disciplinary

strategies for teaching applied and

professional ethics. Here Alex learnt

a great deal about key issues in

pedagogy, and at the HEA he has

had the opportunity to deepen and

broaden this understanding.

ESCalatenews 31

new

s

reply with a link to anEvidenceNet search for thekeywords ‘transition’ and‘postgraduate’, returning over400 results. While other listusers’ responses were alsouseful in brokering contactsbetween colleagues, the speedand thoroughness ofEvidenceNet provided a usefulstarting point for a search forinformation. Practitioners arealso finding the “Contribute”page described above a usefulway of sharing their own work –we have received numerouscase studies as well asresources, events and networksthat colleagues can use to informtheir practice.

Over the coming yearEvidenceNet will continue itsjourney from simply providingaccess to evidence, tosupporting a network ofcommunities working to access,discuss, share and implementresearch and evidence in HElearning and teaching.Please visit the site to learn more:www.heacademy.ac.uk/evidencenet

databases. It also helps them toconnect to practice-basedevidence much more thoroughlythan traditional search methodssuch as Google Scholar wouldallow. For example, a SeniorAdviser from the HEA wasundertaking an official visit to aninstitution specialising in educationstudies, and was asked by theinstitution for examples of practicefrom other institutions relating toteaching-based promotions. Sucha question would previously haverequired knowledge of specificindividual contacts, specific sourcesof information or a potentiallylengthy trawl of relevant websites.However, a search of EvidenceNetusing the keyword term ‘reward

and recognition’ retrieved over onehundred directly useful, evidence-based resources (includingcommissioned reports, journalarticles, and HEA papers) whichprovided a much deeper andricher understanding of theprocesses and issues withoutnecessitating an extensiveinformation-gathering process.EvidenceNet has also helped us tosupport colleagues on a moreinformal basis: for example, a postwas placed on a JISCmail list froma practitioner looking for resourcesaimed at students starting taughtMasters courses to help themmake the transition topostgraduate study. TheEvidenceNet team was able to

Figure 2.

Figure 3.

On 13 May 2010, 120 academiccolleagues from as far afield asAustralia and the United Statesgathered in Northampton to shareideas around the importance oflearning dialogues in HigherEducation at the University ofNorthampton’s third Learning andTeaching conference. Theconference featured keynotes fromProfessor Neil Mercer (University ofCambridge) and Professor MarkSchofield (Edge Hill University),as well as 35 paper and posterpresentations and 6 workshopsexploring the theme of learningdialogues as a strategy to enhancethe student experience.

Neil Mercer talked of three modelsof Higher Education (HE) learning:apprentice-scholar; lecture; student-centred; and the necessity toconstruct an active role for learnerswithin these through a socioculturalperspective. Following this, MarkSchofield advocated the alignmentof purpose, audience and formthrough learning dialogues.Throughout the day four key issues,framed within a commitment tounderstanding the value of dialoguesfor learning and to learning-focusseduniversities, emerged:

Researching the studentexperience through learningdialoguesThe student voice in HE is still littleheard in educational and pedagogicresearch. We learned about thevalue of working with undergraduatestudents as researchers oninnovative pedagogic projects. Forexample, in the URB@N scheme(University Research Bursaries atNorthampton), students usedialogue to gather authenticevidence of learning processesthrough peer engagement (Butcherand colleagues) and at SheffieldHallam undergraduates are involvedin skills research (Glover andcolleagues). We heard about theeffectiveness of Socratic techniquesin mathematical education (Fradkin)and the way our understanding oflearners’ responses to assessmentfeedback can be enhanced(Lumsden et al, 2010). Also, asuniversities seek ever more creativeways of extending their teachingenvironments, it was fascinating tohear research findings whichanalysed students’ gravitationtowards certain spaces whichbrought in affective dimensions tolearning (Powis, 2010).

32 ESCalatenews

John Butcher: University of NorthamptonEvent page: University of Northampton Learning andTeaching Conference: http://escalate.ac.uk/6845

Learning dialogues

new

s

Collecting like-minded peopletogether hasalways been seenby us as a valuableway of exchangingand hearing aboutnew practice.ESCalate supportsmany events andhere we ask twoevent leaders to tellus their stories.

John Butcher

ESCalatenews 33

Virtual learning dialogues Technology enhanced learning hasgalvanised opportunities forstudents to learn from one another,and new learning theories havedeveloped as collaborative onlinelearning has been investigatedacross a range of disciplines. Welearned how dialogues throughtechnology prompted moreeffective student engagement withassessment feedback (Khatri;Ringrose), and opened upopportunities for a more playfulpedagogy utilising video (Gordon &Fitzgerald).

Learning dialogues as talk inHE settingsRecognising both the power ofsocially constructed knowledge,and the increasingly diverse rangeof HE students, learning dialogueshave facilitated a more egalitarianand inclusive pedagogy (peerlearning, peer mentoring, peerassessment, shared knowledgeconstruction through dialogue ininclusive settings), while raisingthe challenge of assessing thesedialogues. We learned about theeffectiveness of dialogue in tutorials(Attenburrow), including thecreative use of drama (Wu) and

drawing techniques (Rogers) tocomplement skills developmentthrough problem solving(Adams and colleagues).Importantly, the crucialsignificance of dialogue withlearners in the context of thoseuniversities aspiring to a moreinclusive culture washighlighted, especially toidentify learning needs moreeffectively and to implementfairer assessment systems(Butcher et al, 2010).

Learning dialogues as aprofessional developmenttool The accreditation ofprofessional competenceincreasingly recognises theimportance of communities ofpractice, of working andlearning alongside a‘knowledgeable other’ and ofrecording ‘agreed’ evidence ofprofessional competenceelectronically. Lastly, welearned of the value of dialoguewith colleagues to elicitevidence of the sustainedimpact of continuingprofessional development(Northcott, 2010).

John ButcherUniversity ofNorthampton

ReferencesButcher, J., Sedgwick, P., Lazard, L. &Hey, J. (2010) How might inclusiveapproaches to assessment enhancestudent learning in HE?. Enhancing theLearner Experience in Higher Education,2 (1), 25-40,http://journals.northampton.ac.uk/index.php/elehe/article/viewFile/14/19

Lumsden, E., Mcbryde-Wilding, H. &Rose, H. (2010) Collaborative practice inpractice in enhancing the first yearexperience in Higher Education.Enhancing the Learner Experience inHigher Education, 2 (1), 12-24,http://journals.northampton.ac.uk/index.php/elehe/article/viewFile/10/18

Northcott, J. (2010) Years after thecourse: dialogues with mid-careerpractitioners about the resilience ofprofessional learning from a highereducation CPD programme. Enhancingthe Learner Experience in HigherEducation, 2 (1), 41-55,http://journals.northampton.ac.uk/index.php/elehe/article/viewFile/16/20

Powis, C. (2010) “We always come here”:investigating the social in social learning.Enhancing the Learner Experience inHigher Education, 2 (1), 3-11,http://journals.northampton.ac.uk/index.php/elehe/article/viewFile/12/16

All other citations refer to the conferenceabove, abstracts of which can be foundhere: http://www.northampton.ac.uk/learningteachingconference2010

Dr John Butcher is Senior Academic

Development Advisor at the University

of Northampton. Previous roles have

included Director of Learning and

Teaching at University College Falmouth

and Staff Tutor in Education at

the Open University.

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The University of Northampton’s fourth Learning and Teaching conferenceLearning Global takes place on 10th and 11th May 2011:http://www.northampton.ac.uk/info/20278/continuing-professional-development/1062/learning-global-fourth-learning-and-teaching-conference

34 ESCalatenews34 ESCalatenews

Aileen McGuiganUniversity of Dundee

The ePIC Research and ScholarshipGroup is now in its second year ofexistence. It is one of a number ofsuch groups in the University ofDundee’s School of Education,Social Work and CommunityEducation. ePIC is comprised ofsome 20 members of the School’steaching staff, from differentdisciplines, with varying experienceof research and scholarship. Someof our members are ‘emergent’researchers, keen to get involved inscholarly activity, others have alreadyestablished themselves with a rangeof projects and publications.

With ESCalate’s funding, wewere able to host at the Universityof Dundee a well-attended anduseful ‘Sharing Ideas’ symposiumon 14th May 2010, the theme wase-learning in professional contexts.Some 30 attendees included ePICmembers, representatives from theUniversity’s School of Medicine andfrom the college sector.

Julie Hughes of University ofWolverhampton was invited tospeak on her interest in blogs tosupport learning. Her presentation,‘Building blogging learningcommunities: what can we learn?’was well-received and generated alot of discussion. It was particularlyuseful for attendees to see and hearabout Julie’s experiences ofblogging and e-portfolios inPebblepad: our VLE platform atUniversity of Dundee is Blackboard,which is very different.

Several ePIC group membersgave short presentations on their‘work in progress’: in ‘Just twoclicks’ Lucy Golden presented onthe importance of interactiondesign in online learning materials;Lynn Boyle’s ‘Blogging for success’was all about the potential isolationof the online distance learner andhow this problem can be alleviatedthrough group blog activity; LynnKelly and Sharon Jackson sharedtheir experiences of online learning

Aileen McGuigan is ePIC (e-learning

and professionalism in context)

Research and Scholarship Group

Convenor at the University of

Dundee. Since 2006 she has been

teaching on the TQ (FE) (Teaching

Qualification (Further Education)

programme – an online professional

development programme for

lecturers. Her research interest is in

educational applications of Web 2.0

technology, particularly the effective

use of blogs to support professional

learning.

Aileen McGuigan: University of DundeeProject page: Sharing Ideas: ePIC and web 2.0 tools:http://escalate.ac.uk/6931

E-Learning inprofessional contextsne

ws with social work students in ‘An

evaluation of the studentexperience of engaging incollaborative inquiry through thevirtual learning environment’.Lastly, Natalie Lafferty’spresentation ‘Beyond the gardenwall: exploring the use ofWordpress to support teaching andlearning’ was all about theeducational use of blogs in thecontext of University of Dundee’sSchool of Medicine.

The symposium gave attendeesa welcome opportunity to learnabout each other’s specificinterests in the field of e-learningand to ‘cross-fertilise’ throughsome lively discussion which is stillcontinuing, long after the event,with various attendees now ‘pairedup’ and working together on avariety of projects.

Aileen McGuigan

ESCalatenews 35ESCalatenews 35

What were you doing before you tookon the role of Acting Director ofESCalate?I am a Senior Lecturer in ScienceEducation at the Graduate School ofEducation, University of Bristol. I joinedthe Subject Centre team to take on anacademic role mainly supporting themanagement of the various grant fundingoffered by ESCalate. My role is thereforeto support practitioners teaching on HEeducation programmes throughout theESCalate funded award process frommaking bids to writing up researchreports and associated publications.

How did you first become involvedwith ESCalate?I was working in initial teacher educationat Loughborough University at the timewhen the Subject Centres were set up,then part of the Learning and TeachingSupport Network (LTSN). I attended anLTSN event run at Nottingham Universityand, impressed, signed up as theEducation departmental contact forLoughborough. Over the years I havewritten book reviews, applied for funding,acted as a project’s ‘critical friend’ andworked as a bid reviewer for ESCalate.

Is it important to your role that youstill teach?Yes, we are really keen to ensureSubject Centre colleagues continue tocontribute to Education programmes. Iam looking forward to visiting my PGCEstudents who are all in secondaryschools teaching science at themoment. I also work with teachers andteacher educators following our Mastersand Doctoral programmes. I have aparticular interest in supervisingstudents who are developing the use oftechnology in their teaching.

With your interest in furtherprofessional development forteachers, do you favour MTL or thetraditional PPD?I think that to have a ‘one size fits all’qualification is a mistake and both havetheir place. However, one of the mostvaluable learning opportunities of themore traditional Masters qualifications isthe chance to share practice in anorganised way and to learn fromcolleagues from different schools andeven different education systems.

What do you enjoy most aboutworking for ESCalate?It is extremely rewarding to work with ateam of people committed todeveloping, enhancing and improvingthe practice of colleagues teaching oneducation and allied programmesacross the UK. I have been regularly inthe position of asking colleagues fromnew lecturers to emeritus professors tocontribute to ESCalate events andpublications and have beenoverwhelmed by their universally positiveresponse.

What do you see as the mostimportant issues for HigherEducation today?Well, obviously there is massiveuncertainty at the moment. Huge cuts toteaching budgets and to support forgovernment funded organisationsacross Higher Education have recentlybeen announced though we have yet tosee the coalition government’s plannedWhite Paper. This will need to bepassed by both Houses of Parliament sonothing is as yet guaranteed.

in C

onve

rsat

ion

with

... ‘‘‘‘

Joce

lyn

Wis

hart

What strengths do you see ESCalateas having that will see it through thistime of change?ESCalate has been supporting teachingon education programmes in HigherEducation for over ten years. Workingwith the community, we have built up acomprehensive body of knowledge aboutteaching and learning in Education.ESCalate is therefore in an excellentposition to broker exchanges betweenstakeholders and practitioners, betweenteachers and learners, and betweencolleagues in different institutions. Weplan to support the education communityin these challenging times by bringingpeople together to raise awareness ofimportant issues, to develop and to sharestrategies for securing the future ofeducation programmes. We weredelighted by the response of colleaguesat our recent UCET symposium where apanel of experts debated key issuesrelevant to each of the four regions of theUK. We are currently working with theTeacher Education AdvancementNetwork to develop four furtherworkshops, one relevant to each region.

What do you see as the biggestchallenges for ESCalate in thecoming months?We have very recently learnt that over thenext twenty months the Higher EducationAcademy will be changing the way itsupports academics at a subject level intheir discipline communities. Whilst workat the subject level will remain a major andintegral part of the Academy’s services toinstitutions and the sector, it will no longerbe offering grant funding to support aseparate Subject Centre managementstructure. I will be working with theAcademy, the Pro-Vice Chancellors forTeaching and Learning across a range ofHEIs, our new director, our advisoryboard and the rest of the ESCalate teamto ensure a successful way forward forESCalate that is of clear benefit to theeducation community.

We will keep everyone informed of anychanges to our working practices throughour bulletin and on our website. Thoughplease feel free to contact us atheacademy-escalate@bristol.ac.uk withsuggestions or for further information.

o p

eventsDate(s) Details Venue

For more details and to book for these and other events, which ESCalate advertises, go to:www.escalate.ac.uk/events/future

Forthcoming events

£50 worth of book token prizesfor each successful bidHot Topics are short pieces, usually an electronic offering by teachers and students.They are a eureka! moment that makes a concise suggestion about how to solve a problem or a challenge. AHot Topic discussion enhances teaching or learning in some simple, imaginative and creative way: somethingthat is essentially ‘of the moment’, something that works for you. Suggested topics might be...

� New Technology� Education for Sustainable Development � Accreditation � New ways of looking at assessment and feedback � Student engagement

If you would like to submit a bid go to http://escalate.ac.uk/hottopicsand read the bids that have been successful and find out how to apply

15-26 November 2010

5 January 2011

10 January 2011

2 March 2011

23 March 2011

20 May 2011

8 June 2011

Graduate Junction: Education Postgraduate Online Forum A live online forum event exclusively for education postgraduates

Abstract Writing and Reviewing Day at Newman University College The aim of the day is to learn specifically about the requirements for the BERAand/or TEAN 2011 conferences and to write your abstract for one or both of them.

Abstract Writing and Reviewing Day at EdgeHill University See above.

London Workshop for ESDGC in ITE The first in our series of regional ESD events - 'Care and wellbeing: personal,social and global approaches to ESD/GC in ITE’

Liverpool Workshop for ESDGC in ITE The second in our series of regional ESD workshops - 'The transformativeimpact of international experience on professional learning'

2nd TEAN Conference: The Important Role of Higher Education inTeacher Education This conference invites colleagues to celebrate the important role that HigherEducation plays in teacher education. At present there is a call for papers -deadline January 21st 2011

UK ITE Network for Education Sustainable Development/Global Citizenship Fourth Annual Conference 'Building capacity for ESD/GC in times of change' currently a call for papers -deadline February 18th 2011

Online

Newman University College

Edge Hill University

Room V115, London South Bank University

Liverpool Hope University

Manchester ConferenceCentre

London South BankUniversity