Ionad Bairre
The Teaching and Learning Centre
in association with
The Graduate Studies Office, UCC
“In at the Deep End: Learning to Teach in Higher Education”
Postgraduate Symposium
27 February 2014
9.30am – 3.30pm
North Wing Council Room
Course Team:
Dr Bettie Higgs, Course Co-Ordinator, Dr Marian McCarthy
James Cronin, Jacinta McKeon
Ionad Bairre,The Teaching and Learning Centre
in association with The Graduate Studies Office, UCC
Postgraduate Symposium
27 February 2014 9.30am – 3.30pm
North Wing Council Room
“In at the Deep End: Learning toTeach in Higher Education”
Programme
Time / Name / Title of Abstract9.15am / Registration
9.30am / Introduction / Welcome Address
Dr Liam Marnane, Dean of Graduate Studies
9.40am / Kevin O’Sullivan
Law / A Strategy of ‘Hive and Connect’: Hierarchical Student Groupings in the Teaching of Law
9.50am / NinaKonstantinidou
Microbiology / Making connections explicit in Microbiology
10.00am / Sean Whittaker
Law / Teaching Mature Students as a Young Lecturer: The Issue of Active Engagement
10.10am / Lana Repar
Food Business and Development / Balancing on the edge of two worlds in the same room: increasing participation and two-way communication in the class
10.20am / Louise Forde
Law / Teaching Law for Mixed Ability Classes: Grounding Understanding and Developing Legal Skills
10.30am / Laleh Kasraian
Business Information Systems / Improving Conceptualization Skills
Traditional Challenge in Data Modeling Learning
10.40am / Rehan Ahmed
Electrical Engineering / Enhancing the Teaching and Learning
Experience in Control Engineering Labs
10.50am / Tea/coffee
11.10am / Marina Behnke
German / Improving students' discussion skills in the German language
11.20am / Karen Lennon
Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy / Group Work: How do I engage all of the students?
11.30am / Lydia Bracken
Law / Encouraging active engagement by all of the students
11.40am / Sean Power
Accounting & Finance / Encouraging interaction in Tutorials
11.50am / Kellie Morrissey
School of Applied Psychology / Fostering student participation in an e-learning module using Articulate Studio
12.00pm / Timothy Mawe
Philosophy / Building student confidence in a philosophy tutorial
12.10pm / Aidan Flanagan
Sociology / “The Written Word is a Lie?” Assessing Competency in Language Use in Sociology
12.20pm / Ashling Murphy
School of Nursing & Midwifery / Effective Communication between Mature Students and Teacher
12.30pm / Light Lunch / POSTER PEER-REVIEW SESSION
Time / Name / Title of Abstract
1.00pm / Eoin O’ Callaghan
School of English / “We Have Ways of Making You Talk”: Fostering Student Participation in Third-Level Education
1.10pm / James Sweeney
History (International Relations / Assessing student progress through continual discourse
1.20pm / Margaret Buckley
Applied Social Studies and History / Quizzing Interaction: Experimentation with Participation
1.30pm / Samantha Cushen
Food and Nutritional Sciences / Enhancing Engagement and Class Participation
1.40pm / Elsa Giraud
Chemistry / Encouraging experimentation in practical classes
1.50pm / Michalis Poupazis
Music / A Multicultural Mature Students’ Case: Dissatisfying Scholarly Flavours of Imagery
2.00pm / Alexandra Ntemiri
Microbiology Department / Using multicultural classroom to motivate learners
2.10pm / Hazzaa Alshareef
Computer Science / Encouraging interaction: decreasing monologue
2.20pm / Siobhán O’Byrne
Law / Encouraging student participation in a family law tutorial
2.30pm / Seyed Mohammad Amin Mousavinejad
Business Information Systems / The impact of having two sets of practice examples on keeping students interested for computer science labs
2.40pm / Mark Kennedy
Physics / Quantum Mechanics: The Unintuitive Logic
2.50pm / Claire McGrath
School of History / Making connections in an interdisciplinary programme
3.00pm / Rosemary O’Sullivan
Law / Active student engagement and success in achieving Learning Outcomes
3.10pm / Fiona Clancy
Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American Studies / Getting the Students to Engage: The Debate Approach
3.20pm / Fionn Woodhouse
Drama and Theatre Studies / Using practical life experience to enhance student learning
3.30pm / Niamh O’Mahony
School of English / Lack of engagement: Remedy for improved student learning
3.40pm / Close
POSTER PRESENTATIONS
Name / Title of AbstractKaren O Leary
Applied Psychology / Enhancing Engagement and Learning in Psychological Research
Laura Lee
School of Applied Psychology / Small Changes, Big Differences
Maria Kelly
School of Pharmacy /
Reinforcing Learning in Feedback Sessions
Aoife CoffeySchool of BEES / First year biology labs- dealing with varying levels of background knowledge in a practical class.
Elaine Carroll
Chemistry / Tutorials: Newton’s Third Law in Action
Xi Cao
Chemistry / Student interaction: increasing motivation
Rachel Murphy
History/Digital Humanities / Rethinking historical research
Karen McCarthy
Microbiology/Alimentary Pharmabiotic Centre / Analysis of scientific learning, from primary level to third level
Siobhán O'Sullivan
Food and Nutritional Science / Teaching lab techniques and answering questions on unfamiliar topics in laboratory practicals
Serena FitzGerald
School of Nursing and Midwifery / Enhancing Class Participation and Engagement when Teaching Larger Student Groups
Rory Villiers
Physics / Breaking down the cycle of communication breakdown
Ciarán O Leime
Anatomy and Neuroscience / Bioinformatics and IT: Easy access is key.
Jerry Murphy
Applied Social Studies / Assistive Technologies as Learning Tools
Elaine Barry
Physiology / Improving the effectiveness of Laboratory Sessions
Nicholas O’Riordan
School of English / Teaching mixed ability classes
Sharon Cadogan
Epidemiology and Public Health / Encouraging Peer Learning
Danka Atanasova Kozareva
Anatomy and Neuroscience / Improved student learning – the result of student motivation or teaching approach
Luke Kirwan
School of History / Creating a learning environment conducive to historical debate
Sander van Lanen
Geography / Raising student confidence to enhance interaction
Ross Macklin
School of BEES / Challenges in the Relational Aspects of Teaching Science; Concentration, Communication, & Confidence
Summaries of Presentations
ORAL PRESENTATIONS
Kevin O’Sullivan
Law
A Strategy of ‘Hive and Connect’: Hierarchical Student Groupings in the Teaching of Law
In any subject, student participation in small groupings is never going to be aligned with tutor expectations; in law, the problem is arguably amplified by the architecture of law courses in the Anglo-American common law tradition. A typical law course consists of five, ten credit subjects per year designed to provide an in-depth overview of the significant aspects of a particular area of law, e.g. contract or tort. Reliant on the common law system, these subjects are underscored by a need to read potentially hundreds of cases in a given year and academic opinion along with assignments over the course of the year. Student participation in tutorials is never optimal. This presentation will address how student participation can be increased through grouping students into a hive, hierarchical structure facilitating increased confidence and demonstrating that rather than knowing everything, law students are expected to think on their feet. In turn, the advantages to a hierarchical group structure will be outlined with an emphasis on the need for tutor expectations to alter in conformity with student learning realities, in turn enhancing the teaching and learning outcomes.
NinaKonstantinidou
Microbiology
Making connections explicit in Microbiology
Teaching and learning are dynamic processes where both teacher and students interact. Hence, regardless of a discipline, challenges linked with student learning remain the main concern of a teacher. My main challenge involved transmitting the awareness that the biomolecules tested in the laboratory were clinically important because they were linked with the diagnosis of serious human diseases.
I demonstrated Biochemistry practicals to the small group of students. The practicals were initiated by familiarizing ourselves with each other’s names and background disciplines. Sometimes, the student’s experience varied in terms of skills. Hence, I had to balance between information and time provided in order to design an appropriate demonstration. Thus, I applied different techniques to motivate their interest such as distribution of attractively designed introductory sheets, pre-practical talks, detailed experimental protocols and display questions.
I deeply believe, the above practices provided the students “wings to fly” instead of offering them consumable results. However, I intend to further optimize my demonstration skills. Firstly, I have to gain knowledge of performing high standard demonstrations via relevant courses offered at UCC. Finally, I have planned to volunteer for demonstrations outside of my area of expertise in order to enhance my experience.
Sean Whittaker
Law
Teaching Mature Students as a Young Lecturer: The Issue of Active Engagement
Ensuring that students actively engage with the material being taught is a vital component of reinforcing the teaching scaffolding erected by the lecturer and empowering students to apply the knowledge taught beyond the limited scope of the classroom. However, this can be particularly difficult in the case of mature learners, who can encounter difficulties that are not faced by students coming from secondary education. Promoting active engagement is further complicated if the lecturer is young, as they likely have no experience with these difficulties and may not fully have the respect of the mature students.
This presentation will discuss the challenges of being a young lecturer teaching mature students. It will explore the importance of active engagement on mature student learning, and the obstacles which inhibit it from taking place. The presentation will then set out the actions I took within the tutorial session to promote active engagement, and analyse, through evidence provided by the students, whether student learning was improved. Finally, the presentation will examine the implications this has on further teaching practice, looking specifically at how to improve active engagement with mature students.
Lana Repar
Food Business and Development
Balancing on the edge of two worlds in the same room: increasing participation and two-way communication in the class
Total of 28 students attend the class on their first year of master study. Backgrounds and expectations vary, while difference in age, language skills, cultural and personal features provides reasons for keeping the safe distance from anyone outside familiar circle. The room is organized as amphitheatre and the timing of the module is not flattering – after a lunch break. The stated challenge “How to deliver a purely theoretical lecture in two hour international class without a break, and starting after the lunch time?” identifies personal, spatial and subject matters which make inter-related factors that influence learning outcome in the class. Lack of mutual communication and recognition, blurred and unrelated messages, passivity and dissatisfaction are seen as results of mentioned factors.
In order to address the challenge, i.e. improve student learning, the class would be organised with some significant changes taking into considerations doable interventions: sitting close to each other and making creative breaks every 30 min by doing a group work.
An evidence of student learning represents increased mutual communication on the topic: exchange of ideas and opinions, asking questions, independent interpretation of presented material in a way that encourages other colleagues to get involved, and seeking for further knowledge deepening.
The results of short questionnaire conducted among students on their satisfaction with the class would show the future practice – continuing with the group work or suggesting other measures.
Louise Forde
Law
Teaching Law for Mixed Ability Classes: Grounding Understanding and Developing Legal Skills
My oral presentation will address the steps that I took to address the teaching challenge that I had faced. The challenge I identified in my teaching practice was the need to ensure that tutorials were effectively tailored to the needs of all the students in the class, taking into account the varying levels of ability, experience and confidence among students. This challenge was identified in the context of Criminal Law tutorials for first-year students. The presentation will address how this challenge has the potential to impact on the student learning experience, especially the need to build student confidence and to ensure adequate understanding of the course material.
My presentation will address the steps that I took to address this particular challenge. My intervention took a two-stage format. First of all, greater emphasis was placed on group work. Secondly, a specific set of questions were designed for the tutorial, aiming to support student understanding of the material in the first instance, and to facilitate more sophisticated student discussion of the concepts at issue in the second. My presentation will address how this intervention was carried out, and what effect it had on student learning. It will also address the implications of this activity for the development of my teaching practice.
Laleh Kasraian
Business Information Systems
Improving Conceptualization Skills - Traditional Challenge in Data Modeling Learning
As an instructor, I’m tutoring “Data Modeling and Database systems” module (IS6111) for postgraduate level on weekly sessions at Business Information Systems (BIS) department. Due to the IS6111 module, students learn how to solve the received problem as a narrative context to specify the main issues of the problem at the first step. Then at the second step, they should be able to solve the pointed problem by designing (visualizing) a conceptual model as the final resolution. The main challenge at this stage arises when the student identifies the main points as key concepts via narrative form of problem.
This study main aim is to answer this research question that, “how can I (as tutor) improve the students’ skills (based on researches and literature review related to student learning styles) to recognize and visualize the main key concepts via received technical narrative context?” Practicing and discussing more examples of different kind of problems in variety types of IS domain highlighted more around the mentioned limitation in student learning skills. This research attempts to introduce an step by step approach (method) which may assist and improve the students’ conceptualization proficiency towards the resolution as final conceptual model in IS domain.
Rehan Ahmed
Electrical Engineering
Enhancing the Teaching and Learning Experience in Control Engineering Labs
Control engineering is one of the many subjects in electrical engineering curriculum that needs a practical experience to fully understand and grasp the theory taught in the lectures. For this reason lab sessions for this course are designed to comprehend the theory taught in the lectures. Students are divided in to a number of groups and six groups do 6 six experiments in one day.
This short talk will present three key challenges faced by the students and also by the demonstrators. These challenges are identified by collecting several evidences using different tools. Different implications to overcome these challenges are used and presented. Lastly the result of these implications are presented.
Marina Behnke
German
Improving students' discussion skills in the German language
I teach a German Language Discussion and Essay Writing class which takes place in a narrow room with two rows of tables facing the whiteboard. This class discusses a different topic of German societal debate each week; however, no discussion is possible when students only show a compromising attitude in their answers. I would prefer for students, instead of merely having a dialogue with me, to interact with one another. I feel like I am a quizmaster while I would love to become a discussion moderator. The experience of a real discussion will help students in finding their own voice and, importantly, give students more confidence in their ability to express themselves in a foreign language. My intervention involved dividing the class into two groups and changing the seating to facilitate a debate setting. Evidence for improved student learning was the fact that the resultant lively discussion equally engaged all students in using the German language to express their (taken) opinion and to respond to the other group’s arguments. Following the discussion, I asked students for feedback and received very positive responses. As the debate exercise clearly improved student interaction and thus will further students’ discussion skills and their confidence in foreign language use, I will incorporate this form of discussion in future classes.
Karen Lennon
Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy
Group Work: How do I engage all of the students?
Group work within a classroom context is a method of student learning which is of the highest importance within the occupational therapy curriculum. It enables student learning through brainstorming, peer discussions, abstract thinking and problem solving. All of which are vital in the construction of knowledge within a topic. A challenge that I have encountered is how to engage all of the students in a learning capacity when having to navigate attention between groups. Encouraging reflection on the tasks by the students at various intervals of the session and by actively engaging with each group were the tools used to address this challenge. Student learning would be evidenced by the students asking display and referential questions and feedback from the students such as student narratives or a feedback form. Advanced preparation, reflection, classroom arrangement, setting achievable learning outcomes and the creation of a positive learning environment can enable me to enhance student learning and also thought into the construction of groups, drawing on experience and knowledge of the student group as individuals and taking into consideration the diversity of the student group.
Lydia Bracken
Law
Encouraging active engagement by all of the students
I have not yet begun my teaching career and so my oral presentation will be based on a challenge I identified as arising from a constitutional law tutorial which I attended as an undergraduate student. This class was comprised of a group of students who seemed to have very different motivations for attending. While some students were actively engaged, others were not and they seemed to only attend so as to collect answers to problem questions, without themselves contributing. The (hypothetical) intervention that I identified as being suitable to tackle this issue was to break the class into smaller groups for discussion and thereafter to initiate a class debate on what the appropriate advice should be. Evidence of student learning could be gleaned from this approach as I could see whether the previously unmotivated students would actively participate under this approach. Furthermore, I believe it is important to actually ask the students if they find this approach beneficial.