Monday 10 January 2011 University of Sheffield Learning and Teaching Conference, Richard Roberts Building |1

The University of Sheffield

Fifth Annual Learning and Teaching Conference

ABSTRACTS

“Identifying what we offer:

preparing students to move on”

Monday 10January 2011, Richard Roberts Building, University of Sheffield

9:15 - 9:45 Sign-up and choose sessions Richard Roberts Lobby and Atrium

Sign up in the Richard Roberts lobby (in front of the Auditorium doors), pick up a Conference programme and your lunch voucher (if pre-booked), then choose your sessions (reserve a place in advance by pre-booking) and have a coffee

9:45 - 10:45 Welcome and Opening Plenary Richard Roberts Auditorium

What skills should students prioritise when preparing to leave The University of Sheffield (and how can they demonstrate having these)?

Panel: David Thurkettle (Chair of the University of Sheffield Careers Advisory Board, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP), Bob Athwal (Head of Graduate Schemes, npower), Harsh Srivastav (Ex-Student Union President, HSBC), Professor Paul White (PVC for Learning and Teaching, University of Sheffield)

10:45 - 11:15 Coffee Break RichardRoberts Atrium

11:15-12:00First choice of sessions (choose from 8)

11:15-12:00 Session 1:Bucking the national trend – Sheffield’s success in sending students to study abroadRoom A85

Panel: Paul James Cardwell (Law), Phillip Booth (Town and Regional Planning), Dorte Stevenson (International Exchanges Unit)

Why do so few students of students actually study abroad and how much time and effort does it take to set these programmes up? The Guardian reported on 7 November 2010 that only 0.46 of UK students take the opportunities to study abroad under the Erasmus programme – far below their counterparts elsewhere in Europe. At Sheffield, we have an excellent track-record in terms of both the number of students we send and the variety of links available. We have a real opportunity to build on this and make studying abroad a distinctive feature of the Sheffield graduate. This session will explore the academic, career and personal development related aspects of studying abroad for Sheffield students and how and why Departments can set these programmes up for professionally accredited programmes of study. Law is heavily promoting study abroad to its students - Paul will talk about how sending has had an impact on their career prospects and what can be done to convince more students to take up the opportunities. Philip will reflect on the opportunities for study elsewhere within the European Union.

11:15-12:00 Session 2:Developing communication skills for an online world

Paper: Eunice Lawton (Kroto Research Institute) Room Dainton SRC 12h

How can students articulate what they have learned to employers about advanced skills they have acquired through research? Does an advanced degree or research mean that students are limiting their potential or only making them “good” for one or two things? At the Kroto Institute, we have developed a resource that both helps our students discuss their skills and recruit those who might be interested in coming here after them. To do this, we have an online presentation skills workshop where students practice their media and communication skills in advance before attending small face-to-face workshops. Later, when they are ready, they talk about what they have done and this is recorded and put online. This supports students in talking about themselves as well as developing their media skills for future employers and a more general audience. Such recordings can enhance their CVs and support applications for fellowships and research grants. This approach can also be used to give future students information about careers they are interested in and the experience they might get here.

11:15-12:00 Session 3:My perfect cousin, what I like to do he doesn’t: Should we teach Undertones of employability in the Arts and Social Sciences? Room B81

Panel: Josh Forstenzer (Student’s Union President), Hugh Wilmott (Archaeology), Simon Middleton (History), Andrew Taylor (Politics), Rich Ward (LeTS)

Is "employability" yet another initiative that gets in the way of content? While we know that many of our former students get excellent jobs, is there a direct connection between the subject knowledge they get with an Arts and Humanities or (non-professional) Social Sciences degree that prepares them for employment? Or does the way students understand and confidently express the skills they have developed more crucial to their success in pursuing jobs? To what extent should we actively sign-post where implicit learning of core skills occurs that is not directly concerned with the knowledge of a subject? How much time away from core content is justifiable and what other implications does this have on what they "should" be learning at University? This discussion-based session will explore key differences in viewpoint about what University really prepares students for and the role of soft skills development as part of learning in Arts and Humanities and Social Sciences contexts.

11:15-12:00 CANCELLED Session 4:Is it possible to make use of students’ knowledge of their own countries to develop internationalisation skills?

CANCELLED Paper: Elena Rodriguez-Falcon (Mechanical Engineering)

Due to illness, this session will no longer take place, please choose another session. In the current climate, it is fundamental that our students not only develop their discipline-based skills but also other skills that allow them to get jobs locally, nationally and/or internationally.However, one of the most challenging aspects of developing ‘internationalisation’ skills is that students’ cultural perceptions (of themselves and others) are highly complex and at times contradictory. As a result, students tend to remain in groups with peers from their same countries missing opportunities to learn from each other.

This session will explore an easily transferable approach which may be useful to anyone interested in developing cultural awareness as a means for developing internationalisation skills. More specifically, the approach aims to make use of students’ knowledge of their own countries in order to develop internationalisation skills and potentially enhance home/international student integration.

11:15-12:00 Session 5:The “real” effects of collaborative and interdisciplinary teaching on your time and student developmentRoom A87

Paper: Roger Lewis (Mechanical Engineering)

Project work is often a central part of our student degrees (particularly in the Engineering Faculty) but the work involved in setting these interdisciplinary teaching collaborations up and supporting this work often takes an extraordinary amount of time for both students and lecturers. This session suggests that projects which stretch across departments and encourages collaboration between students provide benefits to both students and staff. Using examples of industrial design projects in Engineering, interdisciplinary projects will be used to discuss how students can specifically benefit ranging from aspects of employability, cross discipline group working and exposure to real "industrial" (or other work-based scenario) projects. This paper will look at transferable lessons learned and pitfalls to avoid using case studies from engineering industrial group design projects (in Mechanical Engineering) and the Neepsend and Parkwood Springs project (involving Civil Engineering, Landscape and Architecture) in order to start discussion.

11:15-12:00 Session 6: Are we ready for the age of the mobile? Information @ our fingertips!

Room A84 Panel: Lyn Parker (University Library), Lucy Marris (Careers Service), and Anna Nibbs (University of Sheffield Enterprise )

Travel to London on any train and it is immediately obvious that employees are conducting business through mobiles and laptops, often several devices at the same time, accessing information as required via their apps. Walk round campus and students also have their mobiles glued to their palms. But how are they using them? Are they acquiring skills that will improve their chances ofgetting a job? How can we upskill our students to use the latest technologies effectively, manage information efficiently and improve their employability? Participants will be asked to discuss these issues and share how they view their own competencies in handling information in the digital environment, how they express their experience in their CVs, research bids and enterpriseprojects. They will also be asked to consider employers' perspectives, whether these skills are explicitly included in job specifications and whether the terminology used by all stakeholders is the same.

11:15-12:00 Session 7:New Directions for Research-led Teaching

THIS SESSION IS NOW IN THE AUDITORIUM

Workshop: Phil Levy (Information School), Myles Jones (Psychology), Natasha Semmens (Law), Martine Daly and Kay Guccione (Medical School, SURE scheme), Su Arnall (Student Ambassador), Chris Clow (CiCS and ex-CILASS), Luke Desforges (LeTS)

Do Sheffield’s students see value in learning in a research-led environment? What are the benefits to students of research? The benefits of research to teaching are often evident to lecturing staff, who see the importance of disciplinary knowledge and research methods to students' understanding of the world around them. Articulating the role of research in learning is crucial to the future success of degree programmes at Sheffield. The University will need to articulate to applicants the capacities they will build through a research-led degree. The future employment of students will also depend on their ability to articulate to employers the qualities and characteristics that are founded in research-led teaching. Through a presentation and discussion, this workshop explores how students come to understand research. What sorts of learning, whether it is inspirational lectures or inquiry-based learning, really help students to really see the value of research and inquiry in learning their discipline?

11:15-12:00 Session 8:Practically “safe”: virtual environments to develop professional skills

Room Dainton 12b/c Paper: Suzie Savvidou (Psychology, CITY College)

When you have students who will eventually work with “real people,” how can they prepare to do this in a “safe” way? For example, practicing counselling within a master's level raises several issues (sometimes ethical too) that have to do with the students' readiness and the clients’ safety. However, similar services can be set in other fields too, to engage students in peer consulting that would similarly create links between the industry and the academia.

At the Psychology Dept of CITY College we provide a service where service users can write in with questions which our students answer. In a real time context, the exercising of such skills runs the risk of harming any potential client. When this takes place via email, there is space for the ‘errors’ to be corrected, before they are sent to the ‘clients’. This service creates links between students and the profession, and the majority of them remain in the service years after they graduate.

12:00-12:10 Break (to change rooms)

12:10-12:55Second choice of sessions (choose from 8)

12:10-12:55 Session 9:A short story about how we engaged students in their own education and what would be coming after... Room A85

Workshop: Rosie Parnell (Architecture), Daniel Anderson (Architecture), Sarah Ernst (Architecture), Jon Millard (Architecture)

How can we enable students to become aware of how their learning and education takes place? In this workshop, we follow the argument that students become more engaged in learning through active participation in the construction of their own education and their own field of study. The workshop explores the potential benefits and challenges of taking such an approach. We offer an introduction to ideas in critical pedagogy (which focuses on students’ understanding how education is a contested process) and participatory action-research, all of which inspired our own approach to teaching and learning. A case study from a post graduate module, “Reflections on Architectural Education”, will provoke discussion on activities such as peer-assisted learning, postgraduates mentoring undergraduates, and student led discussions. In particular, we focus on feedback from former students to reflect on how the module helped students to ‘move on’, particularly in relation to professional competencies and critical thinking. We discuss the potential development of postgraduate teaching and collaborative approaches to teaching, assessment and feedback.

12:10-12:55 Session 10:Peer-to-Peer Resource Based LearningRoom Dainton SRC12h

Paper: Amy Brown (Architecture), Jonathan Shaw (Architecture), Hellen Siu (Architecture)

How do you get students to take some ownership of their education, and to develop resourceful and interdependent future professional development? This study focuses on the idea of peer-peer discussion, learning based on reflection, and uses an online resource to platform this.

Although our resource is focused on the concept of the architectural year out in education, and is particularly relevant to similar course structures; it builds upon themes which draw upon a variety of disciplines, highlighting the need for diversity within academic practice. The study should be recognized as a tool to engage collaborative thinking between students, but also to allow a more informal relationship with tutors.

The session will be run by two students from the masters programme and will discuss the process and educational theory from which our “innovation” came about while demonstrating the website. We encourage feedback to discuss future development and other studies.

12:10-12:55 Session 11:Fitting the jigsaw together: developing and promoting employability

Room B81 Panel: Steve Beck (Faculty Director of Learning & Teaching for Engineering), Francine Lindley (Careers Service), Lucy Marris (Careers Service), Helen Grindley (Student Services)

How can staff and students make best use of the various resources designed to assist students in understanding, articulating and demonstrating their achievements and skills? How do these resources fit together? How do they help students to prepare to move into the world of work? This facilitated panel session will provide a brief overview of each of the related initiatives below and will encourage discussion to try and answer the questions above:

  • Employability in the Curriculum – development of a new credit-bearing undergraduate careers module by the Careers Service.
  • Sheffield Graduate Development Programme (formerly PDP) – the scheme which provides students with a structured and supported process for reflecting on their learning, performance and achievement.
  • Sheffield Graduate Award – the scheme which enables students to gain formal recognition for non-academic roles and activities they have undertaken.
  • Higher Education Achievement Report (HEAR) – development of an electronic document to market students' academic and non-academic achievements to employers.

12:10-12:55 Session 12:Different approaches to fostering global learning environments that work for the discipline, students and staffRoom: Auditorium

Workshop: Jenny Owen (Lecturer and Director of Teaching, School of Health & Related Research), Paul James Cardwell (Lecturer and Director of International Affairs, Law), Chris Cox (General Manager, Management School), Lesley Walker (Director, Institution-Wide Language Provision, School of Modern Languages and Linguistics), Karen Anderson & Deanna Meth (Learning and Teaching Support, LeTS)

It can feel like a monumental effort responding to the seemingly endless institutional calls to include areas like enterprise, internationalisation and employability in the curriculum, and many speak of ‘initiative-fatigue’. Often, in attempting to do this out of compliance, some feel that the course content itself is threatened. When we are ‘told’ that we need to equip students with global skills, and that we need to internationalise our courses and approaches, how do we begin to respond in a way that is meaningful and worthwhile for the students, ourselves and the discipline? Should we bother, and what will the students get from it? In this session, colleagues working in a range of contexts in four very different academic departments will discuss their approaches to this area. Participants will have time to consider how and what could work in their own areas and what this means for students.

12:10-12:55 Session 13:Group work – is it worth it? Room A87

Workshop: Rachel Horn (Civil and Structural Engineering)

Simply doing group coursework does not automatically result in students developing (or recognising that they have developed) professional skills. So is it worth it? Yet group work is a common part of everyday employment for most graduates. Consequently, in some departments a range of projects or coursework are undertaken through group work. However, many who teach it comment upon how difficult or problematic group work can be.

This session will explore several facilitation methods for group work in a range of teaching situations as well as how to enhance the benefits (in terms of professional skills) for students and make it more effective for those who teach it.

Through a series of small group discussions and exercises, the aim will be to discuss difficulties and barriers to organising group work and identify solutions by sharing experience and good practice on a range of issues including:

  • Ideas for initiating group work
  • Using group work to enhance professional skill development
  • Explore how examples and ideas discussed can be adapted to a range of subjects / teaching scenarios.

12:10-12:55 Session 14:Cultural and social engagement: motivating students and developing professional skills Room A84

Panel: Brendan Stone (English), David Forrest (English), Amanda Crawley-Jackson (French).

Can the University be a more inclusive and socially involved institution, while providing its students with skills for the outside world? Do social and cultural engagement projects detract from traditional academic practices in the arts and humanities, or do they augment and complement their delivery? Can such projects be adapted across multiple disciplines? How do students respond to working with individuals and groups from outside the University? How can students identify and develop employability skills derived from these practices?

This discussion will draw on the experience of Amanda Crawley-Jackson (Department of French) and Brendan Stone and David Forrest (School of English) and will emphasise the positive impact that such activities can have on our students, while inviting colleagues to identify points for discussion and exchange.