Curriculum Commission Steering Group

20 March 2008

A geoscientist’s perspectiveon curriculum reform

David Macdonald

Head of School of Geosciences

Personal profile

• Speaking in a personal capacity

• Non-traditional academic (industry, government survey, consultancy and academia)

• Saw the tail end of the “Keele Experiment”

• Field scientist – “The truth is out there”

• Taught at Cambridge

• As HoS, concerned with the nuts and bolts

The glory of youth

Have witnessed the change from an era of trusting youngpeople to a culture of control

Conclusions?

• Challenge is important

• Trust is important

• Independence is important

• The real world is important

• Mission is important

How do we encapsulate this incurriculum reform?

• High expectations from the start

How do we raise expectations?

• Improve L1 induction: stress that they are not children any more

• Stop admitting 17 year olds?

• Introduce them to a new kind of learning and a new kindof society: residential courses (including field courses)

• New teaching methodology: Socratic dialogue replacing lectures (PRS and “Harvard” questions)

• Early assessment and re-introduction of class certificates,with the possibility of exemption

What are the blockers?

• The advising system: encourages a dependency cultureand puts academics in a clerical role

• Advising is a job with no end

• Over-teaching: stick strictly to SFC guidelines and capall face to face contact at 3 hours/credit. Have muchmore and much better SDL

• Over-assessing: fewer, better in-course assessments,testing synthetic skills

• Fewer assessments leads to more Firsts!

What do students need to know?

• Philosophy: Plato and Popper

• History of science (particularly of the great controversies)

• The history and values of the Enlightenment (including therole of geoscientists!)

• How to think, how to synthesise and how to communicate

• How to link science to society (and vice versa)

Icehouse

Greenhouse

1 cm

257 Ma

GRIP/GISP ice core

Ice disappeared in 40-50 years: SL rise of 9 m