Cranfield UniversityPGCLTAHE

Module 1: Scholarship and Philosophy of Learning and Teaching in Higher Education

February 2010

George RobertsOxford Brookes University

Purpose of the day

To analyse and reflect critically on Higher Education policy and practice and the explanatory frameworks that underpin policy and practice

Consider the “big picture”

The bits that aren’t in the “papers”ReflectionPeer review

Keep getting to know each other: peer group development!

IntroductionsIntroduce yourself and briefly say

which School/Service you are with, what you teach or how you support

learning

Discussdo you have a mentor? (Handbook p. 3)what’s a mentor?

Modular structure

Work Plan/Targets

Activity: ABCD 1Asset based community development

(ABCD)

Affective recall

Describe a time and a place in your life before you came to this job when you felt really energized and creative. Describe that situation to your partner

ABCD22 pictures

http://www.artsreview.co.za/fashion/2009/03/19/fuck-the-rainbow-nation-coz-94-changed-fokol-blackwash/

ActivityIn pairs/threes, with chart paper…

What [the heck] is “Philosophy of Higher Education”?Discuss, and on the chart paper write

one idea, that, for you, is central to this question

Agenda

http://www.xmind.net/share/georgeroberts/xmind-768070/

Agenda

Aims and intended outcomesIntended Learning Outcomes (Handbook p. 7)

Articulate a critical and scholarly review of theories of higher education and its purposes Criticality (ILO 1)

Contribute to the development of a scholarly & critical understanding of Higher Education in society

Assess the relevance of these philosophies and mechanisms in context Globalisation (ILO 2)

Apply your analysis of discourses of education and power to the sustainability of social order attributes and the institutions of society

Access (ILO 2) Apply a richer understanding of your role in higher education to the improvement

of learning for your students, yourself, your discipline and institution(s) Responsibility (ILO 2)

Explore the contingencies of “truth” as it underlies disciplinary (experimental) methods

Curricula (ILO 2) Explain and apply the concept of a hidden curriculum to objective-led learning,

teaching and assessment (and management)

Demonstrate commitment to core professional values of scholarship, development of learning communities, CPD and evaluation Community (ILO 3)

Interpret and actualise values in practice

Card sort: Issues and drivers At your table

1. Individually: sort the cards in order of the things that most influence your role

2. Choose your top 3 and briefly explain to your colleagues

3. Together: Each table choose their top 2

4. Explain to the room

BREAK

History of Ideas“purpose”

Some peopleInstitutions of society

Purpose of Higher EducationAcademic identity

Institutions of societyEstates

Production

Reproduction

Hidden curricular issues

Overt curriculum of the early modern age “3 Rs”: reading, ‘riting and ‘rithmatic.

Reproduction of these cultural goods, universal literacy and numeracy, would benefit both the individual as well as society.

Today’s overt curriculumFlexibility, community/team work,

personalisation (particularly in the ICT sense)

Covert curriculum: education as politics

Industrial era covert curriculum:Punctuality, tolerance of repetition,

subordination

Post industrial “Knowledge Economy” covert curriculumPiecework, precarity, competitionNormalisationSurveillance

Activity: let’s get criticalUniversities are supposed by the Charter [for Higher

Education, 1993] to "deliver" a "service", namely higher education to "customers", in two divisions, firstly students, and secondly business which "buys" both education and the results of commissioned research. The "delivery" to students is by way of "teaching" or "effective management of ... learning", in "courses", all of which have "aims and structures" clearly described in advance, and any of which include "transferrable skills like problem solving and effective communication". The standards of these providers of teaching are guaranteed by "quality assurance systems" which will be "regularly audited" and will enable applicants to discover “… how well different universities and colleges are performing".

Each of these phrases within quotation marks, and all of them cumulatively betray a conception of higher education which is not only not that of the university, but is actively hostile to the university.

Maskell, D. & Robinson, I. (2001). The new idea of a university. London: Haven Books.  

What’s wrong with?DeliverServiceCustomerBuysTeachingEffective management of learningCoursesAims and structuresTransferrable skills like problem solving and

effective communicationQuality assurance systemsRegularly auditedWill enable applicants to discover how well

different universities and colleges are performing

LUNCH

Learning Theory“difference”

Social and biological bases of cognition-isms and –ologies

DifferenceCriticality

Competence

Biological bases of cognition Training (whether traditional, e-learning, or blended learning) is

intimately connected and dependent on the human cognitive system. Learning means that the cognitive system acquires information and stores it for future use. If these processes do not occur properly, then the learners will not initially acquire the information, and even if they do, then they will not be able to recall it later, or/and the information will not be utilised and behaviour modified.

It does not matter if the objective is learning new information (e.g., compliance regulations, product specifications, etc.), acquiring new skills (e.g., operating new apparatus, customer service, time management, etc.), or knowledge sharing and transfer within or across organisations, the processes of acquiring, storing and applying the information are critical. The question is how do you achieve these cornerstones of learning? The answer is clear: The learning must fit human cognition.

See, e.g. Cognitive Consultants International (CCI) http://cognitiveconsultantsinternational.com/index.php?siteID=2

2 orientations towards acquiring knowledge& … 2 functions of theory

deductivefrom theory to observation

predictive

inductivefrom observation to theory

explanatory

another orientation towards acquiring knowledge

& … another function of theory

holistic

generative

So… theory is:

predictive

explanatory

generative

and, which reminds me… theory is:

nomotheticoops!

typicalOr typifying

Or typologising

So, we have a typology of theory…

a theory of theoryexplanatory

predictive

generative

typical

And the last bit?

Falsifiable

Theory vs.. ideology:

Ideology may well be predictive and explanatory, but instead of generative it is restrictive, instead of typical it is normalising and instead of falsifiable it is enforced. (Popper)

So, we have a (new) typology of theory…

a theory of theory

explanatory

predictive

generative

typical

falsifiable

Activity

We’ve had a typology, but

What’s theory for you?

Stephen Brookfield’s four “critical reflective lenses”

• our “autobiography as teachers and

learners”, i.e. through our own eyes• through our students eyes• through our colleagues’ experience and

peer review• through the theoretical literature

Theoretical literature helps us to name

our practice and to find that it is not

idiosyncratic

That’s all very well in practice,

but how does it work in theory?

... learning can be enhanced through: a consideration of the context and experience of others, familiarity with received wisdom, reflection on these, and the use of the first hand experience of the learner.

[however]

Discussions of reflection in learning often emphasise the first hand experience of the learner rather than the role of formal theory, the importance of the broader social context and the experience of others

(Dyke 2006)

Reflective practice?

Theory

Systematic codification or abstraction of:• Accumulated observations ( or assertions)• Beliefs

Conceptual framework• Model

An attempt to answer the question, “Why...?”

An approach or a perspective, e.g.:• Positivist• Socio-cultural

See De-localized Production of Scientific Knowledge. (2007, October 7). . Retrieved from http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/mediaberkman/2007/09/21/de-localized-production-of-scientific-knowledge-2/

A theory of identity…?

Academic identityDisciplinarity as a dimension of

diversity in higher education, showing an understanding of broad differences in epistemologies

Disciplinarity may affect

learning approachescurriculum outcomescurrent challengeslearner characteristics…

Discipline… is a type of power, a modality for its exercise, comprising a whole set of instruments, techniques, procedures, levels of application, targets… And it may be taken over… by institutions that use it as an essential instrument for a particular end (schools, hospitals)…

(Foucault, 1977, p. 215)

1

VAK Questionnaire

Activities

2

Think of something you have learned.

How did you learn this? What processes did you go through? What did you do to learn?

Expose hidden assumptions

Structured reduction of complexity• What is left out

Indirect object of learning• Hidden curriculum

Appropriation

Critical theory

• anti-essentialist/critical realist: the basic givens of existence are fluid and unstable

• heteroglossic/dialogic: all thinking is largely determined by prior cultural experience (ideological or identity commitment)

• language is an actor (weak linguistic determinism)

• meaning is characterised by ambiguity

• context is everything

• grand narratives are hegemonies of the powerful

Typical critical theory

Epistemologies

The study of knowledge

In here : out there

deductive : inductive

LinearBeetham

CyclicalKolbLaurillard

HierarchicalBloomSalmon

Models

Assimilative

Constructivist

Social constructivist

Situative

Beetham’s typology

Kolb’s Learning Cycle

experiencing

reflecting

thinking

planning

Conversational model

Borrowed from http://www.elicit.scotcit.ac.uk/modules/intro/unit3.htm

Levels of learning: Bloom

knowledge

comprehension

application

analysis

synthesis

evaluation

ATHERTON J S (2005) Learning and Teaching: Bloom's taxonomy [On-line] UK: Available: http://www.learningandteaching.info/learning/bloomtax.htm

Sequence & Stance

Sequence Where are you in the course? Is it

the first week or the 8th week? Have groups been used in other

settings? Do people know one another yet?

What is the interactional function of groupwork (as opposed to the instrumental or regulatory or heuristic functions?)

Maxims of stance (Scollon 1998) Channel Relationship Topic

e-Tivity Sequence

(Salmon)

Education levels and taxonomies Pedagogical pragmatism

Face

Sta

nce

Posture

BREAK

Higher Education PolicyLevels of analysis

DriversOutcomes

Pragmatics

Policy: the Big Picture

GlobalisationLiberalisationParticipationInnovation

Education and training policy replaces industrial policy as the means by which governments seek to make regions economically competitive

Critical reflection“Reflection becomes critical when it

has two distinct purposes:

… to understand how considerations of power undergird, frame and distort educational processes and interactions.

… to question [hegemonic] assumptions and practices that seem to make our teaching lives easier but actually work against our long-term interests.”

Brookfield (2005: 8)

Level/scale

personal

local

institutional

regional

sectoral

national

global

…

Impact• When

analysing policy impact it is customary to consider 3 (or 4 or 5) levels.

• The choice depends on the rhetorical aim of the analysis

http://www.geostrategis.com/p_policy.htm

http://www.crdi.ca/acca/ev-103646-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html and http://www.cbnrm.net/

Peer reviewHow have you drawn on a process of

peer review?

Formal e.g. teaching observation

Informal e.g. note of a lunch-time conversation after you gave a good lecture

Programmatic e.g. programme development team meetings, course review events, validations, examination committees, etc

ValuesCore values

Respect for learnersCommitment to scholarshipDeveloping learning communitiesEncouraging participation in higher

educationCommitment to personal CPD (or CPPD)

Outcomes Debate 2This course and others like it are

taught from a very pronounced “perspective”:

Constructive Alignment

Stated simply:Description, aims, outcomes, activity,

assessment are all clearly articulated in a common language

Outcomes Debate In the 1970s and 1980s, learning outcomes were seen as a

progressive attempt to overcome the “old-school-tie” effect where who you knew and who you were were more important factors in determining educational success and employability than what you could do.

By making learning outcomes explicit and linking them to real-world evidence, it was hoped that a greater meritocratic ethos would prevail. This became known as the “competency and outcomes movement”.

However through the 1980s and 1990s competencies and outcomes became associated in the public mind with performative targets and managerial micro-control of learning and teaching. Far from being seen as a progressive attempt to wrest education from the hands of social elites, competencies and outcomes were seen to be a reactionary imposition on academic freedom.

M-levelMasters degrees, PG Certificates and PG Diplomas i. systematic understanding of knowledge, and critical

awareness of current problems and/or new insights, much of which is at, or informed by, the forefront of their academic discipline, field of study, or area of professional practice;

ii. comprehensive understanding of techniques applicable to their own research or advanced scholarship;

iii. originality in the application of knowledge, together with a practical understanding of how established techniques of research and enquiry are used to create and interpret knowledge in the discipline;

iv. conceptual understanding that enables the student: to evaluate critically current research and advanced

scholarship in the discipline; and to evaluate methodologies and develop critiques of them and,

where appropriate, to propose new hypotheses.

Quality assurance agency for higher education (QAA) http://www.qaa.ac.uk/academicinfrastructure/FHEQ/EWNI/#framework

Looking forwardWorkshop programme

Wrap-upQuestions?

Academics anonymous

Thank youGeorge Roberts

Senior Lecturer, Educational DevelopmentOCSLD

Wheatley CampusOxford Brookes University

Oxford, OX33 1HX

groberts@brookes.ac.ukhttp://www.google.com/profiles/georgebroberts