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Learning and Teaching Symposium

18 Apr 2018, 10:00 - 17:00

Eastern Gateway

Book now 18/04/2018 10:00:00 18/04/2018 17:00:00 Europe/London Learning and Teaching Symposium

The theme this year is Inclusion and Engagement and we have an exciting day of talks and workshops lined up for you.

We will be joined by two keynote speakers - Dr Andy Pitchford, Head of Learning and Teaching at the University of Bath, and Dr Jo Hendy, Principal Lecturer, Learning and Teaching Unit at Cardiff Metropolitan University.  They will be giving their insights on “How can we use the structure and culture of the curriculum to promote student health and wellbeing.” They will be using Lizzio’s work on student engagement to argue that an active, inclusive curriculum is most likely to promote the wellbeing of its participants and to foster belonging, purpose and identity with examples from the fields of physical activity and sport to show how such a curriculum can be constructed.

Colleagues from all colleges will be running a range of informative and interactive 45 minute workshops – simply sign up for whichever you find most interesting and create your personalised schedule for the day. Covering a fantastic array of topics as part of this year’s theme, it promises to be a day with plenty of resources, information and guidance to support you in your roles.

 

Workshops

#brunellearning

11.45-12.30pm

Inclusion and Engagement: Understanding and promoting mental health and wellness of students at University

Creating Spiritually Sensitive Contexts in Healthcare

Engaging Students in Contemporary Academic Research

Student Engagement with Feedback: how does giving / receiving feedback make you feel?

Facilitators: Kee Hean Lim and Rachel Kerslake

This workshop will examine and explore the area of mental health in the UK and specifically in relation to students at University.
• Participants will gain insight and understanding of how mental health and wellness impacts upon students at University, including areas of adjustment, engagement, social networking and academic success.
• Participants with examine how they can promote and support mental health and wellness in relation to the students.

Facilitator: Holly Nelson-Becker

This workshop will discuss ways of teaching students how to understand, be curious, and address spirituality and religion in a clinical context. Spiritual suffering is often an unmet need in healthcare settings, but students and others are often not well-trained in hosting spiritually-sensitive conversations with patients and other service users. This workshop will show attendees how to assess spiritual, religious, and existential questions and explore the diversity of spiritual expression.

Facilitator: Jacques Launay

This workshop will present a practical method of teaching undergraduate students using recently published academic research within any subject area as core source material. This follows my own experience of running lectures in this way, and very positive feedback from students on this model. The workshop will introduce a structure that allows discussion of primary research material without the need forcompulsory reading before lectures, and an examination that tests skills learned during these discussions.

Facilitators: Anne Wilson, Muireann McMorrow and Robert Molloy

Academic staff complain that students fail to engage with feedback. Students complain about the quality of the feedback they receive in every NSS. The emotional aspects of feedback are rarely explored and yet they can have an enormous impact on the trust between students and staff that is so important for learning (Ashwin 2015). This workshop will engage participants in a conversation about the emotional aspects of feedback and how they influence learning and teaching.

 12.30-1.15pm

Buffet Lunch in The Beldam

Poster presentations in ESGW foyer

1.15-2pm

Cultivating Positive Habits of Mind (HoM)

What is a Reading List for?

Student Review of Curriculum Design

Facilitator: Paula Zwozdiak-Myers

Habits of Mind (HoM) (Costa and Kallik, 2000; Marzano, 1992) is a relatively new innovation in learning and teaching, gaining currency in particular learning organisations at this time. The first part of this workshop examines theoretical influences that underpin HoM e.g. the nature of intelligence, cognitive and social learning theories and brain research. The second part of this workshop invites participants to explore how they plan curriculum, assessment and effective pedagogies to develop particular HoM.

Facilitators: Dan Croft and David Aldridge

Whilst almost every other aspect of teaching and learning has been re-examined and re-interpreted through various pedagogic lenses, Reading List practice seems to have gone on in more or less the same form as it always has. We ask ‘What is a Reading List for?’ and, using Constructive Alignment as a guide, seek to draw Reading Lists back into the heart of modern teaching practice and find ways to encourage students to engage with reading.

Facilitator: Meryl Dickinson and Jurgita Malinauskaite 

The main aims of the workshop are to demonstrate how students can effectively contribute to module design and to ensure that individual learners' needs are reflected. This aspires to ensure consistently high standards of teaching across all modules and encourages diversity in the curriculum in terms of assessments, literature, and participation. The workshop will introduce two initiatives from 2017/2018 which aim to ensure students’ are actively engaged with their teaching through direct contributions to module design and diversity within the curriculum.

2-2.15pm

Changeover – Coffee and tea available in The Beldam

2.15-3pm

Experimenting with Student-Led Sessions in Biosciences: A case study of near-peer teaching

Engaging Foundation and First Year Students throughout their Transition to Brunel

Situating Students’ Critical Thinking Skills Outside of Academia

Facilitator: Sabrina Tosi and Joanne McPhie

Near-peer learning is when students at a higher tier of study contribute to the learning of lower level students on the same course. Benefits include the sharing of informed insight into the subject and more relaxed learning environment. This workshop will look at a trial in Biosciences where 3rd year students led sessions for the Level 1 cohort, detailing the planning and approach taken, reflect on student engagement and provide a summary of feedback collected.

Facilitator: Charlotte Thackeray


This session will address pre-entry transition and how it engages students in teaching and learning both face to face and online. It will be a collaboration between the ASK team and academic staff from the College of Health and Life Sciences. Attendees of this session will be introduced to HeadStart and Flying Start and how they can get involved to engage new students to help them through their transition to Brunel.

Facilitator: Melanie Crisfield


Critical thinking skills are a crucial component of successful learning in higher education, but the development of these skills can be challenging. To help clarify transferability, I designed an activity for Education MA students in which they selected a preferred image from a set of three images. I used the students’ input to illustrate how they employed critical thinking in their daily lives and how they could apply that to their studies and future careers.

3-3.15pm

Changeover – Coffee and tea in The Beldam

3.15-4.30pm

Closing plenary in ESGW auditorium

4.30-5pm

Drinks available in ESGW foyer for further networking

 

 Eastern Gateway Join our mailing list

The theme this year is Inclusion and Engagement and we have an exciting day of talks and workshops lined up for you.

We will be joined by two keynote speakers - Dr Andy Pitchford, Head of Learning and Teaching at the University of Bath, and Dr Jo Hendy, Principal Lecturer, Learning and Teaching Unit at Cardiff Metropolitan University.  They will be giving their insights on “How can we use the structure and culture of the curriculum to promote student health and wellbeing.” They will be using Lizzio’s work on student engagement to argue that an active, inclusive curriculum is most likely to promote the wellbeing of its participants and to foster belonging, purpose and identity with examples from the fields of physical activity and sport to show how such a curriculum can be constructed.

Colleagues from all colleges will be running a range of informative and interactive 45 minute workshops – simply sign up for whichever you find most interesting and create your personalised schedule for the day. Covering a fantastic array of topics as part of this year’s theme, it promises to be a day with plenty of resources, information and guidance to support you in your roles.

 

Workshops

#brunellearning

11.45-12.30pm

Inclusion and Engagement: Understanding and promoting mental health and wellness of students at University

Creating Spiritually Sensitive Contexts in Healthcare

Engaging Students in Contemporary Academic Research

Student Engagement with Feedback: how does giving / receiving feedback make you feel?

Facilitators: Kee Hean Lim and Rachel Kerslake

This workshop will examine and explore the area of mental health in the UK and specifically in relation to students at University.
• Participants will gain insight and understanding of how mental health and wellness impacts upon students at University, including areas of adjustment, engagement, social networking and academic success.
• Participants with examine how they can promote and support mental health and wellness in relation to the students.

Facilitator: Holly Nelson-Becker

This workshop will discuss ways of teaching students how to understand, be curious, and address spirituality and religion in a clinical context. Spiritual suffering is often an unmet need in healthcare settings, but students and others are often not well-trained in hosting spiritually-sensitive conversations with patients and other service users. This workshop will show attendees how to assess spiritual, religious, and existential questions and explore the diversity of spiritual expression.

Facilitator: Jacques Launay

This workshop will present a practical method of teaching undergraduate students using recently published academic research within any subject area as core source material. This follows my own experience of running lectures in this way, and very positive feedback from students on this model. The workshop will introduce a structure that allows discussion of primary research material without the need forcompulsory reading before lectures, and an examination that tests skills learned during these discussions.

Facilitators: Anne Wilson, Muireann McMorrow and Robert Molloy

Academic staff complain that students fail to engage with feedback. Students complain about the quality of the feedback they receive in every NSS. The emotional aspects of feedback are rarely explored and yet they can have an enormous impact on the trust between students and staff that is so important for learning (Ashwin 2015). This workshop will engage participants in a conversation about the emotional aspects of feedback and how they influence learning and teaching.

 12.30-1.15pm

Buffet Lunch in The Beldam

Poster presentations in ESGW foyer

1.15-2pm

Cultivating Positive Habits of Mind (HoM)

What is a Reading List for?

Student Review of Curriculum Design

Facilitator: Paula Zwozdiak-Myers

Habits of Mind (HoM) (Costa and Kallik, 2000; Marzano, 1992) is a relatively new innovation in learning and teaching, gaining currency in particular learning organisations at this time. The first part of this workshop examines theoretical influences that underpin HoM e.g. the nature of intelligence, cognitive and social learning theories and brain research. The second part of this workshop invites participants to explore how they plan curriculum, assessment and effective pedagogies to develop particular HoM.

Facilitators: Dan Croft and David Aldridge

Whilst almost every other aspect of teaching and learning has been re-examined and re-interpreted through various pedagogic lenses, Reading List practice seems to have gone on in more or less the same form as it always has. We ask ‘What is a Reading List for?’ and, using Constructive Alignment as a guide, seek to draw Reading Lists back into the heart of modern teaching practice and find ways to encourage students to engage with reading.

Facilitator: Meryl Dickinson and Jurgita Malinauskaite 

The main aims of the workshop are to demonstrate how students can effectively contribute to module design and to ensure that individual learners' needs are reflected. This aspires to ensure consistently high standards of teaching across all modules and encourages diversity in the curriculum in terms of assessments, literature, and participation. The workshop will introduce two initiatives from 2017/2018 which aim to ensure students’ are actively engaged with their teaching through direct contributions to module design and diversity within the curriculum.

2-2.15pm

Changeover – Coffee and tea available in The Beldam

2.15-3pm

Experimenting with Student-Led Sessions in Biosciences: A case study of near-peer teaching

Engaging Foundation and First Year Students throughout their Transition to Brunel

Situating Students’ Critical Thinking Skills Outside of Academia

Facilitator: Sabrina Tosi and Joanne McPhie

Near-peer learning is when students at a higher tier of study contribute to the learning of lower level students on the same course. Benefits include the sharing of informed insight into the subject and more relaxed learning environment. This workshop will look at a trial in Biosciences where 3rd year students led sessions for the Level 1 cohort, detailing the planning and approach taken, reflect on student engagement and provide a summary of feedback collected.

Facilitator: Charlotte Thackeray


This session will address pre-entry transition and how it engages students in teaching and learning both face to face and online. It will be a collaboration between the ASK team and academic staff from the College of Health and Life Sciences. Attendees of this session will be introduced to HeadStart and Flying Start and how they can get involved to engage new students to help them through their transition to Brunel.

Facilitator: Melanie Crisfield


Critical thinking skills are a crucial component of successful learning in higher education, but the development of these skills can be challenging. To help clarify transferability, I designed an activity for Education MA students in which they selected a preferred image from a set of three images. I used the students’ input to illustrate how they employed critical thinking in their daily lives and how they could apply that to their studies and future careers.

3-3.15pm

Changeover – Coffee and tea in The Beldam

3.15-4.30pm

Closing plenary in ESGW auditorium

4.30-5pm

Drinks available in ESGW foyer for further networking