MAKING HIGHER EDUCATION RELEVANT TO 21ST CENTURY THINKERS

Room RB263, 2nd Floor, Rose Bowl, Leeds Metropolitan University

http://www.leedsmet.ac.uk/conferencing

TUESDAY 19 JULY 2011

2011-12 C-SAP funded projects for Criminology, Sociology & Politics will be disseminating findings at this one day workshop.

Themes include:

-    Employability

-    Student Diversity

-    Internationalisation

-    Student Dissertations

 Academics and students who are interested in these areas would benefit from attendance.

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The event is free to attend but you must register at:  

https://www.bhamonlineshop.co.uk/browse/extra_info.asp?compid=1&modid=2&prodid=327&deptid=17&catid=4

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As the landscape of Higher Education continues to change at a rapid pace, the time is right to reflect on how we teach, who we teach and how we can make a difference. This event hears from four C-SAP project holders who are making a difference in the lives of their students and provides a space for delegates to consider their own teaching practice and share ideas with people with a passion for teaching. 

10am       Arrival - Tea and coffee 
10.30       Welcome and overview of the day
10.45       SLED Dissertation Sessions - Dora Meade and Mette Wiggen (30 mins presentation + 10 mins Q&A)
11.25       Employability skills in Social Sciences: Parent and Student expectations – Katie Strudwick (30 mins pres + 10 mins Q&A)
12.05       Influencing your teaching - small group discussion

12.30       LUNCH

1.30         YouTube in the classroom: exploring the opportunities and barriers to the use of YouTube in teaching introductory sociology                 - Nick Pearce – virtual presentation (15 mins)
1.45         Promoting students' 'resilient thinking' in diverse higher education learning environments - Viv Caruana (30 mins pres + 10 mins Q&A)
2.25         Tea and coffee
2.45         Enhancing teaching - making the connections - small group discussion 
3.15         Final plenary
4pm         Close 

PRESENTATIONS

SLED Dissertation Sessions - Dora Meade and Mette Wiggen

SLED Dissertation Sessions seeks to instate deliberation alongside the undergraduate dissertation writing process by grouping all dissertations students according to their research area and providing online and face-to-face fora. The project provides the space and opportunity to discuss ideas in an informal setting, allowing students to benefit from peer assistance and advice from postgraduate students. It is an initiative by the POLIS department to provide an extra layer of support to students whilst completing their longest piece of work as an undergraduate student drawing on the extensive experience of the Student-led Discussion (SLED) Network that has been developing student-led initiatives over the last two years.

Dora Meade is the coordinator of the Student-Led Discussion Network in POLIS.

Dr Mette Wiggen is the Dissertation module leader and a Teaching Fellow in European Politics and International Development. 

Employability skills in Social Sciences: Parent and Student expectations – Katie Strudwick

The project evaluates the perceptions of the employability value of Social Science courses held by pre-university students and their parents. In doing so it further evaluates the expectations of pre entry students towards issues relating to higher education such as,  the importance to potential students of the 'return' offered by courses, the perceived value of non vocational courses within Social Sciences. Through the research with three regional schools, a greater understanding of what motivates students to engage with employability, and a harnessing what is considered important within a degree have been evaluated.

Katie Strudwick is a senior Lecturer at the University of Lincoln. 

Promoting students' 'resilient thinking' in diverse higher education learning environments - Viv Caruana

Whilst students value working in the ‘international classroom’ benefits from these cross-cultural encounters tend to be incidental in the absence of the conscious use of difference in the curriculum which is resilience-based and meaning-orientated. This project involves collaboration between Leeds Metropolitan University, University of Sheffield and Hull College of Further Education (a member of Leeds Metropolitan’s Regional University Network (RUN). Working with both students and staff within Politics and Sociology the research explores how students draw on their diverse backgrounds and community cultural capital in developing resilience within multicultural learning environments. These insights form the basis for identifying pedagogic and curriculum practices which develop social science students as future resilient thinkers capable of engaging complex, multiple and alternative world views. The project thus blends research in the field of cross-cultural capability specifically and the internationalised curriculum more generally, with research conducted in the field of resilience in order to illuminate the dynamics of the multicultural classroom. Viv has published widely in the field of internationalisation of HE drawing on a disciplinary background in Modern Economic and Social History and more recently, five years experience in education/academic development. Her research explores both internationalisation policy and practice and the nature of the internationalised curriculum in the context of the global knowledge economy and learning society. In collaboration with Nicola Spurling, she co-authored the review commissioned by the HE Academy (2007) The Internationalisation of UK Higher Education: a review of selected material. This original work has subsequently been updated by more recently commissioned research. Other recent work explores areas such as the connections between Internationalisation and Equality and Diversity and conceptualisations of global citizenship in higher education.

Dr Viv Caruana is Reader in Internationalisation and Co-director of the Centre for Academic Practice and Research in Internationalisation (CAPRI) hosted by Leeds Metropolitan University, UK.