Teaching

These are instructions for an assignment I regularly use in all of my classes. The assignment asks students to identify an author's thesis, restate it in their own words, and then articulate how the author makes their argument.

The instructions not only outline the assignment, but provide students information about formulating theses.

These are instructions for an assignment I regularly use in all of my classes. It is called a "Top Five."

After completing a reading students are asked to determine the top five things to know about the topic, person, or text the reading addresses. They are also asked to rank the top five things to know about that topic, person, or text. The assignment thus develops students' abilities to identify, evaluate, and synthesize information.

This report presents the findings and recommendations of an independent research study on the impact and implications of the Teaching Excellence and Student Outcomes Framework (TEF) on staff working in higher education (HE) provision in the UK. The study captures the views and experiences of over 6,000 UCU members working in universities and college-based HE providers in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, along with the perspectives of the Chair of the TEF assessment panel and representation from the National Union of Students (NUS). 

The introduction of the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) in 2016 marked a key turning point for HE in the UK. Never before has the ‘quality’ of HE teaching been subjected to such external scrutiny, culminating in high stakes assessment outcomes for institutions through the TEF’s medal categories of gold, silver and bronze. HE providers are still very much coming to terms with what the TEF means for them and how best to organise their institutional responses. Thus the TEF and the whole debate around the quality of teaching in HE is not only live and topical but equally one that continues to raise more questions than answers across the sector.
Between February and November 2018, a team of academic researchers from Birmingham City University (BCU), commissioned by the University and College Union (UCU), carried out an independent study aimed at plugging the gap in knowledge and research relating to the impact and implications of the TEF on those working in HE. The study aimed to investigate UCU members’ awareness, involvement and perception of the TEF and its impact on them. The project was commissioned in anticipation of UCU’s contribution to the Independent Review of the TEF in 2019. UCU also recognised the need for staff perspectives to be made more visible in the Review, which has not been the case in the development and implementation of the TEF to date, as they have largely been excluded from the process. Thus one of the unique contributions of this report to debates around teaching excellence and the TEF in particular is the inclusion of the voices and experiences of the HE workforce who are most directly affected by this policy reform.

A distinctive strength of this report and the research project it encapsulates is the scale and breadth of the sample it captures. To date, no other study has harnessed the views of such a large representation of staff working in HE provision about the TEF. The TEF and how it has impacted on the professional lives of the HE workforce was a subject about which the participants in this project had a lot to say. This report brings together a wealth of perspectives, opinions and situated experiences generated in the project data through the voices of those directly involved in and affected by the TEF.

This report has drawn on a range of evidence collected during the research project to inform its findings and recommendations. These include: 1) a literature review on teaching excellence and cognate publications; 2) an online survey of university and college-based HE staff across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland; 3) a series of national strategic seminars hosted in England and Scotland and 4) interviews with representatives from the TEF assessment panel and the NUS.

Objective: To evaluate a method aimed at teaching ultrasound techniques to medical students in emergency settings. Methods: A prospective study conducted with 66 sixth-year undergraduate medical students. Students participated in theory and practicing sessions with a 5-hour load; knowledge acquisition was assessed through pre- and post-course and 90-day tests. A questionnaire were distributed to the students after course completion for theoretical and practical knowledge assessment. Results: Average pre-test grade in theoretical content evaluation was 4.9, compared to 7.6 right after course completion, and 5.9 within 90 days (p<0.001). Questions addressing technical aspects and image acquisition were mostly answered correctly; in contrast, questions related to clinical management of patients tended to be answered incorrectly. In practical evaluation, 54 students (81.8%) were able to correctly interpret images. Conclusion: Ultrasound applicability and image acquisition techniques can be taught to medical students in emergency settings. However, teaching should be focused on technical aspects rather than clinical management of patients.

Many scientists believe that small experiments, guided by scientific intuition, are simpler and more efficient than design of experiments. This belief is strong and persists even in the face of data demonstrating that it is clearly wrong. In this paper, we present two powerful teaching examples illustrating the dangers of small experiments guided by scientific intuition. We describe two, simple, two-dimensional spaces. These two spaces give rise to, and at the same time appear to generate supporting data for, scientific intuitions that are deeply flawed or wholly incorrect. We find these spaces useful in unfreezing scientific thinking and challenging the misplaced confidence in scientific intuition. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp; Sons, Ltd.

This is a paper on how I have developed a pedagogy  and what that is to teach retired adults in two Oscher Institutes of Lifelong Learning. I explain the history, development, operation, goals and kinds of people who belong to these. Finally I tell of my experiences teaching courses in the 18th century at both places.

ABSTRACT This article examines what democracy means when it is used in academic textbook evaluations of international institutions and how the meaning of the term “democracy” in such evaluations has changed over time. An analysis of 71 textbooks on international institutions in the policy areas of international security, environmental, and human rights politics leads us to several answers. We observe slight changes in relation to three aspects. First, the range of democracy-relevant actors expands over time, most notably in relation to nonstate actors as important participants in (or even subjects of) international policymaking. Second, representational concerns become more relevant in justifying demands for greater participation in international institutions. Third, international organizations are increasingly discussed not only as subjects that enhance the transparency and accountability of the policies of their member states, but also as the objects of democratic demands for transparency and accountability themselves.

There is increasing demand to provide clinical and teaching experiences in the general practice setting. Vertical integration in teaching and learning, whereby teaching and learning roles are shared across all learner stages, has the potential to decrease time demands and stress on general practitioners, to provide teaching skills and experience to GP registrars, and to improve the learning experience for medical students, and may also help meet the increased demand for teaching in general practice. We consider potential advantages and barriers to vertical integration of teaching in general practice, and provide results of focus group discussions with general practice principals and registrars about vertical integration. We recommend further research into the feasibility of using vertical integration to enhance the capacity to teach medical students in general practice.

Four experiments investigate the differences between implicit and explicit sequence learning concerning their resilience to structural and superficial task changes. A superficial change that embedded the SRT task in the context of a selection task, while maintaining the sequence, did selectively hinder the expression of implicit learning. In contrast, a manipulation that maintained the task surface, but decreased the sequence validity, affected the expression of learning specifically when it was explicit. These results are discussed in the context of a dynamic framework (Cleeremans &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp; Jiménez, 2002), which assumes that implicit knowledge is specially affected by contextual factors and that, as knowledge becomes explicit, it allows for the development of relevant metaknowledge that modulates the expression of explicit knowledge.

Se enriquece la idea de enseñanza como puente entre Co- nocimientos Ecológicos tradicionales (CEt) y Conocimientos Científicos Escolares (CCE) y se retoman otras investigaciones. Amplía la conceptualización de las perspectivas encontradas: asimilacionista (centrada en los CCE), moral y humanista (diri- gida al reconocimiento del otro), plural epistémica y ontológi- ca (enfocada en las epistemes alternas y el sujeto) y contextual (orientada al sentido, la interpretación, los aspectos sociocul- turales, los CEt). Se concluye que los puentes son de doble vía y tienen una mayor complejidad que la planteada por los profesores. Mayores conocimientos al respecto permiten de- construir la perspectiva asimilacionista y orientar procesos de enseñanza que tengan en cuenta los demás puentes.

Many scientists believe that small experiments, guided by scientific intuition, are simpler and more efficient than design of experiments. This belief is strong and persists even in the face of data demonstrating that it is clearly wrong. In this paper, we present two powerful teaching examples illustrating the dangers of small experiments guided by scientific intuition. We describe two, simple, two-dimensional spaces. These two spaces give rise to, and at the same time appear to generate supporting data for, scientific intuitions that are deeply flawed or wholly incorrect. We find these spaces useful in unfreezing scientific thinking and challenging the misplaced confidence in scientific intuition. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp; Sons, Ltd.

Teaching the skills and knowledge required in health informatics [1] is a challenge because the skill of applying knowledge in real life requires practice. We relate the experience with introducing a practice component to a course in &quot;Health Care Quality Improvement&quot;. Working health care professionals were invited to bring an actual quality problem from their place of work and to work alongside students in running the problem through a quality improvement project lifecycle. Multiple technological and process oriented teaching innovations were employed including project sessions in observation rooms, video recording of these sessions, generation of demonstration examples and distance education components. Both students and their collaborators from the work place developed proficiency in applying quality improvement methods as well as in experiencing the realities of group processes, information gaps and organizational constraints. The principles used to achieve high involve...