Anthony Rosie

Online pedagogies and the promotion of “deep learning”

A number of commercially produced online learning environments are in use in University departments throughout the world. This research reports on the use of the WBT “Topclass” environment in a single undergraduate module on Identity studies in a UK University. The module was explicitly interdisciplinary in scope and the pedagogy was concerned to promote “deep learning”. The pedagogy involved a dialectical approach to learning. The paper describes some of the limitations within the selected online environment and outlines strategies for further development.

‘Deep learning’ A dialectical approach drawing on tutor-ledWeb resources

The advantages of deep learning over surface learning are well known. This article suggests that students can achieve deep learning effectively by using a dialectical approach. The Web provides a means of developing resources that will enable this goal to be achieved in a variety of ways. For part-time students lack of access and lack of tutor involvement in their work are common problems. The discussion in this article illustrates how a group of part-time postgraduate students achieved such goals in a social theory course. The article shows how dialectical thinking can operate and suggests ways by which larger groups of undergraduate students can benefit from such developments.

Reward or award? Reflections on the initial experiences of winners of a National Teaching Fellowship

This paper explores the impact on winners of achieving a National Teaching Fellowship. We begin by outlining the genisis and development of the award scheme and touch on the limited literature which is available in this area. Following a description of our methodology, we then present our data. Firstly we focus on who the winners are and then on gender differences, whether the award is a reward or a millstone, and finally the impact on the individual, the degree of institutional support for winners would appear to be a major determinant of whether the award was experiences as a reward or a penalty.

’Pagan Knowledge’: a case study of post-modern theorising and youth work training

Abstract Youth worker training has existed on a formal basis for many years but the training programme can be seen as conventional. There is an emphasis on participative activity where students are encouraged to work in groups, to develop learning opportunities and to use contracts to regulate their experience. A case-study of a part-time training route provides the focus for the paper. J-F. Lyotard has developed a set of categories in his understanding of post-modernity including the notions of pagan knowledge and the figural. Two scenes from the course are analysed through Lyotards categories in order to reveal the distinctive discursive work that was taking place. Other accounts of such scenes have relied upon a clash between discourses, e.g. a discourse of oppression being countered by a different discourse. If Lyotards ideas are developed, then the dominant discourse can be seen to contain its own oppositional practices and there is no need to search for further external discourses. The case-study ...

Teaching as Enigma: A Role for Digression

ELiSS now publishes papers online when they are ready for publication and then organises them into a specific volume and issue number with accompanying editorial at a later point. This ensures accepted papers are published as soon as possible and also poses a novel issue for an editor, for she or he can hardly introduce papers already available and probably downloaded as if they are new to readers. Indeed, some of the papers in 6.1 have been available for some time, and rightly so. So what purpose can an editorial serve in this situation? Searching for links after the event where there is no overall theme is likely to prove unsuccessful. Perhaps the ‘editor as author’ might search for narratives within the field of higher education for a particular journal issue? In this editorial I consider validation and online course management requirements as texts forming a narrative to embed teaching and learning practices. We are pleased to publish six papers in this issue and particularly to introduce a commentary on a previous paper. Here Professor Judith Burnett, Pro Vice-Chancellor at Greenwich University, discusses the paper by Eric Harrison and Rob Mears on assessment in undergraduate sociology published last year in ELiSS 5.3 (Harrison & Mears 2013). The issue of assessment is an important one for all who work in higher education and social scientists have worked to develop lively assessments for students and to contribute to research and practice in assessment generally. Harrison and Mears showed that undergraduate students did not necessarily view assessment in positive terms and so their paper questioned how much progress has been made since the fund for development of teaching and learning (FDTL) study in 2001. Burnett takes this question forward and provides a lens through which many academics in the social sciences can continue to contribute reports on their pedagogic practice, research reports to ELiSS and other journals devoted to promoting learning and teaching in the social sciences.

Collaboration and Practice: From Partnership to the Over-Collaborated Learner

Every student knows a great deal about collaboration as well as collaborative learning in classrooms before they start in higher education. In the UK, sixth form and further education provision are often based on partnerships. Such partnerships do not necessarily support collaborative learning but increasingly, with developments in web technologies, there is potential for collaborative learning across dispersed classrooms. For students, collaborations of all sorts both within and outside universities include virtual networks, social media, as well as online tools. In the UK the term collaborative learning was first applied in school classrooms (Mason 1970) before becoming established in higher education. In the US collaborative learning was more firmly linked to higher education provision from the outset. Workers’ Education Association groups in both countries were sources of collaborative learning extending back to the nineteenth century (Bruffee 1993). Despite such a pedigree, collaborations, partnerships and collaborative learning have only received widespread support over the last 20 years. Costs and resourcing issues are one reason why partnership approaches are encouraged by institutions and government. Online approaches to learning have been another form of influence.

The Enigma of Capital by David Harvey. London: Profile Books. 2010

David Harvey’s work is well known to social scientists throughout the world. For economists in particular, who may feel that the teaching of neoliberal economic theory is still important, this will be a challenging read. But the book will also be a challenge for anyone in a university social science department who feels that what they do is important in its own right and the economic downturn and its effects are not directly their business. Towards the end of the book, Harvey bitingly comments: