Geraldine O'Neill

Using observation of teaching to improve quality: finding your way through the muddle of competing conceptions, confusion of practice and mutually exclusive intentions

This paper begins by reviewing some of the different models of third-party observation of university teaching that can be found in the literature. Having analysed these, it argues that—if ‘peer’ is taken to indicate equality of status—only one is genuinely a model of peer-observation. It proposes an alternative categorisation of third-party observations of teaching dependant on who controls the information generated by the process. A preferred six-dimensional model based on control by the person being observed of the data-flow, and other procedural aspects, is presented and explored. Evaluative comments, by university teachers who have undertaken the process, are presented to illustrate the benefits of adopting this model.

Supporting programme teams to develop sequencing in higher education curricula

Curriculum sequencing is central to promoting a coherent student experience. Yet in the higher education context, the concept and practice of curriculum sequencing have not been fully explored. This research examined how seven programme teams approached the issue of sequencing across two Irish higher education institutions. A phenomenological approach was used to explore actions, challenges, and enhancers to sequencing. The three key themes emerging were: developing a collective philosophy; communicating the sequencing clearly; and, developing strong building blocks. Ideas are presented on how academic developers can work with academic staff to improve sequencing in their curricula.

Giving student groups a stronger voice: using participatory research and action (PRA) to initiate change to a curriculum

Traditional student feedback mechanisms have been criticised for being teacher-centred in design and, in particular, for their absence of transparent follow-up actions. In contrast, this study describes the process and the evaluation of a participatory research and action (PRA) approach used in an undergraduate physiotherapy degree. This approach aimed to give students a stronger voice in order to identify the issues they felt were most important and to involve them in the subsequent actions to change or influence their curriculum. Using group consensus, key areas were identified by the students using a variety of PRA techniques, solutions were recommended and some actions were implemented. Both students and staff maintained that the process had gone some way to empowering students and had begun a ripple effect in relation to student involvement in ongoing curriculum design and debate.

Seeing the landscape and the forest floor: changes made to improve the connectivity of concepts in a hybrid problem-based learning curriculum

Problem-based learning (PBL) curricula utilise authentic problems that are based in the real-world of practice. This very characteristic enables students to develop an intimate knowledge about the intricacies of practice, metaphorically, seeing the details of the forest floor. However, it is equally important for students to develop an overall conceptual framework of the curriculum and understand how the different aspects of the subject domain relate to each other, i.e. seeing the landscape. This paper explores the extent to which these two aspects of curriculum design, in particular the landscape, were achieved in an ‘Education Theories’ module for lecturers in higher education. It utilises Hungs 3C3R problem-design model to help develop these connections. The findings alert curriculum designers to pay more focused attention to the holistic problem from Hungs model and the models relationship with other learning resources (lectures, etc.) in supporting connectivity in PBL hybrid curricula.

Use of social practice theory to interpret mandatory student use of laptops in learning: analysis often undergraduate business courses

Social practice theories are increasingly being used to conceptualize laptop use in teaching and learning practice. This paper draws from a focus group, in which a framework of legitimate peripheral participation (LPP) (Lave and Wenger, 1991) was applied to understand student use of laptops across ten different undergraduate business curricula programs. Given the complexities that surround technology use in learning, we examine practice, as perceived by students, as they use their laptops and interact with other student learners. We seek examples of peripheral and legitimized laptop use in practice, both in and out of the classroom. By documenting narrative of student laptop activity we aim to explore different levels of engagement in the process of peripheral and legitimate participation in learning, and use LPP to interpret the impact that mandated student laptop use has in the socially mediated active practice of learning.