TDU Talk
ISSUE 5 ▪ NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2011
CELEBRATING TEACHING EXCELLENCE
Teaching History is talking history
Dr Rowland Weston, Senior Lecturer, History Programme, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
Discussion as a core tool for facilitating critical
thinking and learning
Dr Michèle Schoenberger-Orgad, Senior Lecturer, Department of Management Communication, Waikato
Management School
‘Teaching’ a Māori perspective and approach
Mrs Sophie Nock, Senior Lecturer, School of Māori and Pacific Development
My Educational Philosophy: Metamorphic Teaching
and Learning
Ms Sue Wardill, Tutor, Te Piringa – Faculty of Law
Facilitating Learning
Ms Dianne Forbes, Senior Lecturer, Professional Studies in Education, Faculty of Education
Ensuring a Quality Learning Experience for Students
Professor Jonathan Scott, Professor, Engineering, Faculty of Science and Engineering
A Great Story-teller: Roger Brooksbank, Associate
Professor of Marketing, WMS
An interview by Dr Pip Bruce Ferguson
Kia ora koutou
“
Kia ora koutou
As always, at this time of the year we take the opportunity to
celebrate the work of Waikato University teachers. The
Teaching Excellence Awards process at all levels provides a
means for affirming our teachers as well as a professional
development opportunity for those who are nominated and
subsequently develop teaching portfolios. Every year, the
Awards period is a busy time for TDU staff, but we really enjoy working
alongside staff to encourage reflection on teaching and to help them document
their teacher thinking and practices in the most effective manner. We have also
found that for many nominees the portfolio process stimulates new levels of
engagement with teaching.
We have been rewarded with success at the national level for two years in a row.
Congratulations to Mary Fitzpatrick and Sandy Morrison for receiving National
Teaching Excellence Awards in 2011. Congratulations to the current group of
Faculty and University award winners. Judging award winners is becoming
increasingly difficult because of the competitive quality of all the entries.
One of Ako Aotearoa‘s goals in the teaching excellence awards process is to
inspire other practitioners and provide narratives about teacher learning and
classroom practices that can encourage reflection and change by other teachers.
In this way, the teaching awards can become a community learning opportunity.
To contribute to this communal learning opportunity, we invite award winning
teachers to contribute to the final edition of TDU Talk and also host the
gathering in which we celebrate teaching excellence. We hope that you will
enjoy these opportunities to learn with your colleagues and revisit your own
practices with enhanced rigour and excitement.
ISSUE 5: NOVEMBER/DECEMBER
2011
Teaching Development Unit
Wāhanga Whakapakari Ako
Private Bag 3105
Hamilton 3240
New Zealand
Phone: +64 7 838 4839
Fax: +64 7 838 4573
[email protected]
www.waikato.ac.nz/tdu
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2011 • TDU TALK
Thank you to all of you who have supported our endeavours in 2011 and those
who have contributed to our activities. We hope that you have a restful
Christmas and holiday. We look forward to working with you again in
2012.
Best wishes
.”
Dorothy and the TDU team
•2•
The Teaching Development Unit extends
warm congratulations to the 2011 winners of
Teaching Excellence Awards...
University Teaching
Excellence Awards
Chris Brough – Faculty of
Education
National Tertiary Teaching
Excellence Awards
Michèle Schoenberger-Orgad
– Faculty of Management
Dr Mary FitzPatrick, Waikato Management School
Ms Sandra Morrison, School of Māori and Pacific
Development:
Teaching Excellence in a
Kaupapa Māori Context
Sophie Nock – School of
Māori and Pacific
Development
Faculty Teaching Excellence Awards
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences: Dr Roland Weston,
History, and Dr Colin McLeay, Geography
Faculty of Computing and Mathematical Sciences: Dr Tony
Smith, Computer Science
Faculty of Education: Chris Brough, Arts and Language
Education, and Dianne Forbes, Professional Studies in
Education
Nola Campbell Memorial
eLearning Excellence Award
Dianne Forbes – Faculty of
Education
Faculty of Science and Engineering: Professor Jonathan Scott,
Engineering, and Dr Joseph Lane, Chemistry
Faculty of Law: Juliet Chevalier-Watts and Sue Wardill
School of Māori and Pacific Development: Sophie Nock, Te
Aka Reo
Waikato Management School: Dr Michèle SchoenbergerOrgad, Management Communication
•3•
Emergent Teaching
Excellence Award
Joseph Lane – Faculty of
Science and Engineering
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2011 • TDU TALK
Teaching History is talking history
Dr Rowland Weston, Senior Lecturer, History Programme, Faculty of Arts and Social
Sciences
Like many teachers, my early practice was in equal parts reiteration and
repudiation of the models to which I had been exposed as a student. As a
consequence of my own shyness I took great efforts not to place students in
uncomfortable positions, particularly with regard to speaking in class. In
retrospect, I can appreciate that I did not encourage or provide adequate
opportunities for discussion. As I designed and reflected on my own
pedagogic initiatives, it became clear that discussion underpinned the
learning taking place in all classroom activities. Brookfield and Preskill
have thoroughly and perspicaciously enumerated the myriad learning
benefits accruing from the use of ―discussion as a way of teaching‖; and I
am now convinced that it is integral to the learning process. Thus, I attempt
to create a classroom in which students are encouraged to talk and feel
comfortable doing so.
Between 2001 and 2005 I taught in a variety of papers on the Tauranga
campus invariably to classes of between 10 and 20 students. A substantial
number of these students were mature-aged and, in the main, more
committed and enthused than the average student. Upon reflection, this was
an excellent environment in which to commence a fulltime teaching career.
It enabled the development of an unusual degree of personal familiarity
with students and between students. Such conditions encourage empathy,
mutual assistance, creativity and risk-taking. My experience on the
Tauranga campus confirmed my instinct that learning best occurs in
intimate and supportive environments in which ignorance and vulnerability
are regarded as qualifications rather than disqualifications for learning.
...learning best occurs in
intimate and supportive
environments in which
ignorance and
vulnerability are
regarded as
qualifications rather
than disqualifications
for learning.
My teaching of the skills and sensitivities of the Historian accords with
Pratt‘s ―Apprenticeship Perspective‖ wherein ―teaching is the process of
enculturating learners into a specific community‖. This community
includes the wider community of professional historians as well as its
subset, the immediate classroom community. These communities of
historians have their own norms of procedure and conceptions of truth.
Truth is the outcome of dialogue within these communities and is always
provisional. In the specific classroom community I attempt to create a
situation in which the pursuit of this truth is foregrounded. As Parker J.
Palmer says, ―…to teach is to create a space in which the community of
truth is practiced‖ (p. 153). This entails both the minimalisation of egoism
and the acceptance of those subjectivities which necessitate dialogue.
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2011 • TDU TALK
•4•
“…to teach is to create a
space in which the
community of truth is
practiced.”
Parker J Palmer (p. 153)
Through classroom discussion, I hope that students derive a sense of the
thought processes and sensitivities of a more experienced practitioner of
historical analysis and communication. Pratt‘s ―Apprenticeship
Perspective‖ supposes that ―authentic‖ learning can only occur in its proper
―context‖ or ―place of…application‖. As a fundamentally discursive and
discussive discipline, then, one of History‘s ‗real life‘ places of application
is clearly the classroom community.
All summative and formative assessment items are designed to provide an
opportunity to evidence those essential skills and sensitivities of the
historian which are demonstrated and practised in all classes. These are: a
critical and empathetic engagement both with historical sources and with
other historians‘ use of these, as well as a sense of the provisional,
contested and constructed nature of all historical interpretation and
analysis, including (especially) one‘s own. Lectures are students‘ first point
of contact with me; it is my most regular and extensive opportunity to
model for them the fundamental skills of the historian. Lectures are
conducted as discussions with myself, with the evidence and with other
historiographical points of view. It is a discussion in which students are
invited to participate. In other classes and modes of assessment, students
are encouraged to emulate this model. Final exams provide the opportunity
for students to exhibit their competency in, and familiarity with, the
exercise of this scholarly-social, discursive, reflective skill set.
As a teacher, my objective has always been to minimise the elements of
luck and fear associated with exams and give students the largest possible
scope to show me what they have learned rather than what they haven‘t
learned. One strategy in this regard is to have students contribute to the
construction of the final exam. I have often spent a whole class midway
through the semester discussing with students the kind of exam questions
they believe it appropriate to ask with relation to the material we have
covered to that point. We discuss and modify these in terms of the
stipulated teaching and learning objectives of the paper and I then include
these questions on the final exam. Students respond enthusiastically to this
active involvement in the construction of their own assessment. It is also an
excellent (if surreptitious!) form of revision.
References
Brookfield, S.D. & Preskill, S. (1999). Discussion as a way of teaching.
San Francisco: Jossey- Bass.
Palmer, P. J. (1998). The courage to teach: exploring the inner landscape
of a teacher’s life. San Francisco: Jossey Bass.
•5•
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2011 • TDU TALK
Discussion as a core tool for facilitating
critical thinking and learning
Dr Michèle Schoenberger-Orgad, Senior Lecturer, Department of Management
Communication, Waikato Management School
Critical thinking is at the heart of tertiary teaching and confirms the
university‘s role as ―critic and conscience of society‖ (NZ Education Act,
1989). In my teaching I aim to contribute to the development of society by
discussing issues of social justice and what it means to safeguard our
democracy. To this end, I encourage students to think critically about their
world, the knowledge they are gaining in the university and about
themselves (Barnett, 1997). I also realise that the impact I have on my
students will impact on society and future generations. Therefore, my
teaching for learning takes place within a framework of responsibility for
students, their needs and the needs of society.
These goals require building relationships with students, understanding
who they are in terms of their cultural backgrounds, their varied learning
goals and the basic assumptions about learning they have brought to the
university. These relationships encourage dialogue between me and my
students, and with each other, so that learning is co-constructed and
recognises the importance of learners‘ experiences. I believe that a
collaborative learning framework benefits students and society and places
discussion and debate at the very core of higher learning.
In my teaching I aim to
contribute to the
development of society
by discussing issues of
social justice and what it
means to safeguard our
democracy.
In smaller classes, a more intimate relationship develops between the
teacher and members of these smaller groups. The influence that teachers
exert in these situations has more impact on students; in particular, in terms
of worldviews and in analysis of case studies and discussion examples.
Palmer (1998) suggests that issues of integrity and identity of the teacher
have a strong impact on teaching and that teaching occurs at the nexus of
public and private life. My own life experience has a clear and transparent
impact on the way I construct my own world view and, as Palmer (1998)
says: ―As we learn more about who we are, we can learn techniques that
reveal rather than conceal the personhood from which our best teaching
comes‖ (p. 24). This was reflected strongly in the design of a post-graduate
paper in which discussion-based learning was the central model which
extended to students leading discussions; using personal experience as a
basis for understanding the application of theory; working in groups on
case studies, scenarios and examples; and discussion concerning
assessment evaluation.
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2011 • TDU TALK
•6•
“discussion is a valuable
and inspiring means for
revealing the diversity of
opinion that lies just
below the surface of
almost any complex
issue” (p. 3).
Brookfield and Preskill (1999)
For me, discussion is a core tool for facilitating learning. Brookfield and
Preskill (1999) also note that ―discussion is a valuable and inspiring means
for revealing the diversity of opinion that lies just below the surface of
almost any complex issue‖ (p. 3). When the classroom environment
supports and values diverse opinions, it promotes the true practice of
democracy in action. As a teacher, I need to provide a safe and hospitable
learning environment in which students feel confident enough to express
their own ideas, opinions and assumptions. In fact, the discussion
component of any class helps the students to develop an informed
understanding of the topics in the paper; to develop a sense of their own
capacity to understand the content; to realise that there are diverse opinions
in society and that these opinions have validity; and to promote the idea of
an informed citizen who is able to act in the world (Brookfield & Preskill,
1999).
In smaller groups, I am developing my own concepts of discussion as a
way of teaching (Brookfield & Preskill, 1999) and as a principle for
facilitating learning. It is absolutely necessary to discuss the concepts and
principles around the role of discussion because students often come into a
class with preconceptions of how a class should be run. My own
experimentation in facilitating learning by discussion required me to be
open and transparent with students and to model the kinds of discussions
that I believed to be appropriate for the level of the paper. I then handed
control of discussions over to students and encouraged them to develop
their confidence in understanding and grasping the material they are
discussing. In line with my responsibility to develop critical thinking, I
want to see students questioning the material they are reading, as well as
their own assumptions about the world, and collaborating with each other
to explore concepts in some depth. This is only possible if students feel that
they are in a safe environment and they trust each other and the teacher to
provide a positive experience.
This dialogue and co-construction of the teaching and learning environment
allows students to bring themselves and their experiences into the
classroom and engage with others and the learning materials. It also
encourages students to take responsibility for their own learning and
develop their abilities as responsible citizens and as ―critics and
conscience‖ of society.
•7•
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2011 • TDU TALK
“It is not enough to
understand this world:
one must act in it.”
A leading communication scholar, Stan Deetz, frames the essence of
critical theory thus: ―It is not enough to understand this world: one must act
in it‖ (Deetz, 2005, p. 91). As teachers, we need to strive to embed this way
of thinking in all our students so that they are aware of their valuable
contributions to democratic society.
(Deetz, 2005, p. 91).
References
Barnett, R.(1997). Higher eduation: A critical business. Buckingham, UK:
The Society for Research into Higher Education & Open University Press.
Brookfield, S.D., & Preskill, S. (1999). Discussion as a way of teaching.
San Francisco: Jossey- Bass.
Deetz, S. (2005). Critical theory. In S. May and D. Mumby (Eds.),
Engaging organizational theory and research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Palmer, P. J. (1998). The courage to teach. San Francisco: Jossey Bass.
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2011 • TDU TALK
•8•
‘Teaching’ a Māori perspective and approach
Mrs Sophie Nock, Senior Lecturer, School of Māori and Pacific Development
Good teaching is
always a learning
experience for the
teacher, one in which
she or he shares with
the students a sense
of excitement and
discovery.
Teaching te reo Māori and tikanga is, for me, much more than a job. It is
my passion and I want my students to experience the sense of excitement I
had as a student (when pursuing my first degree as a mature student), the
sense that each new discovery is a koha or gift. Over the years, I have come
to believe that effective teaching is the outcome of a combination of ongoing self-reflection and a range of activities that take place over a long
period of time, activities that include detailed research, careful planning
and preparation, consultation, feedback and review. I have also come to
believe that effective teaching is interactive, participatory and challenging
but never overwhelming. Effective teaching involves a wide range of
different types of materials and activities. It attempts to draw upon the prior
experiences of learners and to accommodate the many different approaches
to learning that they exhibit. Good teaching is always a learning experience
for the teacher, one in which she or he shares with the students a sense of
excitement and discovery. I believe that everyone has the ability to learn
but that it is our job as teachers to develop and nurture that ability within
our students and to ignite in them a passion for learning. The concept of
Ako as described by Rose Pere (1982) best illustrates these approaches, that
is, fundamental to Ako is the role of the teacher and the learner, and the
transmission of knowledge and understanding through ‘Whakarongo
(listen), Titiro (look/watch), Kōrero (speak). This concept, a traditional but
not exclusively a Māori concept of teaching and learning, is determined by
and dependent on Māori epistemologies, values, knowledge and
constructions of the world. (Pihama, Smith, Taki & Lee, 2004)
Therefore, Kaupapa Māori
advancement, mātauranga
Māori perspectives and
world views, and tikanga
and te reo Māori are
central to everything that I
do as an educator, as is a
belief that it is my duty to
be creative as a teacher and
to be an effective role
model. Central to my
•9•
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2011 • TDU TALK
research, publication and teaching is a commitment to the promotion of
mātauranga Māori, something that has been modelled by my current and
previous teachers. My commitment to making full use of Māori teaching
and learning frameworks is demonstrated both in the nature of my research
on teaching and learning (in relation to which Māori frameworks are
central) and my teaching.
As a teacher of te reo Māori, I continue to develop constantly through my
own personal research and through my PhD studies. I am actively engaged
in research on language teaching and learning and have published a number
of sole authored and co-authored academic articles in this area. My PhD
thesis seeks to inform language teacher education, to evaluate (using
effectiveness criteria derived from a range of published sources) the
teaching and learning of te reo Māori in New Zealand secondary schools
with particular reference to the resources used and the teaching practices
employed, and my aim is also to make a contribution to strengthening the
teaching of te reo through an analysis of existing methods.
Fundamental to my approach to the teaching and learning of te reo Māori is
my belief in the teacher‘s role as a guardian of language and culture,
someone who appreciates and understands the ways in which cultural and
linguistic differences contribute to that diversity that is critical to human
progress.
Central to my philosophy of teaching as it relates to the teaching of te reo
Māori is communicative language teaching (CLT), an approach which
encourages and supports students as they engage actively in a wide range of
interactive learning activities (Littlewood, 1981). One of the best known
definitions of communicative language teaching is that provided by Nunan
(1991, pp. 279-295) which includes:
Fundamental to my
approach to the
teaching and learning of
te reo Māori is my belief
in the teacher’s role as a
guardian of language
and culture...
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2011 • TDU TALK

emphasis on learning to communicate through interaction in the
target language;

introduction of authentic texts into the learning situation;

provision of opportunities for learners to focus not only on language
but also on the learning process itself;

enhancement of the learner‘s own personal experiences as
important contributing elements to classroom learning; and

attempt to link classroom language learning and language activities
outside the classroom.
• 10 •
Communicative language teaching (CLT) is both progressive (where
students learn in clearly defined stages) and student-centred: the teacher
does not dominate the lesson; it is the students who do most of the talking
(almost always in the target language). CLT is therefore consistent with my
belief that language learners must be given, in a supportive environment,
every opportunity to use the target language as much as possible and I
design tasks to promote communication in the target language that has a
purpose over and above the learning of the language itself (Nock &
Crombie, 2009). Thus, for example, language that is new to the students is
always introduced in the context of language with which they are already
familiar. It is important to me that all students have an opportunity to fully
participate in lessons, including those who take a little longer than others to
process the language to which they are being introduced and/or to gain
sufficient confidence to use it in communicative contexts.
My teaching and values are heavily grounded in tikanga Māori with a
strong belief that language and culture are inextricably connected.
Therefore I try to replicate a community of learning in which concern for
others is fundamental to effective teaching and learning. In that community,
we should respect that colleagues and students bring with them a myriad of
whānau (family) wherever they may travel and regardless of where they
come from. Hence, they have an opportunity to engage in these concepts
and frameworks so that they in turn may become the leaders of their worlds
in the future. Ngā mihi nui!!
List of references
Littlewood, W. T. (1981). Communicative language teaching. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Nock, S. J. & Crombie, W. (2009). Exploring synergies between Māori
pedagogy and communicative language teaching. In He Puna KōreroJournal of Māori & Pacific Development, vol 10, No.1, February (pp. 1728).
Nunan, D. (1991). Language Teaching Methodology. London: Prentice
Hall International.
Pere, Rangimarie (1982).Ako. – Concepts and Learning in the Maori
Tradition. Working Paper No. 17. Hamilton: University of Waikato
Pihama, L., Smith, K., Taki, M. & Lee, J. (2004). The literature review on
Kaupapa Māori and Māori Education Pedagogy. Retrieved May 22, 2009
from http://akoaotearoa.ac.nz/mi/node/343
• 11 •
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2011 • TDU TALK
My Educational Philosophy:
Metamorphic Teaching and Learning
Ms Sue Wardill, Tutor, Te Piringa – Faculty of Law
When I first started teaching I had, probably like a lot of young teachers, a
naïve and idealistic idea about the ‗straightness‘ and the ‗squareness‘ of
theories, procedures and methods. All students had to do, I reasoned, was to
learn to conform to the ‗straightness‘ and ‗squareness‘ demanded of them
by the world. I thought, ―Well, that‘s easy‖. Then I learned a thing or two
about teaching and learning and working with individuals who have minds
of their own, and in the process I reflected on what I wanted my students to
achieve in their learning and how I, as a teacher, could facilitate that
process.
I consider my theory of education to be metamorphic learning - it suggests
the change I aspire to encourage in the students I teach as they evolve from
‗novices‘ to become ‗thinkers‘ in the law.
Metamorphic learning incorporates aspects of informative learning (aimed
at increasing the level of knowledge), accommodative learning (breaking
down an existing schema and changing it so a new situation can be linked
in), and transformative learning (aimed at developing the capacity for
abstract thinking so students can ask more general thematic questions about
the facts or consider perspectives and biases so that they can transform their
assumptions and, in the process, change self) (Mezirow, 1990; Kegan,
2009).
Some learning is cumulative. It goes like this: You‘ve learned ―A‖ and ―B,‖
and now you will be exposed to ―C.‖ It is elementary, but another kind of
learning is not so elementary. Metamorphic learning goes like this: You‘ve
learned ―A‖ and ―B,‖ but now we need to think about revising what you
know until you have a new and improved ―A‖ and ―B‖ so that we can get to
―C,‖ something that can only be understood if the proper foundation is in
place.
Metamorphic learning is a vulnerable process, and understandably so.
Everyone involved expects to ‗be at the table‘ when changes are suggested,
but no matter what I as the teacher might think, ultimately each student has
the right to decide what will be accepted and when and how it will be
blended with what is already known. I, as the facilitator of the process,
therefore have to proceed with skill and care and endless empathy, being
keenly aware of exactly where the ‗hammer‘ is going to ‗strike next‘ and
exactly how much ‗force‘ will be applied.
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2011 • TDU TALK
• 12 •
I have been fortunate to be involved in courses where students have the
opportunity to enhance their legal skills over a period of time. These
‗culminating‘ experiences (i.e., group presentations, mini presentations,
participating in mooting and other practical legal skills) are evaluated
continually during the law degree. These experiences leave a life-long
impression on students because they represent all that students have worked
to achieve, and become the defining experience of their undergraduate
lives. Students will often use these experiences as the ‗benchmark‘ for
evaluating much of what they do thereafter, particularly in the professional
legal world.
The manifestation of metamorphic learning is often latent and it may be
difficult to measure comprehensively in the time frame of three or four
years of undergraduate study. The experiences I strive to share with the
students as part of my teaching role (i.e., intellectual qualities and skills of
general application, the ability to think independently and critically, to
reason logically and systematically and to communicate ideas clearly, both
orally and in writing) instil in students the acquisition of ‗good habits‘. The
actual realisation that these ‗culminating‘ experiences have laid a
foundation may not become fully apparent until they mature in professional
legal practice but when I meet former students they comment on how
invaluable those ‗experiences‘ were.
References
Brookfield, S. (1991). Transformative learning as ideology critique. In Jack
Mezirow (ed), Transformative Dimensions of Adult Learning. San
Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Gardener, H. (2009). Multiple approaches to understanding. In Knud Illeris
(ed), Contemporary Theories of Learning. Oxford: Routledge.
Harris, D. & Bell, C. (1996). Evaluating and Assessing for Learning.
London: Kogan Page.
Kegan, R. (2009). What ―form‖ transforms? A constructive-developmental
approach to transformative learning. In Knud Illeris (ed), Contemporary
Theories of Learning. Oxford: Routledge.
King, P & Kitchener, K (1994). Developing Reflective Judgement. San
Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Mezirow, J. (1990). Fostering Critical Reflection in Adulthood: A Guide to
Transformative and Emancipatory Learning. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
• 13 •
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2011 • TDU TALK
Facilitating Learning
Ms Dianne Forbes, Senior Lecturer, Professional Studies in Education, Faculty of
Education
An excerpt from Dianne Forbes’ Teaching Excellence Awards portfolio. Dianne won a Faculty of
Education award, and also the University’s e-Learning Teaching Excellence Award.
A screenshot from the website my son
Rennie and I built: Rennie's world, age 6
Reciprocity – I don‘t ask students to do anything I am not prepared to do
myself as a teacher. So, when I ask them to construct a website in order to
present their work, I build a site as well. For example, my young son and I
collaborated in order to model the mentoring of website construction for
students.
See: https://sites.google.com/a/waikato.ac.nz/rennie-s-world/
The purpose is to demystify website construction for the students, to show
that it is indeed child's play. This page from our site also serves to illustrate
wider use of ICT as Rennie reviews his favourite iPad apps.
When I ask students to podcast, I create and share a podcast episode too. I
make a point of meeting all deadlines in class (e.g. returning marked
assignments and grades within 2 weeks), and communicate openly with the
students about challenges. A great many of the students I work with online
are mature people with family responsibilities, relationships, home, work
and study responsibilities, who manage admirably. I consider myself to be
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2011 • TDU TALK
• 14 •
one of them, and I tell them so. As a mother, I work and study, and juggle
the many demands and joys of adult life – I have empathy for the struggles
of our students.
Student voice and choice – I actively seek student input and incorporate
student suggestions and feedback throughout each paper – both during the
semester, while the paper is in progress, and at the end of each semester
when debriefing and looking ahead. As mentioned, where possible, I offer
Dedication: Rennie as a newborn,
choices in learning tasks and assigned work. I try to build in opportunities
teaching online.
to choose topics, means of research and presentation approaches; and I
invite students to negotiate new possibilities with me. I very often receive a
phone call or Moodle post asking ―Can I do it this way?‖ and I aim to say
―Yes, absolutely!‖ and then to offer my support in any way needed to bring
the work to a successful conclusion. I want students to think
“Dianne is professional and has creatively and critically, to offer their opinions and to do
high expectations, so I believe things differently, while always striving for high standards
everyone steps up a level in her of achievement.
paper, which is great.”
Balancing challenge with support – I maintain high
(Student TDU appraisal, Professional Practice expectations of student work and professionalism. I work to
and Inquiry 2, 2010)
deadlines, mark to criteria, and expect full commitment to
our classes. However, I balance this challenge with ample
support: I am never far away when students seek help, and I take care to
follow up when I sense a need. A well-placed phone call has been known to
prevent many a student from panicking and giving up.
E-learning is not a computer system. You cannot buy it off the shelf and
plug it in. You cannot hand it to network administrators and be done with
the job. To have an e-learning system means having people talking, writing,
teaching, and learning with each other online, via computer-based systems.
(Andrews & Haythornthwaite, 2007, p.18).
“AWESOME AWESOME
AWESOME Lecturer, Very good
at providing alternative routes
for learning, and also excellent
at scaffolding.”
(Student TDU appraisal, Professional Practice
Presence – I check in daily (and often several times each
day) to each online class, so that students never have to wait
longer than a few hours for a response to any query. There
are times when I hold back, exercise ‗wait time‘ and sit on
my ‗virtual hands‘ to avoid jumping in and rescuing students
every time they ask a question; I watch and wait while
students teach and lead. However, I am always standing by,
and Inquiry 2, 2010)
• 15 •
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2011 • TDU TALK
monitoring and ready to join in when I sense the need. To enable me to
keep my fingers on the pulses of my classes online, I make use of an
iPhone, and now have an iPad for use as part of the Faculty of Education‘s
iPad trial project.
These devices enable me to support students while mobile, and also ensure
I am challenged to further my own learning with new tools. Within class, I
make weekly announcements in order to alert students to the key tasks and
deadlines looming; I operate an ‗individual tutorial dialogue‘ for every
student online, along with email alerts to ensure I am in
“Dianne, I hope you get some
constant contact on a 1-1 basis; I join in asynchronous
form of holiday, unless you are
online discussion 2-3 times a week with each small group
writing another chapter for a
within each class; I monitor a help space where students
book. Thanks for your
post queries; and I offer ‗virtual office hours‘ via a
understanding and assistance re:
synchronous chat space in Moodle.
posting for me when I left the
country. You have created a great
References
online learning environment for
Andrews, R., & Haythornthwaite, C. (2007). The Sage
us. Cheers.”
handbook of e-learning research. London: Sage Publications.
(Student via Moodle, ICT & Information
(Chapter 1. Introduction to e-learning research. pp.1-52).
Literacy, 2011)
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2011 • TDU TALK
• 16 •
Ensuring a Quality Learning Experience for Students
Professor Jonathan Scott, Professor, Engineering, Faculty of Science and Engineering
It is wonderful to have an awards process that celebrates teaching
excellence. However, universities deserve to have a way to make sure that
all their students get a quality learning experience. Let me explain my pet
peeve.
You rely every day of your life on quality control, QC. When you buy a TV
or any piece of electronics, it is almost certain to work right out of the box.
The milk you buy comes sealed and if properly refrigerated it lasts up to
and beyond the use-by date. You may be confident that the pills you buy
have the claimed concentration of the advertised drug and no toxic
additives or by-products. All of this happens because the TV is inspected
and tested before it is shipped, the milk bottler and the drug manufacturer
test their raw materials, inspect their product before shipment, and regularly
sample some of the products, probably at more than one stage through their
factories.
Waikato, like many quality universities, has excellent Teaching Quality
Assessment (TQA). However, like most universities, it also has virtually no
TQC. This is the equivalent of testing the aspirin in the factory, but
continuing to sell it even if you suspect that there is only 375mg in the
500mg tablets. It is as absurd as packing and shipping TVs some of whose
screens may show pictures with a sickly green cast—you upset customers
and ruin your reputation. It is like discovering that every tenth low-fat milk
bottle contains cream, but not fixing the problem. In other words, it is not
enough to know you have a problem if you are not going to take strident
steps to fix it.
...universities deserve
to have a way to make
sure that all their
students get a quality
learning experience.
• 17 •
Last semester a colleague fell ill, and I picked up about half her teaching
load. Thrown in with no notice, I had no preparation time. I frankly
explained to the students that I was figuring out what to teach and how to
teach it on the fly. We talked about what background I needed to cover to
bring them up to speed. We all dug into the textbooks together. I did
virtually everything manually on the whiteboard, proofs, examples,
explanations, diagrams to put the topics into context. I photographed my
whiteboards mid-lecture, as did some students, and posted the photos on
Moodle to create notes. This might have been the most effective teaching I
have done for years, I could feel the learning happening. I have long
suspected that PowerPoint is evil, now I know it for sure.
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2011 • TDU TALK
I think I know how many milligrams of teaching there is in my course
tablets. As it happens, I was conducting some research with Wilf Malcolm
Institute of Educational Research (WMIER) colleagues, so I have some
outside confirmation of how this sudden teaching went—unexpectedly well
as it happens. TQA at work. Had it gone pear-shaped, I could have asked
for help and I have no doubt TDU would have jumped in. However, in the
normal course of things nobody need have known. If anything was
suspected, students complained or marks were irregular, I could keep my
head down. As a tenured colleague in a distant institution reflected to me a
few years ago, ―What are they going to do, fire me?‖
What is the point of having TQA if you are not using it? Sadly, if you have
read this far down, I am probably preaching to the converted. If I had one
teaching wish for Vice Chancellors, it would be ―build on TQA and make it
into TQC‖.
Make a space at your place for teaching
Some of the best learning happens through conversation and most of the working life of academics is focused around the
department. So why not make the occasional space for conversation about teaching in your department?
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2011 • TDU TALK
• 18 •
A Great Story-teller: Roger Brooksbank, Associate
Professor of Marketing, WMS
An interview by Dr Pip Bruce Ferguson
The background to this article is that when I was teaching a group recently,
one of the participants gave very warm praise for her lecturer, Roger
Brooksbank, whom she said had a great strategy to keep students motivated
during lectures and throughout the course. This involved an extended ‗story
telling‘ technique. Following the class, I contacted Roger who kindly
agreed to be interviewed and to talk a little about how he developed this
technique.
Roger believes in being as practice-relevant as possible in his teaching. He
has a combined 2nd and 3rd year paper in Marketing Strategy in which he
uses the story-telling technique, which he thought was the stimulus for my
participant‘s comment. His background includes much experience in
marketing management, and when he first began teaching, his tendency
was to build on practical experience firstly, rather than covering theory
first. He got lots of positive feedback at the time, partly, he thinks, because
it was different for the students; he‘d recently arrived from England
(eighteen years ago), and tended to be very practice-focused rather than
making heavy use of textbooks. So he turned the practice-based examples
into stories.
He uses a combination of stories, short ones, medium sized ones and very
extended ones. He sits down when planning a course, decides on the main
concepts that students need to learn, and then allocates stories that will help
them to understand those concepts. Some small concepts he illustrates with
just short stories, but the one my course participant was referring to used
one of the extended stories that was needed to convey a big concept. He
explains how he ‗embroiders‘ the stories, draws them out, and at the end of
a lecture tends to stop where there is a dilemma being faced, or some other
urgent issue to be resolved, and say students must come back to find how
the issue is dealt with. ―The students are left dangling, excited, wondering
what happens next.‖ He frequently resolves the issue in the next lecture, but
sometimes keeps students on tenterhooks until the concept is further
developed in later lectures.
• 19 •
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2011 • TDU TALK
He has two really big stories that cover foundation concepts for the whole
course. One starts at the beginning of the course, but the other doesn‘t start
until mid-course. When I asked how he developed the idea for this
extended storying idea, he said he wasn‘t too sure, but perhaps it was
reflecting on his own experience as a student. ―What really excited and
enthused me about a course, were the lecturers who tell stories. Not
necessarily as big a story as I use, but memorable stories nonetheless. ―
When Roger plans the incorporation of stories, he thinks very carefully
about the size of the story, where the natural breaks are, and where he can
incorporate them into his lectures. He plans sessions carefully, but is not
rigidly tied to his plan, diverting if student questions or comments show
that they‘ve failed to grasp the point. However, he‘s had regular feedback,
often through anecdotal comment, that students really appreciate the
stories. When students pass comments that they have enjoyed a particular
story, he asks what it was about the story that they enjoyed the most, so that
he can tailor future stories to build on their feedback. He often even gets to
the level of describing characters in the story, what they look like, how they
act, and building in a bit of humour to keep the interest going. (Roger later
spoke about the benefits of humour – how it can bring subjects and
situations to life thereby modelling behaviour that students may later use in
business).
Roger told a lovely story about when he recently went into a cycle repair
shop to get his bike fixed. As he explained the problem, a voice from the
back yelled out, ―That‘s Roger Brooksbank, isn‘t it? The Jaguar car story
man!‖ It turned out to be an ex-student, and the story was one of Roger‘s
bigger stories. ―I stick with it, because it worked out so well.‖ He said that
from time to time when students have referred to his stories, some years out
from completing the course, he has asked if they can remember the
concepts, or just the story, and they reinforce that the concepts have stuck,
because of the story. ―And that‘s the way it works for me as well.‖ Roger
thinks this is probably true for the majority of people.
We concluded the interview with encouragement from me that Roger
consider disseminating the techniques that he uses in some way. He had
mentioned that he has a large file of notes on techniques that he‘s tried and
found successful but never had time to write up. We in the TDU do
recognise the pressures on staff to publish in their discipline area, but also
encourage staff to look at ways of writing pedagogically-related papers,
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2011 • TDU TALK
• 20 •
perhaps for discipline-based journals if local cultures are not supportive of
their being published in education-related ones. Then the innovative
teaching techniques that people like Roger use can find a wider audience,
and perhaps provoke people teaching in those disciplines to try out the
strategies for themselves.
Meanwhile, if readers are interested in publications on storying as a
teaching technique, New Zealand‘s own Maxine Alterio, who won an Ako
Aotearoa Teaching Excellence award in 2010, has written a publication for
Ako Aotearoa on storying. You can see Maxine‘s shortened teaching
portfolio at http://akoaotearoa.ac.nz/community/ako-aotearoa-academytertiary-teaching-excellence/resources/pages/maxine-alterio-tertiary- and
her publication, in conjunction with Adrian Woodhouse, on digital storying
at http://akoaotearoa.ac.nz/digital-stories
Another online resource is Alterio M (2002), Using storytelling to enhance
student learning, Higher Education Academy [online] [accessed 7/7/11]
Available from the World Wide Web http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/assets/
York/documents/resources/resourcedatabase/
id471_using_storytelling_to_enhance_learning.pdf
Or locate Maxine‘s books, reference details below.
McDrury, J & Alterio, M. G. (2003). Learning through Storytelling in
Higher Education: Using reflection and experience to improve learning.
London: Kogan Page.
McDrury, J & Alterio, M. G. (2002). Learning through Storytelling: Using
experience and reflection in higher education contexts. Palmerston North:
Dunmore Press Ltd.
• 21 •
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2011 • TDU TALK
TDU Events 2012
For more information or to register, visit http://www.waikato.ac.nz/
tdu/events/index.shtml or email [email protected]
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2011 • TDU TALK
• 22 •
The Teaching Development Unit presents the:
Summer 2012 Programme
7 February – 1 March 2012 (Hamilton)
13-15 March 2012 (Tauranga)
HAMILTON
Week 1
Exploring your Teaching and Learning Beliefs*
Mon, 7 Feb, 9.00-12.00
B.G.24
An Introduction to Course Design*
Tue, 8 Feb, 9.00-12.00
B.G.24
Principles of Assessment*
Mon, 13 Feb, 9.00-12.00
B.G.24
Designing Assessment Tasks for Student Learning
Embedding Sustainability into Teaching: How Can We Teach
Sustainability When We Don’t Know What It Means?
Mon, 13 Feb, 1.00-3.00
B.G.24
Tue, 14 Feb, 10.00-12.00
B.G.24
The Marking Process
Tue, 14 Feb, 1.00-4.00
B.G.24
Becoming a Reflective Practitioner*
Wed, 15 Feb, 9.00-12.00
B.G.24
Four Ages of Lifelong Learning: combining pedagogy and
widening access in the South Wales Valleys
Wed, 15 Feb, 1.00-4.00
B.G.24
Research and Teaching*
Thu, 16 Feb, 9.00-12.00
B.G.24
A Beginner’s Guide to eLearning
Fri, 17 Feb, 9.00-12.00
TL.2.27C
Team Teaching
Mon, 20 Feb, 9.00-12.00
B.G.24
Maximising the Potential of all Your Students
Mon, 20 Feb, 1.00-4.00
B.G.24
Maximising Learning in Large Group Contexts: learning from
case studies of practice*
Tue, 21 Feb, 9.00-12.00
S.1.03
Using Storytelling in Your Teaching
Wed, 22 Feb, 9.00-12.00
B.G.24
Evaluating Your Teaching*
Wed, 22 Feb, 1.00-2.30
B.G.24
Expanding Your eLearning Horizons
Mon, 27 Feb, 9.00-12.00
TL2.27C
Tutor Day: Introduction to tutoring for tutors in FASS,
Education, Law and Management
Tue, 28 Feb, 9.00-3.00
TBC
MComm Tutor Day
Wed, 29 Feb, 9.00-3.00
TBC
Starter Strategies for Teachers
Thu, 1 Mar, 9.00-11.30
B.G.24
Exploring your Teaching and Learning Beliefs*
Tue, 13 Mar, 9.00-12.00
TBC
Introduction to Course Design*
Tue, 13 Mar, 1.00-4.00
TBC
Becoming a Reflective Practitioner*
Wed, 14 Mar, 9.00-12.00
TBC
Principles of Assessment*
Wed, 14 Mar, 1.00-4.00
TBC
Introduction to tutoring for tutors in FASS, Education, Law
and Management
Thu, 15 Mar, 9.00-12.00
TBC
Evaluating Your Teaching*
Thu, 15 Mar, 1.00-2.30
TBC
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
TAURANGA
**Note: 7 workshops marked with* are required for PGCert(TertTchg) plus one eLearning
To register, visit http://www.waikato.ac.nz/tdu/events/index.shtml or email
[email protected]
• 23 •
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2011 • TDU TALK
November /December
Professional Development at a Glance
Tue, 1 November (1.00-3.00) eLearning workshop: Online Collaboration
Wed, 2 November (1.00-3.00) Moodle One
Thu, 3 November (9.00-10.00) Moodle 2 Workshops
Thu, 3 November (10.00-12.00) Effective Writing (Part 1)
Thu, 3 November (11.30-12.30) Moodle 2 Workshops
Thu, 3 November (2.00-3.00) Moodle 2 Workshops
Tue, 8 November (8.00-4.30) General Staff Day 2011
Wed, 9 November (10.00-11.00) Google Apps Briefing Session
Wed, 9 November (1.00-3.00) Moodle Two
Thu, 10 November (10.00-12.00) Effective Writing (Part 2)
Thu, 10 November (11.00-12.00) Google Apps Briefing Session
Thu, 10 November (12.00-2.00) Supervision Conversation
Wed, 16 November (1.00-3.00) Moodle Three
Thu, 17 November (10.00-12.00) Google Docs The Whole Story—Now Full
Wed, 23 November (9.00-11.00) Values and Virtues in Contemporary Universities
Wed, 23 November (12.00-2.00) Teaching Network
Wed, 23 November (3.00-4.30) Research and Teaching (WPC only)
Thu, 24 November (10.00-12.00) Google sites—Now Full
Mon 28 November (10.00-12.00) Google Docs the Whole Story (Tauranga Campus)
Mon 28 November (1.00-3.00) Google Sites (Tauranga Campus)
Wed, 30 November (8.45-12.15) Introductory Session
Tue, 6 December (9.00-12.30) Celebrating Teaching Day
Mon, 12 December (1.00-3.00) eLearning workshop: New tools for a new year
For details or to register, visit www.waikato.ac.nz/hrm/pd
Summer 2012 Programme
February 7 to 1 March 2012 (HAM) & 13-15 March (TGA); Details on page 23
Produced by:
TEACHING DEVELOPMENT UNIT | WĀHANGA WHAKAPAKARI AKO | UNIVERSITY OF WAIKATO
Private Bag 3105 | Hamilton | New Zealand
Phone: +64 7 838 4839 | Fax: +64 7 838 4573 | [email protected] | www.waikato.ac.nz/tdu