Hi
We want to use this blog to start the conversation before the Forum event (and possibly extend it after the event). We’ve provided information about the event in the buttons above. I have tried to put links to all the units, centres, institutes and universities who have helped publicise this event in the Blogroll box on the left. If you want your website linked here email me
Please post Comments in response to blogs. We have tried to use the Categories to help you filter what you read.
Start with the Archive in the right column – most will be posted in May 2008. Alternatively, you could go straight to the information about the theme in which you are interested by selecting the appropriate Category from the list in the box on the right.
Hope you find it useful. Feedback or suggestions welcome!
Kenny
Deputy Director, PRSI
Univ of Gloucestershire
Forum Flyer (Word doc)
Booking Form (Word doc)
Draft Programme (Word doc)
PS: if you are new to blogging, this 3 minute video from Commoncraft.com is worth a look:
If you like this they have more on podcasting, wikis, RSS and others…
May 22, 2008 at 8:29 pm |
Hello, I am helping to organise the Forum and I am looking forward to meeting you all – both on the day and in the blog! We hope to get lists of participants, presenters and poster titles listed here before the end of the month. So keep coming back here to take a look for updates. Jane
May 27, 2008 at 12:10 pm |
Welcome to the ‘Research into Higher Education’ Forum blog! We are trialling this as a medium for engaging participants before the Forum. Please give us feedback!
I head up the Pedagogic Research and Scholarship Institute (PRSI) at the University of Gloucestershire. The Institute has a key remit to capacity build in the ‘Research into Higher Education’ or PedR area. We are working in partnership with colleagues inside and outside the University to develop further our research activity in this area. The ‘Research into Higher Education’ Forum is designed to encourage interaction and collaboration with colleagues beyond the University of Gloucestershire who are working in our research theme areas.
• Internationalisation and the curriculum.
• Linking research, knowledge exchange, practice and teaching
• Education for Sustainable Development
• Technology enhanced learning
• Engaging diverse communities in the curriculum
• Academic leadership in HE
We look forward to welcoming you to University of Gloucestershire, Cheltenham on the 12th June and to lively discussions on the day. We have set up a varied programme of activities to facilitate dialogue. More will follow shortly.
Best wishes, Lindsey
Professor Lindsey McEwen
Director – Pedagogic Research and Scholarship Institute (PRSI)
University of Gloucestershire
May 28, 2008 at 3:44 pm |
Hi Jane and Lyndsey,
Great idea to use technology to start the forum off – I hope you get some comments on the blog, and I’m looking forward to meeting everyone face to face on the day. I thought you might like to have a look at our (quite new) ‘Researching Higher Education’ wiki (http://rhen.wikispaces.com/) which we’re using to try and get more contact and communication between pedagogic researchers (or researchers of higher education?!) at the University of Plymouth. If anyone else is looking at this blog, I’d like to hear your views on whether ‘pedagogic research’, and ‘researching higher education’ are the same or different (we agonised over the name for ages!) – does it matter?!
See you soon,
Debby
Dr Debby Cotton
Research advisor,
Educational Development,
University of Plymouth
May 30, 2008 at 4:24 pm |
Dear Debby
We also had similar debates with colleagues in Northampton in the run up to launching the Forum (what we should call it!). The same issue was considered briefly the SEDA/SHRE conference on Developing Pedagogic Research (may not be the exact title!) that ran last year. My understanding is that ‘Research into Higher Education’ encompasses more than solely research into pedagogy. I agree that there is not a universally agreed term/ description.
Best wishes, Lindsey
May 30, 2008 at 4:25 pm |
Sorry I should have added:
Prof. Lindsey McEwen
Director of PRSI, University of Gloucestershire
June 2, 2008 at 9:52 pm |
Hi Lindsey,
Yes, I agree that the difference ought to be that researching HE is a wider term, and this is why we selected it ultimately. However, I suspect that pedagogic research is actually used a lot more widely than simply refering to research on pedagogy and the term seems to have acquired a strong resonance within the academic community, so I’m not now sure that we made the right decision! Is all the research which comes under the banner of the PRSI strictly about pedagogy – rather than say curriculum, or lecturers’ attitudes/ beliefs etc?
Debby
Dr Debby Cotton
Research advisor
Educational Development
University of Plymouth
June 3, 2008 at 12:41 pm |
Hi Debby
thanks for sharing your RHEN wiki. Ive added it to the blogroll. Looks like a useful resource for HE researchers in Plymouth and beyond.
Thanks
Kenny
June 7, 2008 at 11:39 am |
Hi Debby
I agree that the term ‘pedagogic research’ could be construed in a much narrower sense than our rather flexible use! We inherited the name of the Institute and Kenny and I had much angst at the start of our leadership about whether we should change the title. In the end we decided it was more important to get on with the research development without focusing too narrowly on boundaries. We therefore have a very inclusive approach to research in the higher education area. Indeed we are looking across to links and transferability between themes in ‘Research into Higher Education’ and subject-based research (e.g. themes of equality and social/ environmental justice) as a way of engaging more colleagues.
I look forward to discussing further on Thursday. Thanks for sharing your wiki.
Best wishes,
Lindsey McEwen
Director, PRSI
June 7, 2008 at 11:48 am |
We look forward to welcoming everyone to University of Gloucesteshire, Cheltenham on Thursday!
I’d like to say a special thank you to the key colleagues at Northampton, Oxford Brookes and Coventry for their enthusiasm, support and positive feedback when I originally approached them about the idea of a Forum at the start of the year.
Dr. Caroline Stainton, Director of Learning and Teaching, University of Northampton
Dr Val Clifford, Deputy Head, Oxford Centre for Staff and Learning Development, Oxford Brookes University
Professor Sue Law, Head of Research, Centre for the Study of Higher Education (CSHE) Coventry University
It is great that six other Higher Education Institutions are now joining us – as word about the Forum has spread among colleagues and their networks.
It all augurs for a lively and different day!
Best wishes, Lindsey
Director – PRSI
University of Gloucestershire
June 9, 2008 at 1:13 pm |
Hi to anyone reading this blog, who will be attending on 12 June.
I have very recently moved from being a course director on the Education for Sustainability Programme at London South Bank University to a research post at the University of Gloucestershire. One of my research interests relates to pedagogy through the influence of the sustainable design of learning spaces. I look forward to meeting colleagues with an overlapping interest either on 12 June or here on the blog.
Glenn
June 10, 2008 at 4:05 pm |
I fear that “pedagogic” is a rather pretentious and high-falutin’ term for “teaching” and I would prefer that teachers in higher education avoided using such language. Only then will we be able to promote clear and accessible communication. But then I’m also critical of any institution (the Uni of Glos in this case) that feels it has to refer to “reading lists” or “recommended material” as “indicative resources”!
With luck my book on Copywriting published by AVA this month will help stimulate the debate on clear expression, where I suggest that words can lose their edge if jargon is thoughtlessly applied, especially where Latinate terms are favoured in place of simple language – as if that somehow makes the writer or speaker more academic or profound.
Rob Bowdery, Senior Lecturer, Advertising, University of Gloucestershire
June 16, 2008 at 11:46 am |
I have some sympathy with Rob’s point. When I worked in training we used the term Androgogy derived I recall from the work of Malcolm Knowles. He referred to Androgogy as the study of learning in adults and pedagogy with being concerned with learning in children. Still an obscure term alas.
Surely what we are about in education is communication – to make common – if we give ourselves and our endeavours obscure titles we tend to alienate the very people we are attempting to help.
Alan