Dr Nicola Rivers and Dr Dave Webster [With a hat-tip to the Thesis Whisperer] Academia is fuelled by rejection. For every article accepted or funding bid won, numerous others will have been summarily rejected, with promising ideas never seeing the light of day. In fact the constant spectre of rejection is so widely acknowledged within the academicContinue reading “Why it’s always personal… Rejection, failure and the University as a bad boyfriend”
Category Archives: Failure
Higher Education is not The Apprentice, and neither is the ‘Real World’.
Dr Nicola Rivers and Dr Dave Webster. Enabled by technology, we were discussing assessment feedback in Higher Education, while watching an episode of The Apprentice*. Although neither us of us are entrepreneurs, or teach business, or retail, courses, what initially struck us when watching the Apprentice was that it offered a certain jouissance of judging others. TheContinue reading “Higher Education is not The Apprentice, and neither is the ‘Real World’.”
Why we should be wary of thinking students just want to have fun
Dr Nicola Rivers and Dr Dave Webster. This post is borne out of hearing some in the HE sector talk about the puzzle of student engagement. This is a serious and worthwhile endeavour. Amidst the plethora of good ideas, and a lot of them relate to forms of active learning, however, we have heard the notion thatContinue reading “Why we should be wary of thinking students just want to have fun”
Academic Challenge and intellectually Stimulating Teaching: 3. Developing Engagement and Harnessing Uncertainty
Ros O’Leary & David Webster We know from research on effective learning that active engagement is a vital element in enabling students to learn – therefore activities and assessment which promote analysis, evaluation and the synthesis of ideas – across a course and beyond – will support effective learning – including discussion in class, groupContinue reading “Academic Challenge and intellectually Stimulating Teaching: 3. Developing Engagement and Harnessing Uncertainty”
Dave Webster 