Stimulating Teaching – Dave Webster

Is that meant to be funny?

Thinking about pedagogy, comedy, freedom and change. Also incorporating a mini-review of Laura Davis’ Ghost Machine show. Preface: I occasionally develop obsessive interests. I actually seem to accumulate them, but that’s another blog post. Of late this has taken the form of listening to the Comedian’s Comedian podcast – and one of its many virtuesContinue reading “Is that meant to be funny?”

Academic Challenge and intellectually Stimulating Teaching: 5. Becoming the subject specialist

Ros O’Leary & David Webster “Knowledge emerges only through invention and reinvention, through the restless, impatient, continuing, hopeful inquiry human beings pursue in the world, with the world, and with each other.” Paulo Freire We propose that we take learners backstage. That they are actors in the drama of learning, and not the audience. As notedContinue reading “Academic Challenge and intellectually Stimulating Teaching: 5. Becoming the subject specialist”

Academic Challenge and intellectually Stimulating Teaching: 4. Developing community and active citizenship

Ros O’Leary & David Webster The implication for thinking about learning as reconstitution of self (or transformation), puts emphasis on developing cooperative learning and learning communities. Drawing on Vygotsky , action theory (Bredo, 1997; Lave, 1996) and the idea of ‘legitimate peripheral participation’ (Lave & Wenger, 1991) becomes important. Here a novice, or our student,Continue reading “Academic Challenge and intellectually Stimulating Teaching: 4. Developing community and active citizenship”

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”

Academic Challenge and intellectually Stimulating Teaching: 2. Leadership

Ros O’Leary & David Webster The most powerful driver on student attitudes and behaviours is not what we tell them, not how we structure our sessions, not the content, but how we model our engagement with the enterprise of learning and teaching. What are we like when we stand amongst our students? We may or may notContinue reading “Academic Challenge and intellectually Stimulating Teaching: 2. Leadership”

Academic Challenge and intellectually Stimulating Teaching: 1. Cultivating Autonomy

Ros O’Leary & David Webster The first of the five areas of our Academic Challenge and intellectually Stimulating Teaching model, is Cultivating Autonomy. While not wishing to overly stress the Kantian notion of the autonomous agent, potentially atomised in neoliberal isolation, and being hostile to discourse about student resilience for related reasons, we still want toContinue reading “Academic Challenge and intellectually Stimulating Teaching: 1. Cultivating Autonomy”

Reflections on Academic Challenge and intellectually Stimulating Teaching: Our Model

Ros O’Leary & David Webster This blog emerges from our roles, as part of the University of Gloucestershire’s Academic Development Unit, working with academic teams to help them reflect on what Intellectually Stimulating Teaching and Academic Challenge might look like for them. While we intend to formalise this material, in a formal academic paper, bloggingContinue reading “Reflections on Academic Challenge and intellectually Stimulating Teaching: Our Model”