Reflections on Stierer’s Learning to Write

30 Apr 201930 Apr 2019

I found Barry Stierer's chapter on Learning to Write about Teaching (1) helpful. It helped me widen my mental 'frame of reference' from that of a 'scientist' to one that…

Gibbs’ cycle

30 Apr 201911 May 2019

I'm a fan of Gibbs' cycle of reflection. When something really gets under my skin (in my case it's usually someone), I run round the Gibbs' cycle to try and…

Challenges of marking

2 Mar 20192 Mar 2019

I was thinking this week about different ways of marking assignments and giving students feedback. I try pretty hard to eliminate as much subjectivity in my marking as possible and…

Poor marks

10 Nov 201815 Sep 2018

A short story as narrated by a student. I'm not sure what to do... Last week I opened up the email and looked at the spreadsheet. It took me a…

Hiring, firing and feedback

13 Sep 201813 Sep 2018

I was discussing 'student feedback' with a friend this week and we started talking about scenarios (real and imaginary) where consumer feedback (be that from students, patients, customers, clients etc)…

Bloom-in Marvellous!

7 Jul 201830 Jul 2018

This week I used my Teaching Model Canvas (TMC)  for the first time. I found it useful, not because it contained some magic ingredient, but because it prompted me to think…

Observational Evaluation

6 Jul 20186 Jul 2018

I subscribe to gatesnotes (Bill Gates’ blog, which – as you’d hope – is a very slick, professional looking website) and was reading this week about the partnership  between the…

Crossing the Thresholds

2 Jul 201813 Sep 2018

On the TLAD course we're looking at threshold concepts. This is the idea that as students learn, they come to point where they need to transition from one 'understanding' to…

Signatures

2 Jul 201811 Dec 2018

On the TLAD course we're looking at signature pedagogies. It's an idea proposed by Lee Shulman in the paper 'Signature Pedagogies in the Professions'. Coming from a science background, it's…

A conversation?

30 Jun 20189 Aug 2018

A friend lent me a copy of Jordan Peterson's 12 Rules for Life. I'm just over half way through and - if I'm honest - it's getting tough going. The…