Pedagogical Research Initiatives at the University of Cambridge

1. Pedagogical Research Initiatives at the University of Cambridge Naomi Irvine Centre for Applied Research in Educational Technologies, University of Cambridge

2. CARET • Educational researchers and evaluators • Software developers • Content developers • Faculty liaison • Video unit • Hosts University of Cambridge Virtual Learning Environment – CamTools • Partner site of CETL in Reusable Learning Objects

3. The Teaching for Learning Network • Network of educational researchers and university departments supporting evidence informed practice for enhancement of student teaching and learning • Intensive collaboration between groups of academic staff, educational researchers and ‘embedded researchers’, marked by the evolution of research processes, educational practices, and roles and relationships

4. Who is involved? • Department of Plant Sciences is researching the provision of small group teaching • Department of Engineering is carrying out research to supporting staff and students in improving practical experiences • The Faculty of Classics is investigating the concept of ‘confident readership’ in the ancient languages

5. A Community of Practice Staff and students Embedded domain specialists Educational experts

6. Conceptual Frameworks • Initially project drew on the conceptual frameworks of • ETL Project (Enhancing Teaching and Learning Environments in Undergraduate Education) (Entwistle, McCune, Hounsell) • Oxford Learning Context Study (Trigwell and Ashwin) • TLRP ‘Learning how to Learn’ (James et al)

7. Gathering the Evidence Base • Expansive research process and integrated design involving staff and students • Range of techniques and approaches • Documentary analysis • Practice value questionnaire • Self-efficacy questionnaire • Student focus groups • Interviews with staff • Videos of small group teaching activities

8. Emerging Analytical Framework • Teaching and Learning Practices • Making learning explicit • Motivation, engagement and contingency • Authentic learning • Student self-regulation and independence • Course, departmental and institutional activities • Constructive alignment, synthesis and throughlines • Transparency and accountability

9. Supporting Research Processes

10. Supporting the Research Community • Many of the features of a ‘strongly tied community’ • Regular meetings, multiple forms of communication, context-specific activity • Collaborative design of research instruments, data analysis and writing • Flexibility of roles, relationships and responsibilities • The ‘weak ties’ and wider community

11. What has the TfLN achieved? • Efficient process for translating research into practice • Applicability to a wide range of disciplines • Participatory approaches which engage practitioners • Development of a community of practice • Capacity building for educational research

12. Transforming Perspectives • A 7 month development project funded by the ESRC/EPSRC ‘Technology-Enhanced Learning’ Programme (Oct 2006 – Apr 2007) • Main Project aims: • the establishment of an interdisciplinary network to explore perspectives on the teaching and learning of threshold concepts across a number of disciplines • the exploration of opportunities offered by a range of technologies to support the teaching and learning of threshold concepts

13. What are Threshold Concepts? • transformative – occasioning a ‘significant shift in the perception of a subject’ • probablyirreversible – ‘the change in perspective occasioned by acquisition of a threshold concept is unlikely to be forgotten’ • integrative – exposing the ‘previously hidden interrelatedness of something’ • possibly often bounded – ‘any conceptual space will have terminal frontiers, bordering with thresholds into new conceptual areas’ • potentially troublesome – that which appears ‘counter-intuitive, alien (emanating from another culture or discourse), or incoherent (discrete aspects are unproblematic but there is no organising principle)’

14. Seminar Activities • Seminar Series A – practitioner seminars to define the nature and role of threshold concepts in a range of disciplines • Participants given • summaries of other research • models of previous enquiry • Advice on pedagogical approaches • Representatives from eight disciplines and areas carried out case studies of potential threshold concepts

15. Participant Activities • Participants identified candidate threshold concepts, carried out small-scale research activities and produced posters • They reported back to the group a month after the first seminar • Expressed different and emergent conceptualisations of threshold concepts in the disciplines • Methods and patterns of engagement selected and developed were also emergent and aligned with these

16. Case Study Toolkit

17. Case Study Posters • Candidate Threshold Concept described • Why troublesome? • Teacher perspectives • Learner perspectives • Implications • For T and L • For Assessment • For Technology

18. Vignette 1: Sports Science • Identified the ‘static paddle’ as a threshold concept • Carried out interview with teachers and learners of paddle sport activities • Issues raised: • Performative, experiential nature of sports • Cross-disciplinary exchange helped locate own viewpoint, but highlighted ‘alien’ nature of theorisation of practice to other paddlers • This is the case study that everyone seems to remember, and which seems to have had the greatest ‘transformative’ impact on seminar participants

19. Vignette 2: English Literature • Identified ‘Ethical reading in the teaching of tragedy’ • Questionnaire and extended supervision with students • Issues raised: • Emotional difficulties with concept and apparent absence of conceptual vocabulary to define it • Cross disciplinary parallel: Optimal distance determined by issues raised rather than the disciplinary context – possibly a challenge to ‘boundedness’

20. Vignette 3: Engineering • Identified ‘Spin’ – name given to rotation of a body • Documentary analysis, interviews with staff and students • Raised issues: • Interdisciplinary experience was novel • Appreciation of other disciplines’ perceptions of what it is to be complex or troublesome. (“So that’s what they get up to!”) • Are there threshold concepts for ‘internal’ and ‘external’ audiences? • What role do threshold concepts perform?

21. Methodological Issues • As well as a being case studies of the nature and role of threshold concepts, the vignettes can be seen as narratives of personal experience • Focus of expert-novice discourse within disciplinary communities, but way of representing the individual and collective identities of the participants within the temporary interdisciplinary community • Legitimation of professional and disciplinary concerns in mixed environment

22. SOLSTICE Conference Presentations

23. Acknowledgements Patrick Carmichael Helen Burchmore Naomi Irvine Classics: Timothy Hill Paul Millett Engineering: Aidan Reilly Hugh Hunt Hugh Shercliff Keith Johnstone Katy Jordan Frances Tracy

24. Contact Details and Further Information naomi@caret.cam.ac.uk tfln@caret.cam.ac.uk www.tfln.org/downloads www.caret.cam.ac.uk/tel