Equality and Diversity EDDG meeting - 20th May

Vicky Gunn is interested in exploring how curricular activities influence students' experiences of inclusivity, particularly around the Equality and Diversity strands of LGBT, Race & Ethnicity, & Religious Belief. In this session she'll be looking mainly at research on LGBT experience but will also raise questions about the nature of multiple identities and their role in curriculum development that attempts to engage with the Equality and Diversity duties.

Reflective Practice discussions, 21/4/09 and 23/4/09

Some of the issues/ideas discussed included:

Can you reflect too much : paralysis by reflection ?
Need to discuss situations with colleagues/peers in order to gain insight and become more aware of our responses to situations.
We considered whether there is a particular culture/philosophy/value underpinning teaching in faculties. Would this be something that could be discussed in faculty meetings?
Some areas are involved in peer observation which can be helpful in thinking through different approaches.
Action learning sets can be used effectively to bring people together from across the college when working with particular issues. This is something that could be taken forward if there was enough interest. We could potentially try for money from the innovation fund to organise and facilitate this.
Quality and staff development days could be used to bring people together from either different faculties or with similar curriculum areas, to discuss practice issues and reflect on teaching.
It was acknowledge that EDDG in itself is a forum for reflecting on practice.
How do we help students reflect ? Discussed the use of blogs in helping before lecturers and students become more reflective. The Person and professional development unit can also be used to help students reflect more on their learning and skills development.
Reflecting our own experiences of learning, and sharing these with students can be useful for helping students feel more confident about learning.
· We need to consider the wider context within which reflection occurs.
We cannot take all responsibility for every student’s difficulties or problems, but we can be aware of how relate to students, and how we support them.

National accounts of well-being

I recently attended a seminar on how the new economics foundation (nef) . They are " attempting to present a radical new of assessing national progress to guide direction of modern lives and the lives of the people who live in them" . They provide international and national statistics on well-being and as well as surveys you can use to measure your own well-being. Despite a hesitance towards anything statistical, the seminar was extremely interesting. If you would like to know more, the website is : www.nationalaccountsofwellbeing.org.

Frank Coffield in Stirling, 11 May 2009

Professor Frank Coffield, author of 'Just Suppose Teaching and Learning Became the First Priority...' and Emeritus Professor at the Institute of Education, University of London is the keynote speaker at Scotland's College's Research Conference which will be held at Stirling on 11 May 2009.

Frank will explore and define learning and address the provocative question of whether we need theory to underpin our practice in conversation with Professor Jim Gallacher from Glasgow Caledonian's Centre for Research in Lifelong Learning. In the afternoon he will hold a research surgery for delegates, who are invited to share their research insights or to bring their research challenges and proposals for Frank and the collective brain to work on.

More information and event programme available at:
http://www.sfeu.ac.uk/events/programme/2941?print=1