Professor Helen Laville @helenlaville1, PVC Education supports the launch of a new special issue on Block Teaching #blockteachingHE

As the University prepares for the academic year 2020-2021, Prof Helen Laville, PVC Education, supports the launch of a new special issue on Block Teaching in HE at the Journal of Learning and Teaching in Action.  Inspired by the writer and essayist Lorrie Moore, Prof Laville said:

“Block blended teaching as a design solution gives us the opportunity to respond flexibly across the year, to manage staff and student workload and helps us manage campus in more controlled way. While the context for teaching and learning remains a challenging one, block teaching simplifies our structures and allows us to concentrate our efforts, managing one thing at a time.”

The guest editors of the issue, Dr Chrissi Nerantzi (UTA), Dr Gerasimos Chatzidamianos (HPSC), and Dr Nicoletta Di Ciolla (FAH), are now inviting contributions from colleagues from both the academic and professional community of the University. In their open invitation to contributors they said:

“As a response to the pandemic, some institutions in the UK (and abroad) are moving to block blended teaching in the academic year 2020/21  to create academic offers that are responsive and flexible to the current situation and the high uncertainty this brings for universities, staff and students. Our institution recognises the challenges this pandemic has brought to staff, students and the wider community. Together we are re-thinking our approaches, to re-imagine and embrace learning and teaching approaches that are flexible, inclusive and creative and celebrate the diversity of our students and staff.”

They are currently looking for contributions that capture staff reflections on the planning process of the move to block blended teaching.

If you are interested in contributing to this special issue or need any further information, please visit the Journal’s dedicated webpage and/or contact the editorial team.

Dr Chrissi Nerantzi, Dr Gerasimos Chatzidamianos, Dr Nicoletta Di Ciolla

Email: blockteachingHE@mmu.ac.uk

Twitter: #BlockteachingHE

 

Call for papers> Exploring visual representation of concepts in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education

Exploring visual representation of concepts in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education

Submission deadline – 31 July 2020

Editors:
Dr Charles Buckley and Dr Chrissi Nerantzi

Cite as: Buckley, C. and Nerantzi, C. (2018), “Exploring visual representation of concepts in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education”, International Journal of Management and Applied Research, http://ijmar.org/cfp008.html

In the forthcoming Special Issue we will explore the use various forms of visual representation within learning and teaching processes. The issue will highlight a number of innovative case studies and implications for practice relating to supporting students’ and staff’s learning and development in the context of Higher Education across the disciplines.

The use of images for communicating has been around since cave days and we now live in the most visual era of human existence. However, whilst the use of still and moving images has been spreading, especially since the wider use of social media and open practices in Higher Education in the UK and other parts of the world, there is a need to clarify and explore the benefits, potential challenges and barriers offered for learning through more creative visual representations. More and more, academics and other professionals who teach or support learning in universities are often intrigued to find out more about the potential offered through visual methods in their practice to enhance their teaching and create stimulating learning experiences for learners in face-to-face and online settings.

There has been a growing interest in using visual representation in teaching and work such as that of Mayer (2014) on Multimedia learning offers some guiding principles such as the various ways in which words and pictures can be used to enhance learning as does Jewitt’s (2012) approach to multimedia model of learning using digital technologies. The influential theory of Clark and Pavio (1991), the dual-coding theory, has also gained wide acceptance and suggests that it is easier to understand something when we combine verbal and non-verbal elements. The implications of this are obvious for teaching in most educational settings including university, especially with an ever- growing interest in enhancing learner experiences.

This Special Issue aims to go deeper in exploring the potential uses of visual representation in teaching and learning and the implications for practice in the context of higher education while showcasing the emerging work and research in this area from around the world.

We welcome articles from new and more experienced academic writers, practitioners and researchers who have been creating, using and adapting various forms of visual representation across the disciplines and professional areas. We also invitestudents who are using them for their learning at undergraduate, postgraduate or doctoral level, from around the world and would like to share their work with a wider audience through an open access issue to help us all gain new insights and deepen our understandings in this area.

We will consider the following types of contributions:

• Reflective articles (1000-3000 words)
• Research papers (3000-5000 words)
• Viewpoints (2000-3000 words)
• Innovative practice papers (3000-4000 words)
• We strongly encourage authors to include visual representations which relate to their work.

The deadline to submit your article is 30 May 2020. This Special Issue will be published in August 2020.

*Note to the UK academics, REF 2021 will consider open access publications (research articles), subject to evaluation of the article (not the journal) by panel’s external evaluators ( https://www.ref.ac.uk/media/1092/ref-2019_01-guidance-on-submissions.pdf ).

Guidelines For Authors

Papers must be original work not published elsewhere. The Journal has a preferred publication style ( http://ijmar.org/authors.html#6 ). Please submit your paper as an email attachment to submissions@ijmar.org.

Early submissions are encouraged and will be published ahead of the deadline. All papers will go through the double blind review process.

References

1. Clark, J. M. and Paivio, A. (1991), “Dual coding theory and education”, Educational Psychology Review , Vol. 3, No. 3, pp. 149-210. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01320076
2. Jewitt, C. Bezemer, J and O’ Halloran, K. (2016), Introducing Multimodality, London: Routledge
3. Mayer, R. (2014), The Cambridge Handbook of Multimedia Learning, 2nd Ed., New York: CambridgeUniversity Press.

Check out the call online at http://ijmar.org/cfp008.html

We are looking forward to your contributions. Please feel free to share more widely with colleagues who may be interested.

Charles and Chrissi

Special Issue: Our Creative Self: Understanding perceptions of creativity in learning and teaching > The call for proposals is now open #creativeHE

Dear all,

We are delighted to announce a new call for papers on a subject very close to our hearts:

Our Creative Self: understanding perceptions of creativity in learning and teaching

 

The purpose of this special edition of the PRISM journal is to showcase the unique journeys that have led the contributors to embrace and discover their creative identities, in order to improve the lived experience of higher education for both learner and facilitator. Through a series of reflective accounts, original research articles and position papers, presented in a variety of formats, the special edition will challenge the notion that creativity is a niche practice that belongs only to those who define themselves as ‘creative’. Through exploring your perceptions and experiences of creativity, we hope to provide insights into how creative approaches are developed and disrupt barriers to the creative process.

 

We encourage you to analyse and reflect on your creative practices, to illustrate your unique path to becoming a congruent educator. Your stories and journeys will equip the reader with the necessary tools to develop congruence between their personal and professional selves, in order to foster critical awareness, curiosity and confidence in themselves and their learners.

 

You can find the full details of the call here: https://openjournals.ljmu.ac.uk/index.php/prism/announcement/view/12

 

The editorial team of this Special Issue

(Anna, Emma, Neil and Chrissi)

Call for proposals: The Hidden Curricula of Higher Education (Advance HE)

AdvanceHE have a call for papers out for our publication “The Hidden Curricula of Higher Education”; a topic that Learning Developers could contribute much understanding to.

Proposal length: max 500 words

Submission deadline: Tuesday 29 October 2019, 5pm UK time

Key contact (editor): tim.hinchcliffe@advance-he.ac.uk

Further details: https://www.advance-he.ac.uk/hidden-curricula-higher-education

The Hidden Curriculum is a well-recognised phenomenon in compulsory education, acting as a “covert pattern of socialization” (Giroux and Penna, 2012). It concerns the knowledge, norms, values and attitudes that underpin the educational system and is conceptually used to explore the unstated rules of education, with notable enquiry from a number of perspectives such as functionalism, post-modernism and liberalism (Skelton, 1997).

 

Our aim with this publication is two-fold. The first is to reconcile where possible, existing knowledge and understanding of the hidden curriculum in compulsory education and transpose it to Higher Education (HE), whilst mitigating for and identifying HE’s own norms, values and beliefs. The second is to broaden the scope of enquiry to be inclusive of a wide range of students for whom unstated rules can significantly shape how they experience Higher Education.

Your proposal might focus on a particular group or groups of students, for example BAME, working class, autistic, care leavers, gender, mature and so on. Alternatively it might focus on more thematic or broader issues such as curriculum design, assessment, transitions, strategic planning, national policy, or lexicon. It could blend these or take an entirely different approach. All proposals must focus directly on the issues of learning and teaching.

We are seeking proposals for either evidence-based case studies of good practice, or thought leadership pieces on what the sector can do assist these student groups and/or tackle these issues of hidden curricula.

To be considered submissions should be no more than 500 words in length, fully referenced, and engage with the following three questions:

1. Which group(s) of students and/or thematic issue(s) do you propose to focus on?
2. Will you write an evidence-based case study, a thought leadership piece, or something else?
3. Outline your main findings and conclusions (for case studies), or line of argument and position (for thought leadership). Highlight why this is of particular interest and how it contributes to the sector’s understanding of the issue(s) raised.

Important dates to note:

 

Deadline	Activity
29 October 2019	Deadline for receipt of 500 word proposal, including title and abstract
8 November 2019	Invitations for full articles to be communicated
13 May 2020	Full articles due
May-June 2020	Review process
July 2020	Publication

The closing date for submissions is 5pm (UK time) on Tuesday 29 October 2019. Submissions and queries can be sent to the editor tim.hinchcliffe@advance-he.ac.uk clearly titled “Hidden Curricula in Higher Education”.

Further details can be found at https://www.advance-he.ac.uk/hidden-curricula-higher-education

Please share widely with networks / individuals who you think might be interested.

Kind regards,

Tim

 

Tim Hinchcliffe Senior Adviser Knowledge, Innovation and Delivery