This three year staff development project was set up in October 1996. It was based at the School of Ocean & Earth Science at the University of Southampton and was funded by the HEFCE Fund for the Development of Teaching and Learning.
Aims of the Project:
The Workshops:
The primary task of the project was to organise a series four to six staff development
workshops per year for three years in the area of teaching and learning in the Earth
Sciences.
The optimisation of the benefits to the Earth Science staff and, ultimately, their students, was achieved by concentrating on the current issues in Higher Education. All academic staff were encouraged to be actively involved in the project. Each workshop provided a forum for transferring and sharing good practice in teaching and learning. The main source of expertise and experience was the academic staff themselves, although relevant employers and professional bodies were also asked to contribute their perspective. In all, 13 events were organised over the three years of the project, these are listed below. The examples of good practice which were discussed at the workshops are documented on this web-site (goodpractice.htm).
1) Internet Applications in Geoscience Teaching and Learning
University of Southampton 25/03/97
2) Innovative Teaching of Large Geoscience Classes
University of Leeds, 04/06/97
3) The Use of Spreadsheets in Teaching for Geological Problem Solving
University of Birmingham, 10/09/97
4) The UK Geosciences Fieldwork Symposium
University of Leicester, 12-13/11/97
5) Computer-Based Assessment: Can it really reduce marking loads?
University of Manchester, 28/01/98
6) Integrating Effective Teamworking in the Earth Science Curriculum
Imperial College, London, 06/05/98
7) Understanding How Earth Science Students Learn
ESTA Annual Conference, HE INSET, Cheltenham and Gloucester College of HE, 11/09/98
8) Web-Based Teaching, Learning and Assessment
University College London, 23 & 24/09/98
9) The UK Geosciences Education Symposium: Assessment in the New Millenium
University of Birmingham, 11 & 12/11/98
10 & 11) Finding the Key: Key Skills and the Earth Sciences Curriculum
University of Reading, 12/05/99
University of Durham, 16/09/99
12 & 13) Back to Basics: Ideas for Teaching Basic Maths and Science Skills
Essential to the Earth Sciences
University of Bristol, 19/05/99
University of Durham, 17/09/99
Why Earth Sciences?
The HEFCE Quality Assessment of Geology (1994-95) noted that "Many institutions have
centrally organised staff development programmes which departmental staff are encouraged
to attend, but participation rate is not always high." Additionally, "the
majority of providers have no formal mechanism in place for the identification,
development and dissemination of best teaching practice among staff."
At the time, the Higher Education sector in the UK was well provided for in terms of generic staff development, but there was little in the way of focussed, subject-specific approaches.
The project leaders believed that significant improvements in the quality of education could be achieved by pooling and sharing areas of best practice among practitioners dealing with the same diversity of learning environments and linked by a common-subject matter. The extensive range of learning environments within the Earth Sciences is not exceeded by any other discipline as it includes fieldwork, personal mapping projects, self-directed project work, seminars, workshops and debates, in addition to the conventional lecture, practical and tutorial environments.
The Earth Sciences, therefore, provided an ideal testing ground for a pilot scheme of discipline-based staff development and, to this end, the three year project was established to promote and implement a series of workshop courses designed specifically for the requirements of the Earth Science community in the UK.