Reflection on workshop 1 and 2
Reflecting on the workshop sessions that launched the PGcert, firstly I was fascinated by the range of all the activities used during the session to help with everyones engagement and attention spans. It was so well done that it almost felt we were being taught in stealth. I enjoyed the yarn based icebreaker as well as the timeline activity and various discussions. This is a far cry from sitting there listening to another slide presentation and being talked at for too long, I’ am already inspired by many of the activities and methodologies used in this first session. In the session it was interesting to learn about the context of higher education, especially how the Dearing report in the 1990’s paved the way for the state of higher education as we know it today. The reading I was assigned dealt how online object based learning activities are used to explore complex global and societal issue through the climate emergency lens. The reading drew a lot of parallels with the course I teach on (MA Biodesign) and I was fascinated by the analysis of botanical drawings with the Gillian Rose visual analysis method. I found it useful to discuss our readings with our peers as it helped me to solidify and reflect on what I took from the reading, which can easily be forgotten.
The second part of the workshop got us to example some scenarios, one being that of the charismatic lecturer and learning through observation. For me when I first started teaching my image of a lecturer was someone charismatic that could engage and persuade a room with any ideas, and for many of my peers they also had this image in mind. But teaching can take on many different forms and approaches. We responded to the students’ diverse needs in the last discussion of the workshop, the partner I was paired with had many crossovers even coming from vastly different disciplines from the challenges of growing cohorts to the difficulties of collaboration and group work. This first few session really opened my eyes to a lot of new theories and approaches but also gave me a sense that we are all part of a community and that everyone is in the same boat here, there is a power in the network that the course places you in, I am excited to see what comes next.