User talk:Tcurran

Welcome to UCD - CTAG! We hope you will contribute much and well. You will probably want to read the help pages. Again, welcome and have fun! WikiSysop 13:11, 27 August 2012 (UTC)

Initial Reflection

I am just trying to sort out my thoughts for this course and getting familiar with UCD OER. I am pleasantly surprised about the large number of students on this course.

For my assignment for this module "Becoming a Better University Teacher" I feel I should write a paper on my experience with the Biosystems Engineering Design Challenge.

Teaching Philosophy & Assignment Idea

Teaching Philosophy

I believe that students should be at the centre of the learning process. Learning can occur through various modes and it is important to be aware of these. I feel that as a teacher, I need to recognise the needs of students in order to achieve my goal of facilitating the learning process. Teaching is more than just passing information from one person to another. It is also important to encourage students to actively engage with me and their peers in order to reflect more on the topic and to think critically about it. I expect my students to participate and be open to learn new concepts. I feel I set reasonable goals for students so that they can engage with a topic. I know a teaching session has been successful when students appear interested and ask and answer questions during the class and afterwards.

The values that I seek to impart to my students are listening and learning in the right environment – it is important that they appreciate this from an early stage. Effective teaching can be viewed as the facilitation of effective learning. I have a range of means of engaging students - lectures, demonstrations, and problem-based learning in small groups. Although some students may have an expectation that all they need to know is the information on slides presented in a lecture, I continuously emphasise a broader approach and pause for some discussion in such situations to highlight other issues by “chalk and talk”.

My ideas about teaching have developed from my experience as a student in various courses combined with my time in industry in dealing with real-life problems as an engineer and a manager. I particularly appreciate the importance of problem-based learning as I saw the real value of it in developing solutions in industry that resulted in better process performance, improved staff morale and major cost savings for the company where I worked. Having been inspired to see that problem solving in groups really worked in a commercial setting, I incorporated it into my teaching, initially in one module and later in aspects of other modules as part of assignments. I appreciate that students should build their knowledge through constructive alignment and that this process is dynamic as modules and programmes develop over time. It is important that academics carefully consider these issues when designing all aspects of teaching activities so that the learning environment supports the achievement of the desired learning outcomes.

I believe that it is critical to reflect on my teaching on an ongoing basis by taking account of student feedback both during a semester and also from end-of-module surveys. I also feel it is beneficial to give feedback to students after assessments where possible so that they can appreciate how they can further develop their knowledge and skills in critical thinking. In this manner, there is two-way communication, thus enabling an improved teaching and learning experience that is mutually beneficial and rewarding.

Assignment Proposal

I am interested in writing a paper on my experience of developing a module BSEN10010 Biosystems Engineering Design Challenge.

My original idea was based on the fact that there was a name change for a UCD degree course in 2004 from Agricultural and Food Engineering to Biosystems Engineering. I felt it would be an ideal time to introduce a new learning experience for students with a competitive aspect also incorporated. With the help of a few colleagues, I co-ordinated an inaugural competition called the Biosystems Engineering Design Challenge.

I got a lot of inspiration for the concept from my time spent in industry before I returned as a staff member in UCD. There was a lot of emphasis in my company about the importance of teamwork and group dynamics, and that better solutions could be found for problems if a number of people with different backgrounds worked together (Robson, 2002). I also felt that my own undergraduate experience in UCD could have benefitted from such a practical learning experience.

The Challenge was initially open on a voluntary basis for first year Engineering students but was then launched as a formal module in 2005 to coincide with the UCD policy of encouraging various forms of teaching and assessment as an alternative to traditional lectures. The module was also opened to non-engineering students as a UCD Horizons elective.

The technical details of the challenge are given in Week 1 and up to seven students are assigned to each team along with a postgraduate mentor. I enjoyed the footnote by Felder (1992) that students in classes of more than 15 feel like they are invisible, so it makes sense to have smaller groups in problem solving.

The objective is to design, build and operate a device to solve a practical engineering problem. Examples of past challenges include design of a flood barrier, water recycling device and air pollutant filter.

The feedback from students has been broadly positive. Many feel that the experience has been closer to “real life” than other learning experiences. I would like to write a paper which incorporates literature to support this view of experiental learning and also to evaluate the student assessment in the module.

Scouller (2000) found that students prefer assessment which involves deeper learning. The experience to date would suggest that assessment appears to be one of the most controversial concerns in problem-based learning (Savin-Baden, 2004). Oakley et al. (2004) gives useful tips on getting teams to work effectively, some of which I have implemented.

Final Reflection

I feel that this experience has been useful to allow me to reflect on what I do as a teacher. Although I would have liked to have spent more time on the process, I now have a better appreciation of teaching and learning (theory and practice). Not only have I found beneficial information in the literature, it has also been worthwhile to hear about the experiences of other staff participating in the module.

References

Felder, R. (1992). How about a quick one? Chemical Engineering Education 26(1), 18-19.

Oakley, B., R. M. Felder, R. Brent, and I. Elhajj. 2004. Turning student groups into effective teams. Journal of Student Centered Learning 2(1): 9-34.

Robson, M. 2002. Problem-Solving in Groups (3rd Ed.). Gower, Aldershot, UK.

Savin-Baden, M. 2004. Understanding the impact of assessment on students in problem-based learning. Innovations in Education and Teaching International 41(2): 223-233.

Scouller, K. (2000) The Influence of Assessment on Student Learning. Annual Conference of the Australian Association for Research in Education, Sydney, 4-7 December 2000. Available at http://www.aare.edu.au/00pap/sco00195.htm (Accessed August 30 2012)

VARK Online test. Available at http://www.vark-learn.com/english/page.asp?p=questionnaire (accessed 2 December 2012)