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ESCalate Bulletin No. 21 (1 April 2005)
Discover the Best of the Web with SOSIG (www.sosig.ac.uk)
Education in the Media.
Forthcoming ESCalate events
Academic Consultants
Student Writing Award Scheme
ESRC Online Research Resource For Social Sciences
Contributing to the Bulletin
Welcome to our 21st Bulletin, the second of 2005, and what a busy time it has been, for us. In March ESCalate had a joint awayday with the Psychology Subject Centre up in Newcastle to share good practice and to see how we could work more closely together.
We have also been hard at work producing publications for your information, and enjoyment. Landing on your desks soon is a Discussion Paper by Professor Bart McGettrick, in response to the idea of teaching being a profession shaped by a Framework of Professional Standards. If you have any views in response to this piece we would be most interested to hear from you, and this could appear in a future bulletin or newsletter. We are now publishing termly newsletter, our first edition will be with you shortly.
We would also like to extend a warm welcome to two new members of the ESCalate team, based in the University of Stirling Janie McKie and Derek Young. They have written a short piece introducing themselves.
My name is Jane McKie and I began working for the ESCalate team as a half-time Research Fellow at the end of February. My background is in adult education, particularly University courses available to everyone regardless of age and prior qualifications, and I worked at the University of Warwick and the University of Edinburgh in this area before moving to the University of Stirling. My interests have always been interdisciplinary, and I look forward to engaging actively with the ESCalate priorities for research and participating in one of the many Subject Centres across the UK. I also enjoy writing creatively – both poetry and prose – and continued practice at writing is part of my own lifelong learning agenda! I have now met a few of the folk working for ESCalate, but would be happy to hear from anyone I haven't yet had a chance to meet. You can contact me at the University of Stirling (01786) 467955 or e-mail jane.mckie@stir.ac.uk
I'm Derek Young I've recently joined University of Stirling after completing a six-month term as Project Officer to the Project Development Group for the Quality Enhancement Themes -- Scotland, Student Evaluation and Feedback Project. One project included the construction of a website to provide a 'best practice' toolkit within the Scottish higher education sector.
My current projects are:
Assessment in Continuing Education departments (looking at the range of assessment practices, students perceptions of assessment, and identifying examples of good practice) and the dissemination of results through a 'Good Practice' seminar and conference presentations.
Employability and PDP in Continuing Education.
Widening participation to university study through flexible provision - database of exemplars and resources.
Organisation of Consultative Debating Forum on the implications of the quality enhancement agenda for lifelong learning.
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SOSIG aims to help students, lecturers and researchers discover the best Web resources for learning and research in all the social sciences, including Education.
It's part of the Resource Discovery Network (RDN), a national service funded by JISC to provide free Internet search and training services for UK further and higher education.
Find high quality Web sites through our Internet Catalogue, chosen by subject specialists
Search the wider Web through the Social Science Search Engine
Develop your Internet research skills using one of the tutorials in the Virtual Training Suite or come along to one of our Social Science Online seminars
Find new contacts and courses via the Social Science Grapevine, which lists conferences, course details, university departments and researchers' CVs
See What's New on the Internet relating to news and current affairs via the SOSIG Subject News Blog or receive weekly email updates tailored to your subject interests from My Account
As part of the continuing development of ESCalate website we are working towards closer integration of ESCalate resources and the SOSIG search facility.
Lesson cameras training teachers (By Justin Parkinson BBC News education reporter) http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/4268533.stm
University places 'harder to get' (BBC website)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/4334383.stm
Black boys 'segregation' rejected (BBC website)
Education takes the election stage (BBC website)
Why Tomlinson was turned down (By Mike Baker
BBC News education correspondent)
College funding levels 'unfair' (Donald MacLeod Wednesday March 2, 2005 Guardian)
http://education.guardian.co.uk/further/story/0,5500,1428854,00.html
Equality 'would double university admissions' (Donald MacLeod Wednesday January 19, 2005)
http://education.guardian.co.uk/universityaccess/story/0,10670,1394039,00.html
Internet degrees a disgraceful waste, say MPs (Rebecca Smithers, education editor
Thursday March 3, 2005)
http://education.guardian.co.uk/elearning/story/0,10577,1429017,00.html
Not playing ball with the underdogs (Donald MacLeod Thursday March 10, 2005)
http://education.guardian.co.uk/universityfunding/story/0,14337,1433936,00.html
The Events section of our website is continually updated when we are informed about events that may be of interest to our community. Click on www.escalate.ac.uk/events to see what is on soon.
Two ESCalate funded events of interest are:
1) ESCalate Conference, hosted by St Martin's College, Lancaster "Challenges and Opportunities: Developing learning and teaching in ITE across the UK." On the 19th May 2005
This forthcoming conference is for staff working in initial teacher education. Further information please contact Kate Wenham either by phone on 01524 384232, or email k.Wenham@ucsm.ac.uk or download the flyer and application form (http://www.escalate.ac.uk/index.cfm?action=events.future)
2) "Early Childhood Studies: Research to Reality" on Thursday 12 May 2005 at Manchester Metropolitan University, Geoffrey Manton Building. Organised by Escalate, Manchester Metropolitan University, and ECS Degrees Network. Click here for the booking form and further information
ESCalate is delighted to have recently taken on an academic consultant to work with us on the challenges of the increasingly international nature of FE and HE teaching. Although many issues facing international students are common to all students coming into Further and Higher education, we have become aware that some lecturers may feel inadequately prepared to work with increasingly diverse groups of students in their lecture and seminar sessions.
The work of the consultant will help ESCalate address this, partly by providing practical resources to help us all work increasingly effectively with all students.
Do get in touch if this is of particular interest to you and/ or you have something to contribute. Thank you
This has been a very successful competition; in our first year we received 14 innovative, original entries from all around the UK.
One judge commented on short listed essay, "honest, lively and to the point. Gives a sense of the real experience and the possibilities of learning from and with the students as well as showing a willingness to change, experiment and benefit from awareness of (mistaken) assumption."
All of the essays were marked anonymously by three judges, who were impressed by the high standards, making the decision of who the winner is all the harder.
The winning entry and details of the runner-up will soon be announced on the ESCalate website.
As this scheme was such a success we will definitely be running it again next year on a similar topic.
We are delighted to be able to support a number of new projects from the recent round of small/ development grant proposals. They include work on:
"The Enabling School" on factors that may support teachers in completing postgraduate professional development activity within schools,
Developing web-based materials to support the induction of new academic staff working on education courses in Higher Education, and
"Decision making and student progression in transition", customising materials for selected groups of learners.
Development Grants replace the Small Grant Programme reflecting a greater emphasis on funding work that develops practice and work already in progress. However, there are plans to add other strands of funding to the very successful ESCalate projects work. Watch this space for details as they emerge!
Interested in reviewing a book? Email jean.flowers@Bristol.ac.uk for our current list of titles. A recent delivery of new books includes the following:
Hayes D., 2004, The RoutledgeFalmer Guide To Key Debates In Education, Abingdon, RoutledgeFalmer
Ellis V., Second Edition 2004, Achieving QTS: Learning And Teaching In Secondary Schools, Exeter, Learning Matters
Pring R., 2004, Philosophy of Education, London, Continuum
Turner D.,2004, Theory of Education, London, Continuum
Boud D., Cohen R., Sampson J., (Eds), 2001, Peer Training in Higher Education, London, Kogan Page
Baume D., Kahn P., (Eds), 2004, Enhancing Staff & Educational Development, London, RoutledgeFalmer
Edwards Helen., Smith Brenda., Webb Graham., (Eds), 2001, Lecturing – Case Studies, Experience and Practice, London, Kogan Page
Kahn Peter., Baume David., (Eds), 2003, A Guide to Staff & Educational Development, London, Kogan Page.
Jarvis Peter, 2004, Adult Education and Lifelong Learning, Theory & Practice (3 Edition), London, RoutledgeFalmer.
Jaques David, 2000, Learning in Groups (3 edition),London, RoutledgeFalmer.
Roffe I., 2004, Innovation and E-Learning: E-Business for an Educational Enterprise, Cardiff, University of Wales Press.
Walliman, N., 2004, Your Undergraduate Dissertation: The Essential Guide for Success, London, Sage.
Burns, T. & Sinfield, S., 2004, Teaching, Learnig & Study Skills: A Guide for Tutors, London, Sage.
Orton, A., 2004, Learning Mathematics. London, Continuum.
Robertson, S.Ian, 2003, Types of Thinking – Psychology Focus, London, Psychology Press.
Manktelow, K, 2004, Reasoning and Thinking, London, Psychology Press.
Robertson, S. Ian, 2001, Problem Solving, London, Psychology Press
Lewis, M, Haviland-Jones,. J.M.., (Eds) 2004 (pb) Handbook of Emotions,USA The Guildford Press.
Repacholi, B., Slaughter,. (Eds) 2003, Individual Differences in Theory of Mind, NewYork, Psychology Press.
Willan., J, Parker-Rees, R, Savage, J. 2004, Early Childhood Studies, Learning Matters.
Claire, H, 2004, Teaching Citizenship in Schools, Learning Matters.
Sage, R. Wilkie M, 2004, Supporting Learning in Primary Schools (2nd Ed. ) Learning Matters.
Jones,J,2005, Management Skills in Schools – a resource for School Leaders, Paul Chapman Publishing.
Wright,A., Brandom, A-M, 2003, Learning to Teach Religious Education in the Secondary School, Routledge-Falmer.
Cohen,L., Manion,L.,Morrison,K., (Eds) 2004 (5th Ed) A Guide to Teaching Practice, Routledge-Falmer.
Kerr,P., 2005, Straightforward- (Pre-intermediate) (A multi-level course for adults and young adults),Macmillan.
Cole,M.,Cole,S.A.,Lightfoot,C., The Development of Children (Fifth Ed),Macmillan.
Davies, B. (Ed) The Essentials of School Leadership, Paul Chapman
Hart, C. Doing your Masters Dissertation, Sage Publications
Bush, T. & Middlewood, D. Leading and Managing People in Education, Sage Publications
Tomusk, Voldemar The Open World and Closed Societies, Macmillan
Biggs, Victoria., Caged in Chaos : A Dyspraxic Guide to Breaking free, Jessica Kingsley
Also keep an eye on the book review section of our website, where we are planning to keep an updated list of books to be reviewed, where you can download the list and request titles.
The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) is the UK's largest funding agency for research and postgraduate training relating to social and economic issues. ESRC is planning to launch a new website, ESRC Society Today which will provide academics, students and researchers with a valuable, free digest of social sciences research available, planned and in progress.
As well as bringing together all ESRC-funded research, the website will provide a gateway to other key online resources from the UK such as the Social Science Information Gateway (SOSIG), the UK Data Archive and the Office of National Statistics – as well as international coverage from services such as Europa.
ESRC Society Today will offer a broad picture of the latest research on the full range of social science subjects, including early findings, full texts and original data sets. Users can also establish online discussion fora, track down researchers in their key subject fields and find details on ESRC funding and training opportunities.
Register for further details at www.esrcsocietytoday.ac.uk - available in test phase from April 2005 and due to be launched in May 2005 - email societytoday@esrc.ac.uk
Kate Sturley or Katy Cosh on 0117 929 2311 or email: kates@harrisoncowley.com
Do let us have news of developments and activity in your department.
Next Bulletin: June 2005.
Deadline for Copy: 18th May, emails to Jane.Tuffill@Bristol.ac.uk
Page updated: 5 April 2005