A geography degree in the 21st century: what should it be? Brian Whalley Queens University Belfast...

A geography degree in the 21st century:

what should it be?

Brian WhalleyQueens University Belfast

[email protected]

(like)?And how it might help attraction & retention

NB, for this GEES website version I have: i. Added the ‘Stickies’ responses from the session ( lilac slides) ii Added some pertinent references (pale green slide) iii Included some other slides that might have gone into a session for a longer period within the sequence but not shown (marked *) iv At the end some slides developing some of the ideas (these mainly relate to developing ideas in explicit/tacit knowledge and skills implementation etc.

GEES conference 2007

What is the greatest problem we face with our students

(please vote, for all of the following)

• Retention• Engagement• Attending lectures• Attending tutorials• Results: too long a ‘tail’

– ie too many 3rds and 2iis, or too few 1st and 2i

• Others?• Are any of these linked?


*Question If you are a ‘teacher’, what are

you in your subject (at HE, FE) for?• To research?

– Subtext: to produce research students?

• To teach geography?– Subtext: to really get them to understand my L3

option?

• To empower students to become good graduates– Subtext: to instill a good measure of ‘graduateness’

And what do your colleagues/HoD/VC think you are there to do?


Posing the question:where are we coming from?

• Questions at school career meetings– What can I do with ‘geography’?– What can my son/daughter do with it?

• Our responses:– Pretty much anything…..

• Special sessions for brain surgery

– Ok, well Masters Courses can lead on

• The unstated questions:– What can students do with ‘a degree’?– How do we cope with 50% participation?


Being provocative……..• The late 20C curriculum is Victorian!• Geography (or E or ES) knowledge doesn’t

matter (as such)• Some intervention ideas

– Do what the government wants us to do– Do what students want - employability skills– What cognitive psychology suggests we might do– What I suggest (!) increase coursework, decrease

essays and essay exams - these are elitist.

• Moreover, we need assessment methods which are experiential and relate to employability


So, what do properties do you want a geography graduate to

have in 2010?• So - you’ve guessed it• Take a Post It• Write on two attributes

– No more than a two word phrase– (as large as possible)

• Pass the PI to the end of the line– Please stick it on the large sheet (see next 3

pages for results)• Then think about how we did this operation [we often

have to be quite explicit and perhaps assume tacit knowledge]


Workshop comments:What do you want a geography (GEES)

graduate to be? 1• Computing skills• Ability to critically assess information• Community Awareness• Appropriate skills• Far seeing• Do the job• Interpret• Synthesise• Literacy curiosity• Capacity to think• Capacity to apply knowledge in a range of relevant

contexts


What do you want a geography (GEES) graduate to be? 2

• Able to articulate ‘debates’ in written/oral form• Confident, independent learners• Know about geography at an appropriate level• Confident, articulate flexible• Application of knowledge• Ability to research independently• Request assistance• Numeracy & Literacy• Good communicator• Good researcher


What do you want a geography (GEES) graduate to be? 3

• Ability to recognise relevance of subject knowledge• Flexible• Independent• Executive summary• Mathematical skills• Problem solving• Desire to continue learning• Problem solving• Appreciate scientific/quantitative base to physical

processes• Willingness to grapple with ‘difficult’ aspects of

study


* Where are we going to?

The concept of ‘Graduateness’– Graduate standards programme (report)

Using:– Benchmarks– ‘better’ ways of teaching– Assessment - more experiential– Recognising tacit knowledge requirements– ‘Feedback’ methods


How are we getting there?

• Attracting more students• With (probably) continuingly decreased

resources• Fewer staff• A continued research culture • Implications for attracting• Implications for retaining students


Now, why did I say ……

• The late 20C curriculum is Victorian!

• Do you agree? (Hands show)• Reasons for ‘Yes’• Reasons for ‘No’


How do we get from there to here?

• Using a Victorian legacy!– Yes, I think it is (see also quote in Notes section)

– Think about the way we do things;• Assessment, exams and CA• Write all you know about …..• What is in your lab report, field note book?• Filling 24 t-table slots with 24 lectures• Scribbling comments on essays and calling this ‘feedback’

• Doing this with students from a league table environment– More on this from elsewhere


* Drew 1998………

This model of a liberal education for an elite few and these prejudices against vocational education and skills persist, despite the evidence of Britain’s relative economic difficulties in the global context. The British higher education system was designed for a minority, for an age when knowledge changed slowly, and when jobs were frequently ‘for life’, whereas in the modern world, there is mass participation in higher education, knowledge and technology advance rapidly and short contract and portfolio work is increasing

Quote from Washer 2007


* Employment and Employability

• Government (and HEA) statement• Leitch report (you might not like it but…)• http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/media/523/43/leitch_finalreport051206.pdf

• Employers etc (see presentations by Chris Thomas and Tony Grindrod)

• Do our ‘Victorian’ colleagues see employability as a dirty word?


* If we want to go there, how might we get there?

• And what is the relationship to retention?• Engagement? - what do we mean?

– See next slide

• Initial Engagement at entry• What turns students off?• What turns students on?

– Experiential learning– If so, why is this now not available in A Level?


Student ‘engagement’

• A current topic of discussion• Students lack engagement

– More than just an absence at lectures– Lack of response to feedback – Lack of doing things properly include– Lack of following (understanding)

assessment criteria– Lack of professionalism (PDP etc)


Starting point.What are we providing…..?

• Statements from institutions…• How meaningful are these? What do

they say? Endeavour but ‘how do you know’? Crucial question.

• Do statements and responses from quality assurance committees etc have meaning?

• Yes, (perhaps) with the old system, not with the new.

• Does anybody?


* The need to start again - with a new endpoint in view

• Graduateness (in geography, etc)

• How do we get there? If we lose engagement early on then it’s lost (or at least reduced)


What do students say they want?

• And what do they get - and how do we know? Have we asked them?

‘Put bluntly, the vast majority of students around the world go to university with the prime, perhaps even sole, aim of enhancing their career prospects’

Washer 2007


Asking students what they want

• Apart from loaded questions and that they don’t really know what they want…

• Responses……?• Do students know the range of

instruction and assessment types?• Not if we don’t use them!


Is graduateness more than keyskills (etc)?

• Communication skills• Working with others• Problem solving • Numeracy, Graphicacy, literacy • The use of information technology• Learning how to learn• Personal and Professional development

Washer 2007


Other attributes (than Washer’s)?

• Professionalism– Handing things in on time,– Attending meetings on time– Doing a good job of things

• Tacit knowledge– Should students be learning a lot of

things as tacit rather than explicit


Tacit knowledgeis knowledge that people carry in their minds and is, therefore, difficult to access. Often, people are not aware of the knowledge they possess or how it can be valuable to others. ……valuable because it provides context for people, places, ideas, and experiences. Effective transfer generally requires extensive personal contact and trust.

is not easily shared. "We know more than we can tell." (Polanyi’) ….onsists often of habits and culture that we do not recognize in ourselves. In the field of knowledge management it refers to a knowledge which is only known by an individual and that is difficult to communicate to the rest of an organization.

The process of transforming tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge is known as codification or articulation


Do we over instruct?

• ‘See this’, ‘do that’– (with a full set of instructions)

• Lab class fieldwork• Analysis of note books suggest student often

miss the point - prolific - but not skilled note takers or sketchers

• What, and where, are the sticking points? • Essay writing - can this be done from a book?• Do we over-instruct using essays as

assessment?


Explicit as tacit?

• But tacit is more difficult to convey• Can this be done in a ‘pre-Victorian’

manner?– Apprenticeships of old– Adso of Melk and William of Baskerville– Not Socratic but Apostolic (Gk: messenger)


"The brain is a machine with limited resources for processing the enormous quantity of information received by the senses. As a result, attention is extremely selective and the brain must rely on all sorts of shortcuts if it is to

cope effectively.”

Clive Shepherd on material by Itiel Dror

How best to use this?

How can we convey thenecessary tacit information which the shortcuts often require?


Some things we might do in (developing) this new scenario -

using experiential attributes1. Provide explicit assessment criteria2. Follow 1 up in feedback3. Provide more explicit and directed

learning opportunities (linked with 1)4. Expect professional results (from entry)

5. Provide tools, guidance and use and experience for 4


Constructivist Assessment Cycle

Explicit Criteria

Active engagement with criteria

Self-assessment with submission of work

Active engagement with feedback

Price and O’Donovan 2006


Can tacit knowledge be added via feedback?

• Taking basic knowledge and extending it

• Negotiation - how well is it done?• Information handling, video

conferencing etc• Personal information strategy


Linking criteria, tacit knowledge and employability skills

Breaking down a practical into task components such that problem areas can be identified. Here, sub-tasks in red might be tacit knowledge that needs special attention to convey to students.

Incidentally, this Concept Map was constructed with the free tools from: cmap.ihmc.us/


ReferencesSkillsWasher, P. 2007 Revisiting Key Skills: A Practical Framework for Higher Education.

Quality in Higher Education, V. 13, 1, 57-67.Drew, S. 1998 Key skills in higher education: background and rationale. SEDA,

Special Publication No. 6Fallows, S. & Steven, C. 2000 Integrating key skills into higher education. Kogan

Page. (See esp. papers by, O’Brien, Ability-based education; Harding, Creating incurable learners; Fallows and Weller, a graduate apprenticeship scheme [esp re some of the Talks at the GEES conference]; De la Harpe and Radloff, Helping academic staff to integrate professional skills)

Knight, P.T. 2001 Employability and quality. Quality in Higher Education, V. 7, 2, 93-5.

Cognitive Psychology See papers by Dror in Learning Light http://www.learninglight.com/FileRetriever.aspx?id=129Or on his Website: http://users.ecs.soton.ac.uk/id/

Criteria Referencing in AssessmentPrice, M. and O'Donovan, B. 2006 Improving performance through enhancing student understanding of criteria and feedback. In: Innovative Assessment in Higher Education, Eds Bryan, C and Clegg, K. Routledge, 100-109

http://www.learninglight.com/FileRetriever.aspx?id=129


End of slides used

The following slides are ones in that I mighthave used and are also preparation for something on the development of feedback provision.

Actually, I want to get away from using ‘feedback’; in control systems the term means something somewhat different from its use in assessment.


OK, enough of me being provocative!

Are there things we can do to engage students and answr some of th questions posed

previously?


Tinto 1993

Pre-entryattributes

Intentions, aims,commitments

Academicexperiences

Socialexperiences

integration

Intentions, aims,commitments

Departuredecision


What is experiential learning?*

• Experiential teaching?• Experiential learning?• But can we have:

– Experiential assessment?– Experiential feedback?

• Are active experiences (f’d trips, practicals) truly experiential?

• Moving from explicit to tacit knowledge transfer


Tacit knowledge (elements, skills)

• What is it?• How can we build it in?• How can we assess it?• Can we practice it?• Is this useful knowledge that

students could use?


Tacit knowledgeexamples we might identify

• How to do/decide/check/estimate…• Project planning

• Tools to use• Methods to use• What to do and what not (and why)


The system

• Defined however you want:– Department/staff/students/administrators– Institutionally – what across the sector?

• Is the system adaptive• Is the system providing experiential learning (active learning)

• What do we really mean by experiential learning?– Can this be achieved by examinations (or

examination style systems, such as essays?)

• Experiential means more than just doing– Close marking with criteria-referenced assessment


The role of PDP

• Will PDP help?• It probably has to!• Guidance in tacit knowledge skills• Making sure students know what

the questions are from their point of view


The role of employability

• What is employability?

‘However, although the employability and skills agendas are often equated, they are not necessarily identical’

Washer 2007

Is it just the means of assembling skills such that students become more employable?


Examples in assessment?

• Price & O’Donnovan (Mini-grid). Is this level-referenced?

• Does it have sufficient criteria which students can be shown what is required (is this showing tacit knowledge? - I think it probably is)


Other aspects

• Consciousness and self-awareness– A complex relationship in cognitive

psychology and philosophy– Try: ‘self awareness’ = reflecting on the

experience– Can we bring this into doing tasks?– The importance of coursework

• Inclusivity of the educating process– = Consciousness + self awareness


Employability skillsInstead of:• Write an essay on..

Why not:• Write a briefing note on…• Construct a Concept Map to…• Write a research proposal to …• Plan a project to...• Design a publicity brochure to..• Design an instruction manual to..

and within these introduce:

costingsethics, safety, risk analysisproject planning and schedulingprofessionalism in production


It’s not what you teach…

But they way that students learn which counts

Without going deeply into this we can recognise some important aspects in education


Meta-cognitive skills

• Are important• Not easy to ‘learn’• Even more difficult to ‘teach’

– You have to experience them• And practice them (strategies)• Tacit skills and knowledge?


Learning strategies for effective learning *(Dror)

• Cognition and learning are dependant on 2 distinct processing mechanisms:

• Bottom up: controlled by info coming in to the cognitive system (Driven by the information itself -mind is passive)

• Top down:rely on the person and what is in the cognitive system already: know, expect, mental state, previous experiences

• The Top down play an important part in the motivation


Revising how we look at and use ‘feedback’

• Although widely used, ‘feedback’ is not a useful, or misleading, term– At least when applied to control systems– Which is what we have when looking at

staff-student information transfer– This is something I am trying to develop

using a constructivist approach– See following slide by Rust


Constructivist feedback: Rust 2007


Constructivist Assessment Cycleas an information control system

Explicit Criteria for task

Active engagement with criteria

Self-assessment with submission

of work

Active engagement

with feedback

Modified from: Price and O’Donovan 2006

Student

Student

Student

Student

Tutor

Provides T Checks S is aware of C

Provides

T - task instructionsC - assessment criteria

Checks C against T


Feedback Control Systems 1

• Positive and negative to control the system• Controllers (Proportional-integral-derivative)

controllers in a time domain• Negative good (keeps the system under control)

• Positive bad (system goes out of control unless -ve f’back is applied)

• (But, if the input changes faster than the system can respond - then -ve f’back can behave as +ve and the system oscillates)

• NB, This isn’t what we mean by feedback in an assessment sense!


Feedback Control systems 1a• In this view, feedback isn’t useful

(as a concept) we want the student to ‘advance’ (like the advance and retard mechanisms cars used to have!)

• The response needs to be rapid (depending on the system)


Feedforward Control systems 1

• These react to changes in the environment to maintain some desired state

• Responds to a measured perturbation in a pre-defined way

• Feed-forward control can be combined with feed-back


The form of ‘feed-forward’ to students

• ‘Next time you do a piece of work (of this type) note that…..’

• Plan it • Finish it in good time• Proof read it and check references

– Check calculations etc…..

Try to confirm/provide the tacit knowledge


tacitBy definition, tacit knowledge is knowledge that people carry in their minds and is, therefore, difficult to access. Often, people are not aware of the knowledge they possess or how it can be valuable to others. Tacit knowledge is considered more valuable because it provides context for people, places, ideas, and experiences. Effective transfer of tacit knowledge generally requires extensive personal contact and trust.

Tacit knowledge is not easily shared. One of Polanyi's famous aphorisms is: "We know more than we can tell." Tacit knowledge consists often of habits and culture that we do not recognize in ourselves. In the field of knowledge management the concept of tacit knowledge refers to a knowledge which is only known by an individual and that is difficult to communicate to the rest of an organization. Knowledge that is easy to communicate is called explicit knowledge. The process of transforming tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge is known as codification or articulation


Benchmarking

• Compare the ideas on the last three slides with the sections on the new benchmarking statement:

www.qaa.ac.uk/academicinfrastructure/benchmark/statements/Geography.pdf


Finally, consider the following points from Bryan and Clegg, 2006 ‘Innovative Assessment

in Higher Education’ p 225

• Active participation in authentic, real-life tasks that require he application of existing knowlege and skills

• Participation in a dialogue an conversation between learners (including tutors)

• Engagement with and development of criteria and self-regulation of one’s own work

• Employment of a range of diverse assessment modes and methods adapted from different subject disciplines

• Opportunity to develop and apply attributes such as reflection, resilience, resourcefulness and professional judgement and conduct in relation to problems

• Acceptance of the limitations of judgement and the value of dialogue in developing new ways of working

A geography degree in the 21st century: what should it be? Brian Whalley Queens University Belfast...

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