Turning teaching initiatives into pedagogic publications
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The document discusses the importance of publishing education papers, highlighting the challenges and opportunities in the field of educational publications. It emphasizes the need for evidence collection, ethical approval, and the evaluation of teaching innovations, as well as offers guidance on publication strategies. Additionally, it encourages educators to engage in various platforms and communities to share their work and enhance their professional development.
Turning teaching initiatives into pedagogic publications
- 1. DiscoveringTeaching Excellence (July 2017) Dr Chris Willmott Dept of Molecular and Cell Biology University of Leicester cjrw2@le.ac.uk TurningTeaching Innovation Into Pedagogic Publications
- 2. Why publish education papers? http://tinyurl.com/squarepeg1 • Education publications unlikely to be REFable - education journals have low (or no) impact factor - fall between “Unit of Assessment” & “Education” • Pedagogy specialist going to be safer than 2* researcher • Career development - evidence for CV - internal promotion - external accreditation (eg HEA Fellowships) - TEF?
- 3. Generic v Discipline-Specific? • Generic education research journals - have higher kudos - have higher “impact factor” (but still too low for REF purposes) However… • Subject-specific - more *impact* with colleagues within discipline - willing to accept teaching innovation papers as well as more formal education research - “This worked well for me, it might help you too” - good place to start publication
- 5. Bioscience-specific journals BAMBED www.bambed.org CBE Life Science Education www.lifescied.org Advances in Physiology Education advan.physiology.org JBE www.tandfonline.com/loi/rjbe20
- 7. Starting a new project • Existing teaching activity obvious place to start - what evidence do you have/what do you need? • De novo? Choose something that interests you - ideally a “hot topic” • More than one institution? More than one discipline? - increased value, increased complexity • Questionnaire-based evidence - worthwhile research instruments hard to design • Do you need ethical approval? - probably!
- 8. Ethical approval • Research involving human subjects - includes any questionnaire work • Generally uncontroversial, “light touch” • Approval process www2.le.ac.uk/institution/ethics/approval
- 9. Publication checklist • Is your activity readily adaptable for use by others? - check it is not entirely context-dependent • Is your activity well described? - good innovations often poorly explained • Is it in right format for the journal? - check house style rules • Is there anything similar/identical in literature? - check for existing work • Is there some evaluation? - needs to be SOME, even if not extensive
- 10. “I haven’t got any evidence” • Likely that you are actually already sitting on a gold-mine of potentially interesting data, e.g. - Exam performance? - Module review and feedback forms? - Completion rates? First destination data? • Quantitative data? • Qualitative data? • Triangulation?* http://www.rumrill.net/brian/pics/pics5/pics5/DarthVader/darth_vader_closeup.jpg * Triangulation = synthesising evidence of different types and from different sources, in order to arrive at conclusions
- 11. Collect evidence • Develop own portfolio of evidence - Electronic? Physical? Both? • Valuable for: - Publications - Professional accreditation - Promotions http://tinyurl.com/ev1dence17
- 12. Evidence, what evidence? • In addition to the items detailed above, keep a conscious look out for • Emails? - From students? - From colleagues? • Corridor conversations? - Capture as soon as you can, verbatim if possible - Ask to repeat in an email • Formal peer evaluations?
- 13. “I’m worried about my data” • Started evaluation? Spotted potential flaws? • - May not be fatal • - Can’t ‘do that extra experiment’ - Alter for second go? • - Be honest, be self-critical • - “Warts and all” www.generalmonck.com/biography.htm
- 14. Current issues/ Horizon scanning • Students as Partners? • Flipped classroom? • Emerging technologies? • Research-led teaching? • Gamification? Plus old chestnuts • Feedback • Assessment http://tinyurl.com/hor1zon17 http://tinyurl.com/ch3stnut17
- 15. Other publications: THE, etc • Don’t be afraid to pitch to Times Higher, The Conversation or similar • For The Conversation contact Alex Phillimore ap507@le.ac.uk to broker contact
- 16. Other publication: Blogs www.lefthandedbiochemist.wordpress.com www.bioethicsbytes.wordpress.com www.biosciencecareers.wordpress.com www.biologyonthebox.wordpress.com
- 18. Sharing on other platforms • Slideshare
- 19. Community of Practice? Actual communities: • LLI and other Institution-level events • PedR group in discipline? • PedR Conferences (or section within discipline conference) Virtual communities: • Become active in online conversations - e.g. JISCMAIL PedR lists - LinkedIn discussion groups - Tweetups #LTHEchat #HEAchat
- 21. Unexpected consequences (2) • Asked to run workshop on plagiarism at Association for Science Education conference • Timetabled against Patrick Moore • Audience n=1 (plus chair) • She was journalist for Times Educational Supplement – wrote it up • 4 months later she self-plagiarised in TES Leicester Mercury picked it up Times Higher picked it up from Mercury Invited to write piece for Higher
- 22. Summary • Getting started in education publication may not be as much of a stretch as you imagine • Start with ways to turn something you are already doing into a paper by adding some (albeit minimal) evaluation • If unlikely to have enough for a “full paper” try for a Short Communication/Case Study/Illumination • Be active in pedagogy in other ways: conferences, blogs, discussion lists
- 23. Any Questions? E-mail: cjrw2@le.ac.uk Twitter: cjrw Slideshare: cjrw2 Delicious: chriswillmott Blogs: www.bioethicsbytes.wordpress.com www.biologyonthebox.wordpress.com www.biosciencecareers.wordpress.com www.lefthandedbiochemist.wordpress.com