1. Issue 12 of SaMnet’s monthly newsletter
Listen to the newsletter? Now available in audio as a podcast.
This month's question:
What articles, blogs, forums or websites give
you relevant insight into leadership?
2. Conferences & publication
ASERA2013 –
2-5 July 2013
The Australasian Science Education Research Association
Conference for 2013 will be held at Te Papa Tongarewa in Wellington, New
Zealand. Abstracts are due 26th April.
ESERA2013
– 2-7 September 2013
The European Science Education Research
Association Conference for 2013 will be held at the University of Cyprus in
Nicosia. Abstract submission has closed, but if you are in Europe in the middle
of 2013, ESERA2013 will be worth a visit.
3. Connections/Events
Past: ASELL
National Science Workshop – 2-5 April 2013 at U of Sydney
63 staff and
students attended from 15 universities from four countries reviewing 25 prac
exercises.
Future: ASELL
Schools Science Workshop – 26 April 2013 at SHORE School, North Sydney, NSW
HERDSA 2013 Conference – 1-4 July 2013 at
Auckland Institute of Technology, New Zealand.
2nd Annual VIBE workshop - 11-12 July at the University of
Melbourne.
An event co-sponsored by CUBEnet, topic: “Biology
Education Futures”.
Day 1: Strategies
for Academic Life: workshop for early and mid-career academics
Day 2: Biology
Education Futures: includes showcase for e-learning in biology and
assessment as evidence for achieving learning outcomes.
Match up:
The ‘Interactive Lecture Demonstrations’
& POGIL?
The team from
USYD - Toby Hudson, Chiara Neto, Michela Simone, Vanessa Gyspers, Siggi Schmid,
Kathryn Bartimote-Aufflick and Adam Bridgeman - might want to contact the team
from UAdelaide - Natalie Williamson, Greg Metha, John WIllison and Simon
Pyke.
Compare
strategies to promote active learning in large lecture classes.
4. SaMnet activity
SaMnet Steering Committee Meetings: Monday
22/4
SaMnet Advisory Committee Meetings: Friday
10/5
We are discussing where SaMnet is headed for
2013-2014. See next month’s newsletter
for an update.
5. Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL)
The
Learning Virtues – David Brooks
Learning cognitively or learning morally? An
opinion piece in The New York Times
about education research done by Jin Li of Harvard and Brown Universities. The research involves breaking through the
clichés of East versus West learning to see the real differences.
Unpacking
the narrative of non-positional leadership in academia: Hero and/or victim?
Higher Education Research &
Development latest issue – Juntrasook et al
You are practising leadership often without
having been given a formal rank. This
intriguing, qualitative study from NZ assesses the role of such informal
leadership practices in one subject’s sense of identity as a leader in the face
of setbacks.
6. Leadership insights
Helpful Source of
Leadership insights – Tomorrow’s
Professor Blog. Articles from the Tomorrow’s
Professor” mailing list (Stanford University) appear here. Two samples are
below.
An excerpt from a
chapter called “Political Models” in the book, Theories of Educational Leadership and Management by Tony Bush. It
outlines the forms of power relevant to university settings.
20 Leadership
traits for chairs of schools and departments to use!
7. Team in Focus: Learning
the language of Chemistry through student-generated visual representations, Gwen Lawrie, Emma Bartle, Peter Adams.
Our objective is the engagement
of introductory chemistry students in their learning earlier in the semester by
having them create visual aids and explain the structure of a molecule they
select. Other aims are improving conceptual gains and chemical vocabulary while
increasing the personal relevance of chemistry for students. An
assessment task has been designed for these novice learners of chemistry which
requires them to use their visual aid representations of molecular structures
to support their explanation in the format of a short video (2-3 minutes). The
rationale is that students will need to acquire some understanding of molecular
structure and related properties to translate and recommunicate information to
create the video blog (vlog).
The project has undergone three iterations.
In 2011, the new vlog assessment task was introduced into a one
semester introductory chemistry course with the aim of both enhancing
engagement through a personal connection to chemistry and to strengthen their
understanding of chemical structures and representations. Students created a
2-3 minute video where they explained the structure and properties of a
molecule/substance that was personally relevant to them. They submitted the
videos by uploaded to YouTube or VIMEO (set as private videos) and the link was
emailed to the instructor for assessment
In 2012, over 350 enrolled students submitted their video URL
through Blackboard assessment task tool which enabled
individual marks and feedback to be returned to students.
Peer review assessment of
vlogs will be introduced in 2013 to cope with the sheer marking time
required to do justice to the task.
Emma Bartle - Currently a Lecturer in Medical Education in the School of Medicine, University of Queensland (UQ). She moved to UQ’s School of Medicine in mid-2010 to take up a teaching-focussed position. She is specifically interested in the use of educational technologies and new media to improve learning and assessment, and is applying these interests into the field of medical education.
Peter Adams - Associate Dean, Academic, Faculty of Science. His research interests include combinatorics, graph decompositions and automated code generation.
8. Classifieds
This item was featured last month, but the deadline is May 3. There are SaMnet Scholars who would be
excellent candidates for this award.
If you decide to apply for the 3M Eureka Prize for Emerging
Leader in Science, we are happy to help, drawing on expertise from SaMnet’s
steering committee.
Description:
The 3M Eureka Prize for Emerging Leader in Science is awarded to a
scientist who has used their leadership skills to create impact inside
their institution, amongst their peers, within their discipline or in the wider
community.
Prize:
$10,000
Judging
Criteria: Entries should specifically address how the work
entered meets the following:
1. Evidence of
a clear vision
2. Skills in
mobilising others
3. Proof of
commitment, energy and passion
4. Demonstration
of leadership impact.
Conditions
of entry: To be eligible you must be 35 years or younger or be
no more than five years since being awarded your PhD, at the closing date of
entries.
