From Julie Anderson
This was my second time at an ISSOTL (International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning) conference for ESCalate and one of the really enjoyable aspects of attending and presenting at it again recently (October 19 – 22nd, 2010, Liverpool, UK) was that when it has international in the title, it actually means it!
For the first morning’s session of parallel papers I found myself listening to a South African academic refer in passing to Zulu students (!), followed by a Scottish based discussion around the issues facing remote Open University students in the highlands and islands, ending with a paper based around teaching and learning in Dublin, Ireland. And that was all before the first coffee break!
During the rest of the four days I talked with and listened to presentations by people from places as far afield as Sweden, New Zealand, hitherto unknown ( to me anyway) parts of the USA and various locations across Australia. There were also of course many more local academics to hear such as some talking about aspects of student assessment from Liverpool (who left their session early to catch the ferry across the Mersey; there’s a song in there somewhere) as well as many other universities in the UK.
The Higher Education Academy was also represented amongst the delegates by colleagues such as David Sadler (Director of Networks) and Rachel Segal, amongst others.
ESCalate was represented by myself giving a paper on student anxiety in the classroom - and Ruth Pilkington doing a poster presentation on her work, ”Investigating Dialogue: how effective is it for assessing learning from practice”, which was attracting a lot of interest and attention when I saw her!
The conference was smaller than I remembered it when I attended in Sydney three years ago. It was suggested that this was a sign of our economically difficult times. During the first evening’s welcome it was mentioned that there were 375 delegates from 27 countries. 22 were presenting although unfortunately 40 papers that had been accepted were withdrawn mostly, it was thought, because they had not obtained funding to attend. However, Professor Michele Lamont, one of the keynote speakers, didn’t make it because she got caught up with the strikes in France.
Despite all that it was another good if varied event. The four keynotes overall were a particular strength. Graham Gibbs spoke the first evening about being guarded in our generalisations and that context is so important, something that was then quoted widely throughout the rest of the conference. Ray Land stepped in for the absent Professor Lamont and spoke about venturing into strange places and preparing graduates for the 21st century. His very visual talk included a You Tube clip about the five minute university and various images of Cyclops (I wouldn’t want you to go away with the erroneous impression that it was all serious – although even these asides were making important points). Jude Carroll spoke often very movingly about her work around International students with Janette Ryan, in summary reminding us that difference is not deficit; and the conference ended on Friday morning with an excellent presentation by Ray Land and Eric Meyer on threshold concepts (and a little on troublesome knowledge) something that they also talk about in the new book. It was remarked on by the ISSOTL president Gary Poole that it was a compliment to them that a large number of delegates remained and got later trains and planes so that they could hear their talk which for me personally was the highlight of the conference. I would recommend going to the ISSOTL site at http://issotl10.indiana.edu/ to read more about some of the conference presentations in due course when they have been uploaded - and considering going yourself next autumn when it is over in the USA. For anyone from any discipline serious about teaching and learning, it is a good event to participate in.
Julie Anderson
Senior Lecturer in Postgraduate Professional Development
University of Plymouth
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