EDIN at AISHE August 2011 - update

Professor Glynis Cousin, Director of the Institute for Learning Enhancement at Wolverhampton University led a workshop on Researching University Education for EDIN last Thursday 25 August. This was a pre-conference workshop for the AISHE Conference and an EDIN-AISHE collaboration. Glynis is the author of Researching Learning in Higher Education (2009) and drew on this work to argue that research is always a work of interpretation and that quantitative and qualitative research are not opposites, both yield different kinds of intelligence. She suggests that in research we should look at the problem and then choose methods we are good at. She argued that research has a aesthetic dimension, a craft dimension and that researcher should write for the intended audience. She made a plea for research that examines student-teacher relations i.e. the transaction and suggested we go back to classic studies and ask 'what is going on?'. She recommends Stake (1995) on case study research as well as her own book for further reading. Thanks to Glynis for a stimulating and challenging workshop. Thanks to Saranne Magennis of NUIM AISHE President and AISHE for collaborating with EDIN on the workshop.

EDIN at AISHE August 2011

EDIN in collaboration with AISHE has organised a pre-conference workshop for the AISHE Annual Conference, designed with the interests of Educational Developers in mind.

Date: Thursday 25th August

Venue: DCU School of Nursing

Time: 9.45am to 11.45am

Topic: Researching University Education

In this workshop Glynis Cousin will give a brief presentation before exploring practical research strategies with participants. Her methodological focus will be on how we might research university education in interesting and creative ways. Glynis will talk a little about the methodological framework that she thinks best suits inquiry in this field. Finally, she will press the case for a turn from student experience research towards a concern for teacher-student relationships. Glynis will then invite participants to explore: a) what they most want to know; and b) how this might be best researched in the hope that participants will emerge from the workshop with some new ideas of both theoretical and practical interest to their practice. To book a place on the workshop please contact AISHE.