This month's question:
What steps are you going to take to exercise
or develop your leadership capacity, e.g., within your institution or your
discipline? Reply to samnetaustralia@gmail.com.
2. Conferences & publication
International
Conference of STEM in Education
– July 12-15, 2014, Vancouver, Canada. Proposals due December 9 2014 for
papers, poster presentations, panels, workshops, symposia and innovative
showcases.
Past: WA Teaching and Learning Forum 2014
– University of Western Australia, 30-31 January. Theme: Transformative, Innovative and Engaging.
Manju
Sharma presented for SaMnet, 20+ new faces.
Future: February
2014 SaMnet Leadership-development workshops.
·
Brisbane, Friday
28th of March, Griffith University
Hong Kong Baptist University, 7-10
July 2014. Proposals due 7 March 2014.
We have many new people joining the
workshops next week.
We will be looking to you to provide
support.
4. SaMnet activity
The three leadership-development workshops in
February and March are top priority. Excitingly, we expect many new faces in
attendance. These workshops are being hosted by SaMnet Scholars from each
institution, exercising ‘distributed leadership’ in this 2014 workshop series.
Work continues on dissemination of SaMnet
project outcomes and results. We look forward to sharing publications with you
soon.
5. Scholarship of Teaching and Learning
(SoTL)
Alexander
McCormick, Robert Gonyea and Jillian Kinzie, The Magazine of Higher Learning
The National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE)
has been used in American institutions now for 13 years. What questions can the
results now answer? Do students invest enough time in their studies? What
distinguishes engaging institutions? Is there evidence of improvement?
Hannah
Winston, The Chronicle of Higher Education
Speaking of engagement, Purdue University
has been employed technology to measure engagement using “about 20 data points”
and signalling to students how they are doing. Would this feedback on their
engagement help your students to stay on track?
6. Leadership insights
The start of semester is always hard, two
articles that could help from Forbes
Magazine:
Glenn Llopis,
Forbes
“The composure of a leader is reflected in their
attitude, body language and overall presence. … It is clear that
leadership is not only about elevating the performance, aptitude and
development of people – but more so about the ability to make people feel safe
and secure.”
Margie Warrell,
Forbes
According to Warrell, having a
“not-so-inspiring” boss is an invaluable opportunity for developing executive
leadership skills. How is your head of school or dean leaving you with “space”
to develop your leadership capacity?
7. Initiative in Focus:
Tell us
what you are doing that is worth sharing – an initiative that is ‘working’. For example, got data on the performance of
others’ students that shows how a change initiative is taking hold? Here is a chance to share evidence of
progress. Begin articulating something
worth publishing as SoTL or big-noting in an application for an award or
promotion.
8. Classifieds
Have you used - or are you using - conceptual
surveys with students at your university in 2014? E.g., the Chemistry
Concept Inventory.
Many science academics are sharing their results to give a national
perspective on student learning in lectures. Contact h.georgiou@physics.usyd.edu.au
for more details or to get involved.
Historical data from previous years is also
most welcome!