This
Month’s Question:
Have you published any education-focused publications this year? SaMnet
would love to promote your work to the wider SaMnet community. If you have
published any papers in 2015 focused on your teaching and learning practices,
please let us know so that we can disseminate it amongst the SaMnet community!
Congratulations to SaMnet Scholar Maria Parappilly (Flinders) for receiving a 2015 Citation for Outstanding Contribution to Student Learning from the Office for Learning and Teaching on 28 September.
A number of OLT Citations were given
for student learning in science, including Mary Boyce (Edith Cowan) and Chris
Thompson (Monash). If you know of others who have been recognised by the OLT
for their contributions to student learning, please let us know.
Maria, along with Lisa Schmidt
(Flinders) and Samantha De Ritter (Flinders) has also recently published the
journal article “Ready
to learn physics: a team-based learning model for first year university”
in the European
Journal of Physics. Congratulations to Maria, Lisa and
Samantha for their publication!
We continue to
invite SaMnet scholars to complete the survey by Beth Beckmann (ANU) on how
your work with SaMnet has been recognised within your institution.
Any questions
about the survey, the National Teaching Fellowship or professional recognition
can be addressed to Beth at elizabeth.beckmann@anu.edu.au
Support for this
activity has been provided by the Australian Government Office for Learning and
Teaching. The views expressed in this activity do not necessarily reflect the
views of the Australian Government Office for Learn ing and Teaching.
2. Conferences & publication
LaTrobe University, Melbourne, 4-5
December, 2015
This is the inaugural Australian
regional conference of HAPS, the largest society of human physiology and
anatomy teaching professionals.
Poster and workshop submissions are
open until Friday 20 November.
Regular registrations are open until
Thursday 12 November.
Shine Dome, Canberra, 8-10 December
2015
This forum will see the launch of the
Bioscience Education Australia Network (BEAN), the new umbrella network
combining CUBEnet and VIBEnet; as well as hosting the Mathbench Symposium,
which will launch and demonstrate the Mathbench-Australia website.
Past:
The Australian Conference on Science and
Mathematics Education (ACSME) – Perth, WA
59th
Annual Meeting of the Australian Mathematical Society – Adelaide, SA
The OLT Future of Tertiary Education Workshop
– Adelaide, SA
Future:
National Advancing Science and Engineering through Laboratory Learning (ASELL) Science Workshop
National Advancing Science and Engineering through Laboratory Learning (ASELL) Science Workshop
Monash
University, 25-27 November, 2015
Online
registrations are open until Monday 26 October.
Shine Dome, Canberra, 8-10 December
2015
Online registrations are open until
Friday 27 November.
Melbourne, 11 December 2015
Keep this date free, more information
about registrations will be made available closer to the event.
4. SaMnet activity
ACSME 2015 was a resounding success! This was the first time the conference was
held in Perth, so thank you to the 2015 Organising and Program Committees for
all their hard work in putting on an excellent conference.
Next year ACSME moves over to
Brisbane, focused on “The 21st Century Science Graduate: What is the
place of our STEM graduates in the world? How do we prepare them?” ACSME 2016
will be supported by the Australian Council of Deans of Science Teaching and
Learning Centre.
The conference dates are Wednesday 28
September to Friday 30 September (just prior to the ComBio 2016 conference), so
remember to keep those dates free. More information about the conference will be
given closer to the dates, so watch this space!
5. Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL)
Geoffrey Boulton and Colin Lucas for
the League of European Research Universities
The authors argue that universities
should not merely be defined by specific outputs demanded by governments and industry.
Instead, they should play a more fundamental role allowing them to adapt to changing
societal needs and values, contributing to society but not burdened by external
demands. How do you see the role of the university and its value and
contribution to society in today’s environment?
Tom Bartlett
for The Chronicle of Higher Education
Are
your findings reproducible? The Reproducibility Project tested 100 social
psychology publications from 2008 and found that only 39% of these results were
reproducible. Do you think this would apply to your field of research? What
biases are involved when deciding to publish results?
6. Leadership Insights
Colleen
Flaherty for Inside Higher Ed
The American Association of University
Professors is bringing together academics in a collaborative manner to
understand student evaluations of teaching. This national collaboration is
reflected locally with SaMnet and its discipline networks fostering
institutional leaders and best practices in science and mathematics teaching in
Australia. How have the national networks instituted by SaMnet facilitated your
approach to teaching, learning or professional institutional recognition?
Katherine Aquino for Planning for Higher
Education
Initiatives taken by an institution
must be inclusive of the people driving the change within the institution. The book
outlines that the human aspect of the organisation must be engaged with and
included to provide a cohesive strategy for change. Have you taken on the task
of structural change within your institution? How would you go about developing
the interpersonal networks needed to successfully enact change?
7.
Classifieds
The 2015 RiAus Postgraduate Survival
Guide comes at a time when the national conversation is focused on the way in
which we can train up the next generation of STEM-skilled graduates to take on
the transition to the digital economy and contribute to Australia’s growing
knowledge economy and industry.
The SMART Directory indexes useful
websites relevant to teaching and learning in science and mathematics, with
annotated resources and a rating system indicating the usefulness of the
resources. The Directory is ready for testing, and the developers welcome
feedback and comments on the site, which is available in beta here.
The School of Mathematics and
Statistics is seeking to expand its expertise in Pure Mathematics. Successful
applicants will be required to lead research programs and have a strong
commitment to the teaching and supervision of research students at
undergraduate, MSc and PhD levels. Candidates with a background in Analysis are
strongly encouraged to apply, with applications closing Sunday 11 October 2015.
For mathematics educators with an
interest in undergraduate mathematics education for secondary school teachers,
mathematicians, academics in other discipline areas and teachers in maths
support classes, state groups have been formed to consider state based issues,
facilitate more frequent contact and encourage new members to participate in
the FYiMaths network.
