This Month’s Question: New initiatives for the New
Year! What new technique will you be trying in your teaching this semester? Let
SaMnet know what you are doing and how we can support you.
Congratulations
to all of the 2014 Australian Awards for University Teaching (run by the OLT). Many
Award for Teaching Excellence winners from science and mathematics are
connected with SaMnet including Danny Liu (Early Career), Susan Rowland (Biological
Science, Health and Related Studies), and Kieran Lim (Physical Science and Related
Subjects). Full list here
2. Conferences & publication
Melbourne, 27-30 October, 2015
Abstracts due 24 April
This is the 12th annual conference
of ISSOTL. It is a rare opportunity to participate with low cost as it is hosted
locally this year.
(The conference organisers are also looking
for reviewers for the conference abstracts – see section 7. Classifieds for
more information).
Monash University, 25-27 November, 2015
Universities are invited to send two
person teams to showcase a laboratory experiment for improvement. Due date for
EOI for experiments to be evaluated at the workshop: 17 August
Past:
SaMnet Leadership Development Workshops
28 Jan – Perth Workshop
9 Feb – Adelaide Workshop
17 Feb – Sydney Workshop
19 Feb – Melbourne Workshop
Future:
An additional workshop will be held
in June this year for Queensland and
Northern Territory academics in Brisbane. More details will be available in the
coming months. You can register your interest at the link below.
4. SaMnet activity
The four SaMnet Leadership Development Workshops
held in the last month were highly successful with almost 100 people
registering. We welcomed 79 new people previously not connected to SaMnet
through these workshops who are now a part of our community.
Special thanks goes to workshop hosts Alex
Yeung, Karma Pearce, Lisa Schmidt, Danny Liu, Theo Hughes and Gerry Rayner for
their work.
Stay tuned for future SaMnet workshops in your
city including a Brisbane workshop this July.
5. Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL)
Two articles that may be relevant to
consider for your teaching this semester:
Rebecca
Koenig, The Chronicle of Higher Education
Do any of the courses you are
involved in have online discussions forums or tutorials? Did you know the
gender gap extends to behaviour of students in online class discussions in
science – particularly to answering discussion questions?
Libby
Woodfin, Education Week
We know deep learning is vital for
student success. Can you tell from observing a class whether deep learning is
taking place? What does a class fostering deep learning look like? (Not a STEM
article, but still relevant.)
6. Leadership insights
Two articles on Leadership Development to
build on our SaMnet Leadership Development Workshops:
Roger Trapp,
Forbes
Report
on a study that suggests that more leadership development is needed
systematically through all levels of organisations. Whatever your position, you
may be needed as a leader.
Deirdre Coleman, eyeforpharma.com
A
good one on needed characteristics of leadership development processes and on
characteristics of new leaders
7. Classifieds
Job vacancies:
Post doctoral fellow in chemistry education at
Monash: http://preview.tinyurl.com/nxkgzqv
Three fully funded PhD scholarships in chemistry
education or science education at Monash. Flexible start dates. Please forward
this message to anyone who might be interested. Please contact Tina Overton for
further information or informal discussions.
ISSOTL 2015 abstract reviewers
The organisation for ISSOTL 2015 is well underway
with the program content currently being finalised by our Program Committee. The
committee is creating a pool of abstract reviewers. If you would like to be
considered, please let the committee know by email, and include your name and
institutional affiliation in your correspondence.
For
further information please contact info@issotl2015.com.au
