Sunday 2 December 2007

After two Study Days

We have now had 1(/2) Study Day for second-year students and 1(/4) for first year students. We are still working on the detailed analysis of the evaluation forms, but it is clear that the response has been overwhelmingly positive!

And it is all down to you! Well, not all, I admit. There were a lot of people such as the admin. staff, and the catering staff who did us proud—particularly this Saturday—and colleagues from the college centres who made it possible. But you did the work, and the work you did was impressive. I thought that the tutors' review meeting after the first event on 17 November was one of the most up-beat it had been my pleasure to attend in a long career of such events. But Saturday's was exceptional!

You did have help, however. Not from tutors—we were always clear that the groups had to manage themselves—if we started teaching them it would undermine the whole process. But from the ideas; there is something about the theory of Threshold Concepts and Troublesome Knowledge which stimulates not merely reflection, but serious focused analysis of your practice. Some of the discussions in which I participated ranked with some of the best it has been my privilege to join in my teaching career; and—come to think of it—many of the others have been about the same kind of ideas, just without the "Threshold Concepts" labels.

Now, please make sure that—whether or not you are your group's scribe—your short report is posted on BREO. And if it is there, read it, comment on it, and carry on those discussion you started.