PALATINE BRIEFING: October 2009
Contents
- HEFCE Report on quality and standards
- Student Engagement - Engage! PALATINE event for student reps
- Student Engagement - The National Arts Student summit
- HE in FE - 3000 e-books for free
- Calls for Proposals - one event, one project
- PALATINE events
- PALATINE Development Awards
- Publications - 1) Dance Mapping 2) Creativity in HE report
- Networks: The Theatre Information Group
- Pedagogical research: Exploring intermedial pedagogy - questionnaire
- Enhancing Learning through Technology - call for expressions of interest to host seminar series
HEFCE report on quality and standards
“No outright failure, nor anything that cannot be put right…..but we cannot afford to be complacent”
The recent report by HEFCE’s sub-committee for Teaching, Quality and the Student Experience examines public concerns about quality and standards in English higher education. The areas of concern that the report considers include: degree classifications, plagiarism, external examiners, assessment and feedback, contact time and learning hours.
The executive summary and full report are available online at
http://www.hefce.ac.uk/pubs/hefce/2009/09_40/
Student Engagement 1
Calling all Student Reps in dance, drama and music
ENGAGE! a free PALATINE event for students representatives
27-28 November 2009, Lancaster House Hotel, Lancaster
http://www.palatine.ac.uk/events/view/1711/
For further information about Engage! contact Ralph Brown ralph.brown@lancaster.ac.uk.
Student Engagement 2
New initiative - The National Arts Student Summit
There have been efforts by Government, other HE agencies and stakeholders to engage directly with students, including the National Student Survey and the DIUS Student Parliament, however these tend to lack a subject focus, and rarely allow students to define the agenda. They are satisfaction surveys and are limited in scope to the student experience and expectations of higher education. Student input and feedback sought at a local level, within institutions for the purpose of curriculum development is difficult to access at wider scales and lacks strategic impact, and the intensity and effectiveness of engagement between students, Students’ Unions, HEIs, HE agencies and other stake-holding organisations is limited.
The National Arts Student Summit seeks to directly address these shortcomings and deliver materials reflecting how, and in what ways current conditions and policies are of demonstrable concern to students and recent graduates. More importantly, what changes that might be implemented will be effective in enhancing Arts graduates' attributes.
The Summit is supported by three primary partners: the Higher Education Academy Art, Design, Media Subject Center, The HEAD Trust and the Arts Group*. PALATINE and other arts-based subject centres are also supporting the Summit.
Detailed information on the aims and plans of the National Arts Student Summit are available here:
http://www.palatine.ac.uk/files/artsstudentsummit.pdf
*"The Arts Group is a Students’ Union representative body for UK FE and HE institutions with a specialist interests in the Arts. Its aim is to research, report, and act on a local, national and international level on issues of importance or common interest" to students of Arts subjects (http://www.artsgroup.org.uk)
HE in FE
3000 free e-books for FE colleges
Colleagues teaching on HE courses in FE colleges may already be aware that following discussions with JISC, 3000 e-books were made freely available to Further Education Colleges. Information went out to Learning Resource/Library colleagues, and all that colleges have to do to gain free access is to sign up to the scheme.
Has your college signed up? It’s worth checking.
Full details of the scheme are available here:
http://fe.jiscebooksproject.org/
We’ve identified c. 180 titles that we thought would be of direct or passing interest to dance, drama and music students. The list of titles is available here:
http://www.palatine.ac.uk/files/e-books_list.pdf
CALLS FOR PROPOSALS - one event, one project.
1) Event
We are currently inviting proposals for short papers/presentations (approx. thirty minutes, including questions) for the PALATINE event: Calculating Risk: assessment, ethics and risk assessment in durational and site-based performance work with/by students.
Calculating Risk....discusses the roles and responsibilities when supporting students in the creation of work in non-traditional performance contexts, and aims to develop strategies to safely support students in the creation of 'risky' work in an increasingly health and safety conscious pedagogic context.
The event aims to:
- share best practice from within the sector;
- develop strategies to safely support students in the creation of 'risky' work in an increasingly health and safety conscious pedagogic context;
- discuss roles and responsibilities of teaching staff in non-traditional performance contexts.
Please send proposals (c. 200/300 words, including short biography) to Ralph Brown ralph.brown@lancaster.ac.uk by 16 November 2009.
2) Project
PALATINE has recently obtained funding to participate in the new Discipline-focused Learning Technology Enhancement Academy programme 2010, and we are seeking collaborators and partners in this initiative.
Full details of the programme including funding detials and the call for proporsals can be found at: http://www.palatine.ac.uk/projects/1740/
PALATINE EVENTS
To book for any of these events contact Barbara Hargreaves palatine@lancaster.ac.uk
Attendance at PALATINE events is normally free for colleagues in UK higher education and - for the host department or institution - PALATINE normally covers the costs of these events. For people outside UK HE we normally charge £50.00, but where numbers are limited, priority will be given to HE colleagues.
We welcome proposals for events and offers to host. Contact Ralph Brown ralph.brown@lancaster.ac.uk to discuss any ideas.
FORTHCOMING EVENTS
11 November 2009
Collaborative Processes in Music Making: Pedagogy and Practice
Studio 1, Performing Arts Technology Studios Building,Department of Music & Sound Recording, University of Surrey
27 - 28 November 2009
Engage! A Student Representative Awayday
Lancaster House Hotel, Lancaster University
21- 22 Jan 2010
Calculating Risk: assessment, ethics and risk assessment in durational and site-based performance work with/by students
Roland Levinsky Building, University of Plymouth
25 January 2010
Teaching Composition
Room CAMG/01,
Creative Arts Building Department of Music,
University of Huddersfield
26 January 2010
Teaching Popular Dance in Higher Education
Institute for Performing Arts Development Dance Centre (Trinity Buoy Wharf)
University of East London
EXTERNAL EVENTS
We are happy to put on to our website details of external events (conferences, seminars, workshops etc.) that are likely to be of interest to our communities of practice in dance, drama and music. Details and infomration can be found at http://www.palatine.ac.uk/external-events/.
Current listing includes:
11 Dec 09 Creating Future Proof Graduates, Birmingham
12 Jan 10 Enhancing Learning and Teaching through Assessment and Feedback, Chichester
15 Apr 10 Community Arts in Higher Education: Inclusive Practices, International Perspectives, Winchester
13 May 10 Learning Dialogues, Northampton
22-23 Apr 10 Kinesthetic Empathy: Concepts and Practice, Manchester
24-25 Jun 10 Widening Participation in the 21st Century: A Decade of Learning, Open University
PALATINE DEVELOPMENT AWARDS
Exploring learner and tutor experience in using Online Synchronous Learning Environments (OSLE) across disciplines within the School of Drama and Creative Industries
The website for this PALATINE funded project at Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh is now online. There are five ‘mini’ projects being undertaken within the overall project. Full information about the project can be found at: http://www.qmu.ac.uk/palatine/
Other recent Development Awards include:
DVD demonstrating interactive and creative processes involved in the composition, performance and interpretation of Michael Finnissy’s Second String Quartet
http://www.palatine.ac.uk/development-awards/1628/
Connectedness and Interdependence: Cross-cultural exchange in drama pedagogy
http://www.palatine.ac.uk/development-awards/1735/
Rehearsing popular music: Exploring opportunities for supporting learning in the pop/rock band
http://www.palatine.ac.uk/development-awards/1726/
Feldenkrais Method in Performer Training
http://www.palatine.ac.uk/development-awards/1733/
Information about our Development Award Scheme, including how to apply and a list of all past and current projects, can be found at: http://www.palatine.ac.uk/palatine-projects/introduction/
PUBLICATIONS
1) Dance Mapping – “a window on dance”
A major 380pp report Dance Mapping (not to be confused with our own Mapping Dance publication in 2006) has recently been published by Arts Council England (ACE). Written by Susanne Burns - who wrote Mapping Dance for PALATINE - and Sue Harrison, Dance Mapping is, the Arts Council says, “the most significant compilation of evidenced-based dance research ever undertaken in this country. The report maps the dance ecology, economy and environment in England. It looks at the various market segments and identifies trends and patterns, challenges and opportunities for dance. The report focuses on the period 2004–2008”.
The full report and executive summary are available here:
http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/publication_archive/dance-mapping/
2) Improving Quality, Enhancing Creativity
New European Universities Association (EUA) report: Quality Assurance must allow space for risk taking
Quality Assurance (QA) processes used in universities must allow more space for ‘risk taking and failure’ as this is essential for stimulating innovation and creativity in higher education. This is one of the recommendations of a new EUA report published this week.
The report “Improving quality, enhancing creativity: change processes in European higher education institutions” is based on a two-year EC-funded project, that EUA has carried out with partners ACQUIN (the Accreditation, Certification and Quality Assurance Institute, Germany), the Higher Education Academy (UK) and the National University of Ireland, Maynooth.
The project (Quality Assurance for the Higher Education Change Agenda - QAHECA) brought together 29 higher education institutions and QA Agencies from 18 different countries to explore what kind of quality assurance processes in teaching and learning (external and internal) can actually support creativity and innovation. In the past, there have been concerns that QA processes can actually inhibit creativity within higher education.
The new report contains seven recommendations for universities and agencies:
• QA processes must allow space for risk taking and failure, whilst at the same time enabling institutions to identify and rectify a failure when it occurs
• To ensure that quality assurance is context sensitive (e.g. taking account of different disciplines, cultures and national contexts)
• QA should be inclusive – engaging the whole university community (academics and students) and should not just be the responsibility of a ‘QA unit’
• Effective quality assurance is based on a successful partnership between agencies and institutions, which should leave space for ‘trust and self-reflection’
• Sharing QA ‘experiences’ is essential, and the authors recommend the creation of platforms for dialogue both between departments, institutions and even at European level (These platforms should not, however, be based solely on copying good practices, but stimulating critical analysis.)
• QA processes must support institutions’ capacity to change and to reach strategic goals
• Agencies and institutions need to ensure engagement of all key actors in QA processes.
A full copy of the report can be downloaded here.
NETWORKS
The Theatre Information Group (TIG)
The Theatre Information Group (TIG) is the subject specialist network for museums, libraries and archives of the performing arts in the UK. The website has just gone live and is well worth bearing in mind as a resource for students, practitioners, librarians and archivists: http://www.theatreinfo.specialistnetwork.org.uk/
The resources section of the site provides information on performing arts cataloguing and documentation, advice for looking after individual and company records and links to resources and information on a range of performing arts research issue. TIG members range from university libraries and archives and museums to individual and company archives including National Theatre, Trinity Laban, Bristol Theatre Collections and Cameron Mackintosh. There is also a list-serv TIG-SDR@JISCMAIL.AC.UK which covers everything from where to buy archival storage materials to new acquisitions.
TIG is likely to be a useful source of advice when writing research bids with an archive dimension, or for tracking down recordings, books etc.
PEDAGOGICAL RESEARCH
Intermedial pedagogy within UK undergraduate performing arts programmes
Mark Crossley, a Senior Lecturer at De Montfort University in Leicester and a PHD student at The University of Warwick is undertaking research investigating intermedial pedagogy within UK undergraduate performing arts programmes and considering the pedagogical challenges inherent within interdisciplinary performance practice.
He is asking colleagues to complete a short questionnaire designed to gather data on the current scope and significance of intermedial practices within UK higher education drama & performing arts departments.
Details of Mark's research, the link to the questionnaire and the password required are available in his original message to the SCUDD list (click on 'text' if message does not open immediately).
The deadline for completing the survey is the end of November 2009. You can contact Mark directly at mbacrossley@sky.com
If you are teaching dance, drama or music and are engaged in pedagogical research, PALATINE is interested in ensuring your research reaches as wide an audience as possible. Please contact us at palatine@lancaster.ac.uk.
ENHANCING LEARNING THROUGH TECHNOLOGY
Calls for expressions of interest in hosting the Evidence-based Practice Seminar Series 2010
As part of its HEFCE funded Enhancing learning through Technology programme the Higher Education Academy will be inviting Higher Education Institutions, and Further Education Colleges delivering higher education in England to participate in an evidence-based practice seminar series promoting the effective use of technology to enhance student learning.
The seminar series seeks to promote and evidence effective practice in the use of technology by running 10 seminars in each of the following areas:
- Assessment and feedback
- Employability/employee learning - including work-related learning
- Professional development in areas such as e-pedagogy and digital literacy
A grant of £500 is available to institutions to run a seminar in one or more of the three areas between January - June 2010 and produce a briefing paper for the sector.
Participating Institutions should be able to accommodate at least 30 staff working in HE institutions and FE colleges with at least half the places open to external delegates.
Deadline for submission of expressions of interest is 13 November 2009.
More information and expressions of interest forms are available from: http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/ourwork/learning/ELT