- learning about teaching from people who know’
Now that the 2nd edition of ‘Making Learning Happen’ is published, I am contemplating writing a book which will aim to capture ‘the knowledge’ about teaching, learning and assessment in higher education, from colleagues around the world who have been working in the sector for some time, and who have learned many things on the way. The concept is not dissimilar to London taxi drivers who amass (and are assessed on) ‘The Knowledge’ they need for their job through a process of travelling the routes they need to know. I am hoping that the people I talk to in the course of my preparations for this book will similarly help new teachers to map the territory with which they need to be familiar.
Publisher: not decided yet! I believe this book will take on a life of its own very quickly, and therefore is not suitable for drawing up a proposal which then becomes ‘too fixed’ to allow natural growth of the topic. I will welcome approaches from any publishers who are flexible enough to trust me with this book, otherwise it may end up presented as a ‘fait accompli’ offered to publishers – or possibly simply published on this website.
The idea started from many workshops I run, including an element of creative problem-solving, seeking answers to commonly occurring ‘what can I do when…?’ questions. My own responses to some of these are included in the 2nd edition of ‘Making Learning Happen’, but I had far more questions (and responses) than there was room for in a single chapter in the book. ‘The Knowledge’ will contain many more of these, alongside other elements.
However, that’s only my knowledge. The planned new book will centre round narratives based on short (45 mins) interviews with many other highly experienced teachers who are knowledgeable about teaching. I would like to talk to people in the HE sector around the UK and far beyond as part of my continuing travels, more in the form of conversations rather than formal interviews, although I anticipate using a handful of framing questions to prompt the discussion. I plan digitally to record these chats (with the interviewee’s permission of course), to try to draw out from each person their unique wisdom and knowledge about higher education, and distil this into narratives so that this knowledge is linked together in a form which is useful to colleagues throughout the sector. I have already in mind a list of over 20 highly esteemed colleagues I’d like to approach with this idea, but I also hope that others around the sector who would like to offer their experience to the project will make themselves known to me.
The third element of the text would be my own commentaries to link key ideas, distil themes and reflect on diverse and potentially sometimes opposing perspectives of the people with whom I talk .
Indicative themes might include:
- What are the basics to become a competent teacher?
- How does someone become a good teacher?
- How can we use experience tohelp good teachers become great ones?
- How best can we help a struggling teacher improve?
- Can mere books help you to learn to teach, and how else can teaching be developed for those who hate such books?
Einstein said ‘knowledge is experience. Everything else is just information’. This book aims to capture as much of that experience as possible, and make it available so others can use it and build on it.
If this idea intrigues you, or if you’d like to share your knowledge, drop me a line with your comments, on phil@phil-race.co.uk
