Work in Progress home page (last updated 12th July 2010)
Overview
There are many sources for the ideas the Subject Centre pursues. These include ideas emerging from the Subject Community (often via the Advisory Board or CCUE), projects unrolling from the Higher Education Academy, not to mention ideas we have generated ourselves. We are constantly responding to change within the curricula and methods of our subject and within UK Higher Education as a whole. Given how rapidly ideas develop and circumstances move, this section of the website gives a brief overview of ‘work in progress’: ideas and activities that are in the process of being realised, but which are not yet the subject of a specific event or publication. We also hope that this will help our community to appreciate the breadth of our activity – and better still to identify ways in which they might join in.
Our current ‘work in progress’ includes:
- Seed Guides are Germinating...
- Good Practice Guide to Small Group Teaching
- Language and Literature Special Issue
- Bringing the Outside In
- Developing on-line materials to support progression from FE to HE English Programmes
- Teaching the New English
Seed Guides are Germinating...
Several additions to our series of Seed Guides (short, practical guides to topics of current interest) are on the way. We expect to publish Seed Guides on Assessment, Lecturing and VLEs in the autumn. The Seed Guides will be available in print and online.
Good Practice Guide to Small Group Teaching
Jonathan Gibson is writing a guide to small group teaching aimed both at new lecturers and those who are interested in exploring some new approaches. The Guide will be published in autumn 2010 on our website and in print.
Language and Literature Special Issue
Language and Literature is known for publishing research on pedagogical applications of stylistics. Together with Dr Richard Steadman-Jones (University of Sheffield), the English Subject Centre is editing a special issue focussing on the use of stylistic methods in researching learning and teaching.
Bringing the Outside In: case studies in environmental engagement
The English Subject Centre is launching a call for case studies and a student competition to encourage students and lecturers to engage with the environment beyond the classroom. In order to enrich both academic learning and environmental awareness, we want to motivate staff and students who teach and learn primarily indoors to go out and experience the places which form the context for the subject of study. So if you are a humanities lecturer who takes students out of the classroom and might consider writing a paid-for case study, or a humanities student whose learning has been inspired by a visit somewhere off-campus, read more on the ‘Funding Opportunities’ web page.
Developing on-line materials to support progression from FE to HE English Programmes
This project involves the development and delivery of online materials for students throughout their time at the college, but targeted at problematic transition periods in their learning career. Materials are being written by subject specialists from the college, who have an understanding of the students’ difficulties, supported by teaching and learning specialists and learning technology experts from the college and JISC.
Teaching the New English
This is a prestigious series of edited volumes produced through collaboration between the publishers Palgrave and the Subject Centre. The object of the series is to promote dialogue between research scholarship and the practices and processes of the classroom. The first nine volumes have been published with a further half dozen titles in the pipeline. Palgrave is enthusiastic about the series, which we hope will contribute to the lively interchange between research and teaching. If you would like to propose a volume, please contact the Subject Centre.
More information on the New English Page >>
