New Lecturers
Additional reference material - Paper-based resources for Teaching English
Books
Ben Knights, Director of the Subject Centre offers some suggestions:
Tanya Agathocleous and Ann C. Dean, Teaching Literature: a Companion (Palgrave 2003). Although it is obliquely-positioned in relation to the UK context, there are some good things in (eds.)
Ellie Chambers and Marshall Gregory Teaching and Learning English Literature (Sage 2006).
Colin Evans’ study English People: The Experience of Learning and Teaching English in British Universities (Open University 1993). Although the research was carried out in the early 1990s, this is still an important read, and the copious quotations from Evans’ respondents are valuable in themselves.
If you haven’t already done so, it is also worth looking at some of the new generation of books aimed at helping undergraduates and sixth formers into English Studies. Short examples would include Robert Eaglestone’s Doing English (Routledge), David Amigoni and Julie Sanders, Get Set for English Literature, and Christine Robinson, Get Set for English Language (both Edinburgh UP). Pedagogic ideas may also be stimulated by some of the larger items in the genre, for example (eds.) Jeremy Hawthorn et al., Studying Literature: the Essential Companion (Longman 2001), Chris Hopkins’ Thinking About Texts (Palgrave 2001), or Rob Pope’s The English Studies Book (Routledge 1998).
Books of ‘tips for teachers’ do not generally figure here for reasons indicated above. But if you are looking for ideas for activities you will find a wealth of material in Sue and Trevor Habeshaw’s ’53 Interesting Things’ series (e.g. 53 Interesting Things to do in your Seminars and Tutorials – don’t be put off by the titles). (Technical and Educational Services, Bristol
Journals
The US is better served than the UK here, and – although a lot of the material is directed to specifically North American conditions – it is well worth dipping in College English available via JSTOR and Pedagogy available via Project Muse. A special UK edition of Pedagogy, edited by Ben Knights and Nicole King, was published in Fall 2007.
Ellie Chambers and Jan Parker (see above) are also lead editors of the new journal Arts and Humanities in Higher Education , and in its short life so far have already published several pertinent articles and case studies, for example (all in the first number, 2002):
- Gerald Graff, ‘The Problem Problem and other Oddities of Academic Discourse’.
- Philip Smallwood, ‘”More Creative Than Creation”: On the Idea of Criticism and Student Critic’.
- Bill Hutchings and Karen O’Rourke ‘Problem-Based Learning in Literary Studies’.
Back issues of the Subject Centre's Newsletter and its new magazine WordPlay both carry short articles on teaching and learning matters and copies are distributed free to all English Departments – contact us if you are not seeing it. The Subject Centre has also published several good practice guides and Seed Guides which are shorter publications designed to help lecturers looking for fresh ideas or pointers in a unfamiliar area.
You may also be interested in our 'Teaching Library' - Teaching English Studies in Higher Education Suggestions for reading
