Keeping the body in mind

Curriculum enhancements

Dr Craig Bellamy BA (Hons) MA Ph.D

28 April 2016, University of Melbourne

Identifying needs

What problem is being solved?

Retention (transform practice)

Teaching / Active Learning

(responding)

Teaching and learning (and retention)

• What is the teaching/learning climate? (ie. negative reinforcement is worse than positive)

• Applauding undergraduate success! (partly through assessment. ie formative, low-stakes quizzes, students reflect on their learning)

• Teacher feedback has a powerful effect on students expectation of success (Biggs, Tang)

• Peer assessment (grading with rubrics) through a ‘flexible learning’ approach.

Learning outcomes (align, raise expectations)

• Appreciate how a critical comparative perspective and a tradition of ethnographic enquiry can inform developments in theories of the body.

• Articulate an understanding of a range of debates on the relations between bodies, minds, and the social, cultural and physical environments in which they circulate.

• Be able to communicate effectively in a variety of written and oral formats.

• Work reflexively and independently to appreciate the huge diversity of bodies in the world as well as a large (and sometimes challenging) range of beliefs, ideas and experiences people have with bodies and their parts.

• Work collaboratively in a group and effectively negotiate and manage group work (vital 21C skills)

Assessment

• A 1500 word report (40%) due during the semester (Group work)

• A 2500 word essay (60%) due during the examination period.

Report (field trip)

A trip to St Kilda beach using a ‘cultural probes’ approach (Gaver, Dunne and Pacenti in 1999)

Using the Ethos ethnographic observation system app observe the ‘Australian body’ at the beach. The beach is often described as the great Australian social leveller, but it this true? Is there an idealised body, are strangers interacting? How are they interacting? Are groups of ‘bodies’ formed around certain cultural or physical norms?

Different modes of delivery (online)

Summary/questions?

Issues are complex in making students successful!

‘Technology’ doesn’t always impact in a positive way upon the teaching process (needs to be considered with all other aspects of teaching). Teaching is a social process

No grand theory or one size fits all to effective teaching with technology etc; teachers understands what works and what doesn’t work with their own content and context (but good approaches can be shared, a need to be flexible and willing to experiment)