Staff need(s) the workshop will address
- I am thinking of designing a new module, or redesigning one of my existing modules, and I would like to explore different ways in which I could approach the module (re)design process.
- I would like to consider how I might make my module less about the delivery of content, and make it more of a student-centred educational journey with a narrative arc.
Audience: Academic staff, especially those planning to (re)design modules
To sign up to a workshop, please book through LibCal here.
How the Workshop will contribute to Learning Practice
In this series of three workshops, participants will be introduced to the stages of the Hero’s Journey, will explore the ways that this storytelling archetype can be applied to participants’ previous learning experiences, and will look at the extent to which it can be used as a framework to structure and design a university module. Over the course of the three workshops a series of diagnostic questions will be posed to the participants, each of which will prompt them to consider the position and momentum of students on their modules.
“Looking at teaching and learning as an archetypal Hero’s Journey is a good way of talking about education in its psychological and spiritual depths because the Hero’s Journey is fundamentally an educative one” (Mayes, 2010, p.11). Education is not simply a process of dispassionately acquiring and filing away discrete packets of knowledge, but is a journey during which characters are formed and in which individuals come to gain greater understanding of their subject and themselves. Students’ educational journeys are rich, complex and multi-layered experiences in which mental models of reality are challenged and changed, and where new ways of thinking become new ways of being.
Reference: Mayes, C. (2010) The Archetypal Hero’s Journey in Teaching and Learning: A Study in Jungian Pedagogy. Madison: Atwood Publishing.
How the Workshop will develop specific skills aligned with UKPSF
Specific skills
A1 Design and plan learning activities and/or programmes of study.
These three workshops are focused on the design of modules and programmes of study, and during the workshops staff will be invited to consider their approach to module and course design.
Core Knowledge
K3 How students learn, both generally and within their subject/disciplinary area(s).
While the workshops won’t directly address scientific or psychological theories of learning, they will look in detail at the ways in which students might be thinking or how they might be feeling during different parts of the module or course.
Professional Values
V1 Respect individual learners and diverse learning communities.
The focus of the workshops is the individual learner, and the question of how one might begin to design a module or programme with a focus on the individual learner and where they are, as opposed to beginning the design process with the subject matter.
How the Workshop supports Fellowship D1, D2 & D3
D2 – Fellow of the HEA
Staff for whom teaching or learning support is a significant element of their role such as staff with experience as
- Academic or Support staff holding substantive teaching & learning responsibilities.
- Experienced professionals with substantive teaching & learning responsibilities including for example within workplace settings.
D3 – Senior Fellow of the HEA
Experienced HE teaching staff able to demonstrate sustained impact & influence on the L&T practice of others over a number of years, through
- Leading, managing, organising programmes
- Mentoring other staff
- Departmental, School or other University responsibilities