PHELC workshop

Pedagogies for Higher Education Large Classes (PHELC)

Insights into teaching large classes from an evidence-based, higher education practice perspective: Workshop collocated with HEAd’19 Conference, Valencia

http://bit.ly/2DW1wOW

On Tuesday, 25 June 2019 (13:30-18:00) the HEAd Conference will host a Special Interest Group workshop entitled Pedagogy for Higher Education Large Classes (PHELC) at Universitat Politècnica de València. The workshop convenors are Ann Marie Farrell and Dr Anna Logan, Dublin City University. We invite submissions from higher education teachers who are teaching large classes, often considered to be 100+ in size but may be less.   Accepted papers will be published after the conference on the PHELC website.

For more information, please access the PHELC workshop website.

Rationale for PHELC

The trend towards massification in higher education has resulted inter alia in the proliferation of large classes. However, there is no consensus on what constitutes ‘large’ (Kerr, 2011). The purpose of this workshop is to move the emphasis away from the contested term ‘large’ class to focus instead on the nature of teaching, learning and assessment in this context regardless of what is perceived as ‘large’. The aim of the workshop is to identify pedagogical and assessment possibilities which are appropriate for large classes and which maximise student learning, engagement and participation in that context. As such this seminar responds to recent calls for a pedagogical rather than a numerical focus to the debate (Prosser & Trigwell, 2014).

Overview of PHELC Special Interest Workshop, 25 June

The workshop will be four hours in duration (13:30-18:00). It will include three extended presentations, poster presentations and workshop(s). Papers submitted will be reviewed by a panel established by the two convenors. The outcomes from the workshop will be published on this website with DOI. Accepted authors will be expected to provide poster presentations of their papers. At least two papers will be selected for extended presentations. 

Possible topics may include but are not limited to:

  • Approaches to assessment for, of and/or as learning
  • Use of technology 
  • Teaching techniques and approach
  • Formative and summative assessment
  • Feedback to and from students and teacher to inform learning and teaching
  • Collaborative approaches to planning and assessment
  • Participation and engagement
  • Universal Design for Learning (UDL) for large classes

Workshop Objectives

Based on the accepted papers which critique authors’ current pedagogical practice in large class contexts, the objectives of this workshop are to:

  • Discuss and explore examples of innovative pedagogical and assessment practices which are effective in the large class context 
  • Identify key principles for each of teaching, learning and assessment 
  • Identify and critique technologies which can support teaching and learning 
  • Publish the key findings emerging from the workshop