Determinism & Free Will
Metaphysics and Experience
Individual excellence - evidence of promoting and enhancing the student learning experience
My claim to individual excellence is based on
Projects have included:
My current focus is on finding the best ways of using the net in my teaching. It has great potential as a stand-in for, or extension of, face-to-face discussion (see below) but I have been concentrating recently on offering webpages that support my classroom presentations. The pages are based on a text version of the presentations themselves, so that the student can engage with the presentations without worrying about taking notes for their record. They are designed to re-prompt thinking on the issues raised, and to lure the user into an effective engagement with (a) primary philosophy texts and (b) the secondary material now so richly available on-line. After some years of them hanging fire somewhat I am now finding warm appreciation of the pages by the users. (Eg the feedback comments of my most recent metaphysics class, Appendix 6) Links to the sites are collected as Appendix 1
These teaching support websites of mine have another role in improving things for students. I put them up on the screen and work through them as I make my presentation - ie they provide an alternative to PowerPoint.
For large classes (300 or so) I have used with disgusting success short clips from feature films. As a finale for a week's topic at introductory level I have shown a ten minute clip from a really big film to highlight the key issue raised - for example the last ten minutes of Terminator II to highlight the question of whether robots might have their limitations. It has proved a wonderful and I think and hope and pray philosophically stimulating way of ending the week's sessions. Receives rapturous feedback.
A first year lecture of mine was the subject of a Times Higher feature under the “Star Turn” header.
My policy now is to put on the relevant teaching website an edited spoken version of a forthcoming lecture. In .mp3 format these audio files are i-pod friendly. Those who use them are warmly appreciative. An example: an introductory talk on Kant's theory of morality. I am currently experimenting with upgrading these efforts into video.
For smallish groups (12-75) I apply a workshop technique which has won warm appreciation.
I try and present one main point or argument at a time, opening each to discussion. This is easy for small groups (6-12) but more of a challenge with groups of more than 12. We have to switch between discussion round the (four or five separate) tables to discussion with a neighbour to plenary sessions where people sometimes speak for themselves and sometimes report the thinking of their group.
Student feedback is good.
I have participated recently in efforts to apply these (workshop) techniques to classes of 300 or so - but I have to say without getting it right so far…If they could be got to work well they would be invaluable in situations where traditional small-group seminar work is deemed too expensive (ie in situations prevailing or threatening in the UK…)
I have been exploring requiring students (on a course that was not compulsory) to present their philosophising in the form of a webpage, or part of a collectively produced website, instead of as a traditional essay. An example of a website prepared as a piece of coursework by a small group of 3rd year students is here.
I have recently been working more deliberately on the dialogue as a format for course work in philosophy. We are currently recording the best student-produced Plato-style dialogue for a webcast.
Evidence of the quality of teaching for which I was responsible as Head of Department includes the report of the TQA assessment in 2002:
The reviewers observed a sample of teaching and learning sessions at each level of the undergraduate programme and a postgraduate class. Their observations confirmed the high-quality teaching described by students in meetings and course evaluations. Sessions were motivated by clear learning outcomes made fully explicit to students, and supported by excellent handouts*. Well-structured and suitably paced lectures were delivered in an articulate, lucid and engaging manner that made complex material accessible and interesting. Refreshing modes of delivery included the use of pictures, video extracts* and even music*. …Class content was up to date, authoritative, interesting and based upon research in progress. Teaching and learning took place in an atmosphere of mutual respect.
AwayMAVE [The MA in Values and the Environment by Distance Learning] materials include good study-skills guidance, backed by conscientious and prompt email support.
Current and former undergraduates and taught postgraduates emphatically praised the support and guidance they received, the friendly atmosphere, and the approachability of staff…
I have asterisked points where I feel particularly responsible! It is the first year lecture, observed by the panel, which featured the video and music.
Her is the full QAA Report:
http://www.qaa.ac.uk/reviews/reports/subjectlevel/q152_01_textonly.htm
Raising the profile of excellence - evidence of supporting colleagues and influencing support for student learning in (and if appropriate beyond) your institution, through demonstrating impact and engagement beyond your immediate academic or professional role
My claim here is based on
Driving innovative institutions:
I ran Lancaster's School of Independent Studies in its early days, a flag-bearer of innovation (though not the only one!) in University education in the UK (and beyond) in the nineteen-seventies (See Keith Percy, Paul Ramsden and John Lewin, Independent study: Two examples from English Higher Education, Guildford,1980, Open University Press (in conjunction with The Society for Research into Higher Education).
Within the University it supported innovation of various kinds (undergraduate work on the research student model, group work, student-designed curricula, work experience as part of the undergraduate degree).
Bringing together philosophers and social scientists on a mission to collaborate over developing policy analysis and recommendations especially in relation to the environment; linked with an MA by Distance Learning (see below).
Driving innovative programmes:
I was Deputy Director of Lancaster's Enterprise in Higher Education programme. The key theme was bringing university learning into tighter garage with the professional world outside the University. It introduced to many university people, especially in the arts and social sciences, the idea of a transferable skill, which has had a useful lasting impact.
I drove the development of a distance learning mode for Lancaster's MA in Values and the Environment (itself pioneering, the first MA of its kind in the world).
The programme has achieved consistently excellent feedback and is now mounted by UCLAN.
External examinerships, membership of review panels etc has included
work for
Manchester University
The Open University
Hertfordshire University
Durham University
Manchester Metropolitan University
Bolton University
Details on my website.
Evidence of outstanding contribution to teaching innovation is provided by the award in 2004 of the Pilkington Prize at Lancaster University, the citation of which reads:
In recognition of excellent undergraduate teaching involving innovation and effective use of on-line learning.
This award recognises success in stimulating and challenging generations of students through consistently innovative approaches to teaching. A particular strength is in the area of on-line learning, including the effective use of on-line discussion sites and high quality web page design.
Developing excellence - commitment to your ongoing professional development with regard to teaching and learning (and/or learning support).
The future of teaching in Universities is bound up with the future of IT and
my mission would be to make this a power for good, resisting the terrific
pressure to think of it as simply a way of making teaching cheaper. That
said, I believe that the well-programmed machine can often be the subtler,
more encouraging, more considerate tutor…
Continuing/future Projects
I currently offer a kind of news bulletin for UCLAN students - or whoever might want to download the podcast (it's an mp3 file with an RSS feed. - listed on iTunes). Example.
The intention to begin with was to try and support the student philosophy community here at UCLAN. But two development paths are calling:
I plan further development of teaching support webpages and the net for current teaching.
I have experimented successfully with requiring students to submit their philosophical studies as webpages.
We are currently producing an audio version of a dialogue "What is Philosophy" written
in the first place as class work by a second year student.
I have been experimenting with Wikis for out-of-class discussion, but without
much success. The interactive role of the websites is in need of
development. I would like to develop a teaching support website
on the model of a roleplaying fantasy game.
I would also like to spread the word (with some code) that teaching is best supported by webpages not PowerPoint. (Actually big money to be made here, don't tell.)
Planned appropriately, webpages incorporate all the headings, summaries, prompts - and eyecandy - that you can work into a good PowerPoint presentation - but with much more facility. A PowerPoint sequence can be sort of wonderful I know but for me has a certain rigidity I find inhibiting. Scrolling back and forth through my own web pages (as I talk) gives me a much more comfortable sense of control!
I would like to make headway with the application of pattern recognition techniques to ease the load of evaluation of the more sophisticated orders of student work (essays in arts subjects for example).
To bring the successful thinking behind mySpace and YouTube into learning support. Is webCT there yet?
For further information and links:
Current Teaching Support Websites
Determinism & Free
Will
Metaphysics
and Experience
Non-current Teaching support websites
INTRODUCTORY
Problems
in Applied Ethics Student presentations, University of Central Lancashire
NOT SO INTRODUCTORY
Reason,
Nature and the Human Being in the West: a web presentation for the MA
in Values and the Environment
Enlightenment epistemology
and ontology (Descartes, Locke, Hume, Kant). A web presentation originally
for Part II of the philosophy degree at Lancaster University
Knowledge Mind and Language.
A web presentation originally for a 2/3 year course at Lancaster University.
Not under active updating and now badly aging.
Times Higher Education Supplement 9:6:2000
This is a statement of what my module websites aim to do, with some links to examples.
The module website
The webpages are designed to
· make lecture presentations fully available for consultation after
the lecture.
· offer supplementary material to the enthusiastic student who seeks
further depth or coverage through material of mine
· encourage students (by incorporating a manageable number of well-chosen
links) to make use of the great wealth of other people's material now available
across the net.
· encourage people to develop their encounter with primary texts by
giving links at the end of quotations to their specific occurrence in full
e-texts. Eg
http://www.vernonpratt.com/211/L1%20Descartes1.htm#sense
· to offer prompts for thought, linking directly to the module discussion
site, and sometimes linked to the response to the prompt offered by me. Eg
http://www.vernonpratt.com/211/L20kant4.htm
· to offer juvenile quizes to help consolidation. Eg http://www.vernonpratt.com/211/L12%20Berkeley2x.htm#spirits
· To offer visual aids to comprehension. Eg http://www.vernonpratt.com/211/L19Kant3.htm#causality
· to offer eye candy to make life sweeter. Eg http://www.vernonpratt.com/211/L11%20Berkeley1.htm
· to be used as a visual aid instead of 'PowerPoint' (which on the whole
I hate as all glitter and closed technologically) or the more flexible overhead
transparency.
[The full pages were made available to students on request on a free CD ROM.]
Group work and Webwriting in Philosophy: Leibniz Module flier.
The Leibniz web-site: A group project
For this Special Subject, participants form a group to work collaboratively on the project of developing a web site devoted to Leibniz, his ideas and his world.
The target audience for the site is 2nd/3rd year students who are doing philosophy but who don’t know anything about Leibniz. The aim is to offer a website that people in such a situation will find accessible and useful.
A start was made last year. This year we will begin by reviewing the pages produced then and planning what development work should have highest priority – what could be added, what revised and what archived.
The module is meant to appeal to those with absolutely no experience in building web pages. What was really good last year was that only one or two in the group knew anything about making a web site to begin with – which meant that they learnt new practical know-how, as well as quite a bit about Leibniz. .
The group thing is serious on this module: each individual makes an identifiable contribution, but the group has to work closely together to plan, to identify what each is to do and to edit all the contributions together into a working site.
Your individual contribution (which you are responsible for identifying) will
be assessed and given a mark. This will contribute one third of
your total marks.
The site as a whole will be assessed, seen against the background of the site
as it was inherited, and this mark will be copied to each individual, counting
for two thirds of the individual’s total mark.
Plenary meetings of the group, with the tutor on hand to help, will be held on Tuesdays from 2pm – 3.30pm in C17. Subgroups will probably want to meet at other times, by arrangement.
VP
APPENDIX 5 Example of website produced as course work by 3rd year students
Philip K. Dick Website
Produced by a 'Special Subject' group at Lancaster, 2005:
Site
Marker's
Comments
Appendix 6
For illustration, feedback comments from students (all returns) on the
two modules for which VP was responsible in the most recent semester.
PI 2211 Metaphysics and Experience Semester 1 2006-07
How has using WebCT during this module affected your learning?
[Please note: For increased flexibility I mount my teaching support websites on an independent server (accessed: http://www.vernonpratt.com/) . Some respondents make a distinction between these pages and WebCT (which simply carry a link to them).]
In a very positive way, it is very helpful to catch missed lectures online.
Yes it is good.
Have not used it, lecturer had own site. However I have used it before and found it over complicated and difficult. They should reinstall the old version!
Did not use - tutor has a superior website.
Has improved learning immensely, easy access to mass of information.
Not really, Used Vernon's website, which was very good, although WebCT is OK generally.
WebCT has once again proved useful as has Vernon's own website.
Good, easy, nice.
Very useful, easy to use.
Extremely useful - the content available allowed for review whenever required. More of this please.
I found the best feature of the module to be:
Vernon's teaching method; use of vernon.com; debate.
Vernon's Website.
Engaging lectures/seminars.
Lecturer's style of teaching.
Discussions in class.
Of course the discussions!
The bit on causality.
Discussion in the lectures; quality of lecture notes; assessment of essays; Vernon's website.
Good easy nice.
Good discussion sessions.
Clear presentations and informative debate produced and conducted by V. Pratt.
I would like to see the following changes:
Maybe more contact time.
-.
More class contact time, and revision of rubbish new web-ct to be more in tune with Vernon's website.
/.
Good easy nice.
No changes needed really.
Greater selection of books in library - reading from computer screens isn't ideal or comfortable.
Prepared from student feedback sheets by VP 01:01:07
PI 2214 Foundations of Ethics Semester 1 2006-07
How has using WebCT during this module affected your learning?
[Please note: For increased flexibility I mount my teaching support websites on an independent server (accessed: http://www.vernonpratt.com/) . Some respondents make a distinction between these pages and WebCT (which simply carry a link to them).]
A definite bonus.
I found it useful to have lecture notes on-line. So I could obtain them in out-of-office(?) times.
Very useful.
It's awesome, and easy.
A real positive. The ability easily to get hold of notes off vernonpratt.com has greatly aided my understanding of ethics. The .mp3s were of exceptional worth.
Yes, I was able to listen to the lecture without taking many notes and download it from WebCT.
Did not use WebCT but Vernon's website was excellent.
I found the best feature of the module to be:
The break half-way through the lectures [session was a double, ie 100 minutes - VP]. This allowed you to absorb what was learnt. The tutor allowed a lot of discussion with students and often summarized a student's reply.
The presenter and the enthusiasm and patience displayed, plus grasp of subject in great depth.
Vernon.
Good discussion sessions, helps in understanding the topics in more depth.
Dialogues interesting.
Vernon's teaching style; Vernon's website, inc .mp3s; debate.
Lecture interspersed with discussions.
Teaching methods and the open environment of the class.
I would like to see the following changes:
None
None
It's all good.
Prepared from feedback sheets by VP 01:01:07
Informal feedback: “Vernon is God". Graffiti, Men's toilets, C Floor, Department of Religious Studies, Lancaster University, May 2001.
END OF BID
VP
10:01:07
