This is the second module of the Post Graduate Certificate in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education (PGC LTHE). The module invites participants to carry out a sustained ‘Enquiry’ into their professional practice as a teacher and academic in higher education. To this end, participants work in small tutor-led learning groups to support each other’s progress, and this process gives a space not just for each participant to develop their own thinking and practice but also to have thought-provoking conversations with colleagues from different disciplines.

What is an enquiry?

The idea of an ‘Enquiry’ brings together an engagement and interest with both research and teaching. It is to do with asking increasingly deeper questions. It invites participants to draw on both their own disciplinary practices and thinking, and those relating to education, to explore an aspect of the higher education curriculum that particularly concerns them. The Enquiry may be of immediate practical relevance or be more theoretical. It may or may not lead to a specific curriculum development but it will certainly lead to new understanding and thinking.

The process of carrying out an Enquiry will be supported by a series of workshops that introduce issues such as: purposes of higher education; meanings of ‘the curriculum’; the construction of disciplinary knowledge; professional identity and values; institutional and societal contexts.

Assessment

A 6–8,000 words piece of writing about the Enquiry along with a Reflection on the process of carrying it out.

Intended Participants

This course is intended for students who have completed either Adult Learning and Professional Development or Exploring Learning in Higher Education. Completion of this additional module leads to the Post Graduate Certificate in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education.

Previous participants have said …

“It has made me read and reflect on concepts and philosophies: it opened my eyes!”

“It was great having time and space to think about teaching and learning through doing the Enquiry”

“I enjoyed having freedom to develop the Enquiry in any direction”

“Doing this module made me think more deeply and change my ideas about teaching”

“ … the course has made me think about the value of university education and has inspired me to be actively involved in reinterpreting and shaping the way in which we teach at universities in the future”.

Dates and Times

The module is in the Common Timetable E slot 11.00-13.00 on Wednesdays and appears below.

Term One

7th October 2009

21st October 2009

4th November 2009

18th November 2009

2nd December 2009

16th December 2009

Term Two

13th January 2010

27th January 2010