SEDA Spring Conference 2008
Engaging with Student Expectations
08 May 2008
- 09 May 2008
Location: London
This
year the conference will explore staff and educational development
through themes linked to engaging with student expectations. What are
our students’ expectations on joining our universities and colleges and
how does this impact upon the kind of education offered to them and the
work we are involved in? To what extent should we be involved in
influencing expectations to fit our models of learning and teaching or
should we be aiming to be more responsive to learner needs and views?
As staff and educational developers, we aim to aid people in
understanding the student experience of learning but given the diverse
nature of further and higher education, the growing numbers and the
complexities of our provision, can we even begin to understand student
perspectives? What has been the impact of the National Student Survey
or of league tables on your institution and how does your university or
college know what students are expecting of the learning and teaching
environment? What has changed in your work as a result of responding
more actively to students?
This
conference aims to explore and debate the issues around engaging with
student expectations. In doing so it will touch upon some key topics in
staff and educational development and learning and teaching with regard
to what, when and how students learn, the role of teachers in shaping
and responding to student expectations and the role of students in
helping us to understand the processes involved in learning. It also
allows us to explore the impact of fees on the relationship of students
to their studies and to those who teach them. In keeping with the
theme, the conference committee particularly encourages contributions
which will include substantial input from students themselves.
Conference Themes
The conference will seek to address the following themes:
- Student centred learning
- Involving students in academic professional development
- Collecting and responding to student views
- Seeing teaching through the learners' eyes
- Consumerism and learning
The SEDA Conference Experience
SEDA prides itself on creating a relaxed, welcoming and positive atmosphere
at conferences, which encourages open, constructive and supportive sharing of
ideas, experience and practice.
Feedback from participants at recent SEDA conferences: - "The informal atmosphere made it a pleasant, enjoyable yet very useful conference with plenty of networking opportunities. Thanks!"
- "Excellent and worthwhile conference, first time at the SEDA conference and I would recomment to others and come back! Thank you. "
- "Great presentations, relaxed and friendly atmosphere. Fantastic organisation."
Participants
The conference will be of particular interest to all those involved in promoting
effective change in HE and FE learning, teaching and educational development. This includes:
- Educational and academic developers
- Staff developers and human resources personnel
- Higher Education Academy staff
- Lecturers and teachers in further and higher education
- National and institutional teaching fellows
- Centre for Excellence, Subject Centre and FDTL staff
- Managers of academic departments
- Educational technologists
- Quality assurance and enhancement policy makers
Conference Keynote
This
year’s keynote address will be delivered by Stephen J Ball who is the
Karl Mannheim Professor of Sociology of Education, in the Department of
Educational Foundations and Policy Studies and Centre for Critical
Education Policy studies, Institute of Education, University of London.
He is Editor of the Journal of Education Policy, a member of the
Academy of Social Sciences and Fellow of the British Academy.
His
main work is in the field of 'policy sociology'; the use of
sociological theories and methods to analyse policy processes and
outcomes. His specific research interests focus upon the effects and
consequences of the education market in a variety of respects
including; the impact of competition on provider behaviour; the class
strategies of educational choosers; the participation of private
capital in education services; and the impact of 'performativity' on
academic and social life.
Education
services are now the UK's single largest earner of foreign currency,
over £28bn in 2005-6. The worldwide value of the market in students is
$55bn. Higher education is big business and UK higher education is
expanding worldwide. Within all of this the experiences and meaning of
teaching and learning and teacher-student relationships are being
changed dramatically. The presentation, entitled:
Higher Education Plc: the commodification of teachers and learners in the global education market will
discuss these developments and the differential positioning of
institutions and students within the global structure of higher
education.
Conference Venue
The Royal National Hotel
is located in Bloomsbury, London. Fully residential delegates will be
accommodated on-site. It is in walking distance of the British Library,
the British Museum and Covent Garden and a short distance from Euston
and King's Cross Stations and the nearest tube station is Russell
Square.
On the evening of Thursday 8th May the Conference Dinner is to be held at the Royal Overseas League
in the heart of the West End. The garden backs on to Green Park and is
just 400 metres from Buckingham Palace. Weather permitting, the Wine
Reception will be held in the garden. | 
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