Institute for Education Policy Research

Forthcoming Events

Past Events

Research Symposium

Programme

2.00 Introduction (Peter Davies)

2.00 - 2.45 Marj Spiller - "Managing to learn or learning to manage? An exploratory case study into how university managers learn and develop within their roles"

3.00 - 3.45 Richard Jolley - "The education of psychological and graphic skills in children's picture-making"

3.45 - 4.30 Lynn Machin - "First stages of a research journey into how current curriculum design and assessment strategies meet the needs of changing cohorts of trainee teachers working within the Lifelong Learning Sector"

Please contact Tom Ward or Emma Berndt if you are interested in attending.

The FACE Annual Conference 2009
Towards a New Agenda for Lifelong Learning: Access, Diversity and Participation

This conference, hosted by the Academic Development Institute and the Institute for Access Studies at Staffordshire University, will bring together the sometimes disparate and often closely integrated themes of access, diversity and participation in a bid to explore how these elements contribute to or possibly detract from a new agenda for lifelong learning.

Further details of the conference can be found at www.f-a-c-e.org.uk/conference2009.html. Bookings can be made online at www.staffs.ac.uk/faceconf/bookingform/ and abstracts submitted at www.staffs.ac.uk/faceconf/submissionform/.

All bookings made prior to the Monday 2nd March 2009 will be eligible to receive a free copy of Marginality and Difference in Education and Beyond edited by Michael Reiss Renee Depalma and Elizabeth Atkinson published by Trentham Books, worth £18.99.

Seminar - 'From tractors to training contracts: the return of central planning'

The speaker will be Alison Wolf - Sir Roy Griffiths Professor of Public Sector Management, Department of Management, King's College London.

Please contact Tom Ward or Emma Berndt if you would like to attend.

Research Symposium

Programme

All speakers are current PhD students with the Institute

12:30 Introduction (Peter Davies)

12:30 - 1:10 Cheryl Bolton - "Heuristics and Educational Leadership"

1:15 - 1:55 Michelle Lowe - "Moral Leadership and the Employment of TAs"

2:00 - 2:40 Chris Howard - "A Critical Realist Analysis of Widening Participation into HE"

2:45 - 3:25 John Noble - "Cultural Capital: a stepping stone or stumbling block to successful engagement with HE?"

Please contact Tom Ward or Emma Berndt if you would like to attend.

Professional Development Conference for Teachers in Higher Education
Nurturing the learner: the central role of the tutor in higher education

Speakers:

Professor Patricia Broadfoot - Relationships, relationships, relationships: the challenge for a mass higher education system

Professor Stephen Rowland - Integrity and intellectual love in academic enquiry

Dr Cecilia Lundholm - Students’ conceptual change – emerging issues (please note that this is a change to the original programme)

More information and an online booking form can be found at www.staffs.ac.uk/pdc/.

Alternatively, please download the conference flyer and return the booking form to the address on the form.

Research Seminar - "Peer effect and pupil achievement"

Dr Shqiponja Telhaj, University of Sussex and Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.

Dr Telhaj is one of Staffordshire University's PhD (Economics) graduates and specialises in economics of education, econometrics and the labour market.

Please contact Tom Ward or Emma Berndt if you would like to attend.

Symposium: Conceptual Change

This symposium will provide participants with a clearer view of recent developments in conceptual change research which will inform their own work in areas such as 'threshold concepts', 'learning study' and 'assessment of learning'.

Programme:

2:00 Introduction (Peter Davies)

2:00 - 2:45 Professor Ola Halldén - Department of Education, Stockholm University: "Learning as conceptual change and conceptual change as contextualising"

2:45 - 3:30 Dr Cecilia Lundholm - Leverhulme Visting International Research Fellow, Stockholm University and IEPR, Staffordshire University: "Students' conceptual change - emerging issues"

3:30 - 3:45 Break

3:45 - 4:30 Peter Davies and Jean Mangan - IEPR, Staffordshire University: "Assessing progression in students’ economic understanding: the role of threshold concepts"

Please contact Tom Ward or Emma Berndt if you would like to attend.

The BPS Psychology of Education Section Annual Conference 2007

Opening address: Professor Gert Rijlaarsdam, Amsterdam University, “Writing processes and the teaching of writing".

Vernon-Wall lecture: Professor Peter Bryant, Oxford Brookes University, "Spelling rules exist, but do people use them?"

Further details, including full conference programme (abstracts and opening address presentation available here) and registration form.

Research Symposium

Programme:

2.00 Introduction (Peter Davies)

2.00 - 3.00 Michelle Lowe - Staffordshire University: "Teaching Assistants - A Developing Profession?"

3.00 - 3.15 Break

3.15 - 4.30 Christopher Mugimu, Goretti Nakabugo - Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda; Steve Hurd - Open University: "Resource Implications of Universal Secondary Education in Uganda: an ELATE (E-Learning and Teacher Education) Project Perspective"

If you are interested in attending, please contact Tom Ward or Emma Berndt.

Symposium: Representing the Structure of Students' Understanding

Understanding students' learning journey in terms of the development of the structure of their thinking has important implications for the way we view teaching and learning and for the ways in which we analyse evidence of learning an teaching. Visual representations are particularly important. They can be used to share ways of understanding learning and thereby facilitate dialogue about learning and the implications of teaching and learning. They provide useful tools for conducting reaearch into teaching and learning. They may also be used with students to scaffold the process of learning. This symposium brings together several ways of representing the structure of students' learning and there may be valuable complementaries between these approaches: threshold concepts, anchor concepts, concept mapping and systems dynamics. The purpose of the symposium is to facilitate understanding of the nuances or each approach and to provide an opportunity for dialogue that could be constructive in the development of each approach.

Participants:

Dr David Wheat, University of Bergen
Dr Jerry Mead, Bucknell University
Dr Simon Gray, College of Wooster
Dr Ian Kinchin, King's College, University of London
Professor Peter Davies, Staffordshire University
David Galbraith, Staffordshire University
Jean Mangan, Staffordshire University

More information about the day's programme (pdf document)

Seminar: Entrepreneurialism in European Universities

This will be delivered by Gareth Williams, Professor of Higher Education, Institute of Education, University of London.

Please contact Tom Ward or Emma Berndt if you are interested in attending.

Professional Development Conference for Teachers in Higher Education: Aspects of Learning

The key note address will be given by Professor Ference Marton.

Participants will then attend two further presentations by Dr Glynis Cousin and Dr David Nicol.

More information and an online booking form can be found at www.staffs.ac.uk/pdc/.

Alternatively, please download the conference flyer and return the booking form to the address on the form.

Seminar: Threshold Concepts and Variation Theory

Threshold concepts and variation theory are two exciting new areas for research in learning and instruction. This seminar brings together leading thinkers in each of these domains to explore the relationship between these developments.

Presenters:

Professor Peter Davies, Staffordshire University, UK
Dr David Hay, Kings College, University of London, UK
Dr Ian Kinchin, Kings College, University of London, UK
Professor Ray Land, Strathclyde University, UK
Dr Cecilia Lundholm, Stockholm University, Sweden
Professor Ference Marton, Göteborg University, Sweden
Professor Erik Meyer, Durham University, UK
Dr Ming Fai Pang, University of Hong Kong

Attendance is by invitation only.

More information about the day's programme (pdf document)

Symposium on Community Engagement and Lifelong Learning

This symposium will consist of four talks of around 30 minutes, to be delivered by:

If you are interested in attending, please contact Tom Ward.

Nvivo Qualitative Software Training

This day long training session on Nvivo qualitative software, used for managing and analysing large amounts of qualitative data, will be run by Dr Christina Silver of the University of Surrey.

There are eight places available for this session, which will be useful for any IEPR staff who work with qualitiative data. Please contact Tom Ward or Katy Vigurs if you would like to attend.

Workshop on Research Finance and Ethics Procedures

The purpose of this short workshop is to update IEPR staff who play a role in setting up projects on procedures regarding ethics and finance.

Please let Tom Ward know whether you will be able to attend.

More information (pdf document)

Introduction to SPSS

In response to last year's Research Skills Audit where it was identified that a number of people wanted to develop their SPSS skills, Jean Mangan will be running an introductory session. It is possible that this session will be rerun later in the year for those who cannot make it.

Topics to be covered (pdf document)

Morality, Power and Leadership in Schools

BERA Leading and Managing Schools and Colleges
SIG & BELMAS

Conference to be held at Staffordshire University. Attendance by invitation only.

Programme of the day's events (pdf document)

Review of conference proceedings

Professional Development Conference for Teachers In
Higher Education

A professional development conference will be held at Staffordshire University.

The key note address will be delivered by Guy Claxton entitled 'Building students' learning power in HE'

Participants will then attend one of the following one hour presentations:

1. The reflective practitioner: myths, mantras and the decline of theory in the guise of intuitive thinking (Dr Kathryn Ecclestone).

2. The critical learning episode of the threshold concept' (Professor Erik Meyer)

More information about the day's programme

3rd May 2006 - 3 - 4 pm in B203

University of Ulster and Staffordshire University

Seminar

Widening Access to Higher Education in the UK and Ireland

Examining patterns of participation, student finance and widening access policies in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales, together with the Republic of Ireland

Stormont Hotel, Belfast

speakers include:

Professor Nick Adnett (Staffordshire University)
Professor Miriam David (Institute of Education, London)
Professor Heather Eggins (Staffordshire University)
Professor Jim Gallacher (Glasgow Caledonian University)
Mr Michael Hipkins (DfES)
Mr Laurence Howells (Learning Policy and Strategy Scottish Funding Council)
Dr Rob Humphries (NIACE, WALES)
Ms Celia Hunt (HEFCW)
Mr Michael Kelly (HEA)
Mr David McAuley (DEL)
Professor Gareth Parry (University of Sheffield)
Professor Philip O'Connoll (ESRI)
Professor Bob Osborne (University of Ulster)
Dr John Rigg (Scottish Executive)
Dr John Cresswell (OECD)
Dr Chris Taylor (Cardiff University)
Dr Mary-Liz Trant (HEA)
Mr Kevin Whitston (HEFCE)

This event is supported by the Department of Employment and Learning (Northern Ireland) and the Higher Education Authority (Republic of Ireland)

More information about this event

Research Methods Seminar:

Methodology, who needs it?

Professor Martyn Hammersley, Open University

The literature on methodology in social and educational research is now vast. In fact, it is probably still increasing at an increasing rate. But what use does it serve? Does anyone have the time to read more than a small proportion of it? And, if they do, does it improve the research that they carry out? What can reasonably be expected of research methodology? And does it currently supply this? In order to answer these questions, we need to think about the nature of methodology; about how methodological problems arise in the course of doing research, or in the process of assessing others' work. We then need to consider the nature of those problems and how they can be dealt with. It is against this background that we must assess the value of the available methodological literature. And, in doing this, we need to recognise its diversity, how it can serve different purposes for us at different times, and in different ways. We might also need to accept that some of it is useless or even worse than useless. There needs to be a balance here: we must recognise the contribution that the methodological literature can make to our practice of educational research, but also the limits to that contribution.

Developing Academic Practice in Higher Education: Implementing Formative Assessment

Wednesday 30th November 2005: 1.30 to 4.30pm

Professor Mantz Yorke's keynote will begin by identifying what formative assessment is, before moving into why it is important, then to considering some of the features that have a bearing on teaching/learning. Professor Yorke will then ending up at the overarching level of the curriculum, considering some implications for design and implementation. However, during his address, Professor Yorke will always have in my mind the widening participation aspect of HE, which is significant in our university. He will close the address by posing a few key questions for discussion in our breakout groups.

More information and the half-day's programme

Learning Journeys conference on 2nd November 2005

In partnership with the Open University and the Workers' Educational Association, the Institute for Access Studies hosted a conference to disseminate findings of research which focused on the experiences of part-time adult students. The research explored the learning journeys taken by students in both work-based and community settings, in six case studies. It looked at the wider benefits of learning - why people engage in learning; what they hope to get out of it; what benefits it brings; what are the disadvantages; and what are the barriers.

More information about this event

Wednesday 22 June 2005 - 2pm to 5pm, in room B253, Leek Road Campus

Programme:

2pm Introduction (Peter Davies)

2pm - 3pm What effect do trainee teachers have on overall secondary school performance? Steve Hurd

3.10pm - 3.50pm - Evaluating widening participation - a series of unfortunate events: a case study for a mult-functional approach to the evaluation of widening participation. Chris Howard

3.50-4.30 Business Meeting

B325 Brindley Building, Leek Road, Stoke-on-Trent

Wednesday February 5th 2003 2pm
Dr Robert Coe, University of Durham
'Starting from complete ignorance: Applying democracy and science to school improvement'

Dr Coe's presentation.

Research Methodology Seminar Programme organised by the Institute for Access Studies