Introduction
- This page links to information about Andy Turner's formal module teaching at the University of Leeds. It contains various links to information about teaching in the School of Geography at the University of Leeds. Some of the links on this page may be broken as content has been shifted or deleted. I will try to fix this as and when I find time, but in the meantime you may be able to use the Web Archive to retrieve the documentation.
- Contents
School of Geography Teaching
- Assessments and examinations are controlled by a "Code of Practice on Assessment".
- There is a document on this that was emailed by the then Director of Learning and Teaching (http://www.geog.leeds.ac.uk/people/a.evans">Andy Evans)
- This details all the regulations about the schools exams and assignments.
- There is also a section in the School of Geography Staff Handbook on assessments
- Books, or sections of books can be scanned and made available for online use by students under a Online Course Readings Service copyright agreement
- Module Teaching
- Tutorial and dissertation mentoring
- GEOG5060
- Pedagogical Feedback
- Access good practice in teaching in the following ways:
- Staff have access to the latest Learning and Teaching (L&T) theory and practice through Planet, the journal of the Higher Education Academy Geography, Earth and Environment Subject Centre (GEES):
- The GEES database of resources:
- The Journal of Geography in Higher Education:
- The Casebook system of Learning and Teaching good practice:
- Along with the annual Learning and Teaching Conference:
- The School of Geography shares good practice via Learning and Teaching Committees, and at Programme Planning meetings, along with through the Peer Review Process - but we could always do more.
- Various strategic documents come together to inform and control the teaching undertaken by the University of Leeds School of Geography
- One outlines a plan and response to a National Student Survey (NSS), the University Programme and School Module Surveys, and External reviewer/consultant comments.
- A collective University of Leeds offering can be found via the following URL as a "Living Document":
Andy Turner's Teaching History
- Teaching and research go hand in hand
- Good teaching and research collaboration tends to condense the hard lessons of research so that others can gain knowledge and understanding faster and help make breakthoughs in research and develop our collective knowledge.
- There is a balance to be reached between learning from first principals and taking things to the next logical step or leaping to a re-invented innovation, learning from direct experience, and learning from the lessons of others.
- Innovation, experiment and observation is as key to learning new things as critical thinking and learning from others.
- Mathematicians, scientists and artists should also learn about understanding and enlightenment and their processes which comes from practise.
- This section began to evolve as a short chronological history of my teaching experience with a focus on lecturing and formal tutoring.
- As I work with others in collaboration, teaching abounds, and I try to learn as I try to help others do the same.
- There is much to be gained by saving each others time. Time is such a precious thing and we have so little of it.
- A short chronological history of my teaching experience with a focus on lecturing and formal tutoring
- In 1998, about a year after completing a masters degree Andy delivered Lecture 8: Introduction to Spatial Analysis of a module aimed at level 1 undergraduates
- The module (GEOG1010: Geographical Modelling and Spatial Analysis) gave a broad introduction to GIS and was convened by Andy's colleagues and mentors
Stan Openshaw and
Steve Carver
- In 1993, Stan delivered an earlier version of this lecture to Andy when he was a level 1 undergraduate.
- There is an on-going challenge to interest, motivate and educate students like Stan and Steve.
- At the start of Semester 2 of the 2004/2005 academic year, Andy returned to the lecturing stage for further training and to help Steve deliver the second part of
GEOG2750: Earth Observation & GIS of the Physical Environment
- Andy acted in a supporting role, and as part of a double act raised questions, made observations and elaborated on some of the ideas and concepts presented
- GEOG2750 was aimed at level 2 undergraduates and spanned both Semesters
- The second part of the module taken in Semester 2 was based on a level 4 masters module GEOG5060: GIS and Environment
- In Semester 2 of 2004/2005, GEOG5060 was to drop Lecture 7: Interpolation since the subject was adequately covered in other modules pre-requisite or co-requisite across the various programs of study
- In its place, there was to be a new lecture, practical and assignment which Andy designed, delivered, demonstrated and fed back on
- This further informal lecturer training presented an opportunity for Andy to involve students in some on-going research, as feedback had suggested this was wanted
- Andy geared the module component towards the analysis of raster digital elevation model data using Geomorphometrics. Andy encouraged the students to work in a collaborative fashion and to experiment and investigate the potential use of geomorphometrics
- Encouraged by feedback from both Steve and the GEOG5060 Students, Andy continued to deliver a lecture, practical and offer assessment for GEOG5060 until 2009.
- In 2009 Andy was assigned the role of Tutor on GEOG1300
- This involved working with a group of seven level 1 students in semester 1
- Some of the students were new to university and others were transfering from other courses.
- I was relieved of duty by my colleague Robert Vanderbeck who tutored the group in the second semester.
- Some details of our collaborative working can be found on the web page I developed for this activity
- In 2010 Andy was assigned the role of Undergraduate Dissertation Mentor working with a group of four level 2 geography students as part of GEOG2300 and GEOG3600
- The undergraduate dissertations begin with a research proposal phase which is conducted as part of level 2 study and the dissertation itself can begin immediately with work over the summer.
- The work culminates in a dissertation thesis which is submitted in the second semester in level 3.
- Some details of our collaborative working can be found on the web page I developed for this activity
- In 2010 Andy was assigned the role of Masters Dissertation Mentor working with officially 2 masters students as part of GEOG5160.
References