Treasure Island Pedagogies: Episode 3 - the one with all the Ms

Posted on: 15 December 2020 by Dr Tunde Varga-Atkins in General

In Episode 3, an episode of Ms, Mathew, Matt and Katherine share various student-centred and collaborative learning inspired lightbulb moments and teaching props.

Speakers: Dr Katherine Whitehurst, Dr Matt Murphy and Mathew Flynn

Date: 30 November 2020

This episode was recorded with three guests from the University of Liverpool. They all shared their lightbulb moment (when they felt their students were ‘getting it’), an essential teaching prop or pedagogy and one luxury item to relax off duty.

Treasure Island Pedagogies: Episode 3 podcast

(Treasure Island Pedagogies Episode 3 - Podcast Transcript)

Dr Katherine Whitehurst

Communication & Media

• Lightbulb moment: ‘clicking through group work’, showing cross-group ideas to promote student engagement.
• Teaching prop or pedagogy: any online platforms that enable collaborative group work and projects to make the above lightbulb moment possible (e.g. MS Teams).
• Luxury item: if my husband is not an item, I would like to take ‘a kitchen’ to cook as this is how I relax.

Dr Matt Murphy

Mechanical, Materials & Aerospace Engineering

• Lightbulb moment: when it sinks in for students that they are undertaking a real, open-ended professional engineering project, and that staff trust them to take responsibility for their own success.
• Teaching prop or pedagogy: focusing on what the student will be doing (Thomas Shuell, 1986); design activities first and fit in lectures around the activities, not the other way round!
• Luxury item: Liverpool ‘urban cycling safaris’ modified to explore our treasure island.

Mathew Flynn

Music Industry

• Lighbulb moment: focus on what students need to know at that point, rather than what I think I need to tell them!
• Teaching prop or pedagogy: all we need is a marker pen and provocation to engage students in worthwhile conversation.
• Luxury item: surprise, surprise, it’s music: my Spotify account.

Any sparks? Post podcast, we talked lots about how we listen to music, how Spotify has changed the way we listen to music and the way in which vinyl is reclaiming the ritual of listening in our home. And a Canadian storyteller, Stuart McLean, humorous Vinyl Cafe stories whose humour Katherine recommends.