On Thursday 9th June the Education Studies Department are hosting a community get-together 11-2pm in our outdoor garden area behind the Social Sciences building. It will be a chance to meet up with students from your course and from other courses. Everyone is encouraged to bring their own lunch. There will be some activities to join in with or chances to chat and catch up. All our community are welcome and encouraged to come (students and staff). We also have an indoor room booked if the weather is not kind to us.

Come along and join us on Thursday 9th June from 11am. I will send out further reminders as we get nearer to the event.

Mixing methods for the study of topical affairs - an Advanced Training Event convened by Noortje Marres

The winner for the Award was announced at the AGCAS Awards for Excellence 2022 presentation at the AGCAS Annual Conference on 22 June 2022. Laura Oxley was awarded due to her outstanding performance on her PG Diploma.

The Department of Economics is pleased to announce that we have achieved excellent results in the Postgraduate Taught Experience Survey (PTES) 2022, with the overall satisfaction amongst the postgraduate taught cohort of 92% with 99% of respondents saying that they would recommend the University of Warwick to other students.

This high level of overall satisfaction with the quality of the course remained the same as in the pre-pandemic year - 92%. This was achieved with a response rate of 37.3% of the postgraduate taught cohort.

The top satisfaction scores in PTES were in:

• Teaching: 94% agreed that “the course has enhanced my academic ability” and 91% agreed that “staff are enthusiastic about what they are teaching.”
• Resources: 97% agreed that “there is appropriate access to online library resources” and 94% agreed that “I have been able to access subject specific resources necessary for my studies.”
• Engagement: 92% agreed with the statement “I am encouraged to ask questions or make contributions in taught sessions,” and 88% agreed that ‘My course has challenged me to produce my best work.”

Professor Caroline Elliott, Deputy Head of Department (Teaching & Learning) said:

“As a Department, we are determined to deliver the best education possible and these results are really encouraging. However, we’re not complacent and we’ll turn our attention to addressing some of the areas in which our scores could have been higher like assessment and skills development. We value student feedback and would like to see more students taking part in future PTES surveys as well as keep submitting their feedback to us throughout the year.”

Examples of how we have responded to student feedback recently can be found on our webpage - We have acted on your feedbackLink opens in a new window.

Further details of PTES 2022 results for the University of Warwick can be found on the PTESLink opens in a new window webpage.

As a part of the LEGACY project, Dr Heike Behle recently presented a paper in which two ways to measure learning gain were critically assessed: Credentials and self-assessed improvement of specific skills.

Both ways have drawbacks: Credentials can be an effective way of measuring student learning within a particular class, since most institutions have a scaled grading system already in place. It is problematic, however, to use across classes and institutions and it does not measure the ‘distance travelled’ during higher education. On the other hand, self-assessed improvement of skills will always be subjective and will differ according to individuals’ personality and their personal and HE-related circumstances such as gender and subject studied. It is also important to notice that both data is censored, i.e. improvement is not unlimited.

Using Futuretrack data, Heike compared both ways and found that those who increased their learning gain using credentials are less likely to assess their skills highly, both variable correlate negatively. The findings are currently being prepared for publication. Reported in THES.

To celebrate International Women’s Day last week, LLM student Chidinma Kalu, initiated a fundraising activity to raise funds that will be utilised to empower women in Nigeria through equipping them with digital training and skills. The £364.12 raised will be used by the GirlLEAD Project to train and equip about 5 girls in Nigeria with digital skills, thus bridging the digital gender divide in the access to digital skills.

Congratulations to Adam Neal, a graduate of the Department of Philosophy, who has been awarded a prestigious Institute of Advanced Study (IAS) Fellowship for 2022/23. Adam says:

“I’m really excited to be joining the IAS. Over the next year I’m looking forward to developing my research portfolio through preparing my PhD research for publications and organising an interdisciplinary workshop (around April 2023) which seeks to explore the nature of sociability, particularly focussing on sociability in the context of work and education. I’m currently organising 2 online book launch events for my co-edited collection (along with Kimberley Brownlee and David Jenkins, see link below), due to take place on 2^nd December and 15^th December. Additionally, I’m hoping to get involved in the Editorial Board of the Exchanges journal and to develop new interdisciplinary research networks.”

https://global.oup.com/academic/product/being-social-9780198871194?facet_narrowbypubdate_facet=Next%203%20months&lang=de&cc=ie

Are you interested in developing your skills, enhancing the student experience, and being paid in the process?

The Department of Sociology is currently inviting applications from finalist students for a number of 'Student Voice' Ambassador roles. Ambassadors will act as an interface between students and staff, feeding back both ways. The role will include, for example, inputting into departmental discussions on teaching policy and curriculum change.

If you are interested in this role, please send your CV and a supporting statement (of up to 350 words) outlining why you feel you would make a good 'Student Voice' Ambassador to the department’s Director of Student Experience, Dr Andre Celtel (A.Celtel@warwick.ac.uk).

The closing date for applications is 2 pm on Thursday 03 October 2019.

Joshua Piggott, science subject leader and Year 3 (age 8) teacher at St. Nicholas CE First School, Codsall, Staffordshire talks with his ITE tutor, Sally Spicer, Associate Professor at the University of Warwick’s Centre for Teacher Education, about his experiences as a trainee and as a new teacher and science subject leader.