Staffordshire lecturer’s illustrated activity book introduces students to research techniques
Because of the time students arrive at university, it’s going to probably essaywriter have now been a couple of years since they came across an illustrated activity book.
But Writing Essays by Pictures is not any activity book that is ordinary. With a nautical theme, it casts essays as icebergs and sources as sea creatures in an innovative attempt to introduce first-year students towards the practice of academic research and writing.
Author Alke Grцppel-Wegener, senior lecturer in contextual studies at Staffordshire University, based the handsomely presented book on her essay-writing sessions with art and design students.
The book was launched this week and it is hoped that wider distribution will follow after raising nearly Ј2,000 from supporters on the Kickstarter crowdfunding website to fund an initial print run.
It opens because of the call for students to think about their essays as icebergs, with a focused argument “above the water” backed up by thinking and research below.
After that it introduces students to reading, note-taking and critical thinking strategies, inviting them to handle practical, creative activities on the way.
It shows that readers try drawing pictures in an attempt to demonstrate the level of engagement that texts require while they examine sources, rather than taking notes, and encourages students to walk a familiar route at a quarter of their usual speed while taking notes on what they see around them.
The book advises students to categorise sources by thinking about them as different sea creatures, and also to judge their rigour that is academic in for the depth at which they live in the ocean.
Other suggested learning techniques include writing poems that condense source material and creating greeting cards as reminders of texts.
Dr Grцppel-Wegener said that she found in first years that she had developed her use of analogies and activities as a way to address, in an engaging and non-threatening way, the lack of confidence around academic writing.
“Giving students images them to remember what they meant and to understand the explanation better,” said Dr Grцppel-Wegener, a bookmaker and printmaker by training that they might remember better, like the fish and the iceberg, will hopefully help. “I was thinking that, if it was something students could add items to, it might not only be a thing that is a reference, it could be their very own and so they would want to ensure that is stays.”
Dr Grцppel-Wegener argued that the book could prove useful across a wide range of subjects.
“People who like to think visually are not only present in arts and design,” she said. “There might be more in art and design, but I you will need to explain things for everyone and hopefully there are a great number of people who can respond to it.”
Dr Grцppel-Wegener rejected the idea that creating an activity book represented “dumbing down” of academic practice, arguing in a different way”, and that better critical thinking ability would flow from stronger research skills that she was simply “framing it.
But she acknowledged that her approach wouldn’t normally suit every learner.
“When I am teaching, I am aware that this process does work for everybody n’t; some individuals don’t work with metaphors at all,” she said. “I always utilize this as one option.”
Appointments
Nazrul Islam, senior lecturer in management at Abertay University’s Dundee Business School, happens to be appointed to two major international academic positions. He could be to take control as editor-in-chief associated with the International Journal of Technology Intelligence and Planning, as well as as UK country coordinator associated with the interdisciplinary, not-for-profit organisation Business and Applied Sciences Academy of North America.
The Association of MBAs has made three appointments that are new its board of trustees. Marнa de Lourdes Dieck-Assad, dean of EGADE Business School at Tecnolуgico de Monterrey; Angus Blackwood, managing director of HawkCX – a business that aims to help organisations improve customer experience; and Tim Randall, senior business improvement consultant at Lloyd’s Register, will serve in the board for 3 years. Mark Wehrly has also joined as company secretary.
Nuala Boyle, currently director of development in the University of this Highlands and Islands, has been appointed assistant principal (development) at Heriot-Watt University. Ms Boyle, who holds an MBA through the University of Strathclyde, has more than two decades of expertise doing work in development-related areas for public-sector-funded and establishments that are academic. She joins in September.
Adrian Hopgood, pro dean and vice-chancellor of Sheffield Hallam University’s business school, is always to get in on the University of Liиge as director general and dean associated with management school. He leaves SHU in September.
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