Designing and Teaching an Integrated Skills Module Patricia Clavin

1
Designing and Teaching an Integrated Skills
Module Patricia Clavin

• In 2000 the School of History at Keele
  introduced a new, double weighted module, Modern
  History, 1845-1945. A key feature of the course
  was the production of extensive staff and student
  course handbooks, covering aims and objectives
  learning skills communication skills reading
  lists and historical documents. The course tutors
  are also provided with a wide variety of seminar
  materials and specified teaching forms (with a
  particular focus on group work and oral
  communication skills).

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Practical and intellectual benefits of handbooks

• Helps to manage staff loses / mismatch in staff
  expertise and student demand
• Helps temporary, part-time or new staff
  consistency, good practise, teacher training
  through dissemination of new teaching
  techniques
• Enhances students skills and awareness of those
  skills

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Course Evaluation How was it for the staff?

• Materials take time to produce, but also gave
  opportunity to exchange ideas about the form and
  content of teaching not just admin.
• Temporary and part-time teachers, and
  long-serving members of staff were all equal
  participants
• Modern historians at first found it difficult to
  give up ownership
• Skills gained from group work appeared to last
  into second year confidence and variety of
  presentation work required refreshing by the
  Second Year

4
Course Evaluation How was it for the students?

• Very positive response to the group work and
  group presentation element of course
• Also liked peer-review element in awarding of
  marks
• Felt they had benefited from attention paid to
  oral communication skills and how to manage
  learning experience within small groups
• Lecture element of course, by comparison seemed
  staid and uninteresting so, too, did other
  modules further course revision followed.