THE HE ACADEMY AND THE ACADEMIC LITERACIES OF DIFFERENT DISCIPLINES

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THE HE ACADEMY AND THE ACADEMIC LITERACIES OF
DIFFERENT DISCIPLINES

• George MacDonald Ross
• Director, PRS Subject Centre
• University of Hull
• Wednesday 20 April 2005

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Programme

• The HE Academy
• Subject specificity
• Different academic literacies
• Problems and solutions
• Opportunities

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1.The HE Academy

• Background
• Management
• Functions
• Subject Centres

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Background

• Dearing report ? ILTHE (1999)
• Funding councils review of TQEF ? LTSN (2000)
• Cooke Review ? HE Academy (2004)
• New building at York (2005)

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Management

• Board (partly elected)
• Council (wholly elected)
• Chief Executive (Paul Ramsden)
• Four directors
• Funded by funding councils and HE institutions

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Functions

• Four directorates
• Finance and administration (internal
  management)
• Programmes (ex-LTSN)
• Registration and accreditation (ex-ILTHE)
• Research and evaluation (new)

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Subject Centres

• Largely unaffected by the move to the Academy
• More co-operative projects (e.g. ETHICS)
• Close relationship with CETLS
• Various projects led by Programmes, Registration,
  or SCs, as appropriate

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Subject specificity (1)

• Some teaching issues generic, some
  subject-specific
• Some common to a cluster of disciplines, some
  peculiar to sub-disciplines
• The more specific, the more the need for Subject
  Centres

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Subject specificity (2)

• The generic/specific distinction difficult to
  define
• Even generic research needs translating into
  acceptable language for each discipline
• Problem of acceptable research methodologies in
  education

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Different academic literacies

• The meaning of academic literacy
• Literacies are very different
• Forms of language
• Modes of reasoning
• Referencing conventions
• Extent of independent thinking
• Subjectivity vs. objectivity
• The role of the imagination

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Problems and solutions (1)

• Transition to university (from school or
  elsewhere)
• Academic literacy is unique, and students must be
  inducted
• Generic training (e.g. access or induction
  courses) is of limited value
• Even at subject level, training should be across
  the curriculum

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Problems and solutions (2)

• Many students are joint-honours or elective
• The problem of handling multiple literacies
• Each module must be designed so that expectations
  are absolutely explicit, and reinforced by
  methods of teaching and assessment

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Problems and solutions (3)

• Joint-hours/elective students are at a
  disadvantage
• Some possible strategies
• Systematic adjustment of marks (very iffy)
• Separate assessment (iffy)
• Do nothing other than alert students to the
  problem (rather iffy)
• Dont teach different students together
  (impracticable)

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Opportunities (1)

• Teams have members with different skills
• Devise co-operative exercises which draw on the
  skills of students with different academic
  literacies
• Students can be rewarded for different kinds of
  contribution

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Opportunities (2)

• Easier in some subjects than in others
• But there are always some opportunities for
  bringing students experience of other
  disciplines to bear
• Joint-honours/elective students should never be
  treated as second-class citizens

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Resources

• Not much. But
• Increasing materials on Subject Centre websites
• http//www.heacademy.ac.uk
• A key theme for the Carnegie Foundation
• http//www.carnegiefoundation.org/Cultures/index.h
  tm

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The PRS Subject Centre

• We are available to provide advice to anyone in
  the HE sector, although our main expertise is in
  philosophical and religious studies.
• Website http//prs.heacademy.ac.uk
• Email us at enquiries_at_prs.heacademy.ac.uk

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Thank you for listening

• George MacDonald Ross
• Director
• Subject Centre for
• Philosophical and Religious Studies
• of the Higher Education Academy