Exploring Space and Place through Active Learning Pedagogies

"Designing active pedagogies" is a 10-credit course delivered as part of the PGCAP/MEd in Academic Practice. In designing this course, we [Sheridan and Dale] took a creative approach, enabling learners to experiment with notions of place, space and active learning. Using a narrative framework for course design (the five steps of Freytag’s (1894) pyramid), we created activities to: 1. Establish a starting point (‘exposition’) for exploration by introducing the learners to our underpinning theoretical framework which examines the intersections between student, teacher and place domains; 2. Create the potential for cognitive dissonance (‘rising action’) by introducing participants to the theory and practice of digital storytelling (Bernard, 2008), object-based learning (Chatterjee, 2011) and learning landscapes (Low and Goodwin, 2016), with the potential to apply these to their own teaching practice; 3. Enable learners to create and get peer feedback on their formative artefacts (‘climax’); 4. Encourage learners to showcase their learning from previous sessions, inside and outside the classroom (‘falling action’); and 5. Empower learners to integrate the active pedagogies into their own teaching practice as a result of their reflections and scholarly engagement through the summative assessment (‘denouement’). Learners will share their experiences of what the course meant for them and their teaching practice, illustrated through multimedia course artefacts. BERNARD, R. R. 2008. Digital Storytelling: A Powerful Technology Tool for the 21st Century Classroom. Theory Into Practice, 47, 220. CHATTERJEE, H. J. 2011. Object-based learning in higher education: The pedagogical power of museums [Online]. Available: https://edoc.hu-berlin.de/bitstream/handle/18452/9349/chatterjee.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y [Accessed 5 November 2018]. FREYTAG, G. 1894. Freytag's Technique of the Drama: An Exposition of Dramatic Composition and Art, translated and edited by Elias J. MacEwan [Online]. Chicago: Scott, Foresman and Company. Available: https://archive.org/details/freytagstechniqu00freyuoft [Accessed 5 November 2018]. LOW, M. & GOODWIN, D. 2016. The sociology of space: materiality, social structures, and action, New York, Palgrave Macmillan. ILOs By the end of this session, participants will be able to: • Recognise the pros and cons of a range of creative pedagogies for active learning • Discuss the potential for active pedagogies in their own teaching practice Co-authors Ahmad, Breslin, Charters, Docherty, Karadaglic and Reid were student participants on the course, which they helped us to refine and develop as the course was delivered. They will share their reflections and artefacts from the course