New Perspectives on Service Teaching

Professor Les Kirkup (UTS) will speak on "New Perspectives on Service Teaching" at the Australian National University, Canberra, 30 July 2010:

A TEACHING FORUM PRESENTATION
NEW PERSPECTIVES ON SERVICE TEACHING: TAPPING INTO THE STUDENT EXPERIENCE
A/PROF LES KIRKUP, DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS AND ADVANCED MATERIALS,UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY, SYDNEY
FRIDAY 30TH JULY, 12:30-2:00, FORESTRY ROOM 102, BUILDING 48, the Australian National University

What are the characteristics of a good service subject and how do you design one?

Les Kirkup describes his experiences of identifying and addressing issues of student
fundedengagement in physics service subjects, drawing on insights gained through an ALTC project and Fellowship. He will discuss the design of laboratory experiences for students enrolled in first year physics service subjects as well as the benefits that accrue from enhancing the connection between teaching and discipline-based research for these students.

One measure of the success of a project or innovation is the influence it has on the practices of others. Les will describe the approaches being adopted to the dissemination of the ALTC project and Fellowship, and the outcomes of that dissemination to date.
Les Kirkup has 30 years experience working in tertiary education institutions. He held
academic positions in England and Scotland before moving to Australia in 1990. He is an
Associate Professor the Department of Physics and Advanced Materials at UTS. His national contributions to teaching and learning were recognised in 2007 with a Carrick/ALTC Associate Fellowship. He has written, or co-written, 4 books and over 50 peer-reviewed papers covering educational issues in physics as well as discipline-based research. He recently co-led an ALTC funded project Forging New Direction in Physics Education which concentrated on several issues including the provision of physics service teaching. In his discipline-based research he has worked in close collaboration with academics from a diversity of disciplines including physiology, psychology, chemistry, journalism and metrology (as well as, from time to time, fellow physicists).

LIGHT LUNCH PROVIDED – RSVP TO ANNA.WILSON@ANU.EDU.AU