ATNConference08

Shy and reclining - but always

engaging - Part 2

Andrea Duff speaks with ATN Conference Keynote, John Biggs in the second installment of John's view of engagement and teaching.

You’ve said ‘good teaching is good teaching’ no matter what the cultural circumstances of a student but have ideas of ‘good teaching’ changed over the decades?

I think what has changed over the decades is how teaching used to focus on ‘very excellent’ teachers via awards.

However, this doesn’t address the question of what the student is learning – good teaching is more about what the student does than what the teacher does.

Nowadays – while the idea of individual teaching awards exist – they are seen in the context of course design, assessment, faculty and what the students are actually learning. Any one individual can do well in any teaching context but it needs to be recognised from a holistic point-of-view rather than from the individual’s point-of-view. In China, for example, they do select individual teachers for awards but then award recipients have to share their knowledge with others. It is much more collectivist in orientation.

To what extent is student engagement now dependent on using the technological gizmos and whizz bang social technologies?

Technology can engage students in ways which are relevant. In some ways technology enables the learning to be done more easily and effectively (simulations are an example of this).

Students are often highly stressed because of life pressures and their time is precious. Technology enables them to engage with learning activities in ways to suit themselves. They love it.

BUT…technology is a means not an end. Some teachers think that once you’ve got them online that’s the end but that’s not the case at all.

Who engages you today and why?

I have two answers.

Firstly, I engage myself! I officially retired full time from Academe in 1995 to devote my ‘reclining’ years to writing fiction. This is the one the purest form of self-engagement. The writing, the creating and the editing are derived from within.

Secondly, Bob Brown engages me. He was originally pathologically shy and has had to overcome this to become an inspirational leader. I am inspired by his courage and the humanitarian principles he stands for.