Call for abstracts
Call for proposals / abstracts is now open for the 3rd biennial Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Conference to be held at the Aga Khan University in Karachi from November 27-28, 2019.
All presenters are expected to prepare the abstracts on the conference theme and sub-themes. Collaborative presentations by faculty and students are highly encouraged.
Submission deadline: Saturday, August 31, 2019
All submissions are double-blind peer reviewed on rigorous academic criteria. In case of a stark difference between the two reviewers' contents, the abstract will be sent to a third reviewer for the final decision.
The authors will be notified of the outcome via email by Tuesday, October 1, 2019
Submission Guidelines:
- You may submit a maximum of 4 abstracts as a presenter.
- Each abstract should be based on the work done in the last three years (unpublished, presented, in process work will be preferred)
- Collaborative presentations with students, fellows, residents and others are highly encouraged
- Presenters should be available to present at any time between 9:00 am on November 27 and 6:00 pm on November 28, 2019.
Conference theme
The theme of SOTLC 2019 'Evidencing teaching practices for effective learning in higher education' highlights the significance of evidence-based teaching for creating effective teaching and learning environments. The evidence of students' progress, design of physical and virtual learning environments, and appropriateness of teaching strategies and evaluation methods illustrate a commitment to teaching and learning through research, reflection and development. Also, evidence-based teaching fosters deep and significant learning and engagement, which vary with respect to learners' attributes, curricular needs and institutional priorities and preferences (Kuh, 2008, Fink, 2013).
Conference sub-themes
We invite contributions on the following sub-themes
Sub-Theme I: Evidencing collaborations in teaching for excellence
Teaching is a contact sport. Teaching excellence is a process where faculty learn from each other to enable students to adopt deep learning approaches (Biggs and Tang, 2007) that leads to significant learning, i.e. learning that lasts and brings about change (Fink, 2013). It is also widely accepted that: "... a large group of diverse individuals will come up with better and more robust forecasts and make more intelligent decisions than even the most skilled 'decision maker" (Surowiecki 2005). As such, collaboration in teaching will prepare students for working and learning collaboratively, a critical 21st century skill.
Under this sub-theme, submissions will address evidence of/for collaboration between faculty-students, student-student, amongst faculty from within or across disciplines, and/or between faculty and staff to enhance teaching and learning experiences:
- What are the types of collaborative teaching (e.g., team-teaching) and learning (e.g., group-work, peer-assessment) that works in higher education, and why?
- Which collaborative faculty development practices (e.g., peer-mentoring, coaching, teaching squares, collaborative course development teams) work, and why?
- Which teaching activities allow for more collaborative work (e.g., formative assessment, grading, course review, lesson plans)?
- In a geographically distributed university, how might we enhance faculty-faculty collaboration to learn from and support one another professionally?
- Which technologies have been used for collaborative teaching? What are the outcomes/lessons?
- How might we measure the effectiveness of collaborative learning?
- How have we included student voice and student participation in enhancing curricula and teaching practices?
Sub-theme II: Evidencing innovative teaching, learning and assessment practices
With the emphasis on student engagement as the core of teaching and learning process in higher education, the use of textbooks and lectures are no longer the dominant pedagogies. Teachers are encouraged to use innovative methods. Yet, defining innovation in teaching has remained problematic as often, the term is applied to one-time changes in the curriculum or to the use of single innovative teaching strategy (e.g., the use of computers) in a specific course, making it difficult to make claims about their effectiveness for student engagement and learning.
We draw on Lunde and Wilhite's (1996) definition of innovative teaching as "a construct, comprised of a cluster of qualities including effective interaction with learners, openness to change, persistence, reflective practice, specificity of approach, and discipline-embedded pedagogy." As such, innovation in teaching is as much about a teacher's resilience to improve students' engagement and transform their teaching, as it is about introducing a "new" idea. An innovative teacher remains abreast of the new teaching ideas, forges them in one's teaching, evaluates them, and persists until the goals are achieved.
This sub-theme will, therefore, deliberate on teaching innovations that lead to transformative changes in higher education:
- How is the use of technology in teaching and assessments (e.g., flipped learning, mobile learning, blended learning, online learning, gamification, virtual reality, simulation-based learning, digital literacies and disruptive technologies) transforming teaching and higher education? What are the challenges and how do we address them?
- Which innovative teaching, learning and assessment practices have led to greater student engagement and improved learning outcomes?
- What innovative practices exist in teaching and assessment outside the classroom in informal spaces (e.g., bedside/clinical teaching, community-teaching)?
- How have portfolios been used to measure teacher professional development or student outcomes?
- Which new teaching and assessment ideas have not worked, and why? What were the lessons? How might we learn from "failed" experiments to improve teaching?
- What formal and informal structures are currently in place to help faculty members engage in innovative teaching and learning? What are the challenges/gaps? What changes might be needed to support teaching innovation?
Sub-theme III: Evidencing quality assurance in higher education
AKU has rolled out its university-wide Academic Quality Framework in line with the regulatory requirements and best practices. The process has raised issues around the need for regular curriculum reviews, stakeholders' inputs to ensure relevance, course redesign by developing learning outcomes and aligning them to assessment and learning activities. At the same time, the implementation of the framework has resulted in the identification of good practices in improving students' learning that deserve to be celebrated and highlighted. Hence, this sub-theme calls for evidence on:
- How have quality assurance processes influenced teaching quality?
- What lessons have been learnt from the processes of curriculum review and re-design (e.g., for alignment of assessment and teaching strategies, assessment of learning outcomes)?
- How might benchmarking our practice against external criteria (e.g., TEACH scheme) lead to a better quality of teaching and learning?
- How do students and alumni contribute to improving the quality of curriculum and supervision?
- How does stakeholders' engagement contribute to enhancing the quality of academic programmes?
- Reflections on looking back and suggesting alternatives on the processes and development/redevelopment of competency-based curriculum
- Critique of QA frameworks in enhancing teaching and learning
Sub-theme IV: Evidencing students' learning experiences
According to the AKU teaching and learning framework, engaging students in transformative learner-centered teaching and learning experiences is one of the defining qualities of excellent teaching. "Student engagement is a process and a product that results from the synergistic interaction between motivation and active learning" (Barkley, 2010, p. 8). Barkley suggests that understanding, motivation and active learning will uncover the key to the kinds of activities that result in deep engagement (Ibid.).
As a part of this sub-theme, students will be invited to share their experiences of teaching and learning at AKU. The abstracts submitted as a part of this sub-theme will be led by students, with/or without faculty members as co-presenters. Evidence for student engagement, challenges, inclusion and diversity will be addressed.
Please follow this space for student abstract submission.
Submission categories
Presenters can submit abstracts under following categories:
Active Learning Sessions
These are 60 to 90-minute sessions where presenters can engage up to 30 participants to experience an active learning strategy, or a practical demonstration of a teaching idea. This is an opportunity for presenters to engage participants in hands-on activities. The Active Learning Sessions will be held during the parallel sessions.
The abstracts for Active Learning Sessions should include following information:
- Sub-theme
- Title of the session
- Name of the session facilitators (up to 3 facilitators may be listed)
- A detailed plan to be submitted which must include
- Background/rationale
- Intended learning outcomes
- Target audience
- Active learning strategies to be used in the session
- References
- Duration of the session
- Details of logistical arrangement
- Word count: 500-600 words
ePoster Presentation
ePoster presentations are opportunities for participants to present their work widely in the form of a digital poster presentation. ePosters can be based on research projects, reflections, or narratives related to the sub-themes. They will be grouped together in themed sessions for presentation electronically.
The Abstracts for ePosters should include the following information:
- Sub-theme
- Title of the ePoster
- Name of the author (up to 6 authors may be listed)
- Background/rationale
- Research question
- Method(s)
- Findings
- Conclusion
- Actual or potential implications
- References
- Word count: 500-600
- Guidelines for ePosters will be shared with the participants whose abstracts are selected for the conference.
Paper Presentation
Paper presentations are parallel sessions in which participants will present their work on a particular conference sub-theme for the allocated time, followed by a question-answer session. Abstracts can be based on research projects, personal reflections, classroom examples or narratives related to evidencing teaching practices for effective learning in higher education.
The Abstracts for Paper Presentation should include following information:
- Sub-theme
- Title of the paper
- Name of the author (up to 6 authors may be listed)
- Background/rationale
- Research question
- Method(s)
- Findings
- Conclusion
- Actual or potential implications
- References
- Word Count: 500 - 700 words
PechaKucha 20x20
PechaKucha 20x20 is a creative yet simple presentation format where a presenter will show 20 images, each for 20 seconds. The images advance automatically and the presenter talks along to the images. Presenters are advised to rehearse their presentations to ensure that they can communicate the message on each slide within 20 seconds. Abstracts can be based on research projects, personal reflections, classroom examples or narratives related to evidencing teaching practices for effective learning in higher education.
Abstracts for PechaKucha should include following information:
