2nd International Pedagogical Research in Higher Education

(PRHE) conference

PRHE conference voted a great success

The 2nd international Pedagogical Research in Higher Education Conference held at Liverpool Hope University in June of this year was heralded by one of our keynote speakers as ‘a small friendly event that brings researchers and practitioners together in a single venue’. Other comments from delegates included: ‘This was a fabulous conference and I met some wonderful people with inspiring ideas’; ‘It was good to join the conference - some good sessions and plenty of opportunity to see people’; ‘It was most enjoyable and a really worthwhile experience’; ‘One of the best aspects of it is the quality of the keynotes and the rigour of the research. The other aspects are just as important too - the excellent caring and enthusiastic atmosphere and good location at Hope. Monday evening in Liverpool was outstanding in all respects! What a privilege!

A wide range of research papers and posters were given on areas relating to the overall theme of curriculum change for learning. (please click here for link to PowerPoint presentations).

The presenters ranged from highly experienced and prestigious researchers to practitioners who are at the start of their pedagogical research careers, thus fulfilling the promise of the conference to be collegial and supportive as well as developing standards of rigour and robustness. This year the standard was raised from that of the first conference with only 48 papers accepted from over 80 submissions. Presenters and delegates come from many parts of the UK as well as from Sweden, Finland, France, Australia, America, Canada and New Zealand so there was a truly cosmopolitan and international exchange of ideas.

Highlights included four excellent keynote presentations, the reception at Liverpool Tate and the conference dinner at the Maritime museum when the Vice Chancellor of Liverpool Hope University, Professor Gerald Pillay gave an inspiring speech about the true purpose of a university education.

In the spirit of encouraging the building of research collaborations, after the conference, delegates are invited to join the Research Interest Groups discussion mail bases. Further details will be posted on this website, and presenters are reminded to submit their papers to PRIME (please click here for link to the PRIME guidance page)

Thank you to everyone who made this conference so successful, and please do keep in touch, with each other and with us.

Lin Norton, on behalf of the conference organising committee

The theme for PRHE 2008 is ‘Curriculum Change for Learning’ and we are especially pleased to announce our four keynote speakers:

• Professor Ron Barnett, University of London, UK.

  Professor Ronald Barnett is Pro-Director for Longer Term Strategy and Professor of Higher Education at the Institute of Education, University of London. His work has been principally that of developing a social philosophy of higher education. Professor Barnett enjoys an international profile for his work on the conceptual understanding of the university and higher education. In his research, he has been trying to see whether it is possible to construct an educational idea of the university in the contemporary age and to identify conceptual and practical resources to that end.
  His books include:
  - The Idea of Higher Education, [prizewinner]
  - Improving Higher Education: Total Quality Care,
  - The Limits of Competence, [prizewinner]
  - Higher Education: A Critical Business,
  - Realizing the University in an Age of Supercomplexity
  - Beyond All Reason: Living with Ideology in the University. [prizewinner]
  - A Will to Learn: Being a Student in an Age of Uncertainty.
  click here to view Ron Barnett PRHE 08 Abstract's conference abstract

  
  

Professor Ron Barnett, University of London, UK.
• Professor John T. E. Richardson, Institute of Educational Technology, The Open University.

  John T. E. Richardson is Professor of Student Learning and Assessment in the Institute of Educational Technology at the Open University. His main research interests are concerned with the relationship between students’ perceptions of their courses of study in higher education and the approaches to studying that they adopt on those courses. He is also responsible for institutional research on the evaluation of both courses and programmes of study at the Open University. In 2002-2003, he contributed to the report of the Student Feedback Project Steering Group to the Higher Education Funding Council for England on Collecting and Using Student Feedback on Quality and Standards of Learning and Teaching in HE, and in 2003-2005 he was part of a team based at the Open University that carried out a pilot study for the Funding Council towards the National Student Survey. He is a co-director of a project on the social and organisational mediation of university learning that is funded under Phase III of the Economic and Social Research Council’s Teaching and Learning Research Programme. He recently completed a literature review on the role of ethnicity and gender as predictors of degree attainment as part of the HEA/ECU Ethnicity, Gender and Degree Attainment Project and was a member of the team that recently produced a report for the Funding Council on league tables and their impact on higher education institutions.
  click here to view John T. E. Richardson's conference abstract
  

Professor Ference Marton , Goteborg University, Sweden.
• Professor Ference Marton, Goteborg University, Sweden.
QUALIFICATIONS
B.A. University of Gothenburg – 1964, Fil lic (PhD) University of Gothenburg – 1967,Fil Dr (D Sc) University of Gothenburg - 1970 Employment history
Teaching & Research Assistant, Research Fellow, Assistant and Associate professor in the Department of Education and Department of Psychology at the University of Gothenburg and linked with the Swedish Social Science Research Council. 1964 to 1976
Professor of Education, Department of Education and Educational Research, University of Gothenburg – Sweden 1977 to 2006. Now: Professor Emeritus.
Pro-Vice Chancellor-Quality, University of Gothenburg 1996 to 1997
Professor under the Distinguished Visitor Scheme in the Department of Curriculum Studies, the University of Hong Kong. 1998 to 2001
Advisory Professor at the Hong Kong Institute of Education, since 2004
Honorary Professor at the Faculty of Education, The University of Hong Kong since 2002.

honours and invitations
Honorary Doctor:The University of Edinburgh (2000), The University of Helsinki (2003)The Hong Kong Institute of education (2007)
Recipient of the National Fridtjuv Berg Prize awarded by the Swedish Teachers’ Union for Distinguished contribution to the theory and practice of Education 2006) and of the Oeuvre Award of the European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction for outstanding contributions to the Science of Learning and Instruction (2007).
Member of Editorial Board: Human Learning (1984-87), International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education (Scandinavian Editor) (1988-91), European Journal of Psychology of Education (1993-), Mathematical Cognition (1994- 9), The Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research (1997- )
Keynote Speaker at International Conferences at 20 occasions.
Keynote Speaker at National Conferences and Invited Lectures At various universities in over 20 countries
Visiting Professor or Research Fellow: At various universities in Australia, Canada, Denmark, Great-Britain, Hong Kong, Norway and USA
Chairperson: The Educational Development Board, University of Göteborg (1989-01-01 - 93-06-30), The Board of Research and Post-graduate Training in Teacher Education, University of Göteborg (1989-01-01 - 93-06-30), Board of Quality Development, University of Göteborg (1993-07-01- 96-06-30).
Postgraduate supervision Has supervised 40 successful PhD candidates. Currently supervising 6 PhD students
Research highlights Author of over 200 publications. Founder of Phenomenography and the Variation Theory of Learning which has produced about 150 Ph D theses, and 1500 publications based on its research methodology. Joint research projects with colleagues in Australia, Great Britain, China, Denmark, Fiji, Finland, Great Britain, Hong Kong, Hungary, Nepal, New Zealand, Norway, Uruguay and USA.
Ten former doctoral students are holders of Professorial Chairs
Membership
Having served as a member of the Board for various research foundations, such as that of the Swedish National Bank, Volvo Car Company, National Board of Education, National Board of Higher Education and The Swedish Council for Research in the Humanities and Social Sciences. Elected member of the Royal Society of Arts and Sciences in Gothenburg, Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities and of the Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters. Elected Fellow of the Society for Research into Higher Education, United Kingdom.
Has served as a member of the International Advisory Council of the Minister of Education, New South Wales, Australia, 1993-95.

click here to view Ference Marton's conference abstract


Professor Sari Lindblom-Ylanne,University of Helsinki, Finland.

Sari Lindblom-Ylنnne (1960) is professor of higher education and director of the Centre for Research and Development in Higher Education at the University of Helsinki, Finland. She is President-Elect of EARLI (European Association forResearch on Learning and Instruction) and has previously been coordinator of the special interest group (SIG) High Education of EARLI. She is a member of the Editorial Board of Educational Research Review and of the International Advisory Board of Studies in Higher Education.
Sari Lindblom-Ylنnne is actively involved in many international research projects and her research focuses on teaching and learning at university, for example, on approaches to teaching and learning, personal epistemology, assessment practices and quality enhancement in higher education.


click here to view Sari Lindblom-Ylanne's conference abstract

Professor Jan Botha, Stellenbosch University, South Africa
With regret Prof. Botha has had to withdraw from this conference for health reasons.

Disabled access
The conference is fully accessible. Should you need to use a lift, please make this clear at registration and you will be advised of full details for access.

Car parking
There is free car parking available on site. No permit required.

Conference Dinner 16th June 2008 We are delighted to announce that Laurie Taylor has agreed to be our after-dinner speaker. Laurie Taylor is visiting professor in the department of politics and sociology at Birkbeck College, University of London. He was recently made a Fellow of Birkbeck College and also holds visiting professorships at the London Institute and Westminster University. He has been awarded honorary doctorates by the Universities of Leicester, Nottingham and Central England. His contributions to social science were recognised in 2003 by his election to the Academy of Learned Societies for the Social Sciences. His contribution to business development was recognised in 2004 by his appointment as an ambassador for Investors in People. Before entering academic life, he had eight years industrial and sales experience, worked as a librarian in Liverpool, taught in a London comprehensive school, and was a professional actor with Joan Littlewood's famous Theatre Workshop Company at Stratford East. He is the author of fourteen books on motivation, change, communication, and personal identity, and is a regular contributor to the New Statesman, The Independent, and The Times. His weekly satirical column on university life has been appearing in the Times Higher Education Supplement for the last twenty years. His most recent book (written with his son, Matthew) was called What Are Children For?. He is an editor of New Humanist, the bi-monthly magazine dedicated to freethinking. For the past twenty-five years he has been heard on BBC Radio 4 in such programmes as Stop the Week, The Radio Programme, News Quiz, Speaking as an Expert, Afternoon Shift, and Room for Improvement. He can currently be heard every Wednesday afternoon on R4 presenting Thinking Allowed, a programme devoted to society and social change. Laurie has made several major television documentaries on such topics as crime, drinking behaviour, and the purpose of education. His most recent films for C4 were a major one-hour film on celebrity (transmitted in December 2003) and a highly acclaimed one-hour documentary on death and dying (On Pain of Death) broadcast in July 2005. His next film for C4 will be about the satisfactions of secularism. In the last fifteen years he has addressed over five hundred major national and international companies on change, motivation, teamwork, new technology, risk, thought leadership, and communication. He is currently engaged in a 45-venue stand-up comedy tour of British universities called 'Articulated Laurie'.

Conference themes:

• Innovating the curriculum for lifelong learning
• Developing curriculum for the 21st century
• Implementing curriculum change in a traditional context
• Students’ and lecturers’ expectations of the curriculum
• Curriculum change from the subject perspective
• A scholarship of learning and teaching approach to the curriculum

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Last updated: 10-Mar-2009 - Telephone: 0151 291 2098

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