HIGHLIGHT # 4 | 133
KEELE ANNUAL TEACHING SYMPOSIUM 15TH JUNE 2016 CREATIVITY IN HIGHER EDUCATION
Frank Rutten( Perspectives of the 2016 Annual Teaching Symposium)
Presentations – Fiona Cownie, Katie Maddock, Kate Baker and Pete Lonsdale
Fiona Cownie, Keele Universities Pro-Vice Chancellor( PVC) for Education and Student Experience gave the official welcome to a very good-sized audience, filling most of the seats in the ornate Salvin room of Keele Hall. The theme of the event was clearly especially close to Fiona’ s heart, as both an educator and to her role as PVC. Creativity forms a fundamental part of excellent teaching: whilst this is perhaps not always obvious and may be hidden“ behind the scenes”, it is nonetheless crucial for a vibrant and informative student experience. New ideas are introduced at the Keele symposium every year, this year more rooms than previously allowed more intimate and hands-on exploration of a wide range of perspectives on creativity in teaching. As Fiona stated before handing over to the first plenary speaker:“ Most importantly, carry on being creative!”.
Katie Maddock from Keele University School of Pharmacy had the hard task, which she grasped with gusto, to follow this excellent presentation, introducing us to the synoptic exercise forming the final( pass / fail) assessment at the end of the first year of the Masters in Pharmacy( MPharm) programme. She briefly introduced the audience to the single module format of the MPharm course, designed to encourage integrated thinking and combining practice with science, a format which allowed her to present a fun and effective example of creativity in assessment. The synoptic task, covering skills and knowledge developed throughout the academic year, brings together collective learning in self-selected groups of 4. It is designed to be fun and offer a great degree of free choice. Students are tasked to select one of a supplied list of drugs, not covered in detail in the course, but related to key themes. As part of the assessment they hand in, as a group, one body of work of a nature which they are fully free to choose themselves. This is then followed by a viva voce group interview, in which members are asked questions to explore their mastery of the material. Guidelines are given regarding the material that needs to be covered in the submission in terms of specified learning outcomes, such as production of pharmaceuticals, important chemistry concepts( pKa, logP), pharmacology of the chosen drug, its clinical use and potential side effects. Katie briefly described the viva voce aspect and indicated that group dynamics tended to prevent or make obvious driver-passenger issues that could then