MHS Teaching and Learning

Following on from the first posting I am now going to provide what I would hope is the usual type of update.  The impressive news is that since this Blog went live on Monday, we have had 475 hits, this included someone who was in Borneo!  So we are going well…

Firstly, I have copied the style of the very successful Blog run by Richard Oliver in the Dental School. If anyone wants a look at this it is at http://dentistrymanchester.edublogs.org/. Richard set this up last year and it provides a great update on teaching and learning in the School. The students think that it is great and interestingly it has been visited almost 5000 times from areas all over the world!  I cannot imagine that my attempt will create such interest, in fact, if it does I would worry that there are many strange people about….

If you have a look at Richard’s blog, you will see that he calls it “Manchester…. so much to answer for”. This is part of a lyric from a song by the Smiths and I have decided to continue the theme with the main title of my attempt.  The line “if you’ve got five seconds to spare” is taken from ‘Half a Person’ from the Smiths ‘Louder than Bombs’ album.  Those who know the song will have already completed the line “if you have 5 seconds to spare….I will tell you the story of my life”.

I decided to use this because it can simply mean if you’ve got some time, please have a look at what we are doing.  I also have a link to the Smiths (albeit tenuous). When I was a dental student I had a 14 year old patient who was always rather sallow and tired.  This concerned me a bit and I asked him one day, why he was always going to sleep in my dental chair (this was certainly not down to my relaxation techniques). He told me that he was up every night until 3 o’clock drumming at the Band on the Wall. I did not think much of this and completed several long courses of treatment for him.  Then 10 years later I went to see the Smiths and spent the first 20 minutes of the concert trying to think where I had seen the drummer before. Then it clicked that he was my old patient.  Since then, the Smiths imploded and he ended up a multi millionaire.  He was my only celebrity patient but it does provide a link with this blog…..

I am not sure whether you really want to hear the memories of a “dentist to the stars” so here goes with the update…….

I received one comment on the first day that the site went live and, in addition to it appearing in the comment section, I have included it here…

“Do you know, as a student, I have absolutely no idea who you are and what you do? How are you related to the medical school? Perhaps you could do a post on that? (by you I mean your group)

This is quite an interesting idea, I wonder if more couldn’t be made of such an idea.

Look forward to seeing where this goes, I wonder if this will be the one and only post?”.

So this is a bit of a come down for me and a great illustration of the need for communication!  In answer to the very obvious question that was raised.  I am Associate Dean for teaching and learning for the Faculty of Medical and Human Sciences and I have a strategic role for all  undergraduate teaching in the Faculty.  That is I am responsible for only some of the successes and all of any failures in teaching in any of the Schools. I was Head of the Dental School and I was appointed to this position in April 2007, so I have been doing this for just over a year.   I hope that this makes my role clearer, again if it is not clear, just let me know..

I would like to start this update with a brief description of some of our recent achievements:

Val Wass from the Manchester Medical School was awarded a National Teaching Fellowship.  This is a tremendous achievement and I would like to congratulate her on getting this award. Further details are on the news pages on the University web.  We now have four NTFs in the Faculty and she joins Paul O’Neill, Tim Dornan and Iain Mackie.  This is more than any other Faculty and this was noted by the University President Professor Alan Gilbert at the last meeting of Senate.  We have set up a process for identifying future candidates, since we have a target of putting a strong case forward every year.

Val Wass our new National Teaching Fellow.

For the first time in well over 30 years the Dental School had a 100% pass rate in the final BDS examinations.  This reflects highly on an excellent group of students and teachers, so congratulations to everyone. For some strange reason in UK Dental Schools, the students present a pair of white gloves to the Head  of School. Here is a picture of Nick proudly displaying his gloves! I gather some people prefer him in latex…

Sally Bray completed the coast to coast cycle ride last week raising a substantial amount for charity.  Well done, Sally, particularly as the weather was “not summer”….

The following members of academic staff were promoted to Senior Teaching Fellow on the recent promotions round: Amy McLauchlan (School of Psychological Sciences), John Costello (Nursing, Midwifery and Social Work), Hannah Cooke (NMSW) and Richard Baker (SPS).  We had a similar number of teaching promotions last years, so it is great to see our policy of rewarding teaching and learning working so well.

This was great news for them and the Faculty, and reflects our strength in this area and the system that we have set up to provide advice to anyone who wants to try for promotion.  If you want to put your name forward this year, now is the time to contact your Head of School for advice and feedback. I am also keen that you contact me, so I can give additional advice if you need it.

As you all know, we are in the early stages of the implementation of the Review of teaching and learning. This is a major task for the University and the Faculty. However, it does give us a tremendous opportunity to make improvements to our teaching and learning.  When I was first appointed I was rather disappointed at the  lack of a strategic plan for T&L and I was very pleased to be a member of the review group and chair one of the task forces.  While implementation of the review is going to be a challenge, this is an exciting time and I am looking forward to making a real difference to our teaching and learning.

So that we can implement the review effectively, I have set up an implementation group and the following people were “fingered” and agreed to take part.  Paul O’Neill (MMS),  Leon Aarons(Pharmacy), Tony Whetton (Research Schools), Christine Rogers (SPS), Phil Keeley (NMSW) and Richard Oliver (Dentistry). We also have two student reps (Ali Yazdi and Shahrzad Dashti).  At our first meeting we worked on an initial action plan and discussed the recommendations that were relevant to our Faculty. We also decided to seek clarification on issues such as academic advisors and personalised learning.  I will get this next week, when Paul O’Neill and I attend the University implementation group.  I will report back on a regular basis on our progress.

The review was also discussed at a “lively” meeting of Senate on Wednesday and the importance of good communication was stressed. While I think that I have done a reasonable job on this by discussing it with Heads of School and Directors of undergraduate programmes, I have also given a presentation at a Faculty town meeting.  I have also invited myself to School boards and away days to give an update and receive positive and negative feedback!  I will also be giving a presentation at another upcoming Faculty town meeting.  So I hope that we can continue communicating… As I said earlier, this is going to be a challenge that we can easily answer.

I will update further next week