Peer Review of Teaching
Date and time: 2:30 - 4:00pm,
Friday 20th May, 2005
Venue: 12.10.03
Chair: Xiaodong Li
Abstract:
Academics are well-used to the process of peer review in research fields,
but until recently, little attention has been paid to peer
review in teaching. This seminar will
explore ways in which the culture of teaching and teaching scholarship might be
enhanced through a process of peer review.
It will be followed by a short workshop session in which participants
will gain some experience in undertaking peer reviews.
About the speaker:
Associate Professor
John Hurst
John Hurst joined Monash in 1987 and has been an Associate
Professor since 1994. He was previously
at the Australian National
University, and has spent
sabbaticals at the University of Manchester
and the University of St
Andrews, both in the UK. His main research interests have been in the
area of computer architecture and programming languages, but has more recently
been active in document processing and computer education.
He held the position of Associate Dean (Teaching) in the Faculty
of Information Technology for 8 years, during which time he completed a
Graduate Diploma in Higher Education. He
is co-leader of a research group called the Computing Education Research Group
(CERG), which has undertaken several
significant research projects. The most
significant of these was an investigation into best practice and innovation in
IT and CT, funded by the Australian Universities Teaching Commission for
$300,000 (over two years).
My experience in educational institutions began as a
guidance officer at Sydney Technical
College, then going to QIT to teach
psychology. I spent time in the UK
as a Vocational Counsellor and Head of Counselling Services at North East
London Polytechnic and came back to Australia
in 1980 to take up a lecturing position in psychology at RMIT.
Dr. Selby Markham
I am a
psychologist by profession who has been the CERG Research Fellow at Monash University for the past 5 years. I have been continuously involved in
research that began with the first Australian validation of Computer
Programming Aptitude Tests in 1968 at Sydney
Technical College.
From there I researched student performance characteristics at QIT and
continued that in London where it
became the focus of my PhD. I worked on career outcomes for early school
leavers under the first humanities and social science ARGC grant at RMIT.
Computing has been a part of my professional life beginning with the
first Australian validation of Computer Programming Aptitude Tests in 1968 at Sydney
Technical College
and moving onto utilising one of the early HP mini-computers at QIT, around
1970, in order to carry out computerised objective testing. This led to having
to learning Basic which led to having to learn FORTRAN when the HP blew up. It
all culminated in having to write my own stats pack for my PhD. No one could work out how to run the package
on the ICL I was using in London.
My industrial consulting has ranged from communication
skills training for Telstra, McDonalds and others, through to the redesign of
the selection procedure for Cathay Pacific’s Cabin Crew. An important component of recent consulting
has been the development of Customer Satisfaction models. In doing this I have
generated reports addressed to a wide variety of audiences.
Perhaps the high point
of my professional career was the development and implementation of a careers
guidance system for the technical education system in Indonesia.
Against all odds, it was completed within budget and within time.
Seminar Organisation
Seminars are free and open to the general public. No booking is necessary.
If you are interested in giving a presentation in this seminar series, or to
make suggestions for speakers, please contact Xiaodong Li, the seminar
co-ordinator.