Changing times, changing pedagogies

Project leader(s): Rachel Hilliam
Theme: Innovative assessment
Faculty: STEM
Status: Current
Dates: April 2022 to December 2022

Since March 2020, there has been much change in the higher education learning and teaching of the mathematical sciences. With the onset of Covid19, universities have needed to rapidly adapt their to teaching to an online environment. To support this, novel tools, approaches and ideas were developed across institutions. Within the mathematical sciences, some of these were shared, many from colleagues at the OU, through the TALMO series of events arranged by Grove, Hilliam & Houston (www.talmo.uk). However, to date there has been limited work to explore, outside of the OU, the impact of online teaching both for practitioners and students.

As universities now move beyond the need to deliver remote learning there are lessons to be learnt in terms of the pedagogy around theories of learning in the mathematics sciences. One area of exploration is the potential conflict in HEIs between new methodologies versus the practical elements of teaching and how effective, or otherwise, the resulting learning opportunities are for students.

This eSTEeM project will explore how the theories of learning in mathematics and statistics have changed through the implementation and analysis of a UK-wide survey. In doing so, this work will contribute to a wider five-year longitudinal study which will explore the impact of the rapid shift in teaching practices during the pandemic on mathematical sciences departments within higher education institutions and the staff and students who choose to study and work within them. It will survey practitioners during 2022, 2024 and 2027 to provide insights into how the pandemic has affected the ways in which departments are now providing teaching, learning and assessment and support in mathematical sciences. Importantly, it will investigate whether the online practices and approaches first implemented during the Covid19 pandemic are continuing to be employed, whether they have evolved or whether they have been dismissed in favour of a return to more traditional methodologies, and importantly, the reasons behind these changes.