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Centre for Excellence in Enquiry-Based Learning

Sackville Street Building, home of CEEBL

Humanities

Julia McMorrow
Julia McMorrow

EBL Fellow: Julia McMorrow

Faculty/School: Humanities
Appointment: 1 day secondment
e: julia.mcmorrow@manchester.ac.uk
t: 53649
staff profile, research

Julia is a Senior Lecturer in Remote Sensing in the Geography section of the School of Environment and Development. She joined the University of Manchester in 1991, after lecturing in physical geography at Edge Hill College of Higher Education.

As a tutor in Geography, Julia uses Enquiry-Based Learning for most small-group work and fieldwork, and appreciates the value of material from a wide range of cognate disciplines.

She has extensive experience of working in and leading curriculum innovation project teams, both in Geography and with disciplines from across the university. She co-developed an EBL local fieldwork project for first year geographers in 1997, and later developed the online Dark Peak field guide and Geography's first WebCT unit.

Since 2002, she has led a team from Education, Medicine, Spanish and Life Sciences, to develop an EBL approach to interdisciplinary learning. This included a CEEBL-funded project in 2005-06, which produced a WebCT resource to support generic EBL team projects. She has presented papers at HE Academy, British Association for Educational Research and LTSN conferences.

Her research focuses on the use airborne and satellite images for studying soil erosion and land cover change, mainly in the Pennines and in southeast Asia.

Julia recently recieved one of the University of Manchester 2008-09 Teaching Excellence Awards. These awards recognise colleagues who have demonstrated a significant and sustained commitment to excellence in teaching, excellence in supporting teaching, or shown significant and successful innovation.


Susan Moger
Susan Moger

EBL Fellow, Manchester Business School: Susan Moger

Faculty/School:Humanities / MBS
Appointment:½ day secondment
e: susan.moger@mbs.ac.uk
t: 56450
staff profile, research

Susan Moger is Associate Director in management development in the Executive Development Centre at Manchester Business School with responsibility for course direction and academic liaison for a variety of programmes in the school.


Duncan Thomas
Duncan Thomas

EBL Fellow: Duncan Thomas

Faculty/School: Humanities/SED
Appointment:Honorary
e: duncan.thomas@manchester.ac.uk
t: 55872
staff profile, research

Duncan is a Research Fellow at the Manchester Institute of Innovation Research within the Manchester Business School. His mixed education and work experiences in physics, electronics and later arts and social sciences led to an interest in interdisciplinary approaches to learning, teaching and research. He is currently interested in contributing to EBL type sustainability initiatives.

In 2003/04 he received curriculum innovation funding to hold a two-day interdisciplinary water event at The Manchester Museum, with further support from the Institute for Water Education in the Netherlands (UNESCO-IHE) and the UN International Year of Freshwater 2003. Throughout 2004/05 he assisted with an interdisciplinary, mixed EBL and PBL curriculum innovation project on arsenic contamination in Bangladesh. For the next few years he taught sustainable development issues and qualitative research methods and was involved with The Manchester Museum's ad hoc sustainability group, prior to the University's signing of the Talloires Declaration. During 2007/08 he contributed material on virtual water to the EBL unit on Sustainable Development for Engineers and Scientists.

Duncan currently researches innovation policy in regulated utility sectors (particularly water) and European research policy dynamics (including the evolution of the European Research Area). He is also involved with research into community resilience to extreme weather events and on the evolution of peri-urban areas (urban fringes) across Europe. He has been regularly called upon to provide expert input at the House of Commons, the House of Lords, and for various Government calls for evidence.

 

EBL Fellow: Ann Shacklady-Smith

Faculty/School: Humanities/Manchester Business School

Appointment: 0.5 day secondment

e: ann.shacklady-smith@mbs.ac.uk

t: 0161 275 3798
research

 

Ann’s teaching and research interests include change management and leadership, action research and appreciative inquiry.  She utilises these methods to investigate ways of improving personal and organisational performance and to find creative solutions to the challenges faced in organisational life.

Experiential learning, critical reflection and collaborative inquiry methodologies, feature strongly in her designs for learning and change management.

Ann has completed two evaluation research projects in the last year for which she used Appreciative inquiry as the theoretical research framework.  The first was an evaluation into a large scale (the largest ever in UK NHS history) public consultation process.  The second, evaluation examined the transfer of learning to the workplace.  Her research interests lie in whole-of-system Appreciative Inquiry engagement processes as mechanisms for change management allied to the implementation of the government’s community strategy for local authorities.

 

EBL Fellow: Annie Morton

Faculty/School: Humanities/School of Languages, Linguistics & Cultures
Appointment:Honorary
e: annie.l.morton@manchester.ac.uk
t: 53228
staff profile, research

 

Student Interns 2009/10:

Sam Baars

Sam graduated from the University of Oxford in 2008 with a BA in Politics, Philosophy and Economics. He then came to Manchester to do an MSc at the Institute for Social Change, where he developed an interest in class and the sociology of education: his Masters dissertation was on social class, aspirations and barriers to educational attainment, and involved fieldwork in a primary school.

In 2009 Sam will start a PhD based at the Institute for Social Change as one of three interns at the Manchester Leadership Programme – an initiative which aims to bring academic study at Manchester closer to the community by building credited voluntary work and taught leadership units into undergraduate degrees. His research will be based in Wythenshawe, examining the role of schools in building community cohesion and the effect this has on the life chances of 14-19 year-olds in a deprived area.

Sam’s interest in EBL arose from his research; in particular how formal learning can be made more accessible and relevant to students from all backgrounds, and how learning institutions can work more closely with the communities they are part of. He was keen to be part of the practical work that CEEBL is doing in this area, and hopes to get involved with the Green City Project.

Stephen Logan

Stephen studied for a B.A. (Hons) in English Literature and Spanish at Trinity College Dublin. He is currently pursuing an M.A. in Linguistics at the University of Manchester, with the long term goal of working in the field of endangered language documentation. Between completing his undergraduate studies and commencing his M.A., Stephen worked in the financial sector in Dublin.

He feels that EBL encourages the student to develop practical skills in the areas of research and interpersonal communication, while at the same time providing a forum for individual creativity. He is looking forward to developing the use of EBL in the University during his time as an intern, and hopes to gain further insight into the processes and challenges of this approach.

He also teaches Spanish in a private capacity, and has an abiding interest in chi gung and meditation.

Rob Pinfold

Rob is currently a third year Politics and Modern History undergraduate student in the Department of Humanities. He came to study at Manchester because of the city’s reputation as a hub of student activity, with a diverse student population from many backgrounds.

However, the sheer size of an institution like Manchester demonstrates the need for new, inventive teaching methods. As a humanities student, Rob was often frustrated at the monolithic nature of the Humanities Department and resolved to “get involved” in promoting and reforming the student experience. Hence, Rob found himself very interested in the application and use of EBL, and hopes play a part this year in expanding its use throughout the university.

Before starting work at CEEBL he served as General Secretary of the Students’ Union, a full-time, paid position as a student representative working in the university structures. As a result, Rob found himself representing students at senior levels, which is always a great way to discuss the implementation of new teaching methods to improve the student experience. During this year, Rob assisted the university in its implementation of a massive review of teaching and learning, hence CEEBL seemed like a natural progression!

Rob is looking forward to working with CEEBL, fellow interns and other students to make university a more enjoyable, accessible and worthwhile time for all.

If you are interested in working with the CEEBL Student Interns, please contact Louise Goldring: louise.goldring@manchester.ac.uk; 66445.

» Previous Student Interns for Humanities

 

Major CEEBL project in Humanities

Embedding EBL in Professional Doctorate programmes

The CEEBL major project in Humanities is to develop Enquiry-Based Learning (EBL) in professional doctorates with a view to expand the methodology to other postgraduate research programmes, in particular through research methods training.

One aim of the project is to improve completion rates for part-time postgraduate research students who can often only enter postgraduate education on a part-time basis using their professional experience for their research.

Professional Doctorate programmes involved in the project are: Practical Theology, Educational Psychology, Counselling, Education, Bioethics and Doctorate in Business Administration (DBA).

Working Methods

The project will have three development strands:

  1. Thematic Development: School representatives will meet regularly to discuss and develop themes within EBL as applied to Professional Doctorates, such as learning logs, online facilitation. The meetings will be supplemented by guest speakers who are experienced EBL practitioners.
  2. Programme Development: Research Associates will work with the project team to development EBL in the programmes. This will be done with reference to the thematic development.
  3. Training Development: EBL methodology training for staff involved with the programmes as well as some training and support for some students.

Outcomes

Funding

2005/06 £6,300
2006/07 £47,500
2007/08 £15,000
Total £68,800

Project Leader

Professor Elaine Graham
School of Arts, Histories and Cultures