CIT Teaching & Learning Unit

Monday,

15^th December 2014

‘Sharpening the Saw’– refreshing and refocusing ourselves

Facilitated By: Ruairí Ó Céilleachair

‘If I had six hours to chop down a tree I’d spend the first four hours sharpening the axe’

Abraham Lincoln

Our greatest resource is ourselves; learning more about how we can nurture and develop ourselves while guarding against burnout and overwork is an essential part of our professional development.

This workshop will explore Stephen Covey’s 7th principle as it applies to our work as educators. Participants will look at ways to reduce the stress of lecturing and examine ways to make teaching more enjoyable for both the lecturer and the students. This will involve identifying the major issues which raise tensions and cause stress in the classroom, focusing on techniques and strategies which promote a positive atmosphere in learning situations and how these strategies and techniques can be adapted to the needs of lecturers in CIT.

Monday,

15^th September 2014

Motivation for learning– what lecturers need to know

Facilitated By: Ruairí Ó Céilleachair

Much of our success as teachers and a big chunk of our job satisfaction is dependent on our ability to motivate our students and ourselves. This workshop will explore the practical application in classroom situations of some effective motivational theories.

Participants examined their own motivational toolkit and how it might be expanded. They:

• Explored techniques and strategies to motivate students.
• Learned how to use assessment and feedback to increase motivation.
• Examined how to generate enthusiasm for learning among students and ways to rekindle enthusiasm for teaching in ourselves.

Tuesday,

16^th September 2014

The Habits of Creative People

Presenter: Johnny Hanrahan, Janus Arts

A workshop focusing on the natural creative capacity we are often too modest or afraid to exercise. Generating stories, images, inventions, new products and services is not for a special kind of person. Everyone who is alive to their own creative capacity can come up with amazing ideas simply by adopting the habits of creative people. Alertness, the ability to play seriously, the belief that this unique pleasure is your right not a gift. These ideas were discussed and acted on in this workshop.

Wednesday,

17^th December 2014

Students in financial hardship can’t even pay attention

Presenter : Deirdre Creedon, Access Officer, CIT

Deirdre Creedon presented her recent research and paper presented at World Congress of Education in London in October 2014: ‘What is the Experience of Perceived Financial Hardship on Mature Students Social and Academic Integration?’

The paper was selected as Best in Conference and is an output of Deirdre’s research completed as part of CIT’s MA in Teaching and Learning, of which Deirdre was one of the first graduates.

Deirdre also gave an overview of the CIT Access Service, referring in particular to the financial supports available to all full time students, numbers availing of support and the significant rise in applications from students in financial need.

Thursday,

18^th December 2014

I’m not a performing monkey!

Presenter: Johnny Hanrahan, Janus Arts

True! But you’re a performer, nevertheless. Just like every other teacher and lecturer in the world. Your job requires so much more than a grasp of content. You also have to grab your audience, enthral and enthuse them, smell their boredom or their exhaustion, do a mental dance, coping with the changing moods and needs of the teaching moment.

In this respect, you are like an actor for whom the ultimate fear is losing the audience. Which is why this workshop foucssed on the dynamics of performance, the rhythms, the pauses, the flow and the crescendos of the lecturing act, using the simple disciplines and devices that are the a,b,c of performers’ lives. No mystery, no complexity! Just common sense and the acknowledgement that teaching and showbiz have quite a lot in common.