Latest News
6th Annual Excellence in Teaching Conference, 19th June 2012
The keynote and plenary speakers have now been confirmed, and the draft programme is due to be released later this month.
To register click the image on the right or visit the Conference web page for more information.
Skills for teaching and research: navigating the journey from postgraduate students to academic
Dr Anna Zimdars is leading on an HEA funded project on the academic labour market.
Her qualitative project seeks to create a resource for postgraduate students seeking academic employment. It addresses the gap in available information for postgraduates who wish to stay in academia after their PhDs, but who might lack knowledge regarding ‘how to get an academic job’. Through the creation of an electronic resource, dissemination events, postgraduate ambassadors and a booklet, the project will:
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develop a free, accessible and interdisciplinary resource for postgraduate students seeking academic jobs;
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disseminate findings and raise awareness of the resource;
and offer a unique opportunity for 21 postgraduates to acquire and apply educational research skills. More information to follow.
Between: Embodiment in Science Teaching
Workshop and Discussion on 20th June, Inigo Rooms, East Wing Somerset House, King's College London, Strand Campus
A free, discipline specific workshop sponsored by the Higher Education Academy and the School of Biomedical Sciences. The workshop will explore the definitions and role of embodiment in science teaching and science practice.
View/download provisional programme and registration (pdf, 290kb)
Technology-Enhanced Learning Fund: Projects
The College Technology-Enhanced Learning (TEL) Fund for 2012 made up to £120,000 available for the funding of initiatives to transform teaching practice through the use of learning technologies. 8 projects from 17 applications have been awarded TEL funding for the 12 month period starting from March 2012. Details and abstracts of the eight Technology-Enhanced Learning Projects 2012 can be found in the TEL Funded Projects 2012 page.
Membership of Governing Council of the SRHE
David Hay and Ian Kinchin have been made members of the Governing Council of the Society for Research in Higher Education. As trustees of the Society they will have a number of responsibilities and commitments that they will take on over the next 3 years.
Proceedings of the 5th Annual Excellence in Teaching Conference.
This collection of papers reflects a range of educational research and innovative practice that has taken place across King’s College London and were presented at the conference last June. The papers bring together scholarship, reflection and questions that are applied through a broad range of disciplinary and professional backgrounds. A wide range of themes are explored, including evaluation of learning, research-led teaching, culture and learning strategies and clinical pedagogy. These papers consider implications both for the College and the wider learning community and provide ideas, recommendations and further questions for exploration. Excellence in Teaching Conference Proceedings
New Head of Curriculum Innovation
King’s Learning Institute is delighted to welcome Dr Michael Flavin to its team. Michael is Head of Curriculum Innovation, and will co-ordinate the delivery of a range of initiatives arising from the King’s Experience Project , building on the significant foundation of work previously undertaken in the King’s Warwick project. The initiatives will broaden and deepen the curriculum by highlighting and developing the work of the King’s Experience Project, by establishing a student-facing, online resource to identify and promote the co-curricular learning opportunities already available at the College, and by managing the development of new learning opportunities around themes such as global connectedness, community engagement, and research.
CareNet Project launched
A major project titled "Building ICT competencies in the long-term care sector to enhance quality of life for older people and those at risk of exclusion" was launched in February 2012. It is funded under the EU Lifelong Learning Programme, and is aimed at developing key competences in two identified target groups.
The project is a collaboration between 8 organisations across Europe, and the King's Learning Institute team will be working on two main areas: design of curriculum learning paths and the project evaluation. More details on the CareNET project webpage.
Research-teaching links event 
An introductory event was held on 23rd February to launch a strand of the King’s Experience Project looking at the links between teaching and research. The project called, “How do we learn? Disciplinary ways of thinking and their roles within the undergraduate curriculum” will feature investigations undertaken by student researchers, looking at patterns of learning within the nine Schools across the College. Interim findings will be presented at the Excellence in Teaching Conference on the 19th June, and discipline-based reports will be published in a special issue of HERN-J towards the end of the year. For further details of the project, please contact Lauren.Cracknell@kcl.ac.uk
New Post Doctoral Research Associate
King’s Learning Institute is delighted to welcome Dr Sarah Lewthwaite to its team. Sarah is a Post Doctoral Research Associate in student experience, and will develop an exciting programme of work that will develop student’s learning experiences, teaching practices and the King’s learning environment. This work takes place as part of the King’s Experience Project, building on the significant foundation of work previously established in the King’s Warwick Project. For further information about Sarah see her KLI profile.
Leadership Foundation Award 2012
Paul Blackmore and Camille Kandiko have been awarded a £10,000 grant by the Leadership Foundation for Higher Education in order to investigate ways in which an understanding of disciplinary orientation and a number of other motivational issues can assist those who work across universities in development roles. The study builds on previous funded research into academic prestige economies. More detail: Harvesting Expertise Project.
JISC Award
Paul Blackmore has gained a £10,000 award to review the 
ways in which Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) project outcomes can inform development activity in universities. The JISC award was gained with colleagues at the Universities of Bath and Leeds, on behalf of the national Standing Conference on Academic Practice, an organisation co-convened by Paul Blackmore.
Archived News (click +/- to expand)
News 2011
Annual Report 2010-11
The new King's Learning Institute Annual Report is now available to download below or by clicking the picture on the left.
The report gives details of Kings's Learning Institute activities during the past academic year.
Download Annual Report 2010-11 (1200kb, pdf)
King Saud University, Saudi Arabia
In September 2011, Dr Ian Kinchin and Dr David Hay were invited to participate in the 1st Annual Forum on Teaching at King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Dr Kinchin presented papers on ‘The Expert Student’ and ‘Clinical Pedagogy’. Dr Hay presented papers on ‘Researcher-Led Teaching’ and ‘The Use of Images in Teaching’.
The event was organised by the Deanship of Skills Development at KSU.
Two HEA Funded projects:
“Understanding unintentional plagiarism and international students’ approaches to academic reading: A participatory approach to researching the international student experience”
This is a 12 month project led by Dr Saranne Weller investigating international students’ approaches to their reading practices and how they use their reading in the preparation of work for assessment. The project will recruit international students as reflective co-researchers of their literacy practices with the aim to develop learning resources to support academic reading for the purposes of helping international students avoid unintentional plagiarism.
More information about the project is available via the HEA project website.
"Becoming an expert Student"
In July 2011 Dr Ian Kinchin was awarded a Teaching Development Individual Project from the Higher Education Academy for his project entitled ‘Becoming an expert student’. The project builds on recent research conducted with Dr Lyndon Cabot from the Dental Institute into the structural relationships between university curricula and the nature of professional expertise and its development among undergraduate students. The purpose of the project is to translate their research into resources that can be used by clinical undergraduates and their teachers within the normal practice of their teaching and highlights the interface between practice and theory as a point of focus in the students’ learning.
The project will be conducted throughout 2011-12. For further information contact Dr Ian Kinchin.
Working with Schools
Summer School 2011
Over June and July Dr Mark Murphy delivered sessions on 2 induction events for the King’s College Summer School. These sessions focused on the characteristics of Summer School students, and the various types of teaching approach that may be suitable for such students. Considering the cultural, linguistic, diversity and knowledge needs of the student cohort, the sessions explored how to deliver learning experiences that are: facilitative, varied and multi-faceted, engaged and relevant, and transparent and explicit.
Teaching Day – Modern Languages Centre
On the Thursday 7th July, Dr Mark Murphy and Dr Stylianos Hatzipanagos delivered a teaching day to the King’s College Modern Languages Centre, with a focus on recent research in the field of communicative language teaching. The day was geared towards teachers of lesser taught languages at King’s College London, and included sessions on: communicative teaching: general principles, using technology in teaching, and communicative teaching in the field of languages. The day also involved much discussion with participants, specifically around the application of communicative teaching principles to professional practice.
Society for Research into Higher Education (SRHE) Newer Researchers Prize
Dr Camille B. Kandiko has been awarded one of two prestigious Newer Researchers Prizes, which are jointly sponsored by the SRHE and the Taylor & Francis Group. Her project entitled ‘Why work in academia? A comparative analysis of motivation and prestige factors of academics in different national contexts’, that aims to develop a greater understanding of academic motivations and the role prestige factors have in defining this within different national higher education contexts. Building on research done in the UK, the study will explore academic motivation in the USA, Ireland and The Netherlands.
To learn more about the project as it progresses visit:
www.kcl.ac.uk/study/learningteaching/kli/research
Leadership Foundation
Prof. Paul Blackmore and Dr. Camille Kandiko are featured in the summer 2011 edition of Engage Magazine. Engage showcases the best in leadership, governance and management that is taking place at institutions, as well as the programmes, courses, events and other development interventions that are on offer.
Their article outlines some interesting trends that emerged from a Leadership Foundation Small Development Project study of over two dozen academics in five departments in universities across England. For the full article click here.
European Forum on Academic Development
A
European Forum on Academic Development was held on the
21st-22nd June 2011 at King’s College London for a group of invited academics to consider academic development in the European context. The forum will initially aim to establish some agreed principles for academic development among the participating institutions and to stimulate a collaborative research network for developing the European agenda to look at some of the tensions inherent within academic development.
The HERN Journal Volume 3, 2011
The 3rd edition of HERN-J, the Journal of the Higher Education Research Network was published early in 2011. The essays were written by staff from King’s College London and the Royal Veterinary College.
News 2010
LFHE grant awarded
Professor Paul Blackmore and Dr Camille Kandiko have been awarded a £10,000 grant by the Leadership Foundation for Higher Education (LFHE) to explore patterns of motivation in a range of academic settings including academic departments and research centres. The project aims to achieve a more contextually situated understanding of academic motivation, with benefits for academic leaders and for those with development roles in universities. The investigation will extend previous funded work exploring interdisciplinarity and the significance of prestige economies in academic life.
SEDA grant awarded
Dr Anna Jones, Dr Sue Jones and Mr Harvey Wells were recently awarded a
SEDA Research and Development Small Grants 2009/10 for their project entitled,
Learning as change: A framework for understanding teaching.
This project develops a framework and associated set of resources for understanding learning that is useful in an academic development context. Through understanding learning as a cyclical process of change, academic staff can better understand their own development as academics as well as facilitating the learning of their students. This is put into practice through a technique known as motivational interviewing. The grant will facilitate development of resources for the use of academic staff in enhancing their teaching. The project will be carried out by the three named researchers from King’s Learning Institute in 2010. These researchers have a breadth of disciplinary background – higher education, psychology and pharmacy and experience in disciplinary teaching and academic development. Thus the project has a strong cross-disciplinary base.
KLI host the University of Utrecht
K
LI were pleased to welcome guests from the
University of Utrecht, in Holland on 8 February 2010. Fifteen academic staff joined KLI for the day, for a programme focusing on curriculum development in higher education, with contributions from Professor Eeva Leinonen, Vice-Principal (Education) and a number of KLI staff. Visitors heard about the UK higher education scene, the King's-Warwick project, technology-enhanced learning and issues in department-level development, before discussing the major curriculum changes that have taken place at Utrecht in recent years.
News 2008/2009
Institute Lecturer wins National Teaching Fellowship
Sharon Markless, a Lecturer in Higher Education within King’s Learning Institute been awarded a National Teaching Fellowship Award from the Higher Education Academy.
The National Teaching Fellowships were established to promote excellent teaching in universities. Sharon was one of 50 lecturers and learning support staff nationwide who were awarded Fellowships worth £10,000 each. The award may be used for Fellows’ professional development in teaching and learning or aspects of pedagogy.
For more information please visit the
HEA website
KLI links with India
Two senior higher education staff from India visited King’s Learning Institute on 19th May 2009 to exchange ideas and experiences about the British and Indian higher education systems.
Dr Nidatt Barot is Principal of T.N.Rao College in Rajkot and Dr Ajitsinh Rana is Senior Lecturer at R.B.Sagar College of Education in Ahmedabad.
It is hoped that the meeting will lead to collaborations between the King’s Learning Institute and these Colleges in the Gujarat region of India.
Social Software and Developing Community Ontologies
A new book edited by KLI’s Dr Stylianos Hatzipanagos & Dr Steven Warburton (School of Law) has just been published by IGI Global. The ‘Handbook of Research on Social Software and Developing Community Ontologies’ examines the impact of new social technologies through 32 authoritative contributions by over 85 of the world’s leading experts on social software from 11 countries (including KLI’s Sharon Markless & Dr Chris Abbott from DEPS).
For further details please see:
http://www.igi-global.com/reference/details.asp?ID=33011