The East Midlands Centre for History Learning and Teaching

Undergraduate Dissertation Showcase (2021)

Friday 11 June: 10am-4.15pm

In June 2021 the East Midlands Centre for Learning and Teaching ran the annual dissertation showcase. This event brings together students from across the East Midlands to present their findings from their undergraduate dissertations. This event enables our students to share their research with a wider audience and to give them an experience of speaking at an academic conference. Due to ongoing restrictions, the event was virtual, but this did not limit engagement with the showcase – we had over twenty speakers covering topics from the eighth century to the present day. The quality of the papers was excellent and reflects the hard work that History students put into their individual research projects. Below some of the speakers reflect on their experience of speaking at the event:

Less is More and No Student Left Behind

Dr David Gehring, University of Nottingham

This blog is based on a presentation at the EMC History Teaching in the ‘Age of Covid’ workshop which was held in January 2021. It was also posted as part of the History UK Pandemic Pedagogy series.

Think back to those halcyon days when we regularly taught in a classroom. We, along with our students, were all within the same four walls, within the same physical environment. Then again, the playing field was never even for our students because their backgrounds and levels of cultural and social capital vary based on a range of factors well outside of our control as individual instructors. Despite the challenges posed by the uneven playing field, we, inside that classroom, could see if a student looked uneasy, uncomfortable, or confused; we, inside that classroom, could adjust the discussion, accommodate to student needs, and lift up those who needed the assistance.

Delivering undergraduate teaching during the pandemic – some reflections

Dr Tim Reinke-Williams, University of Northampton

This blog focuses on how the undergraduate History programme has been delivered at the University of Northampton since March 2020. For the most part History staff and students have adapted well, but there have been challenges and we’re continuing to adapt to a changing situation.

Oh, the places we will go! Running virtual field trips

Dr Ruth Larsen, University of Derby

For staff and students alike, one particularly enjoyable element of some modules is the field trip. Study visits can provide a great opportunity for applied learning as well as being a great way of creating a sense of cohort identity. However, with many museums and heritage sites closed, and the idea of squeezing students into minibuses feeling like a distant dream, it can feel like the only option is to cancel planned trips and offer ‘yet another zoom lecture’. However, in recent years, and especially on the last twelve months, museums, galleries and other heritage sites have created more and more online provision, which means that there are viable alternatives. This short blog is a guide to running a virtual field trip, and provides a brief guide to some useful resources.

Compassion in the Classroom during COVID

Dr Emma Battell Lowman, University of Leicester

I’m a big fan of Dr Theo Gilbert’s work on the importance of compassionate practice in Higher Education. Here, “compassion” isn’t an emotion, like empathy, it’s a “psycho-biologically mediated motivation/an intention to notice, not normalise, one’s own distress or disadvantaging, or that of others, and take action to reduce or prevent it.” Theo’s practices build connections in the classroom that reduce stress, improve achievement, and support wellbeing for staff and students. By fostering connection and mutual support, they help us to push back against the fear, uncertainty, and doubt saturating the individualised, marketized, neoliberal, UK university sector.