Search
Login
Get in touch

Reflective portfolios in biological sciences

Alison Cullinane, University of Edinburgh

https://fast.wistia.com/embed/medias/4ipkdj6im9/swatch

Alison Cullinane, Lecturer of Biological Education, Portfolio Director & Cohort Lead from University of Edinburgh on ‘Reflective portfolios in the School of Biological Sciences.’

This recording is from our 2023 MiniBash community event which was hosted in Birmingham, England. Videos are for educational personnel only and require a live educational email to watch. You can read a small snippet of the video transcript below.

So, I’ve been asked here to add to the diversity of accents. I’m originally from Ireland, but I find myself in Edinburgh University, and I’m the portfolio director there. I’m implementing a reflective portfolio in the school of biological sciences with science students. So, you can imagine all the science students hate me because I’m trying to get them to reflect, which is something that scientists don’t do apparently. 

So, I’m just going to give you very briefly just some background as to why this portfolio has been implemented. A little bit of how I’ve used PebblePad with the first years, and now I’m currently designing the second-year portfolio, a little bit of the student voice and some of the achievements and challenges so far. I’ve been in the post just over a year so this is all stuff that has come within the last year, ao I’m here as well to gain insights from more of the established PebblePad users. 

So as Simon Riley mentioned earlier, we are involved in this curriculum reform and our courses within the school of biological sciences are part of that curriculum reform. So we’ve done our first year where we have four new curriculums and overarching that is this reflective portfolio. 

The students within their portfolio need to reflect on the interactive lectures. We’re trying to remove the word lectures and we’re calling them interactive sessions. 

They have workshops, and of course they’ll have practical work as well, and the portfolio then is used to reflect on all of those. The portfolio itself is worth 25% and it is a pass-fail component of their grade. 

So PebblePad was used as the platform to deliver the first year and now the second year at reflective portfolios. And because reflection is something that will be new to a lot of students and particularly first years, I kept it quite structured so that they would learn how to reflect initially. So, each of the workshop’s workbooks were designed with very particular questions. They were designed around using Gibbs’s framework, and once again, the reflective toolkit that was mentioned earlier was drawn on a lot to develop a lot of these things as well. And it was also supported by literature on formative assessment, getting students to engage in their learning, reflection skills, skills development, and research on STEM career progression. 

So in terms of the first-year portfolio, the narrative or that storyline that they were doing, in the first semester it was just about learning to reflect and getting them used to speaking about themselves. It’s not something that you don’t often have a chance to do, but something when you go to interviews and when you have to write about internship applications. You have to talk about yourself and it’s not something that they’re used to, so it was just getting them to talk about themselves particularly in the personal weekly reflections, and then they had academic tasks where they reflected on their learning.  

For the full overview watch the video…

 

share

Curriculum Transformation at the University of Edinburgh: co-creation and the relationship between local innovation and institutional change

Talk description: I will use the themes of reflection and experiential learning, skills development and assessment (including programme level assessment and changes in assessment practice) to explore this process in more detail. This includes the link between disciplinary and institutional curriculum reform, learning from local innovations and changes, and using this to inform University level changes and support.

Bio: My current position is leading the University wide Curriculum Transformation Project. This is a major and long term initiative for the University considering all areas of the University’s undergraduate and taught postgraduate curriculum. Prior to this Jon set up and led the Institute for Academic Development (IAD) at the University of Edinburgh. The IAD provides University level support for teaching, learning and researcher development, including direct support for students and staff, and support for enhancement and innovation in curriculum development, the student and researcher experience. Jon has a PhD in petroleum geology.

Mission Possible: The DNA of a bespoke professional development program

Talk description: The diversity of students in higher education dictates that there cannot (and should not) be a single ‘silver bullet’ approach to address the complex challenge of career readiness learning. However, the reality of modern university structures is that delivering bespoke experiences for each student is a challenge in and of itself.  And yet, all things are possible with creative use of PebblePad to streamline delivery (for the university) and make it highly personalised (for the student). 

Bio: Gayle Brent is a Learning and Teaching Consultant (Employability) at Griffith University, Queensland, Australia. Gaye’s specialist area of interest is developing and implementing strategies to enhance staff and student understanding of employability in both curricular and extra-curricular contexts. She completed a Master of Education and Professional Studies Research to explore the potential barriers and challenges to embedding employability-based learning in higher education curriculum and is currently completing a Doctor of Philosophy exploring the impact of an extra-curricular employability program on the individual student experience.

Dr Melissa Highton. Assistant Principal, University of Edinburgh

Talk description: A journey through the stories told by wicca data. How a neglected research data set was used by students to overturn historic injustice and shed new light on the lives of women in Scotland.

Bio: Melissa has worked for many years in higher education at some of the UK’s finest and most ancient institutions. In each place she enjoys discovering the hidden histories and less heard voices which can be surfaced in new ways using the most up to date and open technologies. She is a champion of playful and curious approaches to engagement with audiences on campus and online, and is an invited speaker at events about dangerous women.

Education is an Experience That Should Be Designed

Talk description: We have any number of problems and opportunities as universities, and universities must adapt to help students from diverse backgrounds develop the knowledge and skills they need to thrive and make a positive impact in the world. Key to those adaptations is understanding that we provide students with an experience. We ought to design them with intention and purpose. This talk with take up this argument and ground it within a large educational transformation project at the University of Leeds.

Bio: Jeff Grabill is Deputy Vice Chancellor for Student Education at the University of Leeds. Prior to joining the University of Leeds, Grabill was at Michigan State University (MSU) in the United States for nearly 20 years. He served Michigan State University as the Associate Provost for Teaching, Learning, and Technology. In that role, he was responsible for facilitating innovation in learning and educator professional development via his role as Director of the Hub for Innovation in Learning and Technology. Grabill’s research focuses on how digital writing is associated with citizenship and learning. That work has been located in community contexts, in museums, and in classrooms at both the K-12 and university levels. Grabill is also a co-founder of Drawbridge, an educational technology company.

Sign Up to the Customer Newsletter