Transformative Teaching

Abstract

As we begin to depart from the experiences of learning and teaching during the pandemic, it is important not to discard the new pedagogical skills and innovative practices that have been developed through this period. As much of the UK HE sector moves away from a fully online provision, we are now inhabiting a hybridised space in which pre and post pandemic teaching skills and experiences have the potential to come together and produce a reimagined pedagogy of ‘connectedness’. The TREC curriculum design model (Cullen and McCabe, 2021) was developed as a response to a supporting a large number of academics in pivoting to online teaching in March 2020. It promotes a genuine active learning approach in the sense that it encourages students to construct their own understandings and make meanings about particular events and experiences resulting in a deeper levels of learning. Since it’s introduction it has evolved to provide a framework for sessions and activities conducted in both face-to-face and online environments through activities such as, microteaching, observation and more traditional lectures and seminars.
In this paper the authors and designers of the model reflect upon their observations of tutor engagement with TREC, the changes to practice that they have observed through the period and the implications of these for sustainable active learning and connected pedagogies. Cullen, R and McCabe, O (2022) Active Learning Journeys: The TREC Model in 100 ideas for Active Learning.