Week 6: group tutorial

This is the first week of our second theme: ‘teaching’ with data, in which we’ll consider the implications of using data in education in terms of the role and responsibilities of the teacher. As suggested in the outline to this block, there are a number of ways we can approach this theme, from thinking about how teaching might be ‘enhanced’ by the insights provided by data analytics, to considering the ways in which the professional is being targeted for efficiency measures itself.

We’ll accompany these considerations with some dedicated reading around the theme of ‘teaching’, including discussions of the ‘datafication’ of the profession and its implications for professional agency, the concern for being ‘data literate’ as a future-oriented teacher, and the promises of enhancement and ‘scale’ for the data-driven pedagogue. These readings will provide a foundational view of how data is being promoted as advantageous to the role of the teacher, as well as some of the key critical questions concerning how such systems and practices might shape teaching practices and responsibilities.

Our reading will be supported with a group video tutorial – either on Wednesday 17th February at 11am or Thursday 18th February at 8pm – in which we’ll discuss key ideas and concepts, as well as potential approaches for the ‘data visualisation’ task.

In addition, this week you are invited to give us some anonymous mid-course feedback, via this questionnaire [link TBC], providing your tutors with some idea of how the course is going, and whether key tasks and assessments are being communicated effectively. Of course, please do remember that you can reach out to your tutor any time to discuss your progress on the course or if you have any concerns about the activities and assessments.

Your key tasks this week will be to:

• Read the core and secondary literature for block 2
• Participate in the group video tutorial (Wednesday or Thursday) – sign up here in Moodle
• Complete your weekly data visualisation
• Give your tutors some mid-point feedback on the course, here [link TBC].