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Email me on p.race@leedsmet.ac.uk

Welcome to my website. I hope you enjoy browsing around it. Apologies that due to demand, it sometimes is difficult to access. The 'Download Available Dates' link just above the Calendar to the right of this message allows you to check which dates I'm available for work outside Leeds Met (where I'm two days a week on average). Colleagues at Leeds Met can check on my availability there by going to the Leeds Met page of this website, and clicking the link at 'Leeds Met Diary'.

This page of my website is essentially a blog, with current items towards the top. Some of the items contain links to files you can open or download (many more on the 'downloads' page). You're welcome to use anything from this website, but please let me know, so I get feedback on what's useful (and what's not).

Travelling again!

20th August 2008

I'll be on the move till the end of the month, working in Aalborg and Lausanne in Switzerland, and won't be at either Leeds or Newcastle during this period. I hope to receive emails now and then during this time, and update this website from time to time too.

'Fantastic Firsts'

18th August 2008

I've put the main slides which I used at my residential weekend programme on August 15th-17th towards the foot of the 'downloads' page. I had to delete a few pictures to bring the file size down, but it's still a large file and could take a while to download or open. 'Magnificant Ninths' is available at Madingley on March 5th-7th in 2009.

National College of Ireland

20th August 2008

I've put the main slides and handouts linking to my five workshops on 13th, 14th and 19th of August, at the foot of the 'downloads' page.

Website access

6th August 2008

A few colleagues have reported being unable to get to my website; it seems likely that this is due to various institutional firewalls preventing access for some reason. I don't think there's anything I can do about this - but any advice most welcome.

Please note

22nd May 2008

I only put up the slides I use at workshops for a few days after the actual event. This is because this site has limited capacity. If you've missed the window when the slides are online, please just email me, and I'll send you the relevant slides directly.

'soundsgood'

updated 15th August 2008

At various workshops recently I've mentioned Bob Rotheram's 'Sounds Good' project on audio feedback using mp3 files, but I failed to give the full web address, which is 'www.soundsgood.org.uk'. Sorry. If one misses out the 'uk' one gets to somewhere else. Delighted to learn that Bob has been shortlisted for a THES award this year for the project - good luck!

48-hour intensive workshop

28th April 2008

Following the success of the flexibility of several 'Twenty Top Teaching Techniques' 1-day workshops, I'm offering a complete 'Phil Race' custom-designed workshop experience lasting 48 hours over three days, Tuesday lunchtime to Thursday lunchtime. This residential workshop format allows ten sessions, which can range widely over everything I do on learning, teaching, assessment, feedback and evaluation. This intensive workshop is designed for between 16 and 25 participants, and is constructed to focus flexibly on those aspects of my repertoire which is closest to the particular needs and wishes of those present. Download an outline programme here: 48-hour workshop

Available dates until May 2009

12th March 2008

I've now extended my available dates until well into 2009. After September, I'm making my two days a week at Leeds Met normally Fridays and Mondays, making more mid-week days available for travel (and reducing time spent travelling on busy Friday trains!). However, if you want me particularly on a Monday or Friday, please email me to see if I can do a swap for one of my Leeds Met days.

Routledge books by Sally and myself

10th March 2008

In readiness for our trip to New Zealand and Australia in June-July, Routledge have prepared a flier of our main books (separately and together). with an order form. Routledge books

Intellectual Stimulation

7th February 2008

'Intellectual Stimulation' is one of the variables of the student experience probed by the National Student Survey. I've designed a half-day workshop to help lecturers to address this factor. For an outline, please click the link which follows: workshop

'Ripples model' slides

31st January 2008

I've put up a newer version of the slides relating to the 'Ripples on a Pond' model of learning, please see 'downloads' page. All feedback welcome - please email me with any comments.

Phil and Sally's trip 2008

8th January 2008

We're going to the HERDSA Conference in New Zealand this coming July. I'll be in Dubai on Sunday 22nd July if anyone would like me to work there then, then in Townsville, Australia 25th-27th June, then Melbourne 10th-12th July, then Hong Kong 16th-17th July. Travel is paid for out of my NTFS award, but I'd be interested in giving keynotes or running workshops along the route to earn some spending money, should anyone wish for these. Also very happy to meet friends and colleagues along the way.

Module Design Questionnaire

7th December 2007

This is 'under development'. It allows people working in threes to 'interrogate' the design of a module, with a scorer marking (silently) out of 100 marks altogether. This caused really deep debates about module structure on its uses so far. Feedback on the questions much appreciated. :. click here

Peer observation of lecturing

20th October 2007

I know there are lots of proformas around, but here's my attempt to invent a new one. Note that this proforma specifically addresses 'a lecture', and not just 'teaching sessions' broadly. I have strong reservations about those broad forms which attempt to address all sorts of teaching-learning contexts, but fail to focus adequately on the specific features of any particular context. I may in due course have a go at trying to compile a suite of different proformas, each aiming to give really useful peer-review (and indeed self-review) on different kinds of teaching-learning context. Thanks to many colleagues on the SEDA and NTF jiscmail lists who have already given feedback - and particularly Gaye Manwaring, whose suggestions helped to put the form into a more logical order. I'm continuously improving the form downloadable here on the basis of this feedback as it comes in, so watch out for changes in the download. All further feedback really welcome please. click here

Making Feedback Work

11th October 2007

I've collected together bits and pieces I've written on ways of getting feedback to students into a sort of compendium of my writing, and put it near the top of the 'downloads' page. This may in due course be turned into another booklet for Leeds Met staff. Let me know what you think of it. Ruth Pickford and I are putting in a book proposal for a whole book on feedback to and from students.

'I'm so sorry, but...

21st September 2007

...I've got to pop out to a meeting between 1 and 2' or 'I've got something really important I must attend to at 11.00' and so on. Workshops of the sort I run don't actually lend themselves to dipping in and out of. I've watched participants who come back in the middle of a group activity slow the group down for minutes on end as the context is explained to them. And people who aren't there at 11.00 tend to ask questions later that, if I answer them, irritates all the people who've already heard the answers. A workshop isn't just a body of information - it's a series of related activities. Just catching up with the slides is easy - but it's no substitute - workshops are about action and not just information. I encourage my clients to ensure that participants who book onto my workshops are there for the duration - or until they're bored. No-one has yet told me 'I'm just popping out because I'm bored'!

How to Study: now in Chinese

15th September 2007

My book 'How to Study: Practical Tips for Students' (Oxford, Blackwell, 2003) has now come out in a Chinese translation (complementing the existing Malaysian, Spanish and Ukranian translations). I would love to hear from students from China about whether they find the book helpful there. If you'd like to see what the cover of the Chinese edition looks like click here

Free publication on Assessment

14th June 2007

'Case Studies of Good Practices in Assessment of Student Learning in Higher Education' is edited by Geraldine O'Neill, Sylvia Huntley-Moore and myself, and can be viewed or downloaded from the link which follows. It includes a variety of contributions from Ireland and elsewhere, and distils a wide variety of experience and wisdom from the contributors. . click here

Twenty Top Teaching Techniques

21st May 2007

Here, the emphasis is on teaching, particularly with experienced staff in mind. By request, I've put together a one-day programme illustrating a range of my most popular workshop elements. [An expanded version of this is now available as an intensive 48-hour workshop, mentioned further up this page, covering just about all of my repertoire on assessment, learning, feedback and teaching]. This one-day session can be used as a 'taster' workshop using a range of aspects of learning, feedback and assessment as the backdrop to explore teaching tools. There is also a half-day alternative - 'Ten Top Teaching Techniques' where participants can vote to choose the elements they wish from the 1-day agenda. The aim is to collect together a range of teaching techniques which you can sample for yourself during the workshop, and then build in to your own repertoire as you see fit. For more details of these sessions, and an illustration of some of the topics included, please click the link which follows. click here

'In at the deep end'

13th November 2006

A half-day workshop is now available to accompany this booklet (40 pp) which I've written for staff new to teaching here at Leeds Met. It includes parts about large-group teaching, small-group teaching, and a little on assessment and feedback - hopefully just enough to help colleagues who find themselves in such contexts even before experiencing any relevant training. (I also hope that experienced colleagues who pick up a copy may also find some useful thoughts in the booklet). It's free to anyone at Leeds Met, but is also being sold for £5 a copy to anyone outside the institution who wants one, or arrangements can be made to purchase a site licence to reproduce your own version of the booklet at other institutions - for more details of this, please email s.brown@leedsmet.ac.uk. Alternatively, anyone wanting to order a copy, please email me, and I'll forward the email to the staff who are looking after this publication here. (I don't get royalties on this - it's just about sold at cost). [This was originally planned to replace the ILTA Guide, but turned out to be a completely new booklet].

A sample section is shown by clicking here: . click here

What I usually need

25th October 2006

Just sometimes I forget to remind my clients what I need at their end to run staff development workshops. I need data projector for PowerPoint (and the odd video clip) but bring my own laptop, so I need a VGA link to your system or direct to the projector. I also usually need a flipchart (mainly for post-it activities), and some post-its please.

Shostakovich: a centenary reflection

27th September 2006

Shostakovich: a centenary reflection . click here

Feedback within 24 hours

13th July 2006

The earlier document which used to be here is now published in 'Making Teaching Work', and can be found in the 'feedback compendium' of extracts from my works, on the 'downloads' page.

Learning Logues?

12th April 2006

A short reflection click here

Academic Dialects

30th March 2006

I've added to the 'downloads' page a new slide sequence taking a rise out of some of the 'academic dialects' in use in higher education. I've also added a slide sequence which I often use when trying to persuade colleagues not to use the word 'understand' in intended learning outcomes.

Handouts of 3 slides per page

21st March 2006

Many people who have been at my workshops will know that I don't believe in giving out handouts of 3 per page or 6 per page PowerPoint slides. This is not least because hardly anyone ever admits to having ever looked at such handouts again!! For a discussion on this please click the link which follows...: Discussion

Writing to length

21st March 2006

The link which follows brings you three separate pieces I have written, each of 200 words. Writing to length can help one to improve the quality of a message. I hope you like what follows - and that you will think again about what we mean by 'Reflection', and whether it is possible to 'cascade' training, and (not least) refrain from using the word 'understanding' ever again!!...: reflections

Assessment validity, reliability and transparency

updated 22nd October 2006

The link which follows brings you a couple of pages from the book 'Making Learning Happen'. My discussion of validity, reliability and transparency of assessment is a common one in my workshops these days. validity, reliability and transparency

Planning and Reflecting

8th February 2006

I've just written for Leeds Met University a 6-page checklist to help colleagues plan a teaching session, then reflect on it. This is now published in the 3rd edition of 'the Lecturer's Toolkit' (photocopiable ringbound version only). Download it here - and I hope you find it useful. : Checklist

More about this web page

Updated 22nd October 2006

If you've read this far, you'll realise that this site is about learning, teaching and assessment in post-compulsory education - universities and colleges. This page tends to be a bit of a 'blog', so if you don't like such things please give the 'downloads' page a try straightaway. I am particularly keen to help people to think about these matters in straightforward English, rather than the rather impenetrable jargon which so often clouds the literature on these topics. After all, everyone learns, not just academics, researchers and students.

My intention is to include things of interest both to staff and students, including downloads of various sorts, all linking in one way or another to improving the effectiveness of learning.

Let me know what you think of the site, and what else you may find useful, email me on p.race@leedsmet.ac.uk

New workshop

18th November 2005

I've designed a new workshop on 'Evaluating your Teaching and Evidencing your Reflection', based on a session I've now practised at Leeds for a dozen or so runs, looking both at reflecting on practice and gaining feedback from students and others. This workshop is now included in my updated 'Workshops Prospectus' on the 'Downloads' page, or the particular file can be seen by clicking here: New Workshop

Designing Training Workshops

18th January 2006

On the 'downloads' page is the booklet that I designed for TechDis on various aspects of designing and running training workshops. It's also available from TechDis, which is an excellent source of practical help on all sorts of issues relating to disability, special needs and so on.

Reading, Writing and Arithmetic

17th September 2005

At a workshop I was running on 'Getting your Research Published' recently, the question came up 'When will I have done enough reading to start writing?'. Reflecting on this, I feel that there are countless people with really interesting material to share, who never get round to writing it up, because they can never be sure that they've done sufficient reading. Perhaps one can NEVER do sufficient reading! My feeling is that we need to help people to at least START writing, then do some more reading and improve what they've written, and so on, iteratively. Anyone out there with a way of deciding how much reading is enough? For some more 'advanced writing avoidance tactics', please click the file 'I could haved written it, but...'

Making Learning Happen

9th September 2005

'Making Learning Happen' is available from Sage (and all good bookshops - as is said!). York St John College was the first place I know to have given the book to its new PCAP cohort. I'm particularly looking forward to more reactions to Chapter 3 'Beyond Learning Styles' which aims to follow on from the reservations about existing models and approaches published by Frank Coffield, David Moseley, Elaine Hall and Kathryn Ecclestone in 2004, downloadable from Frank Coffield et al Hear Phil explaining a little about the 'Ripples on a Pond' way of thinking about learning by clicking the following link (or downloading the MP3 file and playing it at your leisure): Phil talking about learning

Workshops that Work

6th September 2005

I wrote 'Workshops that Work' with Viv Martin and Tom Bourner some years ago - it's been out of print for a while. With their blessing, I've put my disk version of the whole book on the 'downloads' page, as we think there is still a lot of useful stuff in it. (16th September: several people have said they like this, so I'll leave the download on this website for a while yet.

2nd editions of three '500 Tips' books

25 December 2004

Three second editions in the '500 Tips' series came out in December 2004 from Routledge. The first two of these are complete re-writes in fact - we've learned a lot since we wrote the original editions!

500 Tips on Assessment (with Sally Brown and Brenda Smith)
500 Tips for Tutors (with Sally Brown)
500 Tips for Open and Online Learning (just me!) .