• October
• September
• August
• June
• May
• April
• March

October

An Evening of Indian Dance

Wednesday 20th October @ 7:30pm - FREE performance

in The George Cadbury Hall, Selly Oak Campus.

Educational Review Guest Lecture

a presentation by Professor Michael Apple, University of Wisconsin, USA on Wednesday 27th October 2004 - 5.00pm
School of Education, Edgbaston. Conference Room

Followed by drinks and buffet.

Professor Michael Apple will be talking on Markets, Standard and Inequality in Education. Professor Clive Harber will present the discussant paper.

There will be a brief introduction followed by the presentation and an opportunity for questions at the end. Professor Apple's presentation will critically analyze the way in which the neo-liberal faith in privatisation, markets and competition and neo-conservative commitments to "cultural restoration" and to national curricula and national testing actually work nationally and internationally to increase, not decrease, inequalities. It will also document ways of interrupting these kinds of approaches in policy and practice.

Chitraleka Dance Company present 'The Story of C'
touring nationally in October and November 2004.

Artist in residence Chitraleka Bolar's dance company embark on a national tour with their production 'The Story of C', which has already been seen earlier this year in George Cadbury Hall, in some local seconary schools and at the Midland Arts Centre .

"both startling and entrancing, powerful and harmonius, an extraordinary yet natural phenomenon" - The Guardian

For dates & venues of performances and for further details including stunning pictures of the show, please visit the company's web site: www.chitraleka.co.uk

September

All day Seminar on the Rock and Water programme

The rock and water programme is one of the most successful interventions with young men in Australia and the Netherlands. It challenges young men and their aggression and channels it in a more productive way.

The School of Education is bringing the originator of the programme, Freerk Ykema, to Birmingham on September 15th for a hands on seminar.

The seminar will give an introduction to the key components of the programme:

• being grounded, centered and focused;
• breathing;
• boundary awareness.

The seminar will run for one day only and will cost £190.00, this will include light lunch and refreshments. Overnight accommodation/breakfast can be arranged at an additional cost of 56.00.

August

The old Westhill College Teaching Centre is being demolished.

Work started back in July '04 on the demolition of the Teaching Centre building in Weoley Park Road to make way for a new housing development.

June

National Evaluation of the Children's Fund - virtual conference

An important date for your diary is 17th June 2004. This is the date for the National Evaluation of the Children's Fund virtual conference on prevention and services for children and families. The event is free and does not involve any travel - you just need access to a computer. Even if you cannot attend on the day, you will be able to look at some 30 academic papers and over 80 examples of preventative services 'in the field' - which will include videos etc.

The advantage of 'logging on' on 17th June is that you will see key note speakers from around the world and have a chance both to question them - and Margaret Hodge, The Minister for Children. To register, just log on to the website - www.ne-cf.org.uk and go to the conference centre icon or email info@ne-cf.org for further details.

Go on - be there. Tell your grandchildren that you were there at Birmingham University's first virtual conference. We already have over 600 deligates attending, including senior academics and policy makers, so you really cannot afford to miss this event if you are interested in children, young people and families - or are simply curious about how a virtual event works!

And remember, its free!

May

Two classical plays performed by undergraduate students

Second year English, Drama and Education students are performing "Antigone" and "Oedipus The King" by Sophocles in the George Cadbury Hall, Bristol Road, Selly Oak on Wednesday 26th May from 2.30 p.m.

Tickets are £1 and £2 on the door. All staff and students welcome!

"The Big End"

An exhibition of work by final year undergraduate degree students in textiles, ceramics and fine art, entitled "the big end", opened on Wednesday 26th May in the Selly Oak Visual Arts Centre.

An open evening ran from 6 to 8 p.m.on Wednesday and the exhibition was open to all from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Thursday 27th and Friday 28th May, plus Saturday 29th from 10 a.m. till 1 p.m.

April

Undergraduate Open Days

The school will be taking part in the University Open Days (for September 2005 entry) on Friday, April 23rd and Saturday, April 24th. On each day the University will be host to prospective students and their families from 10.00 am to 3.30 pm. The School of Education will have a stand in the Great Hall, as well as a display in the Munrow Sports Centre for the SPECS and AGMS degree programmes. There will be a display in the School of Education building on the primary and secondary PGCE programmes.

Talks on 'Playing and Studying Sport at the University of Birmingham' will be held in the Lecture Theatre in the Munrow Sports Centre at 11.15 am, 12.45 pm and 2.15 pm each day, while a talk on 'Teaching as a Career and Routes into Teaching' will take place at 1.30 pm in the Vaughan Jeffreys Lecture Theatre in the School of Education building on both days.

Foundation Degree in Golf swings into action

The University of Birmingham is delighted that its new Foundation Degree in Professional Golf is among the places allocated by HEFCE nationwide. The first degree of its kind at this level, 'The Foundation Degree in Professional Golf' will be run in partnership between the University of Birmingham and The Professional Golfers' Association. This is a continuation of the unique collaboration between the University and the PGA and follows on from the success of Birmingham's Applied Golf Management Studies Degree which began in 2002.

March

Visual Impairment Online Problem Based Learning Project

Mike McLinden, Steve McCall and Graeme Douglas (all members of the Visual Impairment Centre for Teaching and Research at the School of Education) are working alongside Educational Technology Manager Danielle Hinton to use Problem Based Learning (PBL) to develop on-line resources for use in the professional development of specialist teachers of the visually impaired.

PBL is an educational technique which draws upon situations designed to reflect the real ‘problems’ that professionals are asked to solve in their current or future role. Students are presented with the problem before the material has necessarily been ‘learned’ – the learning about the material comes about through actually engaging with the problem in small groups, to help develop knowledge and understanding, as well as reinforce the development of an effective ‘reasoning’ process. There is to date little evidence to demonstrate how PBL can be adapted to meet the needs of teachers enrolled on continuing professional development courses offered at a distance.

With a grant from the Learning and Development Unit online PBL teaching resources are currently being developed and evaluated as part of a research project for use within a distance education programme for specialist teachers of the visually impaired. Depending on the outcome of the evaluation, it is planned that some of the online materials will be embedded into the programme of study in Visual Impairment from September 2004.

CRMDE: Conference on Medical and Dental Education

The Centre for Research in Medical and Dental Education (CRMDE) will co-host an international conference on medical and dental education in May. Drawing on a long-standing partnership with the West Midlands Postgraduate Deanery, the two organisations are collaborating to present a two-day conference on 19th and 20th May 2004 at the International Convention Centre ICC) Birmingham. The theme will be "Improving the performance of doctors and dentists", and the conference will provide a forum to hear leading speakers, find out about current research, and exchange views. This follows a successful collaborative conference in May 2003, which attracted over 100 delegates nationwide to debate and discuss issues of assessment and accountability in postgraduate medical and dental education.

Recently published article from CRMDE:

AD Bullock, S Burke and D Wall. 2004. Higher Specialist Training: a study of curriculum and assessment within four specialties. Medical Teacher, 26, 2, 174-177.

"Educated Perspectives" Exhibition

The School of Education is supporting an exhibition of photographs at MAC called Educated Perspectives. Photographs of Birmingham Schools by the Portugues photographer Paol Catrica. The exhibition runs from 13th March to 2nd May 2004, and is also supported by Birmingham City Council, the Arts Council and the Gulbenkian Foundation.

The exhibition is linked to a research project on Educational Spaces which is reported in the international journal Paedagogica Historica (April 2004). Further information can be found in the MAC exhibitions catalogue.