Dr Sarah Moore, dean of teaching and learning at the University of Limerick, believes she has the best of both worlds. Originally from Dalkey, Co Dublin, Moore still has a wide circle of family and friends there and enjoys her visits home.
For the last 11 years, though, Limerick has been home. "I love it," she says. "I went there on a one-year contract and didn't intend to stay, but I found it the exact opposite of its image. There's a lot going on and people are very warm and welcoming. It's a great place for bringing up children. The quality of life is lovely and living close to the city centre is still affordable." Moore is a graduate of UCD. She was appointed assistant lecturer in organisational behaviour and industrial psychology at UL in 1989. By 1997, she was assistant dean, academic affairs, in the college of business, and last year she became dean of teaching and learning. The title is a new one and has superseded an earlier position - that of director of teaching quality.
"It's a very exciting shift," comments Moore. "For the first time, the core activity of teaching will be central to what the university is all about and will be represented at the highest academic and strategic levels." The fact that her title includes both teaching and learning is significant, she notes. "Even the most excellent teaching doesn't guarantee learning."
Meanwhile, UL's Award for Excellence in Teaching has been running for many years. "There's a great culture of pedagogy in Limerick and it's something we want to hang on to and develop." Under Moore's stewardship, a new award system has been developed. "We've always relied on student feedback, but we've now expanded it. We now ask students not just to vote for a particular lecturer, but to give the reasons for the choice and explain the impact their teaching has made." According to UL's new dean of teaching and learning, research in the US shows that, in their undergraduate years, many students are unable to evaluate which of their lecturers is the most influential. Research suggests that it's only when people are out of the system and in the workplace that they are able to appreciate a particular lecturer's true worth. In UL's most recent award process, therefore, all UL's 1997 alumni were invited to nominate teaching staff.
"We received many interesting comments. People said things like: `I didn't realise how this person's approach would impact on my job. I had always thought the person too hard and that he pushed me too much.' It was clear that once they had left college, graduates were evaluating people in a different way. This helped to add another dimension to the award." Being UL's first dean of teaching and learning is both "a blessing and a curse", Moore says. "Having a blank slate is wonderful and gives you plenty of room to manoeuvre and be creative, but then, there are no systems or processes in place and no lessons learned by other people." Although her new position gives her a place on the dean's council, Moore describes the job as "very grassroots. You need to know what's going on in the classroom; how students and teachers are interacting and how individual faculty members are faring."
Moore has arrived for the interview with EL fresh from UL's first Autumn Teaching Week, for which UL faculty members were invited to prepare papers on teaching and learning-related issues. "It was a really exciting event and I'm sorry that we didn't do it earlier," she says. "The range of papers was excellent and showed how many staff have done really good research on the quality of teaching and learning."
Topics discussed included large group teaching, the use of autobiographical material in the teaching of sociology, teaching research skills by means of a library treasure hunt and the use of technology as a tool for teaching and learning. Judging by its success, the Autumn Teaching Week is likely to become an annual event. Teaching workshops are also becoming a regular feature on the UL campus. Although these short programmes are targeted at the novice teacher - third level is the only sector of education where teaching is done by subject specialists with no formal teacher training - there is evidence to show that even experienced teaching staff can benefit from training.
"There is evidence that the more experienced you become as an academic, the further away you get from the student experience," Moore explains. "You begin to assume things. Some studies show that new teachers provide a more satisfying learning environment. They spend more time preparing, they are more interested in student feedback and they don't assume as much knowledge on the part of students. Experienced teachers need to use fresh approaches." Moore's appointment is for three years. In her final two years as dean of teaching and learning she is planning a number of innovative campus initiatives.
"It's fine to produce graduates with high technical and intellectual competencies, but good writing, communication and social skills, motivation and the ability to cope in the face of failure also need to be encouraged. These skills can be integrated into the curriculum - you can make sure that every student has the experience of making presentations, group working and developing an awareness of their skills and competencies," she says. Moore's current research involves the study of different learning styles. Learners of particular interest are those using analytical and intuitive approaches. Analytical learners go through the texts step by step, while intuitive learners take a broader view, can miss details but tend to be more creative.
"Existing research shows that there is no relationship between ability and learning style," Moore notes, "but there is a difference between academic performance and learning style." Initial results from a survey of UL students is showing a link between academic performance and different learning styles. "People at both the high and low ends are more likely to be intuitive learners, while people in the middle are analytical. These are tentative, early findings, but they're also showing that women tend to be more analytical than intuitive."
The research under way at UL identifies the need for teaching methods to appeal to a wide variety of learning styles, Moore asserts. "We need to encourage people to focus on their repertoire of teaching styles." The good news for academics and students, Moore believes, is that everyone can improve their teaching performance.
