Felix Janeway

f.d.janeway@leeds.ac.uk
Member of PRiSM

Felix is the Chemistry Tutor on the Lifelong Learning Centre’s Science Foundation Year programmes, which consists of many diverse students including mature learners. His interest in pedagogy arrives from the fact that he has always hold some teaching position. He recalls his first experience of teaching as stepping in for a Chemistry teacher who left during his A-level education. After completing his undergraduate degree in Chemistry at the University of Leeds, Felix moved on to his PhD, where he was demonstrating lab skills and tutored on the level one and two level courses. He has a great interest in contemporary educational research, and is intrigued by the question; What do students miss in the lecture format which tutors have to pick-up in tutorials? One example of how he adapted and inverted the teaching within his tutorials was including 3 dimensional glasses to aid students in understanding the 3-D model of a lattice.

He believes in an over-arching system that should teach the teachers, and share some of the successful practice of active learning. Currently, Felix is involved in collecting data for the University’s new Lecture Capture programme which aims to aid non-traditional learners, as students can revisit topics and complex theories discussed in lectures. He is focusing on what the potential of the new system includes for non-traditional learners, highlighting the importance of ensuring that lecture material being accessible and inclusive to all learners. At first he would like to observe how the students engage with the lecture capture in its natural environment after which he would focus on embedding it learning process. The software employed will reveal when and where students access the lectures which will act as a rich source of information, in regards to which topics are more complex and deserve more attention.

In being a member of PRiSM he wishes to collaborate on a wider field with general research, especially in terms of the Lecture Capture where it will be important to get some measure of its effectiveness at the present and its potential for the future. One strength of PRiSM  is the ethical review support that is offered, especially for the practicality of approving questionnaires.