Teaching and Learning Methods Page

Philosophy | Feedback | Learning Modules | Lecture Timetable | Lectures | Tutorial Timetable | Laboratories | Learning Resources

Philosophy

I enjoy teaching. And I want students to enjoy learning!

So how to go about this? I think it has to be a joint effort between staff and students. A year os so ago, the faculty invited some students to comment upon what they thought contributed to their learning, and by implication, their enjoyment of learning. Here's a few of the comments that I noted down:

• they like lots of interaction, hands on practical experience
• they enjoy peer groups (need formal support for these?) (should coordinate this process with Malaysian students)
• there is a need for engagement with students: teacher ↔ student, student ↔ student
• Quote: "We need examples and demonstration in lecture" => less content, more learning. There is a need to focus upon the learning process in lectures, not the information transfer.

I hope we can explore a few of these ideas this semester.

Feedback

Part of the process of learning requires the teacher to adjust the material to suit the pace of the student. Doing this requires feedback from the student to the teacher. Here are some possibilities for feedback in this unit:

Wait for the end of semester, and complete the unit evaluation

Not very useful for students during the semester!

A minute paper written by students and handed in at the end of a class (a collection of dot points) about what they still need to understand on the topic can give pertinent feedback and prevent topic derailing for students (Faculty suggestion)

OK, but requires discipline on the part of each student!

Wiki (Moodle) page that records the same ideas

Good, because everyone can see what the issues are, and add to them, or otherwise comment.

Learning Modules

Lecture Timetable

In this table, green entries have been released to students, black entries are in draft form or not yet available, while red entries indicate activities that have been completed.

Lectures

The lectures will be held at 12noon in H3 on Mondays and 12noon in R6 on Wednesdays.

The lectures are based upon a set of slides kindly supplied by A/Prof Ken Robinson, of the University of New South Wales and available on-line. The text book, The B-Method, by Steve Schneider, is also used to support the lecture content, although be aware that the book describes a slightly earlier notation, the B Method. In this unit, we will be dealing with the Event-B notation.

Each learning module has an index page (accessed by clicking the name of the learning module entries in the on-line table) which gives links not only to the slides used in this learning module, but also related learning materials. Links under "Slides" are to the slides used in lectures, while links under "Notes" are to a form more suitable for printing.

Important Note: The index pages also contain links to other supporting material that will also be used in lectures. Do not make the mistake of thinking that the lecture notes define the examinable material for the unit! Examinable material is all that material covered in lectures and in documents referenced in these pages (such as tutorials and assignments, including the discussions), unless otherwise specified.

A good way of deciding whether learning materials made available in this unit are examinable is to check them against the unit objectives. If they relate to the unit objectives, they are examinable!

Please bear in mind that at the time of writing, not all materials to be used in the lectures have been identified. This page will be updated regularly to reflect past practice, current happenings, and future intentions. Lines in red represent completed activities.

Tutorial Timetable

Laboratories

There are no formally allocated laboratories for this unit, but students are expected to avail themselves of laboratory resources in learning specification skills with the use of the Rodin tool. This tool is also available for downloading (see the Resources Page), and running on personal computers or laptops.

Use of the Rodin tool is required to complete the assignments.

Learning Resources

• The Library offers assistance with Learning Skills.

Document History

This page maintained by John Hurst. Copyright Monash University Copyright Policy	70 accesses since 25 Mar 2009
Generated at 20090725:0650 from an XML file modified on 20090325:1129 Maintainer use only; not generally accessible: Local Server Work Server CSSE Server

114 accesses since 25 Mar 2009, HTML cache rendered at 20091122:0934