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Teaching Projects

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

  • "Exploring Different Assessment Structures for Students with English as a Second Language"

    • Funded by the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. 1st July 2023–30th June 2024

“Exploring Different Assessment Structures for Students with English as a Second Language (EDASS)” is an international teaching innovation project that investigates, in the context of English-language teaching within the Faculty of Philosophy, the problems that can impede adequate evaluation of students for whom English is their second language, as a precursor to designing solutions to resolve them. The composition of English-language courses in the Faculty of Philosophy is surprisingly heterogeneous, insofar as they are composed of multiple students groups with different levels of English and experiences of studying philosophy in combination with different expectations and experiences of assessment structures. For example, Spanish-based students tend to be far more comfortable with end-of-semester exams given the predominance of this assessment technique in the Spanish education system; for the same reason, they tend to be less comfortable with continuous assessment and assessment by critical essays. This is compounded by the absence of courses within the Faculty of Philosophy devoted to developing critical writing skills. The opposite is the case with Erasmus students who not only comprise a significant portion of students registered on the English-language courses offered in the Faculty of Philosophy, but who also tend to be more comfortable with continuous assessment and assessment by essay in part because they tend to receive significant support from their home institutions regarding how to write an essay. Given this and motivated in part by the EU's objective to harmonize the distinct academic systems within Europe, EDASS aims to create a space wherein faculty in the Faculty of Philosophy at UCM can interact with faculty members located at other universities located in England (University of Hertfordshire and Royal Holloway: University of London), Ireland (University College Dublin), and Portugal (University of Lisbon), to investigate and design different forms of assessment structure to mitigate some of the structural problems constitutive of the English-language courses in the Faculty of Philosophy. To this end, EDASS will 

  • organize a series of meetings between the project's members to discuss assessment methods and international codes of best practice regarding how to teach and assess philosophy to students for whom English is their second language
  •  implement and test distinct methods of evaluation in the English-language classess offered in the Faculty of Philosophy to determine their effectiveness and appropriateness.

The overall aim is to provide faculty members within the Faculty of Philosophy with the opportunity to learn about contemporary best international practices regarding English-language instruction, as well as introduce students in the Faculty of Philosophy to such practices as a way of faciliating the internationalization of the teaching program and faculty. 


PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

  • "Teaching in English for Non-native Students: Cultural Dimensions"

    • Funded by the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. 1st July 2022–30th June 2023

Description

“Teaching in English for Non-native Students: Cultural Dimensions" (TENS) is an an international, interdiscipinary teaching innovation project that aims to stimulate and re-enforce the internationalization of the teaching in the Faculty of Philosophy at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. Specifically, TENS is motivated by the European Union's aim of harmonizing the member states distinct higher education systems and contributes to this endeavour by creating an interactive space where members of the Faculty of Philosophy can interactive with faculty from other universities who have experience teaching philosophy to students with English as a second language. To this end, it is composed of faculty from the University of Hertfordshire and Royal Holloway: University of London (England), University College Dublin (Ireland), University of Lisbon (Portugal), and the Universidad Complutense de Madrid (Spain). Its overarching purpose is to investigate (1) the cultural issues that can impede teaching in English to non-native students, and (2) strategies to overcome those issues. To do so, it:

  • Hosted a series of virtual meetings so that the research team can discuss the problematic motivating the project, freely and openly, including the methods that each uses to teach philosophy to students with English as a second language and their effectiveness; 
  • Organized a one-day international workshop. 

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

  • "Trans-Border Teaching (Docencia Transfronteriza)."

    • Funded by the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. 1st July 2021–30th June 2022

Description

“Trans-Border Teaching” (TBT) was an international, virtual, and interdiscipinary teaching innovation project that aimed to stimulate and re-enforce the internationalization of the teaching in the Faculty of Philosophy at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. Motivated by the European Union's aim of harmonizing the member states distinct higher education systems, TBT aimed to create an interactive space where members of the Faculty of Philosophy could interactive with faculty from other universities situated in other European (University of Hertfordshire, England and University of Lisbon, Portugal) and non-European (American University in Cairo, Egypt) countries. The project's activities, which were virtually conducted, were composed of:

  • Virtual meetings where the research team discussed the project, freely and openly, including the methods that each uses to teach philosophy and their effectiveness; 
  • Teaching exchanges where the research team members from the American University in Cairo, University of Hertfordshire, and University of Lisbon gave classes to the English language courses offered by the Faculty of Philosophy at UCM during the 2021-2022 academic year. 
  • Organization of the international conference "Philosophy across Borders," Faculty of Philosophy, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 08 June 2022.