Michael Seery

Several years ago at the Variety in Chemistry Education conference, there was a rather sombre after-dinner conversation on whether the meeting would continue on in subsequent years.

In 1935, John Kendall, Professor of Chemistry at the University of Edinburgh, wrote to the Journal of Chemical Education with what one can imagine was more than a hint of glee.

There is something about reading old educational literature that is simultaneously reaffirming and depressing.

I’m attending the JISC Learning Analytics network meeting (information), which is giving a good overview on the emerging development of learning analytics, and its integration into higher education.

I’ve never been sure where I stand with the association of sexuality and professional status.

3 Year PhD Studentship in Chemistry Education Supervisor: Dr Michael Seery School of Chemistry, University of Edinburgh “Learning analytics to enhance the student learning experience in chemistry” Learning analytics is an emerging discipline considering t…

Methods in Chemistry Education Research #micer16 Burlington House, 20th May 2016, 11 – 4 pm This one day conference is being organised in response to a growing demand and interest in chemistry education research in the UK.

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This post is a sure-fire way to lose friends… but I’m going to pick 10 papers that were published this year that I found interesting and/or useful.

Consider the following scenario: Young children are delighted to be so regarded, to be told that they are to act as a band of young detectives.

Read the opening gambit of any educational literature on feedback.

The great work of AHEAD in Ireland in promoting Universal Design for Learning prompted me to develop the ethos of considering UDL in the chemistry curriculum here at Edinburgh.

It’s getting harder to remember what my final years as an undergrad were like, but I can just about remember this.

There is a narrative that goes like this: most educators promote active learning.

They don’t make student satisfaction quotes like they used to in the old days: “Dr Cullen was always at pains to examine his students from time to time on those parts of his course that had already been delivered; and wherever he found any one at a loss,…

Summer is a great time for Good Intentions and Forward Planning… with that in mind I’ve been reading about what way we teach chemistry, how we know it’s not the best approach, and what might be done to change it.

A lot of my bloggery is now on the Education in Chemistry blog, and I will keep a running table of contents of them here.

My two recent blog posts on the Education in Chemistry blog have generated a lot of discussion around inquiry-based learning in particular, and “innovative” methods in general.

“Although the majority of scientific workers utilize photography for illustrative purposes, a survey of the literature shows that only a limited number fully appreciate its usefulness as a means for recording data.”

The last post described the AHEAD Conference Flipped Lecture presentation, which was itself a flipped lecture.

I am giving a keynote at the AHEAD conference in March, and the lecture itself will be a flipped lecture on lecture flipping.

A new book “Chemistry Education : Best Practices, Opportunities and Trends” has just been made available online.

Registration is now open for the 2015 Eurovariety in Chemistry Education meeting, being held in Tartu, Estonia from June 30th to July 2nd.

EiC’ new app Education in Chemistry (EiC) is a bi-monthly periodical covering news and features relevant to the teaching of chemistry at secondary and tertiary level.

The Association for Higher Education Access and Disability (AHEAD) published their first journal recently which I printed off with (I confess) just a passing interest.

A history of chemistry… citing Boyle as the first to use the term: Chemical Analysis Yesterday was Robert Boyle’s birthday (happy birthday Bob!)

One of the main challenges in teaching first year university students is that they have a great variety of backgrounds.

ChemEd Ireland is being held at Dublin Institute of Technology Kevin St on Saturday October 11th, 2014.

At last – a way to quantify if you are asking a nasty question or not!

Education in Chemistry launched their new blog earlier this year and the editorial staff there were good (brave?)

From tomorrow, 9th May, the 2014 Spring ConfChem begins.

The following question was part of the Leaving Cert Higher Level examination paper in 2010: There are many problems with these questions, worth 4.25% of the Higher Level paper.

I attended the National Forum for Enhancement of Teaching and Learning seminar on plagiarism organised by Kevin O’Rourke at DIT’s Learning Teaching and Technology Centre.

In the week of the teacher conferences, Minister Quinn’s special adviser has earned the large pay packet this morning.

I should be convinced about peer teaching but I’m not.

A question always likely to give strong response is whether PowerPoint should be used in lectures.

Four years ago this week, I imported my few posts from my old blog “Electrified Chalk“, and “Is this Going to Be on the Exam” was born. 138 139 posts later, it is still trundling along.

My new book on a history of education in County Wicklow is published this week.

Sometime last year, a comment was left on one of my articles which said that I was being simplistic and my argument was childish.

The saddest thing about watching the David Norris interview released by RTÉ Archives this week is that while it was broadcast before I was born, it took until I became an adult for what he was campaigning for to become a reality.

The magazine Education in Chemistry has launched a blog, and I am a guest contributor.

When Ireland first started to tackle the issue of immigration two decades ago, there were regular letters to the editor of the Irish Times from “The Immigration Control Platform”, which were an advocacy group against immigration.

It wasn’t meant to be this way.

I have written to the BAI and urge you to do so too.

I thought it would be interesting to compare some Irish institutions by examining their research output over the last three decades.

In the week when Minister for Education Ruairi Quinn brought the Technological Universities Bill to cabinet, there was more than some disquiet from the commenterati that make up the usual pathetic discussion on higher education in Ireland.

Beclickung to go to Conference Page Registration for the Irish Variety in Chemistry Education (#iViCE14) is now open.

Last semester, I trialled a flipped lecture in my Year 2 module on Chemical Thermodynamics.

Clickers are routinely used to survey class on their understanding of topics or test their knowledge with quizzes, and as technology has developed, there have been clever ways of doing this (See: The Rise and Rise…).

Save the date!