Magic to conjure up academic skills for dissertation support

Description

This project uses magic to explore dissertation skills with students. Students in a session on preparing for the dissertation learnt a magic trick and then used their experiences learning that trick to reflect and develop narratives around their dissertation topic and the process of researching and writing. The results of this intervention group are compared to a control group (same session excluding the magic trick). The teaching sessions integrated skills essential for the dissertation such as critical thinking, linking, metacognitive reflection, and conceptualising the process of a long project. Previous research has suggested using magic will stimulate curiosity, engage and motivate, and students will find the session more memorable.

This presentation will report the findings from pre-post session questions from the intervention and control groups and from interviews with participants to evaluate the use of a magic trick in teaching dissertation skills by:

· Evaluating the effectiveness of using a magic trick to teach dissertation skills.
· Evaluating the use of magic to make skills teaching more memorable.
· Evaluating the use of magic to support motivation and positive emotions around dissertation tasks.
· Evaluating the use of magic to counter some of the negative affects students encounter such as lack of motivation or negative self-efficacy beliefs.

Period	15 Jun 2022
Event title	ALDinHE 2022: The Learning Development Conference
Event type	Conference
Location	Northampton, United KingdomShow on map
Degree of Recognition	International