Alan Machin: Tourism As Education

Pathe, Baby, it's cold outside.

Let's watch our holiday films indoors whether it snows or rains out there .. Postings on tourist photography in the January '10 blog pages - see the list to the left.

Another day, another politician. So UK-prime ministerial hopeful David Cameron wants to make the teaching profession “brazenly elitist” by paying of the tuition debts of maths and science graduates with upper second or first class degrees while removing financial inducements for those with third-class awards. Paying the debts of one group off might be a good idea, but it is clear that here is another politician who thinks being a good teacher depends on being academically good at the age of 21 or 22.

When I think through the schools I attended or have worked with since, and the universities I have similarly known well, it’s easy to see that high degree awards are no guarantee of teaching ability. In my own secondary school the main maths teacher in the 1950s was notoriously bad as a teacher, yet he was well qualified in terms of mathematical knowledge. The physics and chemistry teachers were quite good, but the biology master was brilliant because he was understanding, approachable and knew how to explain theories and practices. What a pity I never did biology!

At university level the standard of teaching is even more varied. The post-graduate diplomas that lecturers are usually (but by no means always, even today) supposed to take are largely to do with course planning, assessment and general paperwork of the kind which is choking universities to death. Some tutors are skilled explainers who inspire ideas and encourage understanding. They can manage a class, command attention and make people laugh. They are able to manage their modules, classroom activities and support-activity time. The best have vision and can deliver its fulfilment. The worst ones – sometimes those with good degrees and postgraduate qualifications plus a string of other letters after their names – have no vision, little ability and will devise and manage teaching which serves themselves are their own interests rather than those of the students. I well remember as a student the number of lecturers who read the same lecture from the same written script year after year. How boring and unhelpful that was! When one tutor took a friendly, improvised line and almost talked with the class in an entertaining way he finished up with that rare result – a round of spontaneous applause by way of thanks. Step forward, geography tutor Mike Bridges!

Those days of the one-way delivery of a few thousand words per lecture seem long gone. Over twenty years from around 1990 chalk boards gave way to overhead projected acetates and they were wiped out by PowerPoint. More lecturers seem to know how to use helpful visual aids properly, too. But from what I have seen it is often the lecturer with the higher academic qualifications who delivers the least satisfactory, least effective teaching. Those with a decade or so of successful industrial experience (a year or two of industrial mediocrity is not enough by miles) do far better because they understand people in general far better.

At neither school nor university level will the good teachers be marked out best by first or upper second class degrees. Like those teachers in adverts running right now on TV and in the print media, the teachers who make the learners go “Wow!” are the ones who are trusted, who care and who inspire.

(18.01.10)

"The Framed World: Tourism, Tourists and Photography" is published by Ashgate. The book is edited by Professor Mike Robinson and David Picard of Leeds Metropolitan University [ISBN-13 978-0754673682]. According to the publisher's blurb it "examines the relationships between photography and tourism and tourists. It asks key questions such as: why do tourists take photos of certain things and not of others; why do tourists take photos at all; how do photos build places; and, how do they shape and change lives". A set of chapters examine cases and perspectives from around the globe.

I got quite excited when I heard it discussed on Laurie Taylor's "Thinking Allowed" programme on Radio 4 today. I reached for the Amazon.co.uk button ... then saw the price .... £56.50 hardcover - and that's £3.50 off the RRP of 60 quid. Some new available from £39.80 through Amazon Marketplace suppliers. No paperback version listed yet on Amazon or Ashgate's own site.

At those prices it's aimed by publishers at academics (who can wangle a discount or get free 'review' copies) and university libraries. Those libraries will be able to afford a few copies, but students wanting them will have to queue up to borrow them. Publishing academic works is important, but at those prices becomes a case of lecturers writing for lecturers. Perhaps a paperback version at half the hardback price will appear - but that's still a pricey investment.

(13.01.10)

University budgets to be cut ... Peter Mandelson wants more two-year degree courses ..

Coming after years of unwise, over-rapid expansion of higher education where resourcing failed to meet the new targets by miles, the cut backs already in progress are only driving the knife in further. So more cuts equals much more damage. In the commercial-style marketing world that universities find themselves they are having to pretend they have innovations in hand able to ensure the same high quality. It's an impossibility. Something has to give.

Administrative staff are having to apply for their own jobs at lower salaries as part of 'restructuring'. Vacant teaching posts go unfulfilled or else specialists in one area get packed off to teach on or manage courses where they have little of the required skill or knowledge. They feel let down, even ashamed, of their new positions.

Two-year courses run the high risk of being seen as inferior. Very good mature students can do well, but others are put under severe strain by the twelve months a year teaching demanded with little time for reflection, personal projects or refreshing time out.

Course managers for all subjects are placed under pressure to ensure results are at least good, preferably outstanding, in order to bring new students in. Watch out for sudden jumps in the number of First Class and Upper Second degrees awarded next year. Then ask whether they result from better teaching or else deliberate changes to the system in order to mark higher.

If that happens, those students who did achieve excellent degree and diploma results in the past will have had their awards relabelled as mediocre.

[23.12.09]

Click here for the Answers to the Christmas Quiz in the December Blog

More pages of interest on the associated Topics web site:

The Environment As Data: new tourism theory

Theory on attractions: Showcases

Talking to tourists: Visitor Interpretation

This personal web site started as teaching support for students studying Tourism Management at Leeds Metropolitan University. It grew as a way of keeping alumni of that course in touch. Now it has grown even further into an examination of tourism as a way of discovering our world and passing on ideas and opinions.

I have a set of pages on an associated web site - alanmachintopics.net. These have material drawn from postings on this web site or else specially written.

Click here to go to the thematic pages

Since launching on 7 January 2005 this site has received something approaching two million hits.

Variations in historic location in Paris: see the December 2009 blog - listed to the left.

Below: San Luis Obispo Farmers' Market. Tourism in California - click here, then scroll down the page

Scenes From A Course
The May blog page celebrates in photographs and text the Leeds Met Tourism Management courses since 1992.
The June 2009 page reflects on the same period in short essays which make some challenges about the teaching of Tourism.
See the pages listed to the left.

Below: Our History, Our Heritage - one of a series of postings in my April blog on the subject of heritage and tourism.

Click here to read the story

I retired on 15 July, the day of the 2009 Awards Ceremony. I have been asked whether the Alumni page will continue after then. The answer is yes - at least for now - but of course without being part of the University I might not be able to add news in the same way.

This web site will not only continue but will be revised with the opportunity to develop new and (yeah, its a cliche) exciting ideas. There are lots of things I will be free to write about. Including the inside view of university life and the tourism industry.

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Click here for news of the Leeds Met Tourism Management alumni

Thematic pages

Material posted on these pages may be found arranged under thematic headings on an associated set of pages - alanmachintopics.net

Click here to read the Thematic Pages

Highest number of hits on these pages on one day: 3,613 on 14 April 2008. Previous highest: 3,081 on 1 October 2007. Number of individual visitors on 15 April 2008: 226.

Since being launched on 7 January 2005 it is estimated that there have been something approaching two million hits.

Timelines: The Growth of Tourism as Education

Click here for Alumni News

The Alumni News page (see the left-hand panel) contains photos and news from many Leeds Met Tourism Management alumni - including those above. THESE PHOTOS supplied by, and copyright of, the individuals shown.

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This web site was launched in January 2005 and has been heavily used by Leeds Met tourism alumni and others. The ALUMNI NEWS page is adding entries as they arrive.

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Photos by the author unless otherwise stated.

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This is a personal web site to complement my work lecturing at Leeds Metropolitan University in the United Kingdom, where I have taught since 1992. Past and present students, or other interested persons, may want to access photos, graphics and associated text. If you want to comment on any of the writing, do send me an email - the pages are not just for Leeds Met alumni but anyone with an interest in the subjects. You can find information about who I am on the "About the Author" page at the end of the page list.

Pictures below: see "A Positive Role: Tourism As Education" and "The Educational Origins of Tourism" in the sidebar list to the left

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You might like to visit the Leeds Metropolitan University web site for information on its work, courses (including those for tourism, hospitality and events) and alumni activities. The University is set in an extremely popular city and region and has a vigorous expansion programme. Strong international links enable students at all levels to participate in a wide range of opportunities and staff are engaged in research and consultancy that furthers progress in its subject areas and supports their teaching.

Click here to be transferred to the Leeds Metropolitan University web site

Hits = all requests to any pages from a distant computer
Visits = a single user looking at any number of pages and not returning for at least 30 minutes