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About the project

Based at the University of Greenwich, the TALESSI project aims to promote active learning for interdisciplinarity, critical thinking and values awareness in higher education.

We have developed a substantial portfolio of on-line Teaching and Learning Resources (TLRs) in support of this aim. TLRs are self-contained teaching packages, variable in scale but written to a standard format (which includes aims, learning outcomes, learning activities, stimulus materials etc).

We also undertake Outreach and User Support work, including workshops, institutional/ departmental visits, and a programme of TLR piloting and user evaluation.

The project is supported by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), under its Fund for the Development of Teaching and Learning (FDTL) initiative.

  • Active learning: learning and teaching which promotes students’ active engagement and ‘deep’ learning
  • Interdisciplinarity: the capacity to integrate knowledge derived from disciplines which may have very diverse views as to what ‘counts’ as valid knowledge
  • Values awareness: the ability to identify and analyse explicitly-stated, as well as ‘hidden’, values in academic debate (including those which emanate from the avowedly ‘value free’ natural and social sciences, and from non-academic sources such as the mass media)
  • Critical thinking: the means to reveal and question the problematic and often contestable character of ‘knowledge claims’ which contribute to academic debate and student learning

Many of our current teaching and learning resources have a distinctive environmental focus, and may be of greatest relevance to teachers and students of geography and environmental studies/science. But we are also working with participants in fields as diverse as business, health, law, life sciences, media and philosophy - where some or all of the project’s central aims, and current environmental focus, may be considered relevant. We also hope to work with colleagues who wish to adapt our ideas and resources to the needs of their particular discipline, or who wish to develop ‘generic’ materials for use in connection with a programme of academic skills development.

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