The Monday was a day on resources in the teaching of Conceptual and Historical issues in Psychology.
Dai Jones did a session on using and choosing text books; which was good and informative. Then there were very informative sessions on the BPS origins project and what the Science Museum can offer to the teaching of psychology both for undergraduates and 'A' level students. Thanks to Kelly Auty and Phil Loving for those sessions. Chris Howard and Lovemore Nyatanga did a presentation about some of the ways they teach CHiPs at Derby, after some group discussions Alan Collins and Pete Lamont led a discussion on what next. Which sort of became a theme of the conference, which might be ironic for a History conference.
After a really enjoyable meal with all the contributors back to the Travel lodge and on to the next day.
Day One
Not going to describe every paper I went to, but they were interesting, witty and led to many things to think about.
Martyn Pickersgill gave the opening keynote and that set the historical scene very well, in terms of how the DSM was developed and although it is a history I know well there were still aspects I had not fully appreciated.
In the first session of papers I went to, session 1B (see conference programme linked earlier) the main theme was sex, especially the 'paraphilic disorders' but also more general sex and gender issues.
To some extent that theme carried over into the second set of papers I went to, 2A. Finally rounded that off with some more sex, with the papers from 3A.
I want to introduce some of that material into my Gender and Sexualities module at Gloucestershire.
Day Two
Spent the first session fretting about my paper rather than going to any papers.
Session two included my paper. But also there was an interesting linkage between all four of the papers, it was almost a spontaneous symposium.
Session three I went to the symposium developed by John Cromby, David Harper & Paula Reavey. Dai is hoping that some of that material can find its way into the Psychology and Mental Health module we run.
Finally a truly great keynote from Ian Parker to finish a very good conference indeed.
Thanks to everyone who was involved in organising, presenting and taking part!
Some observations from me:
ReplyDelete* everyone was very friendly and welcoming
* there was a gratifying critical perspective pervading most of the papers
* there was a very good slate of papers and very good attendance, perhaps reflecting the special theme: I suspect the conference attracted attendees from outside the usual history & philosophy audience
* there was a notably younger balance compared to the last HPP conference we went to a few years back, which augurs well for the future
The teaching CHIP development day was very positive. In response to the discussion about the future I've set up a facebook group (https://www.facebook.com/groups/505952176129334/) which I've enrolled you on!