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Physiology Teaching Workshops and Activities: |
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1978
India, IUPS-supported
Workshop (Report not located) 1986 Jenolan IUPS Workshop, Congress Sydney (Report not located) 1989 Kuopio IUPS Congress/workshop 1990 New Delhi FAOPS/workshop 1991 Book: Simple Experiments in Physiology Requiring Minimal Equipment (ed. K. Cooper); successor to a previous manual (ed. O. Hutter.) 1993 Inverness IUPS Congress/Workshop 1994 Shanghai FAOPS Workshop 1997 Repino IUPS Congress/Workshop 1998 IUPS National Teaching Reports (G. Somjen) 1998 Brisbane FAOPS Workshop 1999 Pakistan IUPS-supported Workshop 2000 Costa Rica IUPS-supported Workshop 2001 Lincoln IUPS Congress/Workshop 2001 African Association of Physiological Sciences Teaching Workshop 2002 Malaysia FAOPS Workshops Information technology Problem based learning 2003 Prague IBRO Congress: IUPS & IBRO-edu education symposium 2003 Sri Lanka Workshop, supported by FAOPS 2005 Pali IUPS Congress/Workshop 2005 onwards Development of on-line teaching resources in Physiology through APS 2008 Kenya IUPS Workshop 2008 Chile, A Workshop on Active Learning in Lectures and Laboratories 2009 Kobe IUPS Congress/Workshop |
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IUPS workshops have been associated with the
Congresses (which were initially held every three years, but now every
four years); they are indicated in bold type. Prior to 1978 it is
possible that other educational initiatives had been undertaken but we
have not located any information about them. IUPS has also provided some
financial support for the workshops. In addition to the regular
congresses, members of successive IUPS Teaching Committees have
responded to a number of proposals for developing and supporting
national or regional activities (see the list above). The information we
hold currently is not complete. Additional workshops have been developed in response to a national request or through regional groupings, of which the Federation of Asian and Oceanian Physiological Societies (FAOPS) has been the most active, usually associated with four-yearly scientific meetings. One joint teaching symposium in which IUPS participated was held at the IBRO congress in Prague in 2003. It is also worth noting that at the meeting of the International Council of Scientific Unions in China in 2005, the educational activities of IUPS, presented on a poster, were very favourably noted. The formal reports of the workshops and other activities that are still available. They have been saved and will be available on a CD-ROM. A few photographs are included, illustrating participants, their activities and the different environments in which the workshops and other activities were held. Feedback from participants has confirmed that the exchange of ideas at the workshops has been helpful; many strong and lasting friendships and helpful contacts have resulted from these various educational activities. Noting that the dedicated educational position currently on Council will not be renewed, we strongly urge that the educational initiatives be supported into the future. The truly international flavour of the workshops has resulted in a diversity of ideas; valuable contacts have been established between individuals and friendships established. The reports of the various workshops published in Advances in Physiology Education have provided support and information to enhance the quality of education in Physiology. Under new leadership, the IUPS Education Committee will continue to maintain the tradition of supporting teachers of physiology across the world. Our aim is to make the history of our educational activities available on the IUPS website (and/or on CD-ROM). It will stand as a record that represents our commitment to developing and enhancing high quality education in Physiology. Good teaching will attract students to study physiology, whether they later contribute to research, practice or to teaching. The educational database of reports and information is a “work in progress”, and we hope that it will continue to expand to record ongoing educational activities. The records are not complete, particularly before the 1980s. If additional materials or information are located, they will be included in the archive and made available (hopefully on-line) to anyone interested: any assistance in locating additional or missing reports would be greatly appreciated. The activities in major workshops and meetings have regularly been published in detail in Advances in Physiology Education, a journal of the American Physiological Society. They are accessible on-line: http://advan.physiology.org. Other than the activities listed above, it is possible that there may also have been some activities in other regions but we do not have all the relevant details or reports. Any additional information, reports or photographs would be welcomed and will be added to the IUPS resource (email: anns @gmp.usyd.edu.au). We thank all those who have attended and participated in the workshops or supported them in different ways, contributed to planning, made presentations, designed informative posters, joined discussions and written or reviewed reports. The numbers attending educational symposia, presentations and poster sessions have also grown, The ongoing support of AD Instruments has been invaluable. A large number of enthusiastic teachers of physiology have met and contributed in order to share ideas and improve their own practice. Overall our aim is to enhance the quality of education in physiology world-wide. We have a truly international network of friends and colleagues. |
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The Chairs of the Education Committee since the late 1970s have been: Otto Hutter (UK); Keith Cooper (Canada); George Somjen (USA); Ann Sefton (Australia) and Penny Hansen (Canada). |