Kurt Andersen

Profile

Current Work

At the Institute of Educational Technology I am investigating face-to-face teaching effectiveness with a particular focus on the development of techniques and skills for effective Higher Education teaching.

My main expertise is in the application of personal development models and techniques to teaching and learning.

Biography/CV

Kurt Andersen, MSc. (psych, Open), PGCE (TLHE), BA (hum, Helsinki), BA (hum, Copenhagen)

• Director of Human Communications Centre, Cambridge, England

• Research student at Institute of Educational Technology, Open University

• Practising neurolinguistic psychotherapist and coach

• Management, leadership and coaching trainer

• Associate Lecturer (Open University)

Practical experience

• Experienced higher education lecturer and tutor

• Extensive training in neurolinguistic programming and human communication skills

• Experienced management and communication trainer/teacher

• Wide experience in psychotherapeutic work, coaching, experiential training, accounting, social science and psychology

• Extensive experience in directing and managing own international company, staff and (later) own psychotherapy and coaching practice

• International experience having lived, studied and worked in 6 European countries

• Multilingual, speaking 5 languages fluently and many others conversationally

• IT skills on 'advanced user' level

• Programme Team Coordinator of ADEC - an EU funded 3-year project developing a corporate in-house educator training programme

Work experience

• Consultant on the Open University’s Centre for Teaching Excellence PILS (Personalised integrated Learning Support) project researching effective HE teaching.

• Action Research project for the Open University’s COBE (Centre for Outcome Based Education).Director of Andersen Business Service Ltd., an international multilingual translation, training and consulting agency.

• Director of Human Communications Centre: communication & management trainings, psychotherapy and coaching.

• Trainer assistant on numerous NLP Health and Coaching trainings with the world’s foremost trainers

• Research and training cooperation (crisis and trauma) with Oulu University of Applied Sciences, Finland and with Glotta Nova (education centre), Slovenia.

• EU-funded research and education programme development with institutions in 9 European countries.

• Visiting lecturer at School of Health and Social Care, Oulu University of Applied Sciences, Finland

• Guest trainer, coach and mentor in Glotta Nova (Further Education Centre), Slovenia

• Higher Education teaching on both undergraduate and post-graduate level as well as on Widening Participation programmes (subjects: Social Science Research Methods, Lifelong Learning, Child Development, Business Management, Change Management, and Study skills/Motivation).

Memberships

• Fellow of Higher Education Academy since 2005

• Member of Open University's Associate Lecturers Regional Panel (Region East of England) since 2006

• Student Representative on CREET Research Board (Open University) since April 2007

Books

• Andersen, K. (ed.) (2006) Adult Education in Action, Ljubljana, Glotta Nova

Presentations

Conference presentations

• "Adult Education in Action" training delivered to participants of ADEC Project (see projects) with Tatjana Dragovic, Patra, Greece, 28th of January - 1st of February 2007

• "Flow – a recipe for teaching effectiveness?", Staff Development Day presentation/workshop for Open University Associate Lecturers (all faculties), Mortimer, November 2006

• "Going with the flow", Staff Development Day presentation/workshop for Open University Associate Lecturers teaching on Education courses, Cambridge, May 2006

• "Working in Psychotherapy", on what it is like to be a psychotherapist and some practical examples of psychotherapeutic work. Presentation for OU Psychology students, Colchester, April 2006

• "Systemic Coaching" at NLP and Coaching Conference, Grosuplje, Slovenia, November 2005

• Lecture on "Neuroscientific perspectives on the foundations of neurolinguistic psychotherapy" at European Conference of Neurolinguistic Psychotherapy, Regents College, London, UK, November 2005

• "Executive coaching" , presentation of coaching as a business tool. Slovenian Lifelong Learning Week, Glotta Nova, Ljubljana, October 2005

   

• "Neuro-linguistic programming and Health", presentation of training programme. Slovenian Lifelong Learning Week, Glotta Nova, Ljubljana, October 2005

• "Recent developments in neuro-linguistic programming – and beyond. A mainly sociocultural perspective on neuro-linguistic issues." Weekend of lectures/workshops for Slovenian Neurolinguistic Programming Society, October 2005

• "Neuro-linguistic Psychotherapy", presentation of training programme and psychotherapeutic approach. Slovenian Lifelong Learning Week, Glotta Nova, Ljubljana, October 2004

• "Neuro-linguistic Coaching Training", presentation of training programme and coaching approach. Slovenian Lifelong Learning Week, Glotta Nova, Ljubljana, October 2004

• "Coping with Trauma", presentation of research and development project. Slovenian Lifelong Learning Week, Glotta Nova, Ljubljana, October 2004

• Lecture on "A psychotherapeutic model for releasing stress" at European Conference of Neurolinguistic Psychotherapy in Copenhagen, Denmark, November 2003

• Lecture on "Coping with trauma", an international research and development project, at European Conference of Neurolinguistic Psychotherapy in Zagreb, Croatia, May 2003

• Lecture on trauma work, at TUPA Conference, Oulu University of Applied Sciences, Finland, February 2002

Teaching & Training

• NLP Coach Training, 20-day training in coaching in accordance with ICF criteria. 2005-2006

• Open University Associate Lecturer on D820 The Challenge of the Social Sciences, ED209 Child Development, E845 Supporting Lifelong Learning, Y159 Understanding Management, Y154 Open to Change, 2004-2006

• NLP Coach Training, 20-day training in coaching in accordance with ICF criteria. 2003-2004

• "Coping with Trauma", post-graduate/CPD course for social and health professionals, Oulu University of Applied Sciences, Finland, April 2003

• A multitude of Management, Leadership, Coaching, Personal Development and Communication Skills trainings since 2001

Research Interests

COBE Action Research project

The action research project was part of the COBE (Centre for Outcomes-Based Education) project and was carried out in 2005. The project explored own teaching practice as Associate Lecturer on two Open University courses, D820 The Challenge of the Social Sciences (a Masters level foundation course on research methods and their epistemological underpinnings) and ED209 Child Development (an undergraduate Psychology course). A project report is published on the internal COBE web-site.

CETL PILS research project

The acronyms surely require an explanation: CETL stands for Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning. The Open University was in 2005 awarded the leadership of four such centres (by HEFCE), which will share, support and enhance already excellent practice in student support, curriculum, pedgagogy and learning methods.

PILS stands for Personalised Integrated Learner Support. This Centre builds on excellence in learner support and will personalise and integrate student support within the context of subject pathways and programmes of study.

I was appointed PILS consultant for the year 2006 with the task to develop further the ideas of the COBE Action Research project (described above). The study used an action research approach involving peer-observation combined with self-observation and self-reflection to uncover successful patterns/strategies for establishing a safe atmosphere on tutorials. The project proposal set out to explore ‘supportive teaching’ and ‘safety’ as key elements of effective learning among OU Psychology students.

Based on the study, a research report was produced and two staff development workshops has been developed and delivered. The first, 'Going with the flow' was delivered in Cambridge on the 13th of May 2006 for Region East of England. Another, 'Flow - a recipe for effective teaching?' was delivered on the 26th of November in Mortimer for Region South.

ADEC Research Design

I designed the questionnaires used to survey the internal education needs of 142 large European corporations, see the ADEC Project on the Project page.

Current Research

CETL PILS Research Project

See Research page.

COBE Action Research Project

See Research page.

ADEC Research and Development Project

ADEC is a 3-year EU-funded international project involving universities, educational institutions and training and consulting companies from 9 countries across Europe seeking to satisfy training needs for corporate in-house trainers.

The overall aim of the international project (called ADEC as an acronym of Adult Educator in Company) is to develop a training programme that would satisfy the needs and requirements of today’s companies and organisations and hopefully would lead to an improvement of internal training practices and thereby to a better performance and richer working life for the trained employees.

I am the project's programme coordinator, responsible for the development and delivery of the training programme.

The programme has led to the publication of a course book, "Adult Education in Action" (2006), which is currently being translated into 5-6 other European languages.

See more about the project on www.adectraining.com.

Crisis and Trauma Work Project (2001-2003)

With Oulu University of Applied Sciences, Finland and Glotta Nova, Slovenia, I have been involved in a Crisis and Trauma Work project, which was part of Oulu Polytechnic's TUPA Project, a large research and development project focussing on the future of the welfare services.

The objective of the project was to develop new adult education training programmes, special training programmes and postgraduate courses for social and health workers as well as other professions involved in dealing with traumatised people. The partnership aimed to develop innovative counselling models for crisis and trauma work developing and simplifying advanced cognitive-behavioural techniques taking into account the historical and cultural background for the infliction of the traumas. The objective was to rehabilitate and empower trauma victims, with special focus on victims of the Balkan conflicts, improving their subjective perspective on past, present and future and help them develop a new confidence in the future.

The outputs of the project were the following:

a) An innovative counselling and coaching model for crisis and trauma work.

b) Post-Graduate curriculum in Trauma and Crisis Work.

c) Professional Development Trainings for social workers, health workers, therapists and refugee centre staff.

d) Course materials developed for use on the trainings.