Norman JacksonLTSN Generic Centre and University of Surrey

www.ltsn.ac.uk/genericcentre/inst_facilitators.asp

Quality enhancement- a deliberate process of change that leads to improvement

Quality assurance - a deliberate process to check, evaluate and make judgements about quality and standards. It may or may not promoteenhancement. MUST MAKE PEOPLE THINK

Untangling QA & QE

LTSN QE debate ltsn.ac.uk/enhancement

Moral purpose for QE

Teachers and HEIs voluntarily engage in enhancement activities in order to improve student learning and their experiences of HE and to respond to the ever changing needs and interests of society.

‘I define the enhancement of my role as a teacher to be one of promoting deeper and better learning in my students. To achieve this I need to understand how they learn in different circumstances and teach accordingly.’

QA & QE as part of the institutional management and self-regulation paradigm

QA

QUALITY ENHANCEMENT

control &regulationrules, regulations,codes,standards,PIs,audit,assessment,appraisal,

vision & leadership planning/decision making strategy & policy

research &development innovation andexperimentation,collaborative learning,research,enquiry,evaluation

ACCOUNTABILITY DEVELOPMENT

QA

Actions that lead to enhancement * Doing existing things better * Doing new things * Adding new things to existing things * Making better use of something* Connecting things to make different things* Expanding something* Abandoning something

1) DOING things to CHANGE and CHANGING2) PERSONAL and COLLECTIVE CREATIVITY

scale and nature of QE

4 Radical transformation 3. Doing new things 2.Small incremental change maintaining direction

1.Making what we do explicit- checking for alignment with intentions

QE by QA

QE by R&D

in

crea

sing ris

k but

gre

ater

pot

ential

ben

efits

Why and how we change?

self-motivation (intrinsic) response to external pressure (extrinsic)

Contexts for Quality Enhancement

Personal - improve students’ learning and their experiences of HE, solve problems, improve own professional experience, response to external pressures.

Institutional - improve quality of students’ learningand their experiences of HE, protect standards, improvecompetitiveness, respond to needs and interests of local/regional communities and society.

National - improve opportunities for participation in HE,respond to changing needs and interests of society, improve reputation of UKplc and its competitiveness in the global market.

standards &

accountability

professionalisation of

teaching & management

employability skills

market

competition

more students andmore diverse students

doin

g m

ore

w

ith le

ss

learning through life

institutional policies L&T & WP strategies

Sources of resistanceoverwork, too much change, weariness, conflicting values, beliefs. Reward systems thatvalue research over teaching.

intrinsic and extrinsic pressures and resistances

communications & IT

leg

isla

tio

n

To understand QE we need to understandhow/why people and HE institutions change

How do HE teachers develop/change?

* Think of something you have changed in your teaching or course.* Why did you do it?* What did you do in order to change?* What did you actually do?* What was the result?

How do experienced teachersacquire new knowledge about T& L?

Learning through doing high priority* Personal experimentation with new ideas * Discussion with other practitioners* Working in activity groups

Learning through reading a low priority* exchange of information by practitioners* examples of practice

Little knowledge gained through reading aboutT&L or reading QA documents.

1. CONCRETE teaching

2. REVIEW question own practice develop personal knowledge

3. DO - active experimentation

4. ABSTRACT THE LEARNINGenriched pedagogy

TEACHING INVOLVES COMPLEX LEARNING (adapted from Kolb 1988 and Cowan 2001)

self-awareness

1. TEACHING

2. REVIEW

3. DO IT

4. ABSTRACT THE LEARNING

Intrinsic motivation for professional learning

DEFINES &SEEKS OWNKNOWLEDGEFOR CHANGE1 student feedback2 reading3.discussion4 personal engagement5 external examining6 EXPERIMENT

‘I moved gently to my aim so that I was comfortable by the time I taught the module for the third time... I had more resources and strategies.’

deeper knowledge of this type of learning in this context

INNOVATION

1. TEACHING

2. REVIEW

3. DO IT

4. ABSTRACT THE LEARNING

Extrinsic motivation for professional learning seeking accountability

QA / APPRAISALretrospective self-evaluation usingtemplate or checklist taking on boardstudent feedback,results, newexpectations,benchmarks...

mainlysurface learning

no sense of heightened self-awarenessCOMPLIANCEor LEARNING

1. TEACHING

2. REVIEW

3. DO IT

4. ABSTRACT THE LEARNING

Extrinsic motivation for professional learning through collaborative institutional research INSTITUTIONAL

RESEARCH1.negotiated focus and research design2.research enquiry3.evaluation of results4.planned intervention

consciousevaluationleading to deep learning

research informed intervention heightened self-awareness

COLLECTIVELEARNING

How do HEI’s change?

technical-rational managerial world

cultural world (subjects)

psychological

change in HE institutionsPRESSURE

CHANGE

plans, strategies, rules, policies, interventions

culturalideas &myths

values &beliefs

Opportunities for collaborative working and learning mainly linked to QA eg. module /programme curriculum review; preparing subject review;also PG Cert HE T&L courses.

cultural context

CHANGE

Strong regulatory frameworks. Increasing focus on strategy. Audit/appraisal systems seeking compliance and accountability.

1 Alignment betweeninstitutional goalsdept/individual goalsoften problematic.

2. Change driven byextrinsic pressuresand compliance withcodified notions of quality.

3. Investment inand coordination ofsupport infrastructureshighly variable.

4. Little researchon what works.

QA/QE environment for learning and change

topdown

out side-inbottom -up

QE in the really messy world of complexity

QA & QE seen through complexity theory

zone of complexityon the edge of chaos

chaos

rational, technical,political and judgemental decision making

Close to certainty Far from certainty

Clo

se t

o

Far

from

ag

reem

en

t

ag

reem

en

t

QA WORLD

QE WORLD

Paul Tosey ‘Teaching on the Edge of Chaos’

TEACHING CONTEXT* weekly lectures + problem sheets & classes + exam* as classes got bigger teachers stopped marking problem sheets, students stopped doing problems and ‘hid’ in classes.* average exam marks dropped from 55-45%

PROBLEM Teaching response to doing more with less resulted in poor learning outcomes

WHAT WOULD YOU DO?

Example of teaching at the edge of chaos

REVIEW & EXPERIMENT* requirement - do 50 out of 80 problem sheets or don’t sit exam* only exam marks counted* 6 ‘problem solving’ sessions run by administrators * peer assessment of problem sheets using marking scheme * no quality control!* sheets handed back immediately with peer comments* same lectures, same problems, same marking criteria, same exam

RESULT* average mark increased from 45% to 80%!

ABSTRACTION OF PRINCIPLES* what does this tell us about the way students learn?* what are the implications for QA and the assessment of learning?* CAN THIS IDEA BE USED IN OTHER TEACHING CONTEXTS?

mega trends in QA and QE

1992 2002

regulation

development

MEGA TRENDS IN QA & QE for learning, teaching, assessment, curriculum

Investm

en

t/eff

ort

HEFCE

QAAILT

LTSN

researchESRC

HEQC

TLRP3£10.5m

FDTL

Scotland& Wales?

England

HEFCE: TQEF Institutional L&T strategies & coordination teams

DfEE innovations

big issue of fundingresearchinto the impact of policy

Through knowledge development and collaborative strategies for sharing, identifying, understanding and expanding ideas effective/innovative practice.Requires research function to be strengthened.

organizational agents for QE (England)

Through explicit standards, use of codes and other reference points based on acknowledged good practice.

Through Teaching Quality Enhancement Fundlinked to institutional L&T(+WP,HR) strategies,special initiatives to support HEFCE objectives and innovation at subject level (FDTL).

HEFCE

QAA ILT HESDA

LTSN NCTILT

These define three QE contexts - 1) management & planning 2) R&D 3) standards/accountability

How do HEIs connect to and make use of QE agents?

ILT

HESDA

QAA

LTSNGC/SCs

NCT

How do QE agents work together to support HEIs?

other

HEIsmanagers * research to inform planning & decision making* policies & strategies

change agency* organisational, subject, personal learning & development

departments academics* subject and curriculum review and other development process

LTSN

Technologies Centre

Generic Centre

24 Subject Centres

lookingoutsidesystem

GovernmentNational Bodiesand Associations

change agents

AcademicDepartments Subject Communities

Communities of practicenetworks/associations

Learning & Teaching Support Network

JISC universities

what you want to know

LTSN

knowledge & expertise in HE communities

LTSN brokerage servicereactive and proactive modes

InstitutionDepartmentIndividuals

what we think you would like to know

social inclusion, widening participation, fair access, retention, employability, accountability -quality & standards

Funding Councils

HEI responses to external pressures and need to address own agendas

Disciplinary interests

LTSN

Executive priorities

Enhancement driven by concerns for learning and students’ experience of learning in subjects

QAA

curriculafor success

LTSN Generic Centre focus 2002-03

wideningparticipation

e-learning

employability

assessment

COLLABORATIVE LEARNING through BROKERAGE

The QE focus for LTSN subject centres will be determined primarily by subject communities

Specific GC work that might be of interest to Institutional Facilitators

* explanations of educational principles underlying QAA policies

* making sense of QAA policies overviews, guides and interpretations/analysis, practitioner commentaries

* workshop materials eg programme specs

* new developments eg external examining

* understanding QA&QE eg quality enhancement debate

www.ltsn.ac.uk/genericcentre/inst_facilitators.asp

Some ways in which LTSN might support Institutional Facilitators

1 help with understanding the educational principles and implications of QAA policies

2 support for self-study / institutional and inter- institutional research aimed at gaining more QE benefit from QA processes

3 connecting LTSN SCs with review and development work in departments

4 support for network/collaborative working and sharing knowledge of QA and how it impacts on learning, teaching, assessment and curriculum

But what would you like us to do?

LTSN support for institutional self-study and self-improvement

* opportunities for depts to learn from other depts.* support for external examiners and others involved in peer review

LTSN GC

LTSN SCs

reso

urce

s to

sup

port

impr

ovem

ent of

curr

icul

um d

esig

n,

teac

hing

, ass

essm

ent,

* departmental self-evaluation,* curriculum review,* teacher development

change agentsincluding QA units and staff developers

review anddevelopmentprocesses

HEIs