Supporting the Professional Development of Individual

Practitioners

(or

“What have the Romans ever done for us?”)

Roni Bamber (Heriot-Watt University)

Paul Kleiman (PALATINE: Subject Centre for Dance, Drama and Music

Helen Thomas (Higher Education Academy)

In this session we hope you will…

• Explore the question of how we support individual staff, from the point of view of the individual, institution, Subject Centres and HE Academy

• Take away some fresh insights on how to support individual needs

The Puzzle:

• What are the needs of individual practitioners?

• How can they be / are they supported?

Let’s start with you:

• What do you already know about support for the development of individual staff who support L&T?

• What is done? By whom? When?

HE Academy

Subject

Centres

H/FEIs

Individual

The Institutional Perspective

H/FEIs

Sample Institution:Levels of (Formal) Support

Level 1 Level 2 Level 3

PhD tutors Probationary lecturers Experienced staff

Intro to Teaching Skills,

(1-3)

PG Cert in Academic Practice

CPD (by any other name)-Eg L&T Conference; Fora; Issue-based projects; Working groups

Career Stage + Responsibilities

Approved Teachers / RAs

The Individual Perspective

Consideration 1: Institutional strategy v individual autonomy

• Individual’s perceived needs = institution’s needs?

• Perception of low rewards for L&T dev:• “Got a rough ride from the cynics at the Dept

meeting – usual groans about lack of promotion for teaching, therefore why bother.” (Experienced lecturer)

Consideration 2: Resistance to formal ‘training’

• Scepticism / cynicism

– Sam (probationer): “How can you find out what individuals need, because they will always say they need nothing”

– James (HoD): “You employ good people and they fix it themselves… But even after 33 years I still accept that I just learn as I go along, and we expect that of our people”

Consideration 3: Competing pressures:

• Research v Teaching: May (probationer) - “My motivation to do the course is high, but the reality of what I can put in is low. I have to get a grant this year and I’m under pressure from my school to get some papers written asap.”

• Time: James (HoD) – “I suspect that there’s a general problem with staff development. It might just be [my subject], but I doubt it. And that is we all feel so busy, we don’t have time for staff development.”

• Time: John (experienced lecturer) - “I can’t think of anything that the Academy can do for me that won’t involve more work for me”

Consideration 4: Subject v Generic

• “What can you tell me about teaching Chemistry?”

• Subject differences (cf Biglan, ’73) in Approaches to Teaching Inventory at end of PG CAP: – More CCSF = Building, Engineering, Mgt,

Langs, Economics, Textiles, Sports Science– Less CCSF = Maths, Biology, Computing,

Physics, Chemistry

Consideration 5: Diverse value systems / philosophies

Jim (Approved Teacher): “For me, teaching means helping students to

prepare for the world of work, understand the nature of academic study, and explore the academic body of knowledge in my subject area. It means inspiring students to pursue their own development and learning for its intrinsic value and interest, rather than simply be able to pass exams or gain qualifications. It means facilitating meaningful learning of theories that can be applied to practical situations.” …

Same subject, different philosophy…

• Jo (Probationer): “Teaching is information transmission. The students need to know core models. We need to emphasise the history of the discipline. I see success as giving students information that is soundly rooted in research”

Consideration 6: Proving it’s all worth it

• Question: can we prove training / development ‘works’?

• Difficult, but growing evidence of impact from research data and feedback

Consideration 7: Clashing or shared values with external

agencies? • Commitment to Scholarship

• Respect for Individuals and their Development

• Commitment to Learning Communities

• Equal Opportunities in Educational Opportunity

• Continued Reflection and Improvement

The Academy Perspective

Academy Recognition

Mechanisms

• Register

• Programme accreditation

• Continuing professional development

Points of Reference

From Academy criteria

• 5 areas of activity

• Core Knowledge

• Professional values

To national (UK-wide) reference point

UK professional standards framework

Teaching and supporting learning

Sector owned and recognised

Underpinned by

6 areas of activity

Core knowledge

Professional values

Reference point for individuals, institutional activities, subject centres, professional bodies,

Standards Framework Supports

• Interlinking of research and teaching

• Importance of generic skills and discipline specific pedagogy

• Development of student-focussed teaching

Academy resources

Research information

e.g. formative evaluation of accredited programmes

Data base of materials

e.g. SNAS database

Activities

e.g. workshops on generic themes assessment, curriculum innovation

Network of support

Subjectcentre

Subject centre

Subject centre

AcademyYork

The Subject Centre Perspective

The Subject Network

24 x Subject Centres

Single discipline Multi-discipline

Single site Multi-site consortiums

The Subject Network VALUES

Collegial Coherence

ContextualisedEnabling

EntrepreneurialFacilitatingHorizontalInnovative

Inter & cross disciplinaryParticipatoryPartnerships

Sharing

Events Projects

Publications

ResourcesWorkshopsSeminars

Conferences

NationalRegional

LocalCognate

Newsletters BriefingsJournals Case Studies Reports

People Online resources Special collections A-V resources

‘Mini’

Funded

Commissioned

SubjectCentres

•Regular email updates

•Regular dissemination of topical and discipline-relevant information

•National, Regional, Local, Cognate events

•Tailored resources/events for specific groups e.g. new lecturers, librarians, technical support etc.

•Opportunities to be published in peer-reviewed journals

•Opportunity to publicise projects, aspects of practice, or raise current issues or concerns for debate, via newsletters & discussion forums

•Payment to write Case Studies for dissemination

•Guides (learning, assessment, ethics, health & safety etc.)

•An enquiries service - by email, phone, fax etc.

•Departmental reps to disseminate SC / HEA information to individuals

•Learning & teaching development grants e.g. mini projects > £5000

•On-line resources and collections

•Close formal and informal links with subject associations

•Support to network with others

•Opportunities to lead or participate in SIGs on topics determined by the subject community

•Directories of Experts / Specialists

Useful

%

51

43

55

51

59

48

24

Veryuseful

%

37

44

22

33

24

36

43

Website

Events

Event Reports

Online resources

Publications

Newsletters & briefings

Personal contact & advice

Not very useful

%

9

4

15

9

8

12

12

N/A

%

3

9

8

7

9

4

21

N = 90Subject Centre online impact survey: May 2006

How useful to you are the following Subject Centre activities and resources?

Some impact

%

58

Significantimpact

%

34

Noimpact

%

8

N = 90Subject Centre online impact survey: May 2006

What impact has the work of the Subject Centre had on your own practice and/or thinking in relation to learning and teaching?

The view from the Subject Centre

“Most of the Subject Centre work is with individual

practitioners, as we tend to work with the grain of

curriculum areas or themes.  You can’t really do

this at a departmental level.  It’s the same

principle behind Subject Centres but at a micro-

level: subject specialists are more open to ideas

coming from other specialists in the same subject

than they are to those coming from a specialist in

a different subject, even in their own department. 

We also want to work at the nub of the student

learning experience i.e. the encounter between

lecturer and students in the classroom. For the

lecturer this is nearly always an ‘individual’

experience, although one surrounded by a lot of

departmental and institutional context of course. ”

“The possibility of connecting, with varying degrees of activity / passivity, to practices across the sector and in cognate disciplines has made an enormous difference in terms of attitudes to problem-solving and innovation in L & T. The sense of academic community has been enhanced by the Subject Centre, and on a more practical level, specific queries can now be addressed to a focal point and quickly resolved, in a way that has never previously been possible.”

“The engagement with the Subject Centre has played a large part in my development as a teacher - a development recognised by the award of a Distinguished Teaching Fellowship by my own university.”

“The Subject Centre has had a wide ranging impact, particularly on current developments in pedagogy over the past 4 years. For example both assessment and employability workshops have had a major impact on our course design and delivery.”The view from the practitioner

“The line from teacher through subject centre to HEA

to HEFCE is clearer than ever thanks to the work of

the subject centre. It has enabled us to consider

issues of teaching and learning in a completely new

context, and supported the sharing of ideas. It has

enabled us - a relatively small institution - to put

ourselves on the 'map' in the sector and to debate

pedagogical issues at a national level. Subject

Centre involvement has resulted indirectly in more

ILTMs/HEAMs, two NTFs, and most importantly a

culture of more pedagogical discussion in our

institution. Colleagues now make greater use of

FHEQ & Subject Benchmarks, for example, in their

curriculum planning, through a greater sense of

perspective on T&L in the discipline.”

The Institutional Perspective

Final Plenary Question

• What new insights do you have into support for individual practitioners?

• What could the HE Academy & Subject Centres take away from your discussion today?

• What messages will you take away today?