· Web viewAdrian:Not enough attention paid to indicators of success and what leads to success....

SaMnetScience & Mathematics network of Australian university educators

Steering Committee Meeting

Date / time: Wed., 18 July 2012: 10.30am-4.30pm; 21 Ross St., Forest Lodge, NSW

Attending

1. Liz Johnson 2. Stephanie Beames 3. Sue Jones (from mid-day) 4. Manju Sharma 5. Will Rifkin 6. Matt Hill

Guests

Adrian Lee (morning)

Helen Dalton (afternoon)Alex Yeung, Wakiru Wohoro, Helen Georgiou (lunch)

Apologies

7. Brian Yates8. Mario Zadnik 9. Kelly Matthews (another meeting) 10. Andrea Crampton (in transit).11. Cristina Varsavsky (obligations at Monash)12. Simon Pyke – (?)

Yellow = action items Blue = key points

Action Items:

1: Steering committee to develop approach evaluate achievement of TLOs, develop with input from SaMnet Scholars, trial in 25+ project sites in science for TEQSA.

2: Contact Denise Chalmers, leader of the Teaching Quality Indicators project funded by OLT, to say we are interested in this area (Sue Jones).

3: Circulate reports on teams from June workshops (Manju) & put reports on website (Matt).

4: 2-hour workshops via Skype for August (Will)

5: Send newsletter to contact list from ACDS (associate deans) saying to forward within their faculties; and ask them email me (Matt) to let me know if you want to keep receiving the newsletter. 6: Put project timeline (soft copy from Manju) on the website (Matt);

Steering Committee to comment if they see problems/opportunities.

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Minutes

10.30-11.00am Welcome & ‘Check in’ (tea/coffee in house)

Check in from individual team members.

11.00-11.30am Big picture issues in university science sector – Prof Adrian Lee, adv. panel

Adrian:Not enough attention paid to indicators of success and what leads to success. This is in the individual project proposal, but possibly what needs to be made clear is not just making these things known to us, but also to the variety of stakeholders in the project.

Liz: ACDS has put forward some seed money to lead towards the idea of a national centre. The OLT funded my fellowship to support the development of that centre but they haven’t done much else. John Rice is keen to involve OLT and Chief Scientist to raise the overall level of teaching and learning rather than individual efforts. Hence, the Government isn’t putting money towards it but are interested.

The project before the ACDS has a number of arms. Wanting a good practice guide targeting leaders in universities – making knowledge of the best practices available.

Adrian: We need to think laterally, we need to think what will really be likely to lead to success. You say there will be awareness, but we need much more than awareness. What can you do that will somehow feed in to that environment and will have something for the individual academic, also to convince the senior management that it’s valuable.

What this group could do is create a climate which feeds in to TEQSA which actually gives evidence. You could have a SaMnet ranking scheme that you could try on your own groups then take it to the senior management which sets this up as an external review of research projects. TEQSA needs help ensuring the practice in universities.

Liz: One of the ideas of the national centre is to select experts, but by what criteria do we use to classify experts and how do we use them.

Adrian: They formed a college of experts at Deakin and it was a disaster. So there are dangers. Another problem is that it is working with the converted. The 80% that

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want to do it, but are discouraged, are not addressed. Working with TEQSA and the Government, maybe something can evolve from this. Focus less on the individual, and rather on the faculties, universities and networks.

Will: They say that the person who writes the rules win the game, so we should be working with those who write the rules and make the policy.

Steph: Getting evidence is important, to support claims and academics.

Liz: We have a body of work that we can use to benchmark good practice. If we find a mechanism to say to people, “We will evaluate your courses”.

Adrian: We know that there is a huge body of research on how students learn. So at UNSW one of the requirements for promotion was that good teaching practice was being implemented based on research. In the end – we know students learn, let’s make sure that this is being implemented.

Liz: The thing I find attractive is giving TEQSA means to an end. They want numbers, so we need to offer them numbers.

Adrian: What is appropriate evidence (Manju: And tools) that can be used to assess and validate teaching and courses.

Liz: From all this information we have about learning, what can we draw from it.

Manju: And what we can bring about in terms of action on the ground.

Liz: If SaMnet was to be followed by the national centre, while the big picture things would remain, but the action-learning projects and individual projects could be lost.

Manju: It would need a (possibly part-time) admin staff member and existing project members would be future critical friends.

Liz: Also we need to make sure that, from the big picture, the individual is supported and encouraged to participate.

Manju: TEQSA doesn’t have funding, but has some sort of authority to direct OLT towards projects. So we need to draft something up that we can take to TEQSA

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Liz: I have till December part time on this and I want the centre to deliver something new if it is going to change the game like John Rice wants it to be. I really like the rating system suggested by Adrian. The point is not how high, rather have they got to the benchmark. This seems to be a better idea than just a college of experts.

Will: This can also be phased, going out first through the easier disciplines then roll out to interdisciplinary areas, etc.

Liz: Brian and Sue’s TLOs are a framework for teaching and learning design, standards can also mean something different. We could use that to say, “Is there evidence that the curriculum actually delivers these things?”

Steph: And if those skills are the what, at the university level is the how.

Will: So we can build on Sue and Brian.

Manju: Sue and Brian have that a graduate of science should have the following…

Liz: So it doesn’t talk about progression levels, teaching towards or teaching requirements. What elements would you put into a good teaching standards document, and what evidence/measure would be convincing to show that the standards have been met.

Manju: It is like the ASELL template - what do you want, how will you measure it, and how will measuring it to show convincingly that it has been achieved?

Liz: From the (SaMnet) writers’ workshop on Monday (in Melbourne), the participants believe that no one will listen, or they will listen to their ideas politely then walk away. SaMnet is good as, even though it has usual suspects, there is at least one who is new to the game.

Steph: Though not all authority is as willing as you!

Will: In the case of Sarah-Jane, it has worked that her project was initially not supported in any way, then the Uni realised they needed more in the area, and so she became the specialist.

Steph: Moral support for her and other individuals who don’t have much of a supportive community is really important, and has been appreciated.

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Meta-project: Develop agreed benchmark of good practice- What: Rating grid for courses/discipline sequences- How: Test with action-learning project teams

o Development of schemeo Road-test output

The aim is to set an agenda for learning and teaching standards for science and maths.

1 – SaMnet leaders need to develop a proposal (TLOs, good practice guide, international projects, TEQSA documents, relevant OLT projects)2 – Brainstorm a workshop of the “what” and the scheme to develop instruments for testing3 – Testing individually by SaMnet Scholars (Feb-May 2013)

4 – Recommendations for TEQSA, ACDS centre (future delivery mechanism)(In other words, the discussion related to the discussion at the end of the ACDS Education

conference – how can we make assessment tasks more effectively measure what students have learned so that the assessment task becomes the evaluation of the learning gained, the measure of attainment of TLOs, i.e., ‘evaluation through assessment’.)

Summarised another way -- Accreditation criteria for a subject / course or for a major / program Other standards projects are being supported by the OLT, but we have 25 projects to call on

Sue and Brian’s standards (TLOs) provide the target for what a graduate should haveThe targets do not address specific delivery or measurement

How would you measure that the standard has been met?

Standards need to encompass -- Perceptions, actions, outcomes/products Geoff Crisp says next big thing is attributes matrix, evidence of outcomes

Manju: In terms of timeline, the Feb 2013 SaMnet workshops could be restructured such that we can spend a fair amount of time on this such that SaMnet Scholars can be trained in this leadership. We could sell it as something that could eventuate within the TEQSA framework. Too early for someone from TEQSA to be there. We should keep making it clear that the focus is science and maths.

Liz: When we set the standards, we have to test the content eg labs and then the context, such as inquiry and other pedagogies.

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Manju: The context can have pedagogies that are discipline specific and science and maths specific and some that are general.

Alex: Note, RACI is doing something similar.

Manju: RACI and AIP have had accreditation systems, but they are mostly content driven as opposed to context and teaching pedagogies.

12.30-1.30pm Working lunch (catered) Intro of SaMnet HQ staff: Matt Hill, Alex Yeung, Wakiuru Wohoro, Helen Georgiou

1:30 SaMnet activities timeline

Manju: The one thing that still needs to be done before the year 1 report is 2-hour workshops either Skype or face-to-face. Will will be in Melbourne, but other workshops – particularly Tas, SA and WA will need to be Skype.

Sue: Reducing travel is good, that is the expense that makes it harder – also face-to-face is more productive (Steph: and good for networking).

Will What will I need to do differently running an online workshop?

Liz: You need a facilitator on site, and you need audio speakers so the audio is fine for the larger group.

ACTION POINT: 2 hour workshops via skype are in Will’s basket

Manju: I have reports on teams from recent workshops that I will circulate; these can also go on the public and private areas of the website.

ACTION POINT: Manju to circulate reports on teams from workshops

ACTION POINT: Matt to put reports on website.

Manju: Discipline day, 2-hour lunch meeting, scholars presenting their work within the conference, Minute paper on leadership (to show us what they have learnt of leadership).

Whole day workshops in February, hopefully all can be done in Feb.

Will: On the plus side is that this year we are not reviewing proposals!

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Sue: Is this a repeat or an additional workshop? Has everyone involved in a project been to a workshop?

Will: Every project is represented at a workshop. But the second round of action learning projects (where we are mostly awaiting final project plans) have not been to workshops. The second-round workshops build on what was provided in the first-round workshops.

Manju: We are planning to shift the focus to distributed leadership in this second year of workshops.

Steph: In the Higher educational model there is more leadership developing and leaders arising rather than career promotions.

Manju: So it needs to not be a repeat - rather adding more value.

Manju: Then, in 2013, we also have the writing workshop-II, and we should make it clear where the participants could be up to in their writing process. People who have a draft can get it reviewed by others.

Liz: This workshop-I happened on Monday. There were both drafts but also some teams hadn’t started. So it was great that the critical friends were there to discuss with individual teams. It could be important to spell out what we recommend the teams have ready to bring on the day.

Possible destinations for ACSME 2013

Manju: University of Canberra could be a good destination, as there are teams from UC and ANU. UC also has fewer conferences so they may be ready to put the work into running a good one.

Liz: Getting Andrea Crampton involved will be amazing.

Will: Have it as a focus on regional communities getting Nina Fotinatos, new associate dean, from Ballarat on board.

Other opportunities

Liz: Cubenet-Vibenet, workshop probably in Sydney in December. There could be an option for a SaMnet workshop or something alongside this.

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Will: ACDS AGM in November/October – We could present on the meta-project that we were discussing earlier.

Liz: We should think about whether we advise people to collaborate to form networks (possibly for a January application for OLT)

ACTION POINT: Matt to put timeline on the website, Steering Committee to comment if they see problems.

Concern from part of the Steering Committee

Manju: Regarding Will’s appointment related to Coal Seam Gas, a part of the Steering committee want us to make sure we are aware of the potential difficult association with such a project.

Liz: I don’t think there’s much we can do. It is really that Will can be trusted to try and keep the two things separate regardless of whether the coal seam gas is a good thing or a bad thing.

Sue’s reflections on our ideas from this morning

Sue The group we have of SaMnet Scholars is a very artificial group. So you are right that we need something that appeals both to the individual and also the organisations. TEQSA is doing this, why should we be doing it? Why are we creating standards.

Liz: We would want to see what TEQSA is releasing and using that and working with it.

Sue: Brian is the one to talk to; also we should keep in mind that TEQSA and the Standards Panel are two separate things. We could spend a lot of time developing another tool to find in a couple of years that the Universities are just going with TEQSA.

Liz: We wouldn’t pursue this without the support or recommendations from TEQSA.

Sue: What is already being done through OLT?

Will: I have seen something about a “Teaching Quality Indicators” Project of the OLT. There is a page from RMIT about it. It had standards for institutions that are

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being tried and tested. We want standards across disciplines. So these things are different but work together.

ACTION POINT: Sue to email Denise Chalmers, the TQI Project leader, to say we are interested in this area.

Sue: It is that things can’t/won’t change and are teaching academics only getting it wrong? Are we/authority being too negative.

Will: Synthesising discussion: (1) we may need to realise that the definition of teaching has changed, cf. Mass education not elite education. (2) it is almost a political organisation that we are dealing with as we try and promote teaching change – so that’s why we may not have good evidence whether things like this work, but as Sue and Liz are saying, it is hard to know whether we are doing bad or we are too negative.

Liz: I would be very surprised if learning outcomes have gone up in the recent number of years based on student candidature.

Sue: It depends, probably in terms of literacy, rather it would be true for say IT skills.

1.30-2.15pm Recap of activities/impact since steering committee Skype in late March: Mid-year workshops in Sydney & Brisbane; Skype workshops; SoTL workshop Melb.

Will: A reasonable turnout at each workshop, modest size but highly engaged; and as Manju said, she has notes on where the teams are up to. 3 skype meetings to also assist in building collaboration among teams who share an area of focus. 2 went well. 1 went a bit messy due to technology.

Presentations & ‘Scholar’ gatherings at FYHE, Chem Educ., Physics Educ., HERDSA

Steph: FYHE – not a great gathering in session as there were 7 parallel sessions. But the lunch meeting went well, and we had about 14 people networking within SaMnet over lunch. It was less about planning but more about linking the SaMnet people together.

Will: HERDSA went well, there was about 10 people on the table and the conversation went well.

Liz: Having a SaMnet table was great!

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Will: Alex ran one at the Chemical Education conference, and we are awaiting to hear about how it went.

Expressions of interest endorsed & plans for new action-learning projects reviewed

Will: 8 EOI’s accepted, awaiting project plans for most of them.

Matt: Who should be getting the SaMnet email?

Liz: Advisory panel and John Rice

Steph: Danny Bedgood should be on the list

ACTION POINT: Send newsletter to contact list from ACDS (associate deans) saying to forward within their faculties; and ask them email me (Matt) to let me know if you want to keep receiving the newsletter.

Discussion of perceptions of SaMnet

Steph: We want more fridge magnets, or more things to hand out to assist in dissemination. Should get business cards from Vistaprint?

Will: What is in it for other people (i.e., not those doing action learning projects)?

Liz: It relates to what will SaMnet be after the end of the OLT SaMnet project. CUBEnet for example has project teams, too, though less defined. I think that SaMnet is closest to ACDS centre.

Will: The leadership development workshops are valuable. So far we have made it only for those involved in projects, but this could continue even if projects reduce or change. So if anyone asks, it’s open – but I am not worried that we haven’t done it already.

3.30-4:15pm Project evaluation plan – Dr Helen Dalton, project evaluator & Committee reflects on the SaMnet project.

Matt has been absent until 4:15, minutes resume at 4:15

Liz: Project needed more help and support than originally planned.

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Steph: And there has been goodwill from individuals. There is so much unpaid work that gets done in the sector.

Helen: I was going to ask about sustainability, but it came out naturally as an issue. Is there anything else to discuss?

Steph: The connections that have been made are important and also great. People giving up time, but also teams bridging institutions and also lonely, unsupported individuals getting support. When trying to establish a network, we can’t say that this will happen, but it is great when it does.

From my perspective as an academic developer, the thing about science is the many disciplines within science as opposed to the faculty of law, for example. So linking people who do similar things is so important, and speaking with one voice in maths and science is great.

Sue: Through linkages of a different program, I was able to meet people in one particular area, but SaMnet allows for people to meet right across a sector. To get SaMnet going we needed people from various institutions who know each other.

The room reflected on how they all met, Sue’s reputation preceded her, and Steph’s ‘life changed’ from meeting Will at HERDSA one year

Other business

Will: With my 3 days in Brisbane, I have been looking to see if there are people who can take over responsibility from me either one day a week or more. Contact me if you know anyone who could be good, ideally living in Sydney though not necessarily, and someone who can relate to lecturers and academics throughout Australia.

What have we come away with – to take to the rest of the steering committee.

Liz: We should run through the timeline; also we should give them our view of the big picture and ideas and plans and their importance. I think we need to reiterate that there will be publications to work on. What should the legacy of SaMnet be and how can we do it.

Sue: And is this for us to do?

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Steph: I think more will become clearer over the next couple of days (at the ACDS conference), particularly how we can link in with the new centre and how this can be an opportunity to move into a new centre.

Will: I’m thinking about the deliverables, and almost the real deliverable is developing the network and leadership, including the steering committee. The steering committee has been probably the group that has grown most in leadership and influence. And that is part of a good result of the project.

Helen: Well connected and enthusiastic steering committee. Also very good at thinking and planning for the future. A great steering committee of a variety of people, such that there is a lot of development within the committee and allows for the practice of distributed leadership. Doing very well.

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