HE IN FE STAFF DEVELOPMENT DAYS
Project Evaluation
INTRODUCTION
One of the recommendations in the West London Lifelong Learning Network (WL LLN) ‘Higher Education in West London Further Education Colleges’ research report (WL LLN 2007) was that:
“Staff development and CPD provision to be developed and offered in collaboration with other college’s as with partner HEIs. Collaboration in this area would be particularly beneficial in areas where the number of participants within an individual college is likely to be low due to specialist nature of the required development opportunities.”
Currently CPD opportunities for HE in FE staff are mainly provided by universities validating the HE courses as a part of their quality assurance process. Provision available for HE in FE staff depends on the university and therefore colleges in West London have access to various levels of CPD.
In July 2008, the WL LLN funded and co-organised with Ealing, Hammersmith and West London College (EHWLC) a staff development day for HE staff in FEIs. This was an introductory workshop and included the topics ‘Creating an HE environment in FE’ and ‘Teaching and Learning with Technology’. The feedback from the July 2008 event showed a clear interest in further HE in FE staff development opportunities.
THE PROPOSAL
The proposal was to deliver three workshops to the staff from the HE in FE group on specific areas of HE teaching and learning in order to support HE practice.
Proposed programme:
Student Representation in HE 12th December 2008
Curricula Development in HE 5th March 2009
Assessment in HE 4th June 2009
(See Appendix 1 for individual workshop programmes)
The workshops were targeted at fully qualified teachers teaching HE in FE and therefore the workshops were planned at postgraduate level. The target number for each event was 20 as it was hoped that existing HE teachers and those who aspire to teach HE would attend.
The workshops were delivered by Karen Sheehy, Teaching Fellow and
Professional Lead for Adult Nursing, Thames Valley University (TVU),Berkshire. Until recently Karen was the Programme Manager for the MA in Teaching and Learning at TVU.
LOCATION
The workshops were delivered in 3 different institutions to provide the opportunity for HE in FE staff to visit different learning environments. The first event took place at the new technology suite at TVU, Ealing; the second one at the new Kilburn Building of the College of North West London; and final one at the Engineering block at Uxbridge College.
THE DELIVERY
The workshop evaluations submitted by the delegates demonstrate that the workshops were well received. Samples of the comments and ratings are included below:
1) What were the main strengths of the event?
a) Student representation in HE
o ‘Well structured, good delivery, good discussion from the activities’
o ‘Good facilities, plenty of materials to illustrate the subject’
o ‘ Very informative and relevant to my needs for my college as we would be undertaking IQER next year’
o ‘Clear objectives that were met in a friendly and supportive atmosphere’
o ‘Identifying how important a student rep is’
o ‘Plenty of interactive involvement’
b) Curricula development in HE
o ‘I have identified how to develop a course’
o ‘Discussion amongst people having different views’
o ‘Activity on curriculum development’
c) Assessment in HE
o ‘Well presented and explained’
o ‘Presenter’
o ‘Relevance to subject area and usefulness in using ideas and materials to modify resources’.
o ‘Interactive, theoretical perspectives covered,
o ‘The leader’s ability to look at things differently’
2) What could be improved?
There were comments on the inclusion of theory in the workshops, which was disappointing as this was promoted as a Level 7 CPD programme.
a) Student Representation in HE
o ‘Like to have seen case studies’
o ‘Room temperature’ (mentioned twice)
b) Curricula development in HE
o ‘A wide area – my own speciality meant that all me needs could not be met’
o ‘Would have liked to focus more on curriculum development, less on theory and differences between HE and FE’
o ‘Too academic on curricula development, did this last year in PGCE’
o ‘Needs to be more practical’
3) Please indicate the extent to which the following met your needs?
1 = highest 4 = lowest
Please indicate the extent to which the following met your needs: / Student representation in HE / Curriculum in HE / Assessment in HEWith organisation of the event / 1 / 2 / 1
With the venue and facilities / 1 / 1/2 / 1
With the relevance of topic areas / 1 / 2 / 1
That the presentations and activities were stimulating / 1 / 2 / 1
That the pace of the event was challenging and sustained / 1 / 2/3 / 1
With the learning materials / 1 / 2/3 / 1
4) What is your overall assessment of today’s event?
Student representation in HE / Curriculum in HE / Assessment in HE1 / 2 / 1
OUTCOMES OF THE WORKSHOPS
As the number of staff delivering HE courses in individual colleges is relatively low the joint staff development workshops gave delegates opportunities to network and discuss HE practice with peers. For the experienced HE teachers, the workshops provided the opportunity to look at new ways of practice or reaffirm that they were on the right track.
The workshops provided additional support for the design and delivery of new HE courses. This was especially valuable to colleges that had previously bought ‘off the shelf’ courses and were now working in partnership with universities to develop new courses.
For WL LLN, the workshops supported the mission to inspire vocational learners progressing to HE through the development and support of HE in FE staff.
THE CHALLENGES
1) Attendance
Attendance at the workshops was lower than expected mostly due to the high number of ‘no shows’ on the days. For the last workshop there were 8 ‘no shows.’ While this was disappointing, especially as the delegates were paid for, those who attended were the HE coordinators and HE delivery staff in the colleges and were knowledgeable, active and involved in the sessions.
It was hoped that that the workshops would have attracted FE staff that were interested in moving in to HE teaching. Unfortunately this did not happen and that had an impact on the delegate numbers. On reflection this could have been because the level of the workshop was too high or specialised for this group.
Number of delegates attending the workshops
Student representation in HE / Curriculum in HE / Assessment in HE7 / 9 / 8
CONSIDERATION FOR FUTURE STAFF DEVELOPMENT
It was hoped that if the programme was successful it could be developed further in to an accredited HE programme. However it was clear from the feedback that while the delegates wanted to attend the workshops they did not want to undertake assessments. It seems that a major issue is the lack of staff time to take on additional work.
The inclusion of theory also raised some negative comments in the feedback.
This could be due to the nature of FE teaching qualifications where the HE teachers in vocational subjects have not gone through the traditional academic route. Or that the practical teaching style of staff deters them away from investigating the theory behind practice. Further research would need to be undertaken from the sessions and from research to look at the underlying issues. At present it is not practical to consider developing a HE programme that requires commitment to attend all the workshops and a assessment regime. This also has implications for further scholarly activity as lack time or motivation would deter commitment to future HE in FE scholarly research and learning.
CONCLUSION
The HE in FE staff development days provided specialised support and development for small but hopefully growing area of FE activity. The delegate feedback was generally positive and it would be invaluable to West London if this networking, sharing of good practice and HE development could continue.
Appendix 1 - Workshop Programmes
Student Representation in HE: 12th December 2008, Thames Valley University
· Welcome and introductions
· What is student representation?
· What are the issues of hearing the learner voice in HE?
· What evidence do we have that student representation improves learning/outcomes?
· How could you apply evaluation and student representation to underpin roles in your work place?
· Group feedback
· Action planning for your workplace
· Discussion
· Evaluation
Curricula Development in HE: 5th March 2009, College of North West London, Kilburn
· Welcome and introductions
· Tertiary Education: Is there a distinction between HE and FE these days?
· Revisiting the curricula philosophy and models
o What are the issues of change in the curricula?
o What is the difference between the types of curricula you deliver?
· Creating flexibility in the curricula
· Developing new courses and changing an existing course
· Group feedback
· Action planning for your workplace
· Discussion
· Evaluation
Assessment in HE: 4th June 2009, Uxbridge College
· Welcome and introductions
· Assessment and level criteria: Quiz
· Assessment in HE: What is the distinction between HE and FE?
· Assessing at different levels
o Marking schemes and developing/using criteria for learning
o What does the evidence say about assessment
· Developing new assessment approaches
o Creative assessments in HE
o Changing an existing assessment
· Group feedback
· Action planning for your workplace
· Discussion
· Evaluation
Additional resources
Workshop 1
QAA Outcomes from institutional audit Student representation and feedback arrangements
QAA 090 10/05
http://www.qaa.ac.uk/reviews/institutionalAudit/outcomes/OutcomesStudentRep.asp
Higher education in further education colleges in EnglandInformation bulletin
2006-07
http://www.qaa.ac.uk/reviews/IQER/statisticalBulletin08/default.asp
Workshop2
Credit level descriptors for Further and Higher Education.
http://www.seec.org.uk/docs/creditleveldescriptors2003.pdf
Foundation Degree qualification benchmark.
http://www.qaa.ac.uk/reviews/foundationDegree/benchmark/FDQB.pdf
Simplifying qualifications: a guide for employers.
http://www.qcda.gov.uk/libraryAssets/media/qca-07-3113_QCF_employers_web.pdf
Workshop 3
Poster evaluation
http://www.teachnet-uk.org.uk/2005%20Projects/ICT-L2Lwebquest/pages/poster_evaluation.htm
Constructive alignment
http://www.palatine.ac.uk/files/1016.pdf
Westminster Marking Criteria
http://www.wmin.ac.uk/sshl/page-1796
SEEC Credit Level descriptors
http://www.seec-office.org.uk/creditleveldescriptors2003.pdf
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