New Lecturer & Teacher Programme – Course Handbook

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New Lecturer & Teacher Programme

Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice

Course Handbook 2006 - 2008

Dr Vicky Gunn, Co-ordinator
New Lecturer & Teacher Programme
Learning and Teaching Centre
Southpark House
64 Southpark Avenue
Glasgow G12 8LB

HANDBOOK CONTENTS

Programme aims and outcomes3

Programme structure 5

NLTP support6

What to do if you cannot attend a taught session6

Programme philosophy7

Programme staff and administration11

Appendix 1 – Individual sessions14

Appendix 2 – Annotated course bibliography25

Appendix 3 – Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice regulations30
THE NEW LECTURER & TEACHER PROGRAMME

REQUIREMENTS ON PROBATIONERS

To support academic staff at the outset of their career here at GlasgowUniversity and to allow for the enhancement of a critically reflective approach to teaching amongst its staff members, the Senate introduced a programme of study called the New Lecturer & Teacher Programme (NLTP).

The current requirement for probationary staff with regards to their various roles as academics is that they complete thisprogrammerun by the Learning and Teaching Centre. It comprises two modules:

(i)Academic Practice in Higher Education (taught module),

(ii)Developing a Portfolio of Academic Practice (assessment module).

Both the taught module and the portfolio module are equivalent to 30 Masters level SCOTCAT credits each.

Successful completion of the programme leads to the award of a Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice and to full practitioner status of the Higher Education Academy(HEA).

PROGRAMME AIMS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES

Aims

1.To encourage a critically reflective and scholarly approach to the practice of teaching and learning in higher education.

2.To enhance a research-led or research-informed approach to teaching and learning, which integrates research, theory and practice.

3.To introduce a number of approaches to teaching and learning which encourage versatility and innovation, whilst also supporting the development of good practice in more traditional forms of teaching.

4.To develop approaches to teaching and learning which recognise and respect diversity amongst learners.

5.To facilitate support from peers and experienced teachers to help participants to develop competence and confidence in their teaching role.

Intended Learning Outcomes

This course aims to help you develop six basic professional competencies:

  • the competence to design teaching, learning and assessment
  • the competence to implement teaching and assessment
  • the competence to support learning
  • the competence to evaluate teaching, learning and assessment
  • the competence to conduct scholarly activity
  • the competence to manage academic practice and professional development

The learning outcomes of the programme define the nine areas in which we expect participants to be able to develop and exercise these competencies. By the end of the programme you should be able to:

1. Design teaching sessions (for example a lecture or a seminar) from a module descriptor, or similar; units of study or programmes; and/or assessment strategies. This involves choosing teaching processes, learning activities or assessment strategies appropriate to the group of learners, the level, the subject material, the resources available and the learning outcomes (design).

2. Implement teaching sessions, using two appropriate teaching and learning methods in such a way that offers an effective learning environment for the students. For example,

  • make presentations e.g. lectures and demonstrations,
  • facilitate group based learning e.g. through seminars, discussion groups, problem solving classes, group project work, practicals or laboratory classes,
  • work with individual students e.g. supervising research students or final year dissertations (implement and support).

3. Demonstrate an ability to provide appropriate pastoral and learning support to learners based on principles of good practice (support).

4.Set assessment tasks, and mark and give feedback on students’ work based on principles of good practice (design and evaluate).

5.Monitor and evaluate teaching using self, peer and student feedback (evaluate).

6.Provide a critically reflective account of scholarly activity in the discipline and, where applicable, how this relates to your teaching (scholarly activity).

7.Demonstrate an ability to keep teaching, research and administrative records, as appropriate, based on principles of good practice (manage).

8.Demonstrate an ability to manage time and other resources efficiently and effectively (manage).

9.Reflect on professional practice and development as an academic and draw up a plan for continuing professional development, as appropriate (manage).

Principles

The NLTP also aims to help you develop these areas of competence in such a way that your practice is informed by six key underpinning principles. These principles are:

  1. Critical Reflection: Taking a critical approach to your practice as a teacher, reflecting on how your plans work out in practice, evaluating your teaching, reviewing it in the light of theory and research, identifying issues and working out strategies towards their solution.
  1. Scholarship: Taking a research-led or a research-informed approach to your teaching and using as appropriate relevant and recent ideas and research in the fields of teaching, learning, assessment and policy in higher education to inform your practice.
  1. Learner Focus: Focusing your teaching on helping your students to learn to the best of their capabilities, encouraging learner responsibility and supporting autonomous learning.
  1. Difference and Diversity: Teaching in such a way that takes account of the different prior experience, knowledge and resources brought by students to the educational process, and which attempts to implement inclusive approaches to teaching, learning, assessment and student support.
  1. Ethics and Equity: Approaching your practice as an academic in an ethical way, based on a duty of care for your students, and in such a way that supports equity and equality of opportunity.
  1. Co-operation and Collaboration: Working in a collaborative and co-operative way with colleagues and peers.

The content of the programme thus includes reflective practice and professional development planning; managing and organising your teaching; course planning and course design; approaches to teaching large and small groups; student support; student learning; assessment; evaluation; research supervision; and observation of 'classroom' teaching.

PROGRAMME STRUCTURE

The NLTP (Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice) is a part-time programme, which runs for eighteen months to two years, depending on your entry point.

The taught module – Academic Practice in Higher Education – consists of the following 17 units of study:
  • Managing your Professional Development as an Academic (MYPDA)
  • Course Design I and II (CDI &II)
  • Approaches to Lecturing I & II (AL I & II)
  • Small Group Processes I (SGP I)
  • Small Group Processes II (SGP II)
  • E-Learning and Technology
  • Explorations of Learning in Higher Education (ELHE)
  • Assessment I, II, III, & IV (ASS I, II, III, IV)
  • Evaluation I & II (EVL I & II)
  • Supervising Students (SST)
  • Reflections on Learning in Higher Education (RLHE)

Each unit is a half-day session or equivalent. Small Group Processes I and Evaluation I are conducted online as distance education units. Approaches to Lecturing II involves observation of and feedback on one of your teaching sessions.

The details of each unit and the timetable for the programme are in Appendix 1 of this handbook.

The module is offered at different times of the year thus offering alternative entry points to the programme. R1 begins in September Year 1 and ends in August at the end of Year 2. R2 begins November Year 1 and ends in August at the end of Year 2. R3 begins in January Year 1 and ends in August at the end of Year 2. If there is sufficient demand, we will run an extra route, R4, beginning in March Year 1 and ending in August at the end of Year 2. Wherever possible, workshops for R1 and R4 are scheduled out of term-time, whereas workshops for R2 and R3 are scheduled during term-time. Figure I overleaf summarises the structure of the programme.

NLTP Support

This is provided in three main ways:

  • Session tutor/s – each session has named tutors. Should you need to miss a session please contact them (see section below ‘what to do if you can’t attend a session’)
  • Peer group tutor – from the outset of the programme you will be placed within a peer group and assigned a tutor from the Learning and Teaching Centre. This tutor can facilitate peer group meetings, assist with clarification about the programme and its assessment, observe your lecturing, and will act as a first marker for your portfolio.
  • Moodle – session handouts, power-point presentations, and other relevant material are normally uploaded to the Learning and Teaching Centre NLTP Moodle site (cf 2006-08 cohort) the day or so after the sessions have been taught. Moodle URL is:

What to do if you can’t attend a session:

We strongly recommend that when you register for your chosen NLTP route, you book the dates of the units for that route in your diary and stick to them. However, we understand that sometimes it is impossible for you to attend a particular unit. In this case, there are two options:

(i)undertake the unit in self-directed mode. In this case, you will be asked to enter the NLTP moodle environment, locate the appropriate session material and undertake the self-directed learning tasks (SDLT). Self-directed learning tasks are normally integrated into the session handbooks, where they are not you will be informed to this effect.

(ii)attend the relevant unit of another route. This is only possible if there is a place available, which is often not the case as we are restricted in numbers. To rearrange attendance you need to contact Pam Luthwood.

Self-directed learning tasks (SDLT):You are asked to work through these activities in order to complete the unit. Once you have completed the unit in this way, you are asked to submit responses to the tasks to the unit tutor for feedback. The tutor will then sign you off the unit and register ‘attendance’ with Pam Luthwood. If you haven't contacted us within four weeks of receiving the self-directed learning task, we will send you out a reminder. This is the only reminder you will receive, after that it is up to you. We will record the unit as 'outstanding' on your record until we have confirmation that you have completed the self-directed learning task.

Assessment Module: Developing a Portfolio of Academic Practice

In keeping with Senate & Court ruling, participants on the NLTP are assessed at completion of the programme. The assessment takes the form of a portfolio of academic practice providing evidence that you have satisfactorily developed competence in the nine Intended Learning Outcomes of the programme.

Peer support groups, facilitated by NLTP tutors, are established at the beginning of the programme in order to support you through the development of your portfolio. It is anticipated that these groups will meet at least once a term.

Assessment of the portfolios will be undertaken by self, peer and tutor assessment within the peer support group.

The deadline for your portfolio is: 29th August 2008

In certain circumstances this will be extended to: April 2009

These circumstances are:

  1. if you are a part time rather than full time member of staff
  2. if you require an extension. Applications for an extension must be made in writing to the course coordinator, Dr Vicky Gunn.

Portfolios will be marked on a pass/not yet passed basis.

Dr Colin Mason, Director of St Andrew’s Learning and Teaching: Innovation, Review and Enhancement (SALTIRE) Unit, University of St Andrew’s, is currently the external examiner for the NLTP (Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice).

Please see the Guidelines on Developing a Portfolio of Academic Practice for full information on the assessment module. The regulations for the course are detailed in Appendix 3.

PROGRAMME PHILOSOPHY AND METHODS

The mission of the University of Glasgow is to be a major research-led university operating in an international context. Its main teaching-related aim is:

  • to provide education through the development of learning in a research environment.

The NLTP aims to help you do this. The programme is based on the assumption that research and scholarship make an essential contribution to teaching, just as the experience of teaching and working with students can make a contribution to research and scholarship. The NLTP also assumes that the inquiry process which lies at the heart of research and scholarship is also an essential process in significant learning.

Although the prime focus of the NLTP is on helping you to develop a professional approach to teaching, we see your teaching responsibilities as inextricably linked to your research, scholarship, administration and service responsibilities. We also believe that it is extremely useful in the early stages of your academic career to step back and think strategically about how best to approach your scholarly activity and how it might be related to your teaching and other responsibilities. It is all too easy to look back in a few years’ time and realise that you are not quite on the path you wanted to be on.

Thus the NLTP aims to help you develop the critical judgement you need in order to decide the best approach to take to your teaching, research and scholarship, given your own particular set of circumstances, for example whether university lecturer or teacher. It assumes that good practice cannot be imposed or mandated from outside. This is especially the case for teaching.

A key assumption underlying the programme is that effective teaching involves an interplay between skilled practice, disciplinary knowledge, understanding of teaching and learning processes, appropriate attitudes and values, and critical self-reflection. As teaching takes place in unpredictable, fluid, non-routine and novel situations, it can be seen to involve a constant process of ‘mini’ problem-solving and decision-making. From this perspective, being a teacher involves being able to think on one’s feet basing one’s judgements on a secure ‘guiding epistemology’ (Schön, 1983), ‘critical rationale’ (Brookfield, 1990), or personal theory of teaching and learning.

All participants will bring to the programme existing values, knowledge and understanding of teaching and learning processes derived from their previous experience as both teachers and learners. This nexus of knowledge, understanding and values - or personal theory - of teaching and learning processes may or may not be explicitly known but will influence how each participant approaches their teaching and the decisions that they make in practice.

A key aspect of a teacher’s development therefore involves building on existing competence by the teacher making explicit his or her personal theory of teaching and learning, in order to be able to examine this critically in the light of feedback, discussion, and educational theory and research. The NLTP provides an opportunity to work on this through the processes of skills development, practice-based inquiry, theoretical framing, scholarship, critical reflection and the marshalling of evidence to support experience-based claims to teaching competence. While the development of skills (and technical knowledge) is integral to our approach, these skills are understood to be necessary, but not sufficient, for intelligent professional practice.

In order to foster the principles of reflective practice, scholarship, learner focus, difference and diversity, ethics and equity, and collaboration, the learning opportunities provided by the NLTPare offered in the following way:

A peer learning community

A learning community is based on the idea that course facilitators and course participants are both resources for the group and responsible for the learning that takes place in the group. Participants bring a diverse wealth of knowledge and experience to the group and make a significant contribution to how well the group will work together. Although tutors have a special responsibility for initiating and maintaining a suitable learning environment, providing appropriate activities and processes, and making available relevant resources, course participants are responsible for their own learning, for contributing to the learning of others through group discussion, peer feedback and support, and are also responsible for their contribution to the well being of the group.

The programme aims to provide a framework and a process within which to facilitate exploration of issues of teaching, learning and scholarship with other academics. Given the range of teaching experience represented by participants, the aim is to build on and enhance this experience. The assumption is that you will learn as much from each other as from course facilitators. The workshops supporting the taught units of the NLTP and the peer support groups provide the contexts for this.

Professional development planning

In order to enable you to individualise the learning opportunities provided by the NLTP and in order to support a systematic and reflective approach to professional development and practice as a teacher, the NLTPencourages and supports a process of professional development planning through the first unit of the NLTP – Managing Your Professional Development as an Academic, through the peer support groups, and the development of the teaching portfolio.

Work-based learning

The most important source of learning for your development as a teacher is your own practice. Given the multi-disciplinary nature of the participant group on the NLTP, much of the exploration of teaching and learning issues on the NLTPwill take place generically. It is therefore a challenge for the individual teacher to examine the relevance of such generic discussions for their own local context and to adapt and apply them appropriately. Unless you give systematic attention to your own experience, assessing the relevance of NLTPmaterial and discussion through processes of critical reflection and peer review, much of this potential resource for learning and development can be wasted. The peer support groups, observation of teaching and the teaching portfolio are the prime means to enable this systematic reflection.

Modelling of practice

The programme offers a range of teaching and learning processes which participants may be able to use in their own practice. Reflection on your first-hand experience of these processes may contribute to an enriched understanding of teaching and learning, and to how such activities might best be adapted to your own particular teaching circumstances.