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The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning: a Basis for a Framework for Measuring the Quality of University Staff Jo Peat Co-chair of SEDA Head of Academic Professional Development, University of Roehampton

Presentación de Jo Peat

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Page 1: Presentación de Jo Peat

The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning: a Basis for a Framework for Measuring the Quality of

University Staff

Jo PeatCo-chair of SEDA

Head of Academic Professional Development, University of Roehampton

Page 2: Presentación de Jo Peat

University of Roehampton

Page 3: Presentación de Jo Peat

Frameworks

Page 4: Presentación de Jo Peat

Faculty say …

• ‘The status is neither necessary nor sufficient for being a good teacher. In fact, I think there is an inverse relationship between how quickly you get status and how good a teacher you are. Good teachers are generally too busy trying to produce high quality teaching and helping students to take the time out to apply for fellowship.’ (Faculty member)

Page 5: Presentación de Jo Peat

Faculty say …

• ‘I have really valued the time I have had to put aside to reflect on the work I do as a teacher in higher education. I am very proud of my teaching and it is very gratifying to have this recognised officially in this way. Thank you!’ (Faculty member)

Page 6: Presentación de Jo Peat

Professionalisation of faculty

• There is, of course, a long-standing debate about the connections between professionalisation and improvements in student learning experiences and outcomes. We don’t even have a consensus on what might constitute teacher or teaching excellence. (Gunn & Fisk, 2013; Law, 2011; Little, Locke, Parker, & Richardson, 2007; Rostan & Vaira, 2011).

Page 7: Presentación de Jo Peat

Pressures on faculty

• ‘And now they get published, the results of these evaluation forms, which puts, I think, even more pressure on us to do more and more and more, instead of saying “sorry, bad pedagogy”’. (Faculty member)

Page 8: Presentación de Jo Peat

The UK Professional Standards Framework (UKPSF)

• The UKPSF document is seen as one means of measuring performance of teaching: the framework provides descriptions of the dimensions of activity, core knowledge and professional values associated with the performance of teaching, and associated leadership, roles, and by extension is designed to assist institutions in defining threshold and excellence standards within them (Gunn & Fisk, 2013; Law, 2011; Little, Locke, Parker, & Richardson, 2007; Rostan & Vaira, 2011).

Page 9: Presentación de Jo Peat

Browne Report, 2010

• ‘Institutions require all new academics with teaching responsibilities to undertake a teaching training qualification and that the option to gain such a qualification is made available to all staff – including researchers and postgraduate students – with teaching responsibilities.’ (Browne, 2010, p. 50)

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National Union of Students and Quality Assurance Agency

• Students want academic staff to develop their teaching styles to be more engaging, interactive and use technology and props to make the subject more accessible and interesting. Developing an active learning style is a teaching skill which needs to be taught and developed over time, and 34% of students in this research articulated that they wanted their lecturers to have better teaching skills. (QAA & NUS, 2012)

Page 11: Presentación de Jo Peat

Teaching Excellence Framework

• Key Criteria:– Teaching Quality– Learning Environment– Student Outcomes and Learning Gain

Pedagogic CPD and evidence of this is core in this framework.

Page 12: Presentación de Jo Peat

Recent shifts and developments

• Increasing evidence of impact required for development programmes

• Introduction of Key Information Set (KIS)• Introduction of student fees– Student expectations– Institutional accountability

• UKPSF

Page 13: Presentación de Jo Peat

SEDA and the UKPSF• SEDA initiated the training and accreditation of faculty in

the early 19902 and passed it on to new national agencies to run it (now the Higher Education Academy (HEA)).

• SEDA therefore played a central role in designing the national standards.

• SEDA continues to offer accreditation for its own awards. Two are with the UKPSF, and continues to support faculty in a number of ways.

• SEDA was the leading light behind the development and large-scale adoption of post-graduate certificates in learning and teaching in higher education

Page 14: Presentación de Jo Peat

UKPSF and the HEA

• The UKPSF is a Framework agreed and owned by the higher education sector.

• It seeks to recognise experience and expertise in teaching and supporting learning in higher education

• There are 4 levels at which to be recognised: Descriptors 1 – 4.

• Levels are not to be seen as role-related.• These levels have been badged by the Higher

Education Academy (HEA) to allow for formal recognition.

Page 15: Presentación de Jo Peat

Aims of the UKPSF:

1. Supports the initial and continuing professional

development of staff engaged in teaching and supporting

learning

2. Fosters dynamic approaches to teaching and learning

through creativity, innovation and continuous

development in diverse academic and/or professional

settings

3. Demonstrates to students and other stakeholders the

professionalism that staff and institutions bring to

teaching and support for student learning

4. Acknowledges the variety and quality of

teaching, learning and assessment practices

that support and underpin student learning

5. Facilitates individuals and institutions in

gaining formal recognition for quality-

enhanced approaches to teaching and

supporting learning, often as part of wider

responsibilities that may include research

and/or management activities

Page 16: Presentación de Jo Peat

Uses for the UKPSF

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UKPSF

Page 18: Presentación de Jo Peat

UKPSF Dimensions

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How to gain professional recognition

• Direct written submission to the HEA• Accredited courses• Accredited professional recognition schemes

that reflect the institutional ethos– Accredited by the Higher Education Academy– Reviewed/reaccredited every 3 years– Can encompass a number of initiatives, but

everything must be mapped to the UKPSF.

Page 20: Presentación de Jo Peat

What we do at Roehampton

• Our scheme is called URRAP: University of Roehampton Reflective Account of Practice)– allows all staff in an academic or academic-related

post, who have responsibility for teaching and/or supporting learning to have their experience and expertise recognised.

– mapped against the UK Professional Standards Framework (UKPSF) and accredited by the Higher Education Academy (HEA)

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URRAP: what is it?

• Collection and presentation of evidence of experience and expertise in teaching and/or supporting learning

• Must be reflective and demonstrate application of SoTL

• Available to all academic and academic-related staff• Supported, structured, collegial process• Applications assessed by an internal panel with

external representation

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Some reflections on the UKPSF and certificated professional development

• Top-down compliance• Quality assurance rather than quality

enhancement• Positive impact on some participants• Tensions between the duality of the academic

identity: am I a teacher or a researcher? How can I excel at both?

Page 23: Presentación de Jo Peat

Some reflections on the UKPSF and certificated professional development

•affirms one’s identity as a teaching-focused academic•recognises teaching in more varied academic roles•national recognition and a means of demonstrating parity between HEIs•provides an opportunity for a conversation around teaching and the support of learning

HEA Impact Study Report (2010)

Page 24: Presentación de Jo Peat

Some reflections on the UKPSF and certificated professional development

• Positions a focus on pedagogic practices, which hitherto seemed to have diminished in comparison with research

• Positions a focus on SoTL: knowledge and application• It can also be considered a device to encourage

academics to move away from the artificial teaching/research divide

• Bringing together of pedagogy and discipline-focussed research

Page 25: Presentación de Jo Peat

Benefits come from reflectiveness, and the UKPSF specifically emphasises the importance

of reflection

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Some reflections on the UKPSF and certificated professional development

• Routes to recognition are about more than just reflection: there is significant emphasis on pedagogy and SoTL

• Internal schemes are devised to encourage interpersonal sharing and support as part of a ‘communities of practice’ approach

• The focus is positioned on student learning gain, facilitated through teaching

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Shulman and Hutchings, 1999

• ‘It is important to stress that faculty in most fields are not […] in the habit of – nor do they have the training for – framing questions about their teaching and students’ learning and designing the systematic inquiry that will open p those questions. Indeed one of the most fundamental hurdles to such work lies in the assumption that only bad teachers have questions or problems with their practice.’

• For me, this is where the UKPSF and associated recognition schemes have their place.

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An institutional view

Julie Hall, Professor of Higher Education and Deputy Provost, University of Roehampton

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfiZIK828dg&feature=youtu.be&list=PL8vTun7eB_YxswjUHdPLtkJRbCCNlmgSv

Page 29: Presentación de Jo Peat

Some reflections on the UKPSF and certificated professional development:

challenges • Academics having to prove themselves again• Internal politics• Key performance indicators (quality assurance

measurements)• Artificial indicators of teaching quality• Compliance rather than culture shift, • Considered as unnecessary and a flagrant

disregard and lack of recognition of the high quality of colleagues’ work to date

Page 30: Presentación de Jo Peat

Some reflections on the UKPSF and certificated professional development: challenges

• It is seen as being heavily oriented towards the Social Sciences, requiring some applicants to adopt a discourse which is completely alien to some practices

• Difficult to persuade colleagues that engagement has any more merit than just keeping line managers at bay and being eligible for promotion and progression.

Page 31: Presentación de Jo Peat

Good Standing• The UKPSF was originally

conceived as a vehicle to drive a continuous cycle of pedagogic CPD. Need a requirement to remain in good standing or this will not happen for many faculty.

• At present, this requirement has still not been enforced. Colleagues just have to submit a successful application and they are then recognised ‘for life’.

• Is this form of CPD meaningful without the requirement to remain in good standing?

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What does the teaching community think?

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What do academics themselves think of recognition?

• ‘It is an indicator for current and future students that my teaching has been externally checked and validated.’

• ‘I immediately put the certificate on my office wall. It may have gained some sarcastic comments from colleagues but I wanted students to see that a professional is teaching them.’

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But …

• ‘The status is neither necessary nor sufficient for being a good teacher. In fact, I think there is an inverse relationship between how quickly you get status and how good a teacher you are. Good teachers are generally too busy trying to produce high quality teaching and helping students to take the time out to apply for fellowship.’

Page 35: Presentación de Jo Peat

Student voice

• ‘I want my lecturers to know about teaching, you know, about how we learn. I know that I don’t learn in the same way as all my friends so I expect my teachers to know that too. I expect them to be able to look at us and think ‘maybe they need something different’ and then to know what that might be.’

Page 36: Presentación de Jo Peat

Student Voice

• I sort of think I can tell when one of my teachers has done one of those courses or got one of those teaching certificates. You know, they sort of seem to think about their teaching a bit more. They don’t just stand and talk at us for hours. They think about how to involve us and it makes it more exciting. That’s when I feel like I’m a university student. And I like that!’

Page 37: Presentación de Jo Peat

What of SoTL?

• So, what is the link between the UKPSF and SoTL?

• Does having a PSF have any bearing on the quality of teaching and supporting learning?

• Does it improve engagement with and use of SoTL?

Page 38: Presentación de Jo Peat

Engagement with the UKPSF is the most frequently cited activity in the UK to support

SoTL.• According to the HEA:– ‘SoTL is a model that is used in the higher education (HE)

sector to reflect on, and transform, teaching and learning practices. It focuses on teaching and learning strategies underpinning the curriculum, and promotes research-informed teaching. Increasingly, it also seeks to involve students by providing opportunities to learn in research-mode and to develop undergraduate research. SoTL is a research-led form of professional development, and has the potential to inform policy and practice at institutional level, for example, in career development and in the promotion and recognition of teaching excellence’

Page 39: Presentación de Jo Peat

Examples of SoTL at use with the UKPSF

• In the UK PSF we see explicit reference to scholarship. • Clearly aligned to the development of practice and professional recognition. • Those who have developed institutional schemes have applied the UKPSF

to reflect upon, increase awareness of, and advance SoTL • In many institutional schemes SoTL is articulated in explicit institutional

policies, strategies and guidelines, promotions criteria and new approaches to teaching and learning.

• By fostering dynamic, creative and innovative approaches to teaching and learning through continuous development, UKPSF can support sharing of practices underpinned by SoTL.

• Impacts of these practices can demonstrate to students and other stakeholders the benefits that SoTL brings to student learning as well as professional development.

Page 40: Presentación de Jo Peat

Does having the UKPSF help to develop engagement with SoTL?

• Very difficult to claim a real causal relationship and no-one has yet tried to do this.

• Signs that this framework is making a difference in terms of generating real reflection on practice and raising awareness of changes and innovations in the sector.

• This in itself is of huge benefit and we can, perhaps, claim that this is jogging faculty out of a sense of complacency in terms of their teaching.

• A direct link to quality has yet to be established, yet anecdotally, this seems to be happening.

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Does SoTL really underpin the UKPSF?

Consider different definitions of SoTL:

• SoTL is ‘ongoing learning about teaching and the demonstration of such knowledge; (Kreber and Cranton, 2000)

• SoTL is ‘problem posing about an issues of teaching or learning, study of the problem through methods appropriate to the disciplinary epistemologies, application of results to practice, communication of results, self-reflection and peer review. (Cambridge, 2001)

• SoTL is’ engagement with the existing knowledge on teaching and leanring, self-reflection on teaching and learning in one’s discipline, and public sharing of ideas about teaching and learning. (Martin et al, 1999)

The ‘fit’ here becomes apparent.

Page 42: Presentación de Jo Peat

Conclusions• Work with colleagues and encourage them to reflect on what

they do in that really enhances the learning of students.• Continuous nature of reflection and change that lead to

improvement in practice, not one-off engagement. • Consider how to maximise the benefits of a framework and

ensure it becomes embedded in a cycle of continuing professional development that is career-long and institution-wide and has a genuinely developmental focus.

• We need to ensure that all processes are underpinned by SoTL to embed quality in terms of assurance and enhancement in all of our teaching and support of learning.