“A useful way to improve your performance in a particular area is to develop a groundswell of interest and create plenty of stakeholders so I saw the Teaching Excellence Programme as an opportunity to do just that at what I felt was an important
time.” Dr Ian Mathieson Deputy Dean and Director of Learning and Teaching School of Health Sciences Cardiff Metropolitan University
Background
The Higher Education Academy’s Teaching Excellence Programme (TEP) is designed to support develop and inspire excellence in an ever-changing teaching environment transforming the lives of students in the process. It uses a series of masterclasses and action learning workshops to bring together a combination of theory knowledge from across the sector and practical ideas for leading change
all of which can be applied to teaching practice. The overriding aim is to foster a community amongst participants bonded by a mutual desire to learn and share solutions with their peers.
Besides holding TEPs over the course of four one-day sessions at its central offices in York the HEA runs in-house TEP training sessions on request at institutions across the UK. In early 2016 Dr Ian Mathieson Deputy Dean and Director of Learning and Teaching at Cardiff Metropolitan University’s School of Health Sciences began liaising with the HEA regarding the delivery of a TEP for his staff to be held at the institution. With over 2 000 students under its wing the School of Health Sciences has a significant international presence a strong vocational link and an excellent employability record.
Brief
To deliver a Teaching Excellence Programme to selected members of staff from the School of Health Sciences at Cardiff Metropolitan University focusing on selected pedagogic themes. “My move into the role of DDLT occurred concurrently with a shift in the learning and teaching landscape as for example tuition fees and TEF increased the emphasis on quality of provision ” says Dr Ian Mathieson. “The institution had become what you might call more performance metric orientated and these encompassed the L&T area. I wanted to raise the profile of learning and teaching in the School of Health Sciences to consolidate and develop our performance. A useful way to achieve this is to develop a groundswell of interest and create plenty of stakeholders so I saw the Teaching Excellence Programme as an opportunity to do just that at what I felt was an important time. It was a way of raising our performance but also capturing what we were doing. There was so much going on within the school that was really good. I wanted the Higher Education Academy to help us harness that energy that motivation the excellent work people were doing every day and bring together all the different dimensions of the learning and teaching agenda that were being played out in the school at that time.”
HEA Approach
The Training Excellence Programme consisted of two strands – masterclasses and at the request of Cardiff Met bespoke coaching (which took the place of the HEA’s traditional action learning workshops). The masterclasses were divided into four themes namely (i) large group teaching (ii) developing staff/student boundaries to support independent learning (iii) retention and attainment and (iv) assessment and feedback. The coaching sessions were also split into four themes comprising of (i) change (ii) leading change (iii) influencing change and (iv) orchestrating change.
Starting in May 2016 the TEP ran until November 2016 under the leadership of senior HEA staff with a wealth of expertise in the themes covered by the masterclasses and coaching sessions. A final plenary session was then held in January 2017 attended by 18 members of staff who had participated in a combination of the masterclasses and coaching. The plenary session focused on three key areas which were (i) key learning and reflections (ii) the impact of the masterclasses and coaching and (iii) next steps action planning and sustainability. The feedback generated at the plenary session was subsequently shared with Dr Ian Mathieson who circulated it among members of his staff.
Although the TEP was led by the HEA it was Dr Mathieson who chose the appropriate masterclass and coaching themes with heads of department in the School of Heath Sciences deciding which members of staff they wanted to benefit from attending the Programme. "I asked them to nominate a spread of staff based on experience inexperience those who were naturally motivated others who were less so and so on " says Dr Mathieson. "We also tried to identify people who had a chance of attending all the sessions. The attendance did fluctuate as you might expect due to work schedules but there was a good awareness throughout the school that the Programme was taking place."
"Cardiff Met already had a strong passion for learning and teaching " adds Henry Dawson lecturer in housing health & safety and public health who participated in the TEP. "However people can become isolated if they don’t have the opportunity to share and discuss their practice with colleagues. The Teaching Excellence Programme gave members of staff that opportunity the chance not just to talk things through but to explore different ideas and think about ways of going forward."
Outcomes
In the short term spanning its duration (May 2016 to January 2017) the TEP proved to be both inspirational and popular with staff. However Dr Ian Mathieson’s intention is for it to have far reaching long term benefits as well. "There’s plenty of value in what has been achieved but also plenty of value still to be realised " he says. "Trying to address all of the issues that arose from the TEP at once is never going to work. Therefore we established a task and finish group that began by drawing up guidance concerning student-staff boundaries but which is now evolving to work on retention and from there will move on to other agendas. We have a Principal Lecturer in Student Experience who will be leading the retention work which will result in us more consistently and comprehensively managing students any issues they might have and looking for opportunities to intervene at an early stage where there is risk. I’m also going to examine ways in which we can create opportunities for staff to come together in an environment where they can share ideas and emulate the ambience of masterclass sessions because it was clear that was something which was valued by staff."
"Some of the issues that emerged from the sessions simply wouldn’t have emerged from any other avenue " says Henry Dawson. "For instance we spoke about the area surrounding what students expect from us – how and when we engage with them answering emails out of work establishing ground rules – and that session regarding boundaries and managing expectations had so much positivity about it. You could see as you were doing the workshops that they were effective and productive. It wasn’t just a case of listening to someone telling you about how you should teach."
Adds Henry "It’s extremely helpful to share problems and realise that other members of staff are experiencing the same things. It allows you to benchmark yourself against what others in the School are doing. That’s really useful and helps with your confidence. We had some fantastic speakers who generated plenty of great ideas for interventions. I’m always on the hunt for new ideas so being able to pick up on those and use them has helped with my teaching and formative assessment. I find my students’ confidence has also improved as they respond to that formative assessment through the feedback I give them. Highlighting key points you want them to take out of each lecture; recognising when information you thought you’d explained hasn’t stuck whereas things you had mentioned tangentially have been picked up on straight away. The workshops helped immeasurably when it came to things like that."
The plenary session – led by Caroline Ackroyd (HEA Academic Lead Staff Development) and Hugh Mannerings (HEA Academic Lead Retention and Attainment & Student Engagement) – also received praise with the feedback from those who attended highlighting a broad sweep of positive actions ranging from networking and informal lunches through to task and finish groups.
"I wasn’t quite sure how the plenary ‘debrief’ would go but it proved to be an excellent experience " says Dr Ian Mathieson. "I was really pleased by the positivity of the staff who attended and could see that the Programme had engaged staff and was encouraging reflection and developments in practice. The content covered by Caroline and Hugh was very good but the session also provided time and space to think share and discuss things with other academics. The nature of modern higher education means there can be limited opportunities to do that and to feel part of a professional community. It tied things up nicely. Now it’s up to us to build on what has been achieved and take that forward."
"It’s extremely helpful to share problems and realise that other members of staff are experiencing the same things. It allows you to benchmark yourself against what others in the School are doing. That’s really useful and helps with your confidence. We had some fantastic speakers who generated plenty of great ideas for interventions. I’m always on the hunt for new ideas so being able to pick up on those and use them has helped with my teaching and formative assessment…"
Henry Dawson lecturer in housing health & safety and public health who participated in the TEP at Cardiff Metropolitan University
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