Workshops - 25 March 2015

Choose two from the workshops below one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Individual workshops can be booked during the event booking process. All workshops are delivered by HEA's Consultants in Academic Practice.

These workshops which are aligned to the UK Professional Standards Framework for Teaching and Supporting Learning in Higher Education (UKPSF) are open to all colleagues with an interest in teaching and learning. It may be of particular interest for those working towards Fellowship or Senior Fellowship. Specifically these workshops will provide an opportunity for delegates to engage with the dimensions of the UKPSF specified at each workshop description.

Dr Abbi Flint

Engagement through partnership: A framework for students as partners in learning and teaching in higher education
 

This workshop will be of significant benefit to academic and professional services staff from all disciplines interested in developing students’ engagement both with their learning and the enhancement of learning and teaching. It aims to enable staff (and students) to think critically about the notion of partnership with and between students in learning and teaching and explore how this may be applied strategically and sustainably to enhance student learning and the quality of teaching.

The session will:

• explore definitions and rationales for engagement through partnership;
• critically reflect on a new conceptual model and principles for exploring the different areas of learning and teaching where partnership may take place;
• allow time for participants to reflect on their own work around partnership and hear examples of sustainable and strategic practices;
• consider how the development of partnership learning communities may guide and sustain practice in this area;
• discuss tensions opportunities and suggestions for the development of work in this area.

UKPSF Mapping

Area of Activity

A1 – design and plan learning activities and/or programmes of study;

A4 – develop effective learning environments and approaches to student support and guidance.

Professional Value

V1 – respect individual learners and diverse learning communities;

V2 – promote participation in higher education and equality of opportunity for learners.

This workshop is mapped to descriptors 2-3(SFHEA and PHEA).

Karen Fraser and Dr Kay Hack

Students as partners in learning teaching and assessment

Engaging students in partnership means seeing students as active participants in their own learning. Approaches that involve active and experiential learning or engaging students as teachers or assessors in the learning process all have the potential to be developed into pedagogies of partnership.

During the session participants will:

• critically reflect on some of these pedagogic approaches;
• explore examples from practice;
• consider how these may be applied in different contexts including how they might align with signature pedagogies and epistemologies of the disciplines.

This session will be of interest to teachers with a range of experience (from new teachers to those with advanced experience) and anyone interested fostering learning partnerships with and between students.

UKPSF Mapping

Area of Activity

A1 – design and plan learning activities and/or programmes of study;

A2 – teach and or support learning;

A3 – assess and give feedback to learners.

Core Knowledge

K2 – appropriate methods for teaching learning and assessing in the subject area and at the level of the academic programme;

K3 – how students learn both generally and within their subject / disciplinary area(s).

Professional Value

V2 – promote participation in higher education and equality of opportunity for learners.

This workshop is mapped to descriptors 1-2 (AFHEA and FHEA).

Dr Jenny L. Lawrence

Embedding Accessible Pedagogy: Principles practice and disabled student partners

Universities across the 4 nations are duty bound to ensure inclusive environments. This fine goal can for students be efficiently realised through the embedding of accessible pedagogies in every day learning teaching and assessment practice. With specific focus on disabled students this interactive and thought provoking session will remind us of our legal and moral obligations; explore cost effective approaches to realising the ambition for inclusivity; exercise our imaginations by envisioning how an inclusive university might function; and consider the empowered and informative role disabled students can take therein.

We will work toward an understanding that taking an institution wide approach to accessible learning teaching and assessment reduces the work load of support and academic staff supports student success and saves stretch on the public purse. This session is especially prescient given the proposed changes to Disabled Students Allowance which could see large sums of money withdrawn from disabled student support at the same time as the pushing out of responsibility to institutions for disabled students’ access to learning.

This session will be of particular interest to any one with strategic responsibility for overseeing the management of learning support and adjustments for disabled students such as Senior and Principal Fellows Deans Heads of Learning and Teaching Chairs of academic committees/boards at any HE provider institution and academic staff serving as disability tutors.

UKPSF Mapping

Area of Activity

A2 – teach and or support learning.

Core Knowledge

K2 – appropriate methods for teaching learning and assessing in the subject area and at the level of the academic programme;

K4 – the use and value of appropriate learning technologies.

Professional Value

V1 – respect individual learners and diverse learning communities;

V2 – promote participation in higher education and equality of opportunity for learners.

This workshop is mapped to descriptors 2-3(FHEA and SHEA).

Dr Sally Bradley

Thinking about Principal Fellowship: Strategic leadership of learning and teaching

This workshop will be of significant benefit to highly experienced and/or senior staff considering applying for Principal Fellowship of the HEA. Led by senior academics at the HEA the session will raise your understanding of and engagement with the UKPSF and give you the opportunity to reflect on your professional practice to begin your application for Principal Fellowship.

You will have time to focus on your effectiveness and achievements in your strategic role in leading learning and teaching. You will gain an awareness and understanding of the evidence requirements and expectations for being recognised as a Principal Fellow of the HEA and benefit from seeing extracts from successful Principal Fellowship applications.

UKPSF Mapping

Area of activity core knowledge and professional value are all covered in this session in relation to Principal Fellowship.

Dr Natasha Taylor

Students as partners in subject-based research and inquiry

Whether it involves selected students working with faculty on research projects or all students on a course engaging in inquiry-based learning there is much evidence of the effectiveness of this approach in stimulating deep and retained learning.

During the session participants will:

• explore the rationale for and benefits of engaging students in learning through research;
• consider the benefits and challenges associated with different models (with examples from practice);
• critically reflect on the how research and inquiry based learning may be applied in context.

This session will be of particular interest to teaching and research staff with an interest in strengthening connections between research and teaching and engaging students within disciplinary/professional communities.

UKPSF Mapping

Area of Activity

A1 – design and plan learning activities and/or programmes of study;

A2 – teach and or support learning.

Core Knowledge

K3 – how students learn both generally and within their subject / disciplinary area(s).

Professional Value

V2 – promote participation in higher education and equality of opportunity for learners;

V3 – use of evidence-informed approaches and the outcomes.

This workshop is mapped to descriptors 1-2 (AFHEA and FHEA).

Dr Abbi Flint

Students as partners in the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL)

Students are often seen as research subjects in the scholarship of teaching and learning however there are an increasing number of effective initiatives which engage students as change agents and co-researchers of the learning and teaching they experience with the intention of enhancing the quality of student learning.

During this session participants will:

• Consider approaches to engaging students throughout the SoTL process: from identifying the focus of research to developing and implementing improvements to the student experience;
• Explore examples from practice;
• Develop their own approach to engaging students as partners in their own SoTL work.

This session will be particularly useful for:

• educational developers and pedagogic researchers who undertake SoTL work;
• teaching staff and learning support staff who are interested in investigating their practice in partnership with students.

UKPSF Mapping

Area of Activity

A5 – Engage in continuing professional development in subjects/disciplines and their pedagogy incorporating research scholarship and the evaluation of professional practices.

Professional Value

V3 – use of evidence-informed approaches and the outcomes.

This workshop is mapped to descriptors 1-2 (AFHEA and FHEA).

Jason Leman

Developing staff-student partnerships to understand and use student survey results

Surveys like the National Student Survey and the HEA’s UK Engagement Survey allow students to give feedback on their course experiences but that can often mark the end of their involvement. There are significant benefits in working in partnership with students to promote analyse discuss and use surveys to make genuine improvements to learning and teaching. Drawing on examples from around the sector the workshop will help delegates to explore the benefits of involving students as more than just survey respondents and to give them greater ownership over how the data are brought to life and used as catalysts for change.

This workshop will be of interest to those wanting to work with students to make positive use of results from student surveys.

UKPSF Mapping

Core Knowledge

K5 – methods for evaluating the effectiveness of teaching.

This workshop is mapped to descriptors 3-4 (SFHEA and PFHEA).