EDUC46340: Enhancing Academic Practice

• Introduction to Academic Practice

• The purpose of the programme is to support higher education professionals engaged in teaching, supporting learning, and assessment to enhance their practice .
• This module seeks:
• To support higher education professionals in developing a wide range of knowledge, skills values and behaviours which underpin high quality inclusive teaching and the support of student learning. To offer structured professional development opportunities to individuals who teach and support learning in higher education. To develop the ability to reflect critically on teaching. To develop higher education professionals who are committed to continuous development and lifelong learning relevant to learning and teaching in higher education underpinned when appropriate through the latest in digital pedagogies. To provide opportunities for professional recognition against institutional, national and international benchmarks. To enhance participants ability to appraise, evaluate and utilise appropriate digital learning techniques and technologies.

• Recognising the prior experience of participants is core to this module. Participants will engage with a number of workshops during the module. All workshops will be linked to the learning outcomes for the module. Two core workshops are required and a further 8 will be selected by the participant from a list of modules from the Academic Staff Development program. All workshops are aligned to the learning outcomes of the module Core workshops will cover the following concepts:
• Using evidence and reflection to enhance teaching This workshop focuses on how to gather and use evidence, coupled with critical reflection, in order to make a case. It will be useful for designing the final summative portfolio and reflective statement, but also more widely for claims such as promotion applications and applications for national teaching fellowships.
• Research in Learning and Teaching This workshop focuses on utilising education research techniques and methods to explore and further enhance your own teaching practice. It will be useful in developing your final summative portfolio which must include the outputs from appropriate research methods applied to your own teaching.
• Optional Workshops Participants must take 8 (or more) optional workshops and complete the follow-up challenges in order to build their portfolio of evidence. Optional workshops will run weekly in term, to allow them to pick topics that interest them and support their development. Workshops will also be open to all staff.
• To support students, tutorials will take place three times a term, usually before a workshop. These will used to continue the Action Learning Set approach focussed developed in module 1 and to support work towards engagement with the module assessments. They will allow participants to check-in with their tutor to ensure theyve met all the learning outcomes for the course prior to assessment.

Subject-specific Knowledge:

• Successful participants should be able to demonstrate, In-depth Knowledge, understanding and critical awareness of:
• relevant subject material in their fields;
• appropriate methods for teaching and supporting learning in their fields;
• how students learn, both generally and in their subjects;
• the selection and use of appropriate technologies to support learning;
• how to evaluate the effectiveness of their teaching;
• the implications of quality assurance and enhancement for their professional practice. '>

Subject-specific Skills:

• Skills and abilities to undertake, appraise and enhance all activities drawn from the list below :
• design and plan learning activities;
• teach appropriately and to support student learning;
• assess student learning and give feedback;
• develop effective learning environments and support and guide students;
• integrate scholarship, research, and professional activities with teaching and supporting learning;
• evaluate their practice and plan continuing professional development

Key Skills:

• Participants will be able to demonstrate and justify the values of:
• respect for individual learners;
• incorporating relevant research, scholarship and professional practice in their teaching
• commitment to the development of learning communities;
• encouraging participation in higher education, acknowledging diversity, and promoting equality of opportunity;
• evaluating practice and to continuing professional development.

• Interactive workshop form the core mechanism for teaching. Reflective challenges involving collaborative problem solving, observation (face-to-face and/or using video footage), peer review and professional conversations about academic practice, both 1-1 and in small supportive groups are set as challenges after each workshop;
• The following work will be submitted for summative assessment:
• a reflective journal with an annex of relevant evidence which with an embedded reflective narrative based in educational and disciplinary scholarship.
• All components of the assessment are aligned with Descriptor 2 of the UK Professional Standards Framework (UKPSF) for teaching and supporting learning in higher education. Work will not be graded; judgements are pass-fail.

Formative assessment opportunities will be framed as challenges which are set in each workshop. These will either be short (2 hours long) or longer (6 hours). Participants must be able to evidence engagement with 20 hours of this to be permitted to engage with the summative assessment. Participants will be encouraged to develop autonomy in seeking feedback from multiple sources and developing their ability to self-assess as well as reviewing the work of their peers. Attendance at all activities marked with this * symbol will be monitored. Students who fail to attend at least 75% of these activities, or to complete the summative or formative assessment specified above, will be subject to the procedures defined in the University's General Regulation V

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