Creating a Culture of Learning and Teaching in a University Department

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Creating a Culture of Learning and Teaching in a
University Department

• Will Bowen-Jones,
• School of Sport and Exercise Science, University
  of Worcester

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A Brief Personal History

• Non teaching duty
• Departmental Representative on Institutions
  Learning and Teaching Committee
• Head of Department wanted a Learning and Teaching
  Strategy!!!!

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Learning and Teaching Strategy

• Learning and Teaching Centre
• L and T strategy had 4 key values
• BUT 106 action points!!!
• LESSON NUMBER 1
• Everyone is interested in and ultimately
  responsible for learning and teaching

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Lesson Number Two

• Writing a response to all 106 action points
• All staff were named as being responsible for at
  least 3 action points
• HOWEVER - Nothing was achieved, evaluation was
  impossible
• THE 6 POINT ANNUAL ACTION PLAN WAS BORN
• All were measurable and most important of all
  achievable
• Establishing a Learning Advisory Group (LAG)

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Who decides the targets?

• Everyone
• But YOU have to identify the emerging issues
  which the staff and students care about
• Excellent systems and lines of communication
  within the School
• Issues are highlighted and emerge through a range
  of sources
• Create a forum, let people talk and listen

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EXAMPLE

• Start with something easy to achieve
• Consistency (e.g. student attendance at
  lectures)
• Module leaders set their own attendance demands
  through module contracts
• Monitored through, student evaluations, DQAC,
  course committees, exam boards
• L and T annual action plan reports the policy
  (attendance) to be a resounding success

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Facing up to Sterner Challenges

• Peer Observation
• Resistance hostility and apathy
• Focus on the benefits/opportunities
• What is the measure for success?
• Certainly not 100 engagement
• Honest evaluation but there have to be benefits
  and these have to communicated to everybody
• Next year the hostility and apathy will wane

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The Benefits of the Annual Action Plan

• Targets set are shared by all staff
• Staff and students feel the benefit in a
  relatively short space of time
• At the end of the year there is a sense of
  achievement and growth
• However LESSON NUMBER THREE

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The Curse of the Annual Action Plan

• You tend to set targets which you know will
  deliver a positive outcome
• You avoid those which are unlikely to succeed or
  difficult to measure
• Therefore deeper, longer lasting progress is
  unlikely to happen
• Growth in any area is dependent on taking a
  longer term view

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Changing Face of L and T

• Quality enhancement
• Student experience
• What are the implications for University
  departments?
• Moving from a perceptual to a research based
  approach
• Teaching Enriched and Informed by Research

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Sustaining the Culture

• L and T funded projects
• What does the money allow us to buy?
• Time?
• Yes, but only if we can find enough money to buy
  the time to deliver the outcomes we want
• Time tends to be more precious than money

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Improving the Student Experience

• There is a balance to be struck
• The challenge for departments is to ensure that
  the quality of todays student learning
  experience is undiminished by the desire to
  improve tomorrows learning environment

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Top Down or Bottom up?
Institution
Learning and Teaching Co-ordinator
Department
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Learning and Teaching Co-ordinator
Department
Institution