Teaching induction discussions for staff inducting new teaching staff

Dear colleagues

 

At the turn of this century Jan Orrel and Allan Goody hatched a plan to host the Australian Foundations Colloquium which ran successfully for many years. That annual colloquium focussed on the needs and interests of those involved in developing and teaching ‘teaching foundation’ programs for their universities; the agenda was invariably driven by the colleagues who attended the colloquium.

 

We wonder if that opportunity to learn from each other is missed in the sector and if there is an opportunity, perhaps through the use of technology, to recreate the discussion opportunities the colloquium afforded?

 

If there is interest in the sector, then we would like to explore options – for example, a one day colloquium held probably in a capital city, or a zoom linked colloquium which has a location in perhaps every capital city, or a webinar series perhaps along the lines of the assessment webinar series or ???

 

What we’d like to know is:

 

1)     Did you attend any of the foundation colloquia and if so, what was your experience?

2)     Regardless of whether you attended the colloquia or not, would it potentially be useful for you to engage in discussions with colleagues about teaching induction?

3)     What lessons might we learn from the foundations colloquia if we do decide to create a professional development opportunity about this topic – why did it cease to exist?

4)     Can you suggest a format or approach for this PD?

5)     Are there particular barriers to people participating that we might usefully consider if we do choose to proceed with this development?

 

Cheers

 

Kym Fraser and Ann Luzeckyj 

Advancing the scholarship of teaching and learning

I recently obtained a PhD and the title of my thesis is:  Advancing scholarship of teaching and learning during professional development of new lecturers at higher education institutions. In this study, induction programmes and scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) at higher education institutions in Australia, America, the UK, Sweden and South Africa were explored through a literature study. The research study focused on the introduction of SoTL in the professional development of new lecturers as preparation for the higher education institutional context. The thesis is available via the following link https://repository.nwu.ac.za/handle/10394/25101.

My reading on the topic of induction programs indicates that the need for induction programs arises from the fact that most higher education institutions (HEIs) globally still do not require an educational or teaching qualification for appointment.

Induction programs are necessary to prepare newly appointed academic staff for the higher education teaching-learning context. It is imperative that consideration is given to timeous contact with newly appointed academic staff. Induction programs in South Africa have been criticised for occurring too late. Just yesterday I was reminded by a colleague that newly appointed academic staff had enquired why they didn't get to know about certain strategies, resources or required skills beforehand. It would have made their lives so much easier if they had been informed before assuming duty.

At Oxford University (United Kingdom) it is compulsory that new appointees spend a half day in training and in consultation within the school or faculty that they are appointed in to become au fait with the learning and teaching methodologies that are preferred in a disciplinary field or classroom context (large numbers of undergraduate students with a diversity of backgrounds, laboratories).

Certain skills may be required before entering a classroom i.e use of the institutional learning management system (LMS) or any other specific educational technology available in the lecture rooms.

The literature indicates that an institutional induction or orientation is standard practice at most HEIs. However, some appointtees may assume duty after this institutional induction and therefore have to wait until the next semester to attend an induction with the result that they may have lost out on essential information or skills. I came across an institution where an academic developer makes contactwith a new appointee as soon as they arrive during the semester so that the lack of attendance at an institutional induction is alleviated. An alternative to this is an online induction if an academic developer is not available for a face to face session.

 I therefore recommend that that knowledge and skills be considered that will prepare newly appointed academic staff for the context that they are entering. Besides educational technology skills, an overview can be given on relevant institutional policies (assessment, scholarship of teaching and learning, student feedback, study guides etc).

In the initial induction session therefore an overview should be given of what to be aware of and then after assuming duty professional knowledge and skills can be broadened and deepended over a series of sessions spread over the semester since it takes time for professional growth to take place. Induction programs generally suffer from an overload of information and become counter productive.

Schalk Fredericks
North-West University

Induction to teaching programs: what are they good for?

Don Houston and Cassandra Hood, Flinders University

Flinders, like many other universities has provided an induction to teaching at university program for many years: ours is named the Flinders Foundations of University Teaching (FFOUT). The participant feedback had almost always been good, senior staff familiar with the program had been confident of its many benefits, and once upon a time it won an AAUT Citation. However, the program’s impact had not been formally evaluated.

To move past anecdotes of value to evidence, we undertook a formal evaluation in 2015. We surveyed and interviewed participants who had undertaken FFOUT between 2011 and 2014. The data confirmed our confidence in the value of the program. The participants generally agreed that the program has positive effects on their knowledge about university teaching, their practice and their conversations and thinking about their practice. The results reinforce other research indicating that such programmes do have beneficial effects on individual academics and that those benefits also extend to work groups and have value to the institution.

One very prominent pattern in the results was that staff who had participated in FFOUT more than two years prior to the evaluation had even more positive views about its value than more recent participants. We speculated that this group had had more time and opportunity to try things from the program to enhance their teaching –particularly in areas like topic and assessment design –than more recent participants caught up in doing teaching to survive!

We observed that the transfer of learning by academics to practice takes time and is mediated by many factors. Nevertheless, where it was seen that institutional and local departmental cultures value teaching, programs such as FFOUT, provide a useful strategy for quality enhancement in higher education.

Of particular note was that a critical mass of past FFOUT participants in a workgroup was needed to positively influence both attitude to teaching and practice. FFOUT participation allowed respondents to contribute to existing conversations around teaching as well as to initiate them, in settings where teaching is valued. Unsurprisingly, local cultural factors and practices, as well as academic leadership impacts how teaching is viewed and supported. Beyond influence on individuals’ practice, participation adds to that critical mass who appreciate and work toward improving teaching.

Given the impact of academic leadership on departmental culture, it will be interesting to see how the current restructure of our university’s academic groupings to colleges from faculties impacts on the culture of learning and teaching within various workgroups. With many educational leadership positions recently filled, we hope that those staff committed to teaching maintain and are supported in their focus on quality teaching that FFOUT encourages and supports.

The key take away messages from our work are: programs like this do have benefits to participants and to the wider institution; those benefits can be optimised where participants receive support from colleagues and managers in their day to day workplaces; and the full benefits need time to accrue.Two publications from the research so far are:

University teacher preparation programmes as a quality enhancement mechanism: evaluating impact beyond individual teachers’ practice   │  Quality in Higher Education (2017)

Our HERDSA 2016 conference paper:
http://www.herdsa.org.au/publications/conference-proceedings/research-and-development-higher-education-shape-higher-10

MOOC pilot underway

Dear Colleagues


The pilot of our Fellowship MOOC 'Contemporary approaches to university teaching' is well and truly underway with just under 200 colleagues enrolled. I had hoped that perhaps we'd enrol 100 colleagues in the MOOC and am therefore overwhelmed by the response.


Participant feedback on the MOOC has been extremely positive and we have gleaned very useful information from the participants which will help us when we revise the MOOC in time for launching early in 2018.


As well as the participants enrolled in the MOOC, approximately 30 colleagues nationally and internationally have requested guest access to review the MOOC. Again, their responses have been overwhelmingly positive with several universities indicating that they want to use the MOOC for their staff teaching professional development when we launch next year.


Teaching induction research
In the next few weeks the blog will host posts from colleagues who have recently had their teaching induction research published - Don Houston and Cassandra Hood from Flinders University Australia, and Schalk Fredericks from North-West University South Africa. Also expect to see a post from Denise Chalmers and Lynne Hunt on their recent publication on evaluating teaching.


If you wish to contribute to the blog about your teaching induction program, please do contact me at kfraser@swin.edu.au


cheers


Kym

Pilot of MOOC


Dear colleagues


This week we begin the enrollment of the 80 plus new teaching staff who have expressed interest in enrolling in our pilot MOOC Contemporary approaches to university teaching.


The last few months have seen Linden, Josh, David and myself compiling, editing, loading and formatting the modules into the MOOC platform. Each module should take participants approximately 2 hours to complete.


Each module has been reviewed by content experts and the MOOC itself has been reviewed by over a dozen colleagues.


If you are interested in seeing the pilot MOOC, please contact Linden Clarke (lindenclarke@swin.edu.au) who can enrol you as a guest.


We will be back in August to update you on the pilot. We will also begin to load posts by colleagues who have written articles/theses on teaching induction and related areas.


Cheers


Kym

The Teaching Today’s Diverse Learners module

The Teaching Today’s Diverse Learners module that Teresa De Fazio and I have been working on is aimed at supporting participants to think more deeply about the diverse student cohorts entering higher education and the richness this offers to the learning and teaching experience.

The module is designed to be taken after completion of the Learning and Teaching Theories and Principles and Collaborative Learning: Profiting from Peer Power modules and is intended to build on what participants learned in those modules. Given the breadth of ideas related to diversity we encourage participants to think about what diversity looks like in their teaching contexts, the support for both staff members and students that is available within their institutions and most importantly how they work with diversity so that students feel part of a more inclusive, motivated and inspired learning culture. The module involves the following sections:

1. Introductory Activity: Who are we referring to when we consider diversity?
2. Reflection: Acknowledgement of country
3. Defining diversity
4. Who are we actually talking about when we consider diversity in higher education?
5. Responding through practical strategies
6. Determining the role of the university and its staff
7. Final reflection, review and next steps

 

Each one comprises self-paced activities including videos; readings and reflection exercises. Is there anything missing from the list? We realise it may be difficult to respond as you cannot see what each area includes, but we are trying to determine if there is anything more general that we may be missing, bearing in mind that the idea of this module is to help staff think about how to best support students to learn, it is not about specifically addressing a particular cohort in relation to their diverse needs but thinking about how to be inclusive so all students regardless of their background feel they can participate and learn.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Ann  Luzeckyj and Teresa de Fazio

To quiz or not to quiz?

Dear All

Colleagues from 19 Australian universities are contributing to the development of the ‘Contemporary Australian Teaching Practices’ MOOC which we will pilot in semester 2, 2017. As the MOOC is designed specifically for university staff who are new to teaching, we have designed it to introduce basic concepts such as how to provide constructive feedback or teach a diversity of students.  Ideally I would like to see our new teaching colleagues spend about two hours a week across a semester, exploring a different topic every week.

However, it is possible that some colleagues who have been teaching previously will access the MOOC. While I want to encourage people to dip into all of the 11 modules, people will of course, pick and choose what is of value to them: just in time, just for me.

I wonder if it would be useful therefore to have say one multiple choice question from each module in a preliminary ‘self assessment’ quiz, which colleagues could use to guide their choices.

What do you think? To quiz or not to quiz???

Cheers

Kym