Case Study: Public Engagement with Teaching at the University of East Anglia

CUE East Case StudiesAutumn 2010

Engaging with Communities…City, Coast and Countryside

CASE STUDY: Public Engagement with Teaching at the University of East Anglia

2 : CUE East Case Study

WelcomeWelcome to our case study publication on publicengagement with teaching. The role ofCommunity University Engagement East (CUEEast) at UEA is to provide an environment wherepublic engagement with research and teaching isencouraged, supported and facilitated. Thispublication is one of three issued in autumn2010, almost three years into the four yearnational pilot. The others are on our PublicEngagement Continuing ProfessionalDevelopment Programme and on PublicEngagement with Research. All tell you aboutsome of the wide range of engagement activitiesthat we have supported and how they havehelped to change the culture of the University.The CPD edition provides an assessment of theCUE East staff development programme and theResearch edition features the different ways inwhich CUE East has encouraged and supportedengagement with research.

This edition profiles five UEA engagementpractitioners; Dr Laura Bowater (Faculty ofHealth), Martin Scott (Faculty of SocialSciences), Dr Adam Longcroft (Faculty of SocialSciences), Dr Kay Yeoman (Faculty of Science)and Dr Stephen Ashworth (Faculty of Science).As a pilot, we are keen to share not only our ownchallenges and lessons from a CUE Eastperspective but also of those experienced bypractitioners who may be described as being ‘atthe coalface’. That way, other individuals andinstitutions may benefit from the breadth anddepth of our experience when they seek todevelop their own engagement activities andmissions. We are grateful to all the practitionersfor agreeing to contribute to this publication.

This edition is co-authored by Dr Julia Stinton(the Beacons Researcher), Liane Ward (CUE EastOperations Manager) and Julie Worrall (CUE EastProject Director). Dr Stinton works alongside theteam and her role is to evaluate CUE East. Sheis employed by City College Norwich andundertakes a range of evaluation activities inorder to provide constructive feedback onsignificant learning points as the four yearprogramme develops. This has helped us toembrace the practice of continuous improvementin all aspects of our programme delivery and ithas been enormously beneficial.

Julie WorrallCUE East Project Director

This case study publication focuses on the experience of five engagementpractitioners at UEA who were interviewed by Liane Ward. The vignettesare framed by the background to the Beacon programme, aims andobjectives, a ‘typology’ of public and community engagement, overalloutcomes and impact, the future and a conclusion. A key objective of CUE East is to increase levels of support, reward and recognition forpublic engagement across the institution with the aim of introducing andembedding a culture at UEA where knowledge dialogue is encouraged,nurtured and supported. To facilitate this CUE East provides advice,liaison, brokerage and facilitation, talks, workshops and presentations,community contacts and partnerships, assistance with event organising,project and small expense funds, and professional developmentopportunities. Staff and students have been offered opportunities todevelop, expand and apply their public engagement understanding, skills and knowledge in a wide variety of contexts.

This publication is NOT however, about CUE East. It is about thepractitioners; their stories and views on their practice, the challenges and the lessons learnt, and their forward plans.

CUE East Case Study:Public Engagement with Teaching

Summary

The UK Higher Education fundingcouncils and Research Councils UK,in association with the WellcomeTrust, Beacons for PublicEngagement: Invitation to apply forfunds (December 2006)

University of East Anglia (2007) CUEEast Business Plan 2008-2012

McDaid, L. (2008) A qualitativebaseline report on the perceptions ofpublic engagement in University ofEast Anglia academic staff ReportNo. RS7408, The Research Centre, CCN, Norwich

Worrall, J (April 2008) Foundation forUEA Public & Community EngagementPromotions Criteria; with specificactivities, measures and questionsfor discussion (unpublished)

UEA’s Green Book, July 2010(unpublished)

UEA’s Centre for Staff & EducationalDevelopment (CSED) Programmes2008-2011

Sources

Cover image (and page 11): UEA DEV students involvedin the project with Future Radio (see page 6)

CUE East Case Study : 3

A core focus of CUE East is to increase levels of support, reward and recognition for publicengagement across the institution. The BaselineResearch recommendations proposed ‘…the term‘public engagement’ should be clarified and atypology of activities developed’ and ‘…thebarriers to public engagement that have beenidentified should be considered, along with anypractical steps to address them’ (McDaid 2008.p7). Table 1 indicates how the CUE Eastprogramme aligns with and is applicable to theBeacons for Public Engagement (BPE) aims andCUE East objectives.

Aims and Objectives

The UEA led Beacon, CUE East, is both inwardlooking (encouraging a change of culture inrespect of public engagement) and outwardlooking (promoting meaningful discourse with the public):

“Our ‘knowledge dialogue’ activities aredesigned to foster an informed climate withinwhich we are all better able to improve qualityof life, support social and economicregeneration regionally and inculcate civicvalues. Our aims are divided into three inward-looking activities and three outward-looking activities.” (CUE East Business Plan, 2007, p.15)

The change of culture refers to the aim to makepublic engagement an integral part of academicpractice that is recognised, valued and rewarded.The challenge of achieving and demonstratingculture change was acknowledged in the originalbid for the Beacon status,

“…Like true public engagement itself, it is acomplex, multi-faceted process and cannot beachieved by simple ‘engineering’ ordemonstrated by statistics or monetary valuessuch as visitor figures at museums/publiclectures and annual spend.” (CUE EastBusiness Plan, 2007, p.12)

The Baseline Research whereby 55 academic andresearch staff were interviewed about their viewson university public engagement and where culturaland institutional barriers to involvement wereexplored, provided a qualitative baseline againstwhich the change in institutional culture could beassessed. The interviews highlighted that mostacademics believed public engagement wasimportant but not as important as other activities,such as research and teaching, and for some,administration. A Senior Researcher concludes,

“It’s very difficult to say because it almostcomes into a different category because it isnot part of my job description or one of themeasures against which I think I will ever bemeasured… it’s more like deciding do I wantto go for a run today? It’s something I enjoyand it’s important but I don’t really see it aspart of my paid job.” (McDaid 2008. p25).

This illustrates that for many, public engagementwas seen as a bolt-on activity and not an integralpart of teaching or research. In contrast, however,for some disciplines, described in the BaselineResearch as being more ‘public-facing’ such asthose in the in the Faculty of Health, publicengagement was shown to be synonymous with‘user-involvement’ in both research and teaching.The Baseline Research will be repeated in 2011.

Background


Of the academics interviewed for the BaselineResearch, 84% said that they had personally been involved in some form of self-defined publicengagement. The interview sample included ahigh proportion of senior academics, thus it wasunlikely that the 84% applied to the wider UEAcommunity. Many of the activities cited were one-way communication activities, such as media work, public lectures and writing for thenon-specialist audience. A smaller number of

two-way dialogue activities, such as participatoryresearch and interactive events, were given as examples (McDaid 2008. p6).

The Baseline Research identified a number of barriers to public engagement such as time; career progression; peer approval; theresearch-led culture; perceived risk; funding;attitudes towards public engagement; the media;and, the challenges of engaging people.

CUE East describes public and community engagement as a multi-faceted and complex activity thatbenefits UEA staff and students, the University as a whole and the community. It has devised asimple model, now incorporated in UEA’s academic promotions criteria, which reflects the one, two and three way types of engagement:

A ‘Typology’ of Public and Community Engagement

Table 1: How CUE East plans to meet itsobjectives and those of the Beacons initiative

Beacon for Public CUE East Objective To be achieved throughEngagement Initiative Aims

Create a culture in HEIs and To introduce and embed • Incentives and Reward research institutes and centres a culture at UEA where Schemewhere public engagement is knowledge dialogue activity • Enterprise and Engagement formalised and embedded as is encouraged, tracked, tracker a valued and recognised activity evaluated and rewarded • Engagement CPD Programmefor staff at all levels appropriately • Enhancement Fund

• Sustainable Living

Build capacity for public To introduce and embed Partnership Fund

engagement within institutions a culture at UEA whereand encourage staff at all levels, knowledge dialogue activitypostgraduate students, is encouraged, tracked,and undergraduates where evaluated and rewardedappropriate, to become involved appropriately

Being in dialogue with the public and policy-makers

3 way

e.g. governmentalcommittees involving theacademic as the ‘expert’,such as an expert panel,government led publicconsultation and taskforces, and activemembership ofprofessional bodies.

Providing a service and being in dialogue with the public and communities

2 way

e.g. volunteering, promoting and employinguser involvement in research and the co-production of research, forums, focusgroups, seminars and debates that involvethe public, pro-bono schemes, dramaoutreach, museum education, continuingeducation and lifelong learning, contributingto the organisation and delivery ofengagement activities.

Communicating knowledge and enriching cultural life

1 way

e.g. public lectures, media work,writing for the non-specialist,exhibitions, showcasing academicknow-how, pro-bono schemes,communicating research to thepublic, acting as the lead for majorfestival themes, contributing to theorganisation and delivery ofengagement activities.


The PractitionersVignette 1: Dr Laura Bowater, Senior Lecturer, CUE East Public Engagement Award Winner (2010) and Public Engagement Practitioner, School of Medicine, Health Policy & Practice, Faculty of Health

Background

Dr Laura Bowater (pictured below) undertakesresearch in areas which include how science andresearch is taught within a medical curriculum, andshe also researches public understanding of science.

Key activity

In the Faculty of Health, “public engagement isfirmly integrated into the discipline ... the schoolabsolutely depends on the public (patients) tohelp teach our students” (Bowater, 2010). This ispartly due to the nature of the subject in that thepublic (patient) is fundamental to everything. From the outset, public engagement is built intothe curriculum to give students opportunities towork with academics, clinicians, colleagues,patients and their relatives to share and reflect on experiences. As part of the course, studentsalso complete a reflective portfolio whereby theyevaluate their understanding and what they havelearnt from their interactions. “...this experiencetaught me that good listening and patience arefundamental in forming and maintaining strongdoctor-patient relationships” (Dimple Bhatia, Year 4, MED student).

Students are also taught to engage with evidencebased practice and to assist with this, studentsspend time writing research protocols andundertaking a student research project. Publicengagement projects suitable to individual level ofresearch interest and skill are also offered tostudents in this part of the course. In addition, allstudents are asked to think about their researchfrom the patient or the participant perspective,and they are asked to consider and address theethical implications of involving people in theresearch process; effectively communicating withparticipants about the research is a key skill thatwe want students to develop.

Aim

Development of a curriculum that embeds, respectsand values the doctor/patient relationship.

Challenges

Tensions can exist in curriculum design betweendeveloping the science/clinical skills and the‘learning on the job’ softer skills. It is important tokeep the balance between these areas to ensurethat these ‘soft’ skills do not become squeezed

out in favour of clinical training. Some wouldsuggest that people skills can be learnt ‘on thejob’. However, Laura argues there is “... no pointhaving a brilliant clinician who can’tcommunicate” (Bowater, 2010).

Lessons Learnt and Key Outputs

Developing a public engagement focus takes timeand it is critical that the ethos of the school issupportive to this. Planning is required to developand broaden out communication skills, and toarrange timeframes. Laura recommends starting“... gradually, even if it is just a one-to-oneexercise in the beginning that’s fine. Build upcapability ... students must perceive that they arebeing supported by the school”. The importanceof good organisational and problem-solvingexpertise should not be underestimated and anygood public engagement programme will needinvestment and money. Furthermore, it isimportant to ensure that public engagement “... is not mere tokenism, public engagementdoesn’t work as a ‘tick box exercise’, the publicare learners and teachers as well. Our coursewould not work if we did not have the public”(Bowater, 2010).

Laura has found that, since being promoted onthe basis of public engagement, her work hasextended beyond her immediate area of expertise.With a history of science communication andrunning events and family days, Laura has nowturned her hand to working in the Faculty ofHealth, applying her skills and knowledge towardsa ‘service-user’ focus. Being recognised for herpublic engagement activity has given her renewedconfidence and enthusiasm for what she doesday-to-day. She also feels that promotion on thebasis of public engagement work should give othercolleagues ‘faith’ that they too can do the samething, “... interested colleagues should have a goand sound out their schools as regards supportand help available ... above all colleagues shouldwork to ensure that public engagement isintegrated into what they do and not a bolt onextra” (Bowater, 2010).

Forward Plans

Publication of a book on Science Communicationwith Kay Yeoman and Stephen Ashworth. Continueto encourage the school’s ethos of a ‘patient asperson’ centred approach to medicine.

Vignette 2: Martin Scott, Lecturer in Media and International Development and PublicEngagement Practitioner, School of International Development, Faculty of Social Sciences

Background

Martin Scott (pictured below) is a lecturer inMedia and International Development in theSchool of International Development. He isconvener of MA modules in Media and Society and Media and International Development.

Key Activity

In 2010 Martin set up an exciting collaborationbetween DEV students studying for an MA inMedia and International Development at UEA anda local community radio station in Norwich calledFuture Radio. Students met every other week,either at UEA or at the radio station or in thecommunity to work together, with staff andvolunteers from the station, and with a media anddevelopment organisation called New MediaNetworks. The projects students worked on lastyear included helping the station to become moresustainable and better able to promote citizenjournalism. Martin argues that this project has“helped students to see how theory taught in theclassroom, is relevant, or not, in the real world. Ithas also challenged students assumption’s aboutwhat is ‘development’ and what role the media canplay” (Scott 2010). From a lecturer’s perspective,he suggests that it is more interesting to “teachoutside the classroom about real projects thatstudents are experiencing first hand”.

Aim

Future Radio’s aim is to promote freedom ofexpression and the dissemination of informationfor the benefit of the local and wider communities.The aim of collaborating with Future Radio throughteaching is to help them to achieve these aimsand at the same time, provide students with anexperience in which they can learn about andreflect upon the process of putting media anddevelopment into practice.

Challenges

Martin argues that “including public engagementin a module is scary because the experience isvery different every time. Different obstacles andchallenges will arise and in a sense you don’tknow where public engagement will take you”(Scott, 2010). Undertaking a module in whichinvolves high levels of public engagementultimately involves devolving power and control

from the lecturer to the student. Whist this can be challenging for the lecturer, it is empoweringfor the students. Also, some students may notimmediately accept public engagementopportunities and a lecturer may have to workhard to get students to ‘buy in’ to embracinglearning in the field – some will be morecomfortable in the traditional classroom.

Lessons Learnt

Martin suggests that it is useful to carry outpublic engagement activities with a small group atfirst and ask for as much feedback from studentsand other partners as possible: “You won’t get itright first time” (Scott 2010). Moreover, asignificant amount of personal time is needed toplan, produce and carry out public engagement,“you can’t plan public engagement the nightbefore” (Scott 2010). Martin also feels stronglythat in being involved in public engagement, “it is important that the public and theorganisations you work with are seen as partnersin the endeavour.” (Scott 2010). This, hecontends, is not only important for ensuingsustainability, but that demonstrating yourcommitment to the project is vital in ensuring itssuccess. “Public engagement must be genuine, it shouldn’t be done just once and it shouldn’tsimply be a box ticking exercise…One of theorganisations we are working with was genuinelyshocked when we can come back to talk to themthe second time because they had grown weary of individuals and institutions demonstrating onlya half-hearted commitment.” (Scott 2010)

Key Outputs

Future Radio has implemented all of the work thatstudents produced in the first year. Several studentshave gained internships through the contacts thatthey have made by working on this project.

Forward Plans

There are plans to turn this collaboration withFuture Radio into a formal module so that it willbe more sustainable and can be formalised intothe curriculum.

“….working with Future Radio was a greatlearning experience for the students, it wasgreat for the station and ultimately will be great for the community” (Scott 2010).


Vignette 3: Dr Adam Longcroft, Senior Lecturer, CUE East Public Engagement Award Winner (2010) andPublic Engagement Practitioner, School of Education & Lifelong Learning (EDU), Faculty of Social Sciences.

Background

Dr Adam Longcroft (pictured below) has for thelast 15 years played a key role in developing anddelivering a large adult education programme viaContinuing Education at UEA which has involvedworking in partnership with a wide range of agenciesand local societies to take the University into theremote corners of the region – as a result, a hostof small communities have become ‘outposts’ ofhigher education learning and many hundreds ofpeople have been able to engage with UEA who wouldotherwise have been prevented from doing so.

Key Developments

Finding innovative ways of facilitating workforcedevelopment is a key aspect of Adam’s work.Adam played a key role in developing a pioneeringgeneric Honours level ‘Top up’ degree (BAProfessional Studies) which is vocationallyorientated and facilitates progression of studentsfrom the University’s partner colleges. Morerecently Adam has been involved in thedevelopment, in partnership with Norfolk CountyCouncil Children’s Services department, of aFoundation degree in social pedagogy andIntegrated Children’s Services. This innovativedegree programme – the first ever to be run byUEA itself – has required working with a number ofexternal partners including organisations in thevoluntary sector, and colleagues from otherdisciplines at UEA. Adam has also played a keyrole in securing a large research grant fromEnglish Heritage to record and analyse the 400+surviving Victorian and Edwardian school ruralschools of Norfolk, which has attracted theinvolvement of hundreds of members of thepublic. Adam has recently worked with NorfolkCreative Partnerships to develop a tailor-madepost-graduate training course for practisingteachers who are pioneering innovativeapproaches to learning in the classroom.

Aims

Adam’s aims are to continue to develop teachingprogrammes which attract ‘non traditional’learners to higher education, to explore new waysof developing the skills of the region’s workforce,and to instigate research which engages both theinterest and active participation of the public.Adam’s hope is that the new Foundation degreewill have a significant impact on the standards ofcare provided to some of the most vulnerablechildren and young people in our region.

Challenges

Adam says “A key part of my job has been takingthe University and its research out into thedarkest corners of Norfolk and Suffolk. It isimportant to go out and engage with the public.They won’t come to us. We need to meet themhalfway”. (Longcroft 2010) More recently his workhas focused on bringing new groups of learners toUEA – in particular those in employment seekingto ‘up-skill’ and gain degree level qualifications inthe process. “Many working people missed out ona chance to benefit from higher education whenthey were younger. A key part of my role now is togive them that chance”. (Longcroft 2010) Mostuniversities might take the view that Foundationdegrees are not “core business”. Adam believesthat vocational courses, work based learning, andworkforce development should be a centralconcern for all universities. Developing these kindof courses is not an easy option, however, sincethey often require bringing together diversespecialists from many different agencies andsectors. Adam believes that, “…in order to makesuch courses successful, staff need to be skilledin acting as a lynchpin in bringing varied partners,cultures and viewpoints together” (Longcroft,2010). He believes that employers are key playersthat could bring in much needed funding, ideasand resources to the ‘HE Mix’.

Lessons Learnt and Key Outputs

Adam says “The University needs to continue toattract staff with ‘entrepreneurial flair’, who canwork with businesses, public sector employersand others to build long term partnerships andnetworks so that innovative solutions can befound to the professional development needs ofindividuals and organisations” (Longcroft 2010).

EDU has developed long-standing relationshipswith a wide range of national and local partnerssuch as the National Trust, RSPB, English Nature,English Heritage and a number of schools andvolunteer run local societies. This means that theSchool is well placed continue its wideningparticipation, public engagement and workforcedevelopment objectives.

Forward Plans

The funding landscape is changing rapidly and willcontinue to change. New innovative partnershipprojects need to continue to be sourced anddeveloped so that the community is developed aswell as new funding streams embraced.


Background

Dr Kay Yeoman (pictured below) is a seniorlecturer in the School of Biological Sciences andhas received a CUE East Public Engagement Award(2009) for her involvement with projects, with localschools, the Norwich Castle Museum and theInspire Discovery Centre.

Key Activity

In the School of Biological Sciences, students areable to take either a Biology degree with Sciencein Communication or they can take sciencecommunication as an optional module in theirfinal year of study. As part of the module inScience Communication, students will write anessay on a communication issue and thenundertake a practical engagement project incollaboration with one of our partner organisations.The project report includes writing about theirexperience as a piece of self reflection. Kay feelsthat “…for a scientist it can often be hard toembrace the language of self reflection. However,such reflection is good grounding for futureAppraisals, learning to present yourself forinterviews and developing empathy and goodpeople skills”. Students who undertake theScience Communication module have also becomeinvolved through their projects in the design andset up for example of after school clubs, NorwichCastle events, magazines and postcards andForum family days. There are also informalopportunities at UEA to get involved in engagementfor example STEM ambassadors, Researchers inResidence and the Teacher Scientist Network.This demonstrates that public engagement can be Faculty led, student led or volunteer led.

Aim

“With regards to the students it is imperative thatthey get a mindset early on in their studies of theimportance of communication in their subjectarea. The skills that they learn in publicengagement are very transferable and alsoextremely useful in terms of employability whetherthey continue to pursue an academic career ornot” (Yeoman, 2010).

Challenges

Time is a huge barrier and lots of it is needed todevelop credit bearing modules. “It is importantthat the module being developed mustdemonstrate academic rigour and good

pedagogical design” (Yeoman, 2010). Withregards to involving sceptical colleagues in publicengagement, Kay feels that the best way toinfluence colleagues is to “…do it yourself (leadby example)” (Yeoman, 2010). Kay feels thatanother challenge that needs to be addressed isthat of providing opportunities for interestedcolleagues to ‘dip a toe in the water’ but providingactivities that they can become involved with thuscreating inspiration via a ‘helping out’ route.However, that it is equally important to be awarethat there will be colleagues that don’t want to do public engagement and that’s ok!

Lessons Learnt

Students need to be encouraged to undertakegood practice and research in public engagement,and part of this is finding out what literature isavailable with regards to public engagement. Kay feels that it is most important for a module inpublic engagement to be both generic but at thesame time appealing to students who might havevery different specialisms or areas of interest.Students need to learn an important lesson – thattheir research is not done in a vacuum and that itdoes have impact. They also need to learn thatthe public have an opinion. “Public engagementforms a critical bridge between HE andcommunities, and thus if students are doingprojects in science communication then they arehelping to break down the barriers between thetwo” (Yeoman 2010).

Key Outputs

Kay has found that the last few years ofembedding public engagement into taughtmodules has now enabled the School to buildcapacity in terms of past students being able tocome back and mentor new students in publicengagement activities thus acting as role modelsas well. Students on the programme involved invideo projects were able to take advantage of theBBC Voices film training day at the Forum inNorwich (offered via the public engagementtraining programme in CSED) As a result of Kay’sextensive work in this area, she has now becomea Science Advisor for the Norwich Castle Museumand a Trustee of the Inspire Discovery Centre.

Forward Plans

To develop an MSc Science and Communicationdegree jointly between BIO, ENV, and FTV.


Vignette 4: Dr Kay Yeoman, Senior Lecturer, CUE East Public Engagement Award Winner (2009)and Public Engagement Practitioner, School of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science

Background

Dr Stephen Ashworth (pictured below) is a seniorlecturer in the School of Chemistry and AssociateDean for Admissions in the Science Faculty. He isalso a past CUE East Public Engagement Awardwinner (2009). Stephen is well known in his fieldfor his inspiring lectures to the Women’s Institute(WI) as well as being involved in hosting theannual Salters’ Festival and the Norwich Science Olympiad.

Key Activity

At the undergraduate level there are two moduleson ‘Special Topics in Chemistry’ which heorganises. In the first module a series of guestspeakers both internal and external are invited toshare their experiences and specialisms with thestudents, to raise students’ awareness of what isgoing on in the discipline and excite the audience.Students are then set assignments where theyare required to write for different audiences. Acombination of peer assessment and formalmarking is used. The second module of ‘SpecialTopics’ has the students in groups designingposters and doing an oral presentation for asummer school. Also they are given titles ofthemes from ‘Special Topics 1’ lectures on whichthey individually write a longer academic piece. Allof this gives the students at this level somepractice in the nuts and bolts of publicengagement work.

Aim

Development and assessment of communicationskills, both oral and written, plus research skills.Designing poster skills and gaining confidence in oral presentations, all of which enable thestudents “… to practise the skills in a non-threatening environment” (Ashworth, 2010).

Challenges

Setting up such modules such as outlined abovedoes take time and resources and further-moredoes “not always fit into standard timetables”(Ashworth 2010). Slotting guest speakers in andorganising groups of students doing differenttasks can be logistically challenging. If, inaddition, there were to be interaction with thepublic (especially at this early stage) there ispotentially more that could go wrong: equipmentnot working, public not attending. In such cases

there would need to be flexibility in terms of beingable to handle an “element of uncertainty”(Ashworth 2010). Within the institution there is a need to understand and articulate better thedifference between outreach, businessengagement and public engagement. What roleeach plays in university life and more importantly,to decide how much of it the university wishes toallocate time and resourcing to undertake.Culturally and historically researchers have doneresearch and teaching but the emphasis has beenon research. The culture within the university ischanging so that public engagement is morevalued. Engagement “…in company time”(Ashworth 2010) which detracts from research isnot necessarily encouraged. The challenge herewill be to better combine research with publicengagement, especially in the light of the desiresof Research Councils to embed engagement inresearch.

Lessons Learnt

The value of including peer assessment in theevaluation and assessment process. In order forthis to be a success, the criteria need to bepublicised well in advance of the assessment.Assessing experiential learning in a public arenais challenging in the sense that different methodsand ways of assessing may need to be used suchas the reflective process.

Key Outputs

Stephen started his public engagement work by giving lectures to the WI. This in turn led topresentations to schools and more embedding of public engagement in house: two of the WIlectures feature in the first Special Topics module.Stephen’s work has also seen him involved infunding award panels both for EPSRC and CUEEast and has also taken him out to Rajiv GandhiScience Centre in Mauritius and also to the ‘SciFest Africa’ event in Grahamstown, South Africa.

Forward Plans

To continue to build capacity within the school with regards to having the resources for“interested parties” (Ashworth 2010) to go outand undertake engagement. Graduate studentsare also encouraged to take part as an element of the skills programme (PPD) which runsalongside their PhD studies.


Vignette Vignette 5: Dr Stephen Ashworth, Senior Lecturer, Associate Dean for Admissions,CUE East Public Engagement Award Winner (2009) and Public Engagement Practitioner,School of Chemistry, Faculty of Science


Having champions within a school or faculty, whoare embedding public engagement within theirteaching model, increases impact and buildscapacity, particularly if this can be combined withformal or informal peer evaluation of teaching andlearning with public engagement. This, in turn, may help to sustain and promote growth anddevelopment internally, in the form of training topeers, and in wider contexts. This successful publicengagement activity generates support andenthusiasm, and a more strategic buy-in at school,faculty and/or institutional level.

The outcomes and impact of any curriculum re-design including engagement activitiesundertaken on a small-scale are likely to be moresuccessful in the initial stages of any publicengagement related module, particularly if it istaught by those who are more comfortable withthe method. This, consequently, is more likely todevelop skill, confidence and enthusiasm at aschool, faculty and institutional level.

Facilitating student feedback and student peerreview as part of any public engagement activityevaluation process encourages student participationand ownership of the engagement element ofteaching programmes. The outcome of this shouldbe a level of commitment and support by studentsto the practice of engagement within teaching,particularly if they can see the impact of undertakingsuch activity on future careers and employability.

Furthermore, formal evaluation of public engagementactivity will add to the growing body of expertise andliterature on the subject within HE. A well-structuredand successfully completed engagement module

will enhance the reputation of the institution withinthe public engagement arena and this may wellextend to invitations to teach for outside agencies,to provide guest lectures or to act as a consultant.

Public engagement enables explicit application of theory to practice and practice to theory, anddemonstrates to colleagues the importance and benefits of its inclusion within teaching.

An outcome of embedding engagement withinteaching should be the generation of a publicengagement skill set, a portfolio of knowledge andexpertise which can be included within teachingprogrammes by colleagues when undertakingpublic engagement activities with students, or innew courses with engagement themes.

Undertaking public engagement within teachingshould not be an individually, isolated event.Planning units and applying for grants shouldpromote working in partnership with colleagues.Indeed, the impact of increased partnership andcollaborative processes may extend into multi-institutional groups, facilitating the exchange ofideas in a public engagement community-of-practice. Moreover, in financial terms publicengagement can lead to further funding foradditional projects. An example from this casestudy was cited by Dr Adam Longcroft; he explainedthat £50,000 received from the Heritage Trust towork with schools in rural communities may extendinto additional funding for a project within urbanneighbourhoods. In fact, Dr Longcroft suggests thatthese impacts and outcomes of public engagementactivity may extend nationally and internationally as a result of locally orientated schemes.

Outcomes and Impact

In order to sustain current growth within the public engagement field and further promoteexisting activity, CUE East plan to run a CPDprogramme aimed at Enhancing the StudentExperience through Community Engagement. The course intends to facilitate discussion,sharing of information and learning around thesetting up and running of student engagementsessions. Participants will be encouraged to come with their own questions, while suggestedtopics might include: how to set up studentengagement as part of an assessed module; how to get funding and resources; pros and cons;the value of student engagement to themselvesand the community, and how to evaluate pilotsessions. Case studies will be shared withparticipants of past and current successfulengagement activities.

Furthermore, data from interviews carried out aspart of the research for this case study indicatesthat additional work needs to be done with theteaching and training of colleagues and formalpeer evaluation of public engagement withinteaching and learning. Although much progresshas been made to champion the embedding ofpublic engagement since the inception of theBeacon project, as the vignettes in this casepublication are testament of, there is capacity to move the public engagement agenda on,particularly in the two aforementioned areas.While the PE-CPD programme will go some way topromote this, a continuing challenge for CUE Eastwill be to consider how the processes of teachingand training of colleagues and formal peerevaluation of public engagement within teachingand learning can be established as part ofrecognised, sound academic practice.

The future

CUE East has played a major role and has had a positive impact in identifying and promotingexamples of good practice in public engagementwithin teaching and learning. The intervieweeswho participated in this research have identifiedthat public engagement must not be simply a ‘tickbox’ exercise or a ‘bolt-on’ activity, it should be anembedded and integral part of the curriculum, sopromoting sustainability and longevity.

Contributors have suggested that, althoughindividual champions of public engagement areimportant, engagement activities need to be anestablished part of the curriculum model toensure their continuation and legacy with orwithout the champion in residence. Moreover,public engagement activity should start off

gradually, building on successes and learning frommistakes and including student feedback shouldform part of engagement activity evaluation.Although not always made explicit by theinterviewees themselves, the purpose andbenefits of public engagement within teachingshould be overt and precise and enlisting schoolor faculty support was deemed a vital componentin the facilitation of a successful and ongoingpublic engagement curriculum. Above all,

“... do share it. Tell everyone. Don’t hide it! Beopen about the successes and challenges ofpublic engagement and what you have done toachieve success” (Yeoman, 2010).

Conclusion


For further information about the Beacons for Public Engagement project visit the National Co-ordinating Centre for Public Engagement (NCCPE) web pages: www.publicengagement.ac.uk.The NCCPE works with all the beacons to promote best practice in public engagement andprovides a single point of contact for the whole higher education sector.

Funded by The HigherEducation Funding Councils, Research Councils UK andthe Wellcome Trust

Contact UsVisit our website: www.cueeast.orgWrite to us: CUE East, SSF Faculty Offices, 9/1.120, University of East Anglia, Norwich NR4 7TJPhone us: 01603 591561Email us: [email protected]

Case Study: Public Engagement with Teaching at the University of East Anglia

Documents