‘Designing in’ academic, personal and professional development
Jan 16, 2016
‘Designing in’ academic, personal and professional development
This session
• Hear about the work done to evaluate the Professional
Scholarship Programme
• Shape the future of the Professional Scholarship
Programme by offering feedback and further ideas.
• Consider the student feedback: What it means now and
in the new curriculum
What is PSP?
Level 4 •Academic Development •Personal Development•Introductory Research Methods
Level 5•Research Methods
Placement Level 6
•Group module •HRP
Review process
• Student centredo 18 students in focus groups (across years and
courses)o 28 student representatives at the student academic
group
• Staff discussions plus feedback incorporated in to responses on the framework
• Scoping practice elsewhere
Student findings (headlines) – Year 1
•AD and PD universally valued
•IRM -valuable but sometimes detached from the course
•Career maps are not followed up
•AD appears to be ‘harsh’
• Interviews, transition, use of word processing, career planning, critical reading, writing.
•Less front loading
•Consistency
•Contextualised
•Connection (to other modules)
•Committed expert staff
Student findings (headlines) – Year 2
• Challenges with transition
• Research methods detached from other provision
• Some find some research methods useful before placement (for experiments etc)
• Material is forgotten ahead of the HRP
• Placement preparation unlike PD
Student findings (headlines) – Year 3
• Placement return to study (useful but not a module)
• Need to refresh research methods
Harper staff perspective • Don’t want to spend valuable credits on generic content
• Want to improve academic development and retain placement preparation
• Recognised as an investment
• PSP should largely be embedded
• Should be taught by experts
• Some suggest: Should be taught outside the curriculum
Elsewhere
• Largely embedded – but not a matrix approach to curriculum
• Always contextualised
• Key to ‘making knowledge work’ (e.g. Bradford University)
• Tied to graduate attributes (e.g. Central Lancashire)
• Examples of teaching through research, not just about research
• Low stakes and formative
• Using technology for on-going reflection and documentation (Bolton, Ulster, Buckinghamshire, Kent)
Aspects that were inspiring!
• Liverpool John Moores – making students independent through an ongoing programme (focus on learning states)
• Newman University – writing in the disciplines
• Ulster – designing in transition support
• The Salford Student Life Award
The proposal and rationale
A risk …
Questions:
• What are the strengths of the proposal? • What challenges does this raise? • What questions does this raise? • What suggestions can you offer for further
development or alternative designs?
Student feedback
• Have a look a the student feedback
• How well do we currently address the issues raised in present courses?
• What can we do within the current curriculum? (blue)
• What can we do with future designs? (pink)
Where next?
Useful links
• For case studies ad ideas of PDP schemes: www.recordingachievement.org/higher-education/pdp-academy.html
• Liverpool John Moores scheme https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10GOifpeFE0