The University of Western Australia - Faculty of Life and Physical … · 2011. 3. 9. · The University of Western Australia - Faculty of Life and Physical Sciences MINUTES OF THE

The University of Western Australia - Faculty of Life and Physical Sciences

MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE FACULTY TEACHING AND LEARNING COMMITTEE

held in Room 1.58, First Floor, Physics Building on Tuesday 13 April 2010

Present:

Associate Professor Peter Whipp (Chair) Mr David Faithfull (Acting Faculty Manager) Associate Professor Nancy Longnecker (Teaching and Learning Co-ordinator)

Representatives from Schools: Dr Jan Meyer (Anatomy and Human Biology) Associate Professor Peter Hammond (Physics) Professor Geoff Hammond (Psychology)

Other Representatives: Associate Professor Des Hill (Mathematics and Statistics) Dr Jane Hallos (Student Advisor) Ms Kit Farrelly (Biological Sciences Library) Mr David Enright (Senior Administrative Officer/Offshore Programs) Visitors: Professor Brendan Waddell (Deputy Dean) Ms Jennifer Stevenson (Manager, Future Framework) Apologies Professor Robert Grove (Sport Science, Exercise and Health) Dr Thomas Martin (Director, Faculty Offshore Programs) Professor Alice Vrielink (Biomedical, Biomolecular and Chemical Sciences) Ms Marjan Heibloem (Representative from FNAS) Mr Tiago Tomaz (Postgraduate Student Representative)

Mrs Kath Williams (Executive Officer)

1. MINUTES

RESOLVED – 3

that the minutes of the meeting of Teaching and Learning Committee held on Tuesday 9 March 2010 be confirmed.

2. DECLARATIONS OF POTENTIAL FOR CONFLICT OR PERCEIVED CONFLICTS OF INTEREST No conflicts were declared.

3. ITEMS/BUSINESS IN PROGRESS FOR NOTING SINCE PREVIOUS MEETING

Item/Business in Progress Progress Update Status Principles of assessment and amendment of Marks

Policies to be created To be revisited

8

4. CHAIR’S REPORT

The Chair reported as follows:

Manager Future Framework

Professor Brendan Waddell informed members of the rational behind the appointment of Ms Jennifer Stevenson as Manager Future Framework and informed members that Jennifer’s role included:

o A liaison between the Faculty and Schools; o someone to get schools to adhere to timelines; o a person of focus who everyone could communicate through.

Members were encouraged to suggest ideas on how they could best be supported.

Moderation survey

Members had been asked, via email, for comments to the moderation survey and were thanked for the responses that had been received.

UWA Guild undergraduate survey

The President of the Student Guild had given a brief presentation, to the central Teaching and Learning Committee, on an undergraduate survey that had been undertaken. Interestingly, the Student Body had similar concerns to that of Academics. These concerns included; student engagement, assessment and course structure under the Future Framework. Members noted that a report would be made available in semester two.

Broadening units

The Graduate School of Education had invited persons external to their Faculty to evaluate proposed broadening units. The Chair had found this a very useful approach and suggested broadening units, within this Faculty, could be evaluated in this manner. One such unit might be SSEH1103 Health & Fitness, which was to be proposed as a Category A broadening unit.

5. FUTURE FRAMEWORK

The Manager Future Framework informed members that her current area of focus was the embedding of communication and research skills. Further down the track she would assist the schools in meeting the requirements of the Future Framework in relation to Postgraduate coursework courses. The Manager Future Framework after consultation with the Chair and Teaching and Learning Co-ordinator provided three proposals (Attachment A) to satisfy the communication skills requirement for undergraduate majors. However, members were informed that proposal C could not be sustained within available resources. Members were also provided with Form C unit proposal for the unit “Introduction to Scientific Practices” (Attachment B) and a draft schedule for a level one communication unit (Attachment C) to help with the decision process. The representative from Physics confirmed that the School would have to opt for proposal B (Imbedded communication skills) because of the level of mathematics required. Members confirmed that every school in the Faculty had or was to submit an honours proposal and were reminded that the school submission date for this was 13 April 2010. Members were informed that some schools had submitted proposals invariance to the four times four model which was recommended in the “Honours and BPhil Working Party Report” and were informed that clarification would be sought.

ACTION Manager Future Framework to provide confirmation to members on the honours proposals that had been submitted so far. Clarification would also be sought on the flexibility to a four times four model.

9

6. SCHOOL REPORTS

Psychology – Professor Geoff Hammond questioned the need of having to update handbook entries for each unit each year in addition to the information that was also stored on the Unit Information Management System (UIMS). Members noted that UIMS derived a large amount of data from the handbook. (Executive Officer’s note: Matthew Kohler, Program Manager UIMS has confirmed that the two systems do hold separate information, although many fields in UIMS are derived from the handbook. Furthermore, it was being explored that in 2012 CALLISTA would have the capacity to hold both sets of data with the ability of being able to derive some data.) Physics – Associate Professor Peter Hammond reported that running split interactive lecture theatres with a video link had not been as easy as it sounded and believed a “Stage Manager” was needed. However, students had not had a problem with it, although the impacts on student learning would not be known until SPOT data was returned.

7. PSB REPORT

David Enright informed members that applications from PSB were down this year. Problems had been encountered due to the requirement that courses now needed to be registered and students were allowed a seven day cooling off period.

8. UWA FRAUD AND CORRUPTION POLICY

Members were made aware of the new University Policy on Fraud and Corruption, currently being circulated to staff, which was to be read in conjunction with the “Guidelines for Dealing with Fraud and Corruption at UWA”. Members were informed crime and corruption may have a role to play for soft marking.

9. INDICATOR FRAMEWORK FOR HIGHER EDUCATION

This item had been discussed at the central Teaching and Learning Committee meeting and members were informed that the DEEWR discussion paper, released in December 2009, “An Indicator Framework for Higher Education Performance Funding” was available on the web: http://www.deewr.gov.au/HigherEducation/Pages/IndicatorFramework.aspx Members noted that in respect of performance frameworks, UWA had consistently argued for a focus upon:

Measurable outcomes, rather than processes; support for appropriate differentiation within the sector; robust maintenance or minimum standards, without unnecessary intrusion upon

institutional autonomy.

10

11

10. TEACHING AND LEARNING AWARDS

At the last meeting of this committee members had identified the challenges involved with Teaching and Learning awards and agreed that a more streamlined approach was required. The Chair had discussed this item with Pro Vice-Chancellor (Education) Professor Jane Long and members were provided with an extract of the processes undertaken by Education (Attachment D). Professor Long had suggested that the processes be openly discussed and stated that the suggestion of using Teaching Portfolios was a reasonable one. It was also suggested that the disbursement of prize money be at the discretion of each Faculty and the Chair recommended a status quo in this Faculty. Members noted that in one faculty nominees who had not wanted to complete a full application, but were able to provide SPOT data were recognised, although they were not able to receive a monetary award.

ACTION Executive Officer to table LPS criteria at next meeting.

11. QUANTITATIVE METHODS MAJOR

At the meeting members were provided with a proposal (Attachment E), for a new mathematics major quantitative methods. Members were informed that this essentially was to be a replacement for the current applied statistics major. One member queried whether or not there were any implications for biometric units although he was not aware on any. During the discussion one member asked whether the unit STAT1400 Statistics for Science was equivalent to MATH1050, but was advised that it is not as a minimum standard of precision was required.

12. MINIMUM AND RECOMMENDED HIGH SCHOOL MATHEMATIC REQUIREMENTS FOR BSc MAJORS AND PROGRAMS 2011 AND BEYOND

Members were made aware of the major changes in the structure of high school mathematics curriculum and agreed that the Faculty needed to explore ways of communicating its minimum and recommended mathematics requirements for 2011 and beyond. In addition each major needed to clarify its prerequisites relating to mathematics. Members were advised that an extraordinary meeting may be called to discuss this item further. Alternately, this may be done via circular. (Executive Officer’s note: Student Advisor has provided a draft summary of 2011 requirements (Attachment F), which needed to be read in conjunction with “Discussion Document UWA First Year Mathematics & Statistics units 2011 and Beyond”, Des Hill, School of Mathematics (Attachment G). Physics has also provided a useful draft summary (Attachment H).

13. TEACHING AND LEARNING DEVELOPMENT FUND 2010 SCHEME

Members were informed that $20,000 had been made available to the Faculty through the Teaching and Learning Development fund and expressions of interest were sought for project(s) within the following broad parameters:

assessment tasks and forms, within majors and between levels of study, that align clearly with stated learning outcomes;

approaches to ensure that feedback on assessment provided is systematic, timely, effective and relevant for students.

Members were encouraged to submit proposals of no more than two pages to the Faculty no later than 7 May 2010.