‘LEARNING TO TEACH’: MAKING TEACHER TRAINING ACCESSIBLE AND FUN FOR POSTGRADUATE TUTORS DR MICHAEL WILLETT & EMMAJANE MILTON COLLEGE OF ARTS, HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES CARDIFF UNIVERSITY
OUTLINE • Introductions and attitudes towards postgraduate tutors • Overview of the ‘Learning to Teach’ programme • Challenges and considerations in expanding programme • Interactive activity: ‘Quescussion’ (Gedalof, 1997/2005)
ATTITUDES TOWARDS POSTGRADUATE TUTORS “postgraduate tutors are often identified as a weak link in the university education process” (Clark, 1998: 121) • To what extent do you agree with this statement?
‘LEARNING TO TEACH’ AT CARDIFF • Master’s-level training programme for Postgraduate Tutors in College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences • HEA accredited at Associate Fellow (D1) level • Developed in school of English, Communication and Philosophy in 2008-9, rolled-out across College in 2017 • Offers robustness, parity and consistency of training for PG Tutors across Schools
‘LEARNING TO TEACH’ AT CARDIFF • 2-year programme undertaken alongside PhD studies and teaching duties • Training in inclusive learning, session design and assessment & feedback is front-loaded: where possible, tutors complete these workshops before starting teaching (not ideal but currently most practical solution) • Mandatory for all new tutors in the College who do not already have HEA status or a teaching qualification (e.g. PGCHE)
‘LEARNING TO TEACH’ AT CARDIFF • Programme comprises seven training workshops over two years, each focusing on a theme related to teaching, learning and assessment in HE • Delivered in small groups (c.12-20 tutors per session) • Multiple sessions of each workshop delivered across blocks of 2-4 weeks to ensure accessibility • 1x additional repeat session of each workshop offered at end of semester for late PG tutor recruits
Preparing Inclusivity, Session HEA Equality and planning and application Diversity (1) activity (7) design (1) “Learning Styles” Assessment Learning (+critique); and to Teach Academic Feedback Literacies (6) (2) Questioning Psychological skills for Theories of Reflective active Learning Practice learning (5) (4) (3)
‘LEARNING TO TEACH’ AT CARDIFF • Content is an amalgam of different strategies, including… • Paired/small-group discussion • Practical tasks, including session planning, problem-solving and reflection • Group presentations • Role play • Interactive demonstrations • … • Methods and activities subject to ongoing reflection and evaluation by programme leader, with new approaches introduced regularly (e.g. 10-minute “tutorial bites” for 2019-20)
CHALLENGES IN EXPANDING PROGRAMME • What sorts of challenges might you envisage in expanding this kind of programme for a more diverse audience of PG tutors? • Think, pair, share!
CHALLENGES IN EXPANDING PROGRAMME • Problem 1: Nature of UG teaching is different in each School in the College… • English Literature is taught in small-group, discursive seminars • Archaeology involves extensive lab work/ demonstrations • In the Business School, tutors support students in working alone to develop individual analytical and problem-solving skills • Focusing exclusively on small-group teaching, using predominantly discussion, was no longer appropriate after the College rollout in 2017
CHALLENGES IN EXPANDING PROGRAMME • Solution: Find the common ground • What T&L skills do all tutors in College need, whatever their discipline? • Basic session planning/adapting sessions to learner needs • Marking and giving feedback, whether formative, summative or both • Asking questions • Actively engaging learners • Knowing something about how people learn
CHALLENGES IN EXPANDING PROGRAMME • Problem 2: Amount of UG teaching is different in each School in the College… • Tutors in English and History typically teach one cohort of students in each semester for 1-2 years • Tutors in the Business School typically undertake more intensive teaching, with multiple cohorts of students in a single semester • …and not all tutors want to apply for HEA status • How to ensure that tutors who wish to apply for HEA status through the programme have sufficient depth and breadth of experience on which to reflect?
CHALLENGES IN EXPANDING PROGRAMME • Solution: Two pathways through the course • Basic training pathway • for tutors who do not want to apply for D1 • for tutors who only teach one regular class for one semester, or less (e.g. teaching 2 weekly seminars but only for 3 weeks and no more) • Full pathway • for tutors who want to apply for D1 and • who teach o ne regular class in multiple semesters, or • who teach multiple regular classes for one full semester
Basic training pathway Full pathway (Essential practical skills in delivering teaching) CHALLENGES IN EXPANDING PROGRAMME Approx. % tutors 30 70 following this pathway Workshop attendance 1, 2, 3, 4 (Year 1) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 (Years 1 and 2) • • Training provided Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Equality, Diversity and Inclusion • • Designing sessions Designing sessions • • Assessment and Feedback Assessment and Feedback • • Reflecting on practice Reflecting on practice • Pedagogical and Psychological theories of learning • Teaching portfolios/D1 application Focus on inclusion and Universal Design threaded throughout curriculum and training workshops Eligible to apply No* for D1 through *Eligible to apply for D1 if further teaching Yes programme? undertaken subsequently and Year 2 completed *Support available for direct HEA application Reflective portfolio No Yes (forms D1 application) required?
ACTIVITY: QUESCUSSION • Quescussion (Gedalof, 1997/2005): discussion led entirely by questions • 4 basic rules: • Every contribution must be in the form of a question • Learners should all take equal turns to speak • Statements made into questions with a tag are not allowed (e.g. ‘this is the only interpretation isn’t it?’) • Nothing offensive allowed (e.g. ‘isn’t that something only a fool would ask?’) • An experiment…
SAMPLE ACTIVITY: QUESCUSSION • What would you like to ask an all-knowing being about this piece of text?
QUESCUSSION IS VERSATILE • It is transferable : It works for any subject • It is participatory : It involves all learners equally • It is engaging : This method is new and different for many learners • It is student-centric : It involves learners in the content and direction of the session, and encourages independent learning • It fosters criticality : It helps learners to gain confidence in asking questions, and begin learning the sorts of questions they need to ask of texts/artefacts/arguments
QUESCUSSION IS VERSATILE • It is particularly useful in the Humanities and Social Sciences, where we may not be able to answer every question, or where there may not be a single “correct” answer to a question • This is a ‘threshold concept’ (Meyer and Land, 2006) that many students in Humanities and Social Sciences often struggle to grasp • Thus using Quescussion in 1 st /2 nd year UG classes can aid the often- difficult transition into Higher Education
QUESTIONS? • Any questions? • Feel free to contact us if you have further questions! • Michael: WillettMD@cardiff.ac.uk • Emmajane: MiltonE@cardiff.ac.uk
REFERENCES • Clark, S. (1998) ‘Tutor Development: Finding a language for teaching’. In Angélil-Carter, S. (ed.) Access to Success: Academic Literacy in Higher Education . Cape Town: University of Cape Town Press. • Gedalof, A. J. (2005) “Question-and Discussion-Based Exercises”. In Gedalof, A. J., Teaching Poetry: A Handbook of Exercises for Large and Small Classes . New York and London: W W Norton & Company, Inc. • Meyer, J. H. F. and Land, R. (2003) ‘Threshold concepts and troublesome knowledge (1): linkages to ways of thinking and practising’. In Rust, C. (ed.) Improving Student Learning – ten years on . Oxford: OCSLD. • Shapcott, J. (2011) ‘Procedure’. In Shapcott, J., Of Mutability . London: Faber and Faber.
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