2021 Good Practice Finalists' nominations

The role of a Centre of Excellence Teaching and Learning (CETL)

Western Sydney University

The role of a Centre of Excellence Teaching and Learning (CETL) to Transform Academic Leadership in Learning and Teaching: A nexus of leadership capability development and scholarship via a university-wide peer review strategy.

Mid-career academics often cite a lack of leadership opportunity as an impediment to developing capabilities required for successful career progression [1]. The synergy of aligning distributed leadership opportunities for mid-career academic staff [3] with a new Centre of Excellence Teaching and Learning (CETL) was explored to integrate peer review (PR) strategies into Schools. This novel approach involved appointing Peer Review Champions (PRCs), supported by established CETL based scholars, to nurture and grow leadership capability from the ground up.  PRCs utilised their networks and knowledge to embed PR strategies in discipline-based scalable contexts and across Schools. As Schools developed new operational plans, the intent was to increase the prominence of PR to enhance T&L quality [2,4,5,7].

Through a PR selection process, thirteen Level B/C PRCs from ten Schools, worked together with School leaders and networks to share PR scholarship, ideas, challenges, produce professional development resources and lead fora and activities. They also developed as leaders, reflective practitioners and to support the collegial relationships required for PR [6].  Weekly meetings with CETL scholars supported project progression via mentorship, discussion and evidencing impact. PR is now visible in course reviews, through communities of practice, transdisciplinary symposiums, workshops, resources, scholarly outputs, and strategic plans.  Social network analyses of PRC communication traffic indicated their reach and impact beyond their Schools.

The evaluation of the strategy cited increased confidence, improved awareness and growth of academic leadership capabilities, and opportunities to work in inspirational environments that foster change. Several PRCs have been elevated to institutional Peer Review Mentors (PRMs), within the CETL and are being further mentored for leadership beyond the institution (e.g., Innovative Research Universities “Assessment Calibration Program”). In contrast, others used the role to evidence educational leadership in successful academic promotion applications, teaching excellence awards, citations and/or AdvanceHE Fellowships. As other strategies are supported through the CETL, this disseminated leadership model continues to build the capability and succession of T&L leaders.                                   

[1] Gibbs, G., Christopher, K., & Piccinin, S. (2009). Departmental leadership of teaching in research-intensive environments. London: Leadership Foundation for Higher Education. Retrieved from https://www.advance-he.ac.uk/knowledge-hub/departmental-leadership-teaching-research-intensive-environments-final-report.

[2] Gormally, C., Evans, M., & Brickman, P. (2014). Feedback about teaching in higher ed: Neglected opportunities to promote change. CBE Life Sci Educ, 13, 187-199.
[3] Gosling, J., Bolden, R., & Petrov, G. (2009). Distributed leadership in higher education: What does it accomplish? Leadership, 5(3), 299-310. doi:10.1177/1742715009337762
[4] Lomas, L., & Nicholls, G. (2005). Enhancing teaching quality through peer review of teaching. Quality in Higher Education, 11(2), 137-149.
[5] Quinlan, K., & Bernstein, D. (1996). Special Issue on peer review of teaching. Innovation in Higher Educucation, 20, 219-307.
[6] Shortland, S. (2004). Observing teaching in HE: A case study of classroom observation within peer observation. International Journal of Educational Management, 4(2), 3-5.
[7] Wingrove, D., Hammersley-Fletcher, L., Clarke, A., & Chester, A. (2018). Leading developmental peer observation of teaching in higher education: Perspectives from Australia and England. British Journal of Educational Studies, 66(3), 365-381

The Active Learning Network

The Active Learning Network - a global community for revolutionising HE learning

University of Sussex

The Active Learning Network is a global community for revolutionising university learning. The network is a collaborative, community-led initiative for academics, educational developers, learning technologists and students, with satellite groups at universities around the world. It aims to provide a collaborative platform to share ideas, produce openly available resources, showcase active learning projects, pedagogic scholarship/research and international discussions around active learning.

The network’s approach is distinctive because it aims to challenge and disrupt existing paradigms in HE and operates in the spirit of sharing and open education. This provides an antidote to the top-down, closed-door approaches prevalent in HE and means that those involved in learning and teaching can benefit from reciprocal sharing of practice, rather than having to constantly re-invent the wheel and fight the same lonely, uphill struggles for change in their own institutions.

Since 2017, the network has grown from a small group at one university, to a large-scale network with 363 members, 20 satellite groups (including groups from the UK, China, India, Greece, Ireland and Cambodia), a website with engagement from over 100 countries, 5 annual conferences with a combined 920 attendees, sponsorship from companies such as Sony, Sage, Talis and InteDashboard, the world’s first Global Festival of Active Learning, with 1852 sign-ups, 20 online masterclasses with a combined 1053 attendees, multiple award-winning projects, such as The Padlet Project, which was published as an HEA Case Study and in the Compass Journal of Learning and Teaching, 3 collaboratively-produced open access books, including 50+ Ideas for Active Learning (94 chapters from authors around the world) and Disrupting Traditional Pedagogy: Active Learning in Practice.

This sharing of scholarship and innovative learning practices has huge impact, because all staff and students create bilateral communication channels between the wider network and their local networks where they pass the learning forward.                                  

Global Festival of Active Learning Programme - https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/e/2PACX-1vSBdS9WEgiEYcWAN-bv1hgI762-ZkIgvYilqNs-51kJo6T3Fa5mPOS_HRONrPckFjuxIxqzZh_9MQOT/pub?start=false&loop=false&delayms=3000 
News Item about Global Festival of Active Learning
http://www.sussex.ac.uk/broadcast/read/55249
Blog post on Sony’s sponsorship of Active Learning Conference
https://activelearningnetwork.com/2018/12/03/the-3rd-active-learning-conference-a-call-for-papers/
Active Learning Conference 2021 at Anglia Ruskin University - https://aru.ac.uk/anglia-learning-and-teaching/cpd-opportunities/regular-events/active-learning-conference
Betts, T., Garnham, G. and Oprandi, P. (eds.) (2019) Disrupting Traditional Pedagogy: Active Learning in Practice. Fulcrum Books. Available at: https://doi.org/10.20919/9780995786240
Garnham, W. A., Betts, T., & Hole, A. (2018) The Padlet project: fostering creativity, engagement and digital literacy in seminar teaching. HEA Action-Research: Sector Case Studies (2018), 57. Available at: http://www.open-access.bcu.ac.uk/5686/1/Action%20Research%20-%20Case%20studies_1%20Arnold%20and%20Norton%20%28Eds%29%202018.pdf
Garnham, W. A., & Betts, T. (2018). The Padlet Project: Transforming student engagement in Foundation Year seminars. Compass: Journal of Learning and Teaching, 11(2). Available at: https://journals.gre.ac.uk/index.php/compass/article/view/714

An Edinburgh Model for Online Teaching

The University of Edinburgh

An Edinburgh Model for Online Teaching

The Edinburgh Model was launched as development for teachers new to the online space. It aims to develop practice and empathy for teaching in the online environment. Made up of 4 modules and a toolkit, the seven-week programme was first delivered to 50 University of Edinburgh teachers on edX in January 2020 as preparation for delivering new micro-credentialed programmes. As the Covid-19 pandemic hit it was quickly revised and migrated to Blackboard Learn as an introduction to hybrid teaching practices, reaching over 700 staff in the summer of 2020. Post-evaluation, the programme has been reduced to 4 weeks, with plans to share as an open course with the global community of teachers.

The programme is an instrument of praxis, modelling an experiential approach to learning and development (Kolb 2014). Teachers learn about online teaching through being online students: engaging as students in the teaching practices we hope can be modelled into their own practice. The programme is designed to be experienced cognitively and emotionally, and to use that experience for meta-reflection on practice. The design implicitly operationalises philosophies imparted in the Manifesto for Online Teaching (Bayne et al. 2020), emphasising positive aspects of distance, and online as a privileged mode. Moore’s theory of transactional distance (1997) underpins by reminding that distance is more than spatial: it is psychological; “temporal, affective, political” (Bayne et al, 2020). The role of technology in new pedagogies of scale is conceptualised through the notion of teacher function (Bayne 2015), an assemblage of technology and teacher-student agency, rather than augmentation or ‘add-on’.

The strength of this programme has been demonstrated its ability to shift contexts, not only supporting teaching innovation, but also teaching emergency. The innovation in staff development is through robust anchoring in theory and research, developed as a collaboration between researchers and practitioners.                                                     

Bayne, S., Evans, P., Ewins, R., Knox, J., Lamb, J., Macleod, H., O’Shea, C., Ross, J., Sheail, P. & Sinclair, C. (2020) The Manifesto for Teaching Online. MIT Press.
Bayne, S. (2015). Teacherbot: Interventions in automated teaching.Teaching in Higher Education, 20(4), 455-467.
Kolb, D. A. (2014). Experiential learning: Experience as the source of learning and development. FT press.
Moore, M. (1997). Theory of Transactional Distance. In Keegan, D. (1997). (Ed.). Theoretical Principles of Distance Education. Routledge, pp. 22-38. Retrieved 28 July 2011.

Adjunct Faculty Learning Community

Boise State University

Adjunct Faculty Learning Community

In 2012, Boise State University’s Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) established a signature professional development opportunity specifically for adjunct faculty, the Adjunct Faculty Learning Community (AFLC), which has been offered since 2015. The goals of the AFLC are to provide ongoing professional development for adjunct faculty at every stage of their experience, and create a sense of belonging for the participants to the institution.

The components of the AFLC were designed using research into best practices for adjunct faculty support and feedback from adjunct faculty at our institution, both of which indicated that it was important to:
- Create a framework flexible enough to meet the scheduling constraints of adjunct faculty;
- Provide additional ways for adjunct faculty to receive feedback on their teaching beyond the end of course evaluations;
- Create a space in which fellow adjunct faculty could talk about their teaching strategies, highlights and challenges;
- Contextualize the specific challenges faced by adjunct faculty and help to integrate them into the campus culture

Since its inception, the AFLC has had 83 unique adjunct faculty participants, 44% of whom were still teaching at the University in the 20-21 academic year. Our evaluation data suggests the AFLC is effective at supporting the integration of evidence based practices into adjunct faculty’s teaching. Participants also indicated that through participating in the AFLC they gained a greater sense of belonging and community, and, importantly, 80% of past participants that responded to a recent survey felt the changes they made as a result of participating in the AFLC led to increases in student engagement with the course and/or course materials.

Given the simplicity, relatively low-cost, and positive outcomes demonstrated, an AFLC is a reasonable and impactful action for other institutions to take in supporting adjunct faculty’s development and integration with the campus community.                         

Banasik, M. D. & Dean, J.  L. (2016). Non-tenure track faculty and learning communities: Bridging the divide to enhance teaching quality. Innovative Higher Education, 41, 333–342. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10755-015-9351-6.
Cox, M. D. (2004). Introduction to faculty learning communities. New Directions for Teaching and Learning, 2004(97), 5–23. doi:10.1002/tl.129
Eagan Jr., M. K.; Jaeger, A. J., & Grantham, A. (2015). Supporting the academic majority: Policies and practices related to part-time faculty’s job satisfaction. Journal of Higher Education, 86 (3), 448-483.
Engin, M. & Atkinson, F. (2015). Faculty learning communities: A model for supporting curriculum changes in Higher Education. International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 27, 164-174.
Gappa, J. M., & Leslie, D. W. (1993). The invisible faculty: improving the status of part-timers in higher education. Jossey-Bass.
Kezar, A. (2012). Embracing non-tenure track faculty: Changing campuses for the new faculty majority. Routledge.
Landrum, R. E., Viskupic, K., Shadle, S. E., & Bullock, D. (2017). Assessing the STEM landscape: the current instructional climate survey and the evidence-based instructional practices adoption scale. International Journal of STEM Education, 4(1), 25. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40594-017-0092-1
Lyons, R. (1996). A study of the effects of a mentoring initiative on the performance of new, adjunct community college faculty. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Central Florida

The Inclusive Educator Interactive Resource

University of Birmingham

The Inclusive Educator Interactive Resource

The Inclusive Educator online resource invites all staff involved in teaching and supporting learning at our University to make a commitment to developing their inclusive practice. Within a year of its launch over 700 staff have, so far, made that commitment through their participation. The resource, set up by academic and digital developers, makes it easy to understand what inclusive teaching is, keep up to date, and communicate with others in order to share and collaborate. It is voluntary but encourages participation and wider promotion by awarding a digital badge on completion, and by keeping it concise, focused, practical and enjoyable. Participants take self-awareness quizzes, join discussions, and are required to leave examples of their own inclusive practice, giving them a platform as well as resource ownership. This also develops the content into a showcase to inspire others.

The design and scope of the resource reflects the literature that informs it. For example, it aims to address “inclusion and enhanced representation of all under-represented groups” (Buitendijk et. al, 2019) and it is promoted at different points in an educator’s professional journey, so that it is “part of an ongoing process rather than something that can be ‘ticked off’ a list” (Thomas & May, 2010). The content is evidence-based, and a reading list on different strands is provided.

Many participants have commented about the usefulness of the resource and what they have learnt from others on it.  It has led to requests for departmental workshops on specific aspects. Other institutions have shown an interest and we have shared the design principles and promotional ideas with them. We have realised that there is nothing like it elsewhere and this has emboldened us to start thinking about developing a version that can promote awareness and collaboration between institutions in the UK and globally.

       Buitendijk, S., Curry, S. and Maes, K., 2019. Equality, diversity and inclusion at universities: The power of a systemic approach.

Thomas, L. and May, H., Advance HE (2010). Inclusive learning and teaching in Higher Education. Retrieved September 1, 2021, from https://www.advance-he.ac.uk/knowledge-hub/inclusive-learning-and-teaching-higher-education

Wiradjuri Online Cultural Immersion experience

Charles Sturt University

Wiradjuri Online Cultural Immersion experience

Development of cultural competence and the journey to providing culturally safe environments in teaching, as in all environments, requires not just knowledge, but engagement of attitudes, values and skills. The Wiradyuri Cultural Immersion program was developed to provide an opportunity for university staff and students in country with Australian Aboriginal Elders and/or Cultural guides, learning about local Aboriginal culture involving them in first-hand experience.
With COVID the experience was transformed into an online environment in a way that still allowed the rich transfer of information and a sense of importance of Country from a First Nations Peoples perspective.

The immersion experiences are set up under a cultural safety framework to allow participants to truly make the most of access to Elders and consists of pre-recorded videos of Sacred and Culturally significant sites along with live interaction and narration.

Participants are given the opportunity to ask questions that they may not feel comfortable to ask outside of the cultural safety framework. Interactive ‘check ins’ and mentimeter activities allow the Elders and Gulaay facilitators to measure the trajectory of each Digital Cultural Immersion in real time. This allows for fine tuning and nuanced conversations to be given space to develop, and for ideas and questions to be explored in a fluid and dynamic way. The Elders and Gulaay tailor each experience to suit the specific audience. The experience concludes with a reflection and participants sharing what they have learned.

The program delivers a deep, rich and personal experience being run in small cohorts made available to staff across the university. Transforming the experience to online has allowed significantly increased reach in a cost-effective way and facilitates the inclusion of indigenous content into curriculum in a genuine and authentic way.  It has also been delivered to students and staff at other universities.                                                       

Teaching Aboriginal cultural competence: Authentic approaches
Hill, B. (ed.), Harris, J. (ed.) & Bacchus, R. (ed.), 13 Nov 2020, Singapore: Springer. 210 p.
The benefits of in country experiences at the tertiary level
Hill, B., Harris, J., Dolan, L., Lewis, M. J. & Stenlake, B. W., 12 Nov 2020, Teaching Aboriginal Cultural Competence: Authentic Approaches. Harris, B., Harris, J. & Bacchus, R. (eds.). 1st ed. Singapore: Springer, p. 37-48 12 p.
The 'Within' Journey: Assessment of the Online Indigenous Australian Cultural Competence Training Programme at Charles Sturt University
Hill, B., Tulloch, M., Mlcek, S. & Lewis, M., Aug 2020, In: Australian Journal of Indigenous Education. 49, 1, p. 14-22 9 p.
Grant, U. M. B., Philp-Carmichael, A. B. Y. D., Carr-Smith, A. W. L., Allan, U. D. D. B., Flynn, Y. J., Gainsford, A., Dolan, L., Hill, B., Harris, J. & Bacchus, R., 12 Nov 2020, Teaching Aboriginal cultural competence: Authentic approaches. Hill, B., Harris, J. & Bacchus, R. (eds.). Singapore: Springer, p. 1-8 8 
Gainsford, A. (2018). Connection to Country : Place-based Learning Initiatives Embedded in the Charles Sturt University Bachelor of Law. Legal Education Review, 28(2). https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/aeipt.224375
Learning practice wisdom from elders: Wisdom moments and how to recognise them
Hill, B., Philip Carmichael, A. B. & Bacchus, R., Jul 2019, Practice wisdom: Values and interpretations. Higgs, J. (ed.). Rotterdam, The Netherlands: Koninklijke Brill NV, p. 141-154 14 p. (Practice Futures).

An integrated approach to developing teaching and scholarship

University of Liverpool

An integrated approach to developing teaching and scholarship

The Academy offers an integrated approach to develop teaching and scholarship to promote continual professional development and enhance the student experience (Bolander Laksov, 2019, UKPSF, 2011).

In an inclusive hybrid environment staff can access academic development at any stage of their careers. Authentic assessments and relevant work-based learning enable development in a supported environment. Staff can develop and share their academic practice through the Academy’s accredited programmes, Developing Academic Practice Journal, Pedagogic Research Conference, Developing Practice Podcast, seminars, communities of practice, mentoring, and networks (https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/eddev/ , Brew, 2010).

Since 2018, 93 staff have graduated from the Academy’s Postgraduate Certificate Academic Practice; It has made me interested in pedagogy at a much deeper level than I felt previously. I feel like a contributing academic rather than just someone who works at the uni (student comment). Following the PGCAP, the majority of Diploma graduates progress to the dissertation stage. Since the 2020 launch of the Academy’s gold open access Developing Academic Practice Journal, published through Liverpool University Press, academics and professional staff have collaborated as editors, reviewers, and authors to publish eight articles and present at the 2021 Pedagogic Research Conference.

Since the 2020 launch of the Academy’s Developing Practice Podcast, 4 series have been published resulting in more than 5,400 downloads across 55 different countries; 25 of the podcasts included University of Liverpool colleagues, 31 of these colleagues were graduates of the Academy’s development offer and 8 of these colleagues were Academy staff.

Our taught programmes are deliberately linked with our wider scholarship support as a way of fostering a community of scholars working together to improve student experience and develop innovative academic practice with impact both within the institution and beyond. This integrated approach has consistently engaged students, professional and academic staff in sustainable academic development notwithstanding the Covid-19 pandemic.                               

Bolander Laksov, K. (2019). Lessons learned: towards a framework for integration of theory and practice in academic development, International Journal of Academic Development, 24(4), 369-380.

Brew, A. (2010). Transforming academic practice through scholarship, International Journal for Academic Development, 15(2), 105-116.
(2011). UK Professional Standards Framework for teaching and supporting learning in higher education, Advance HE.
The Academy’s Academic Development landing page  https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/eddev/
Developing Scholarship of Learning and Teaching https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/eddev/cpd/teaching-learning/
The Academy Podcast https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/the-academy/podcast/
The Developing Academic Practice Journal https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/eddev/journal/
The Postgraduate Certificate Academic Practice https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/eddev/supporting-teaching/pgcap/
The Postgraduate Diploma and MA Academic Practice https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/eddev/supporting-teaching/pgdip-ma/
Academy Developing Practice Series https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/intranet/the-academy/developing/opportunities/oneps/
Foundations of Learning and Teaching in Higher Education https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/eddev/supporting-teaching/flthe/
The University of Liverpool Teaching Recognition and Accreditation Framework (ULTRA) https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/eddev/ultra-cpd/
Learning and Teaching Fellowship Scheme https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/eddev/learning-and-teaching-fellowship-scheme/
Liverpool Fellows Network https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/eddev/fellows-network/
Learning and teaching and student experience and Sir Alistair Pilkington awards https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/eddev/learning-teaching-student-experience-awards/
NTF and CATE awards https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/eddev/ntf-cate/
CPD opportunities https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/eddev/cpd/
PGR Supervisor Development https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/eddev/supervisors/

Community of Transition Practice to Enhance Inclusion

University of Technology Sydney

Community of Transition Practice to Enhance Inclusion

Growing from strength to strength at UTS since 2011, the First and Further Year Experience (FFYE) program represents a sustained institution-wide approach to building an engaged academic and professional community whose commitment to the transition, retention and success of students from low socio-economic status (LSES) backgrounds has deepened inclusive educational practice and enhanced the student experience for all students.

Originally underpinned by ‘third-generation’ transition practices focused on the first-year experience (Kift, Nelson & Clarke, 2010)1, and later extended to include attention to the ‘future self, [journeying] out of learning into the world of work’ (Nelson, 2014, p.14)2, the program combines regular well-attended forums (over 40 run each with attendance around 100), a grants program, and an active and collegial asynchronous community site (MS Teams), to identify, share and implement practices across the university that foster students’ sense of belonging, cultivate their professional identity, and support their transition into the workplace. 

Since 2011, the FFYE program has grown to over 1,000 members who collaborate on themes related to transition and showcase practice. Staff report the program has increased their sense of belonging to the University, and that the cross-institutional collegial collaborations have built their inclusive teaching practice. They report a greater understanding of students’ learning needs and the services available to them. The 200 funded grants have led to extensive changes to subjects and enhanced the student experience. Significantly the co-ordinator Dr Kathy Egea was recently recognised for the impact of this work by being awarded the 2021 STARS Fellow.

The innovative and distinctive nature of the program is how it is underpinned by and embodies a collaborative partnership model – the program engages FFYE Academic Coordinators located in each of the Faculties, facilitates an Advisory Board consisting of formally recruited students and professional services staff from all of the relevant areas, and models inclusive practice in both its philosophy and its operations.                    

Kift, S., Nelson, K. & Clarke, J. (2010). Transition Pedagogy: A third generation approach to FYE –A case study of policy and practice for the higher education sector, The International Journal of the First Year in Higher Education, 1(1), 1-20.
Nelson, K. (2014). The First Year in Higher Education – Where to from here? The International Journal of the First Year in Higher Education, 5(2)1-14.

The Education Focussed Program at UNSW

UNSW Sydney

The Education Focussed Program at UNSW

Introduced in 2018, UNSW’s Education Focussed (EF) program is a suite of professional development initiatives (events, grants, fellowships, communities of practice and more) to support the teaching practice and careers of EF academics. This university-wide strategic initiative was established to ensure the university delivers a quality education for its students, to support agile and emergent educational leadership and develop ongoing generations of educational experts.

CRITERION 1
The EF program is informed by the existing literature on EF roles (e.g. Bennett et al., 2017) and takes a holistic view of academic development (Bronfenbrenner, 1994) – cognisant not only of the need to develop EF academics’ educational expertise and leadership skills, but also the importance of their identity (Woodward, 1997), career development and sense of belonging to the broader academic community at UNSW (Wenger, 1998).

CRITERION 3
This holistic approach is the EF program’s key innovation and distinguishes it from other programs in the sector. The program has already been recognised internationally (NUS, VUW) as a model of good practice and its success underpinned the first ever sector-wide EF Summit held in July 2021, bringing together over 30 leaders (predominantly VCs, DVCs, and PVCs) from 26 different universities to coordinate and collaborate on cross-institutional educational initiatives.

CRITERION 2
The impact of this program can be seen in the overall higher student satisfaction scores of EF academics, their promotion to educational leadership positions throughout the university (including over 50 promotions from Levels B to E), the continued growth of the EF community with over 400 appointed since 2018, multiple institutional and national awards for teaching excellence and recognition as Senior and Principal Fellows of Advance HE (100% success rate).

Perhaps most importantly, the EF program is facilitating a culture change at UNSW – one that values education and recognises its importance alongside research, as demonstrated by vibrant, cross-disciplinary EF Communities of Practice that engage EF, non-EF and professional staff in educational initiatives that have an impact across the university.     

Bennett, D., Roberts, L., Ananthram, S., Broughton, M. (2018). What is required to develop
career pathways for teaching academics?. Higher Education 75, 271–286. doi:10.1007/s10734-017-0138-9
Bronfenbrenner, U. (1994). Ecological models of human development. In International
Encyclopedia of Education, 3:1643-1647. Oxford: Elsevier.
Wenger, E. (1998). Communities of practice: Learning, meaning, and identity. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Woodward, K. (Ed.). (1997). Identity and difference (Vol. 3). SAGE Publications Limited.

 

Indigenous Perspectives in Learning and Teaching

Queensland University of Technology

Indigenous Perspectives in Learning and Teaching: A Pedagogical approach to academic strengthening

QUT’s commitment to embedding Indigenous perspectives (IP) in the curriculum is strategically driven by a pedagogical approach and a comprehensive PD program. Collaboratively, QUT’s Carumba Institute and the Learning and Teaching Unit (LTU) build staff confidence and engagement in integrating Indigenous perspectives in curriculum; the crucial first step in supporting students to develop cultural competency . In late 2019, QUT accredited a world first specialist award of Associate Fellow (Indigenous) of the Higher Education Academy as a way of measuring and celebrating the initiative’s impact on staff and students.

Impact
Since launching this development, 632 QUT staff members have engaged with the module, 350 have achieved certificates of completion and 68 have been awarded AFHEA Indigenous. Significantly, the award recognises the successful integration of Indigenous perspectives into the curriculum and, to date, 213 units have now integrated IP.

Innovation & Distinctiveness
With only 46% of universities’ education design showing consideration of Indigenous standpoints and just 15% having processes to embed Indigenous content in non-Indigenous courses . QUT’s program innovatively tackles the core challenge by -
• modelling respectful partnerships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous staff.
• employing a distinct pedagogical framework, developed specifically for Higher Education and using a rights-based approach to integrating IP  .
• firmly anchoring change within individual academic disciplines, recognizing that meaningful integration of Indigenous perspectives within the curriculum must be shaped by professional context to build discipline-based communities of practice led by QUT’s new Indigenous Fellows.
• being designed to scale with the ultimate goal of engaging all teaching/support staff in sharing responsibility for integrating Indigenous perspectives across all courses.   

Goerke, V., & Kickett, M. (2013). Working towards the assurance of graduate attributes for Indigenous cultural competency: The case for alignment between policy, professional development and curriculum processes. International Education Journal: Comparative Perspectives, 12(1), 61–81.
Universities Australia Indigenous Strategy Annual Report (March 2021). https://www.universitiesaustralia.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Indigenous-Strategy-Annual-Report_Mar21_FINAL.pdf
Ma Rhea, Z., & Russell, L. (2012). The Invisible Hand of Pedagogy in Australian Indigenous Studies and Indigenous Education. The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education, 41(1), 18-25. doi:10.1017/jie.2012.4
Buckskin, Peter, Tranthim-Fryer, Mark, Holt, Leanne, Gili, Jennifer, Heath, John, Smith, Dorothy, Larkin, Steve, Ireland, Sarah, MacGibbon, Lesley, Robertson, Kim, Small, Tammy, Butler, Kathleen, Chatfield, Tareka, Anderson, Peter, & Ma Rhea, Zane (2018) NATSIHEC Accelerating Indigenous Higher Education Consultation Paper. National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Higher education consortium.

#RemoteForensicCSI

De Montfort University, Staffordshire University, University of Derby

#RemoteForensicCSI: An online community initiated in the Covid-19 Pandemic, supporting Criminal Justice educators with the transition to online learning

#RemoteForensicCSI is an online community, initiated by three National Teacher Fellows at different UK HEIs (Leisa Nichols-Drew: De Montfort University, Dr Rachel Bolton-King: Staffordshire University, Professor Ian Turner: University of Derby), during the Covid-19 pandemic. It was recognised that there was an evident gap for academics and professional trainers in Criminal Justice education around the world, with the rapid transition to online learning and availability of relevant e-resources. 

During lockdown, #RemoteForensicCSI has provided free seminars (webinars) via Microsoft Teams Live Events, organised and facilitated by the three co-founders, where community members share their best practice in highlighting novel resources and innovative online teaching methodologies via presentations and Q+A discussions, based on the core themes of Crime Scene Investigation, Forensic Laboratory Analysis, and Court Process. 

1.    Principles of good learning and teaching:  
The theoretical underpinning of #RemoteForensicCSI is a connectivist approach, with rhizomatic learning (Cormier, 2008), in that the community co-creates the curriculum in a social context; learners are producers (Oddone et al., 2019), utilising online technologies (Brieger et al., 2020).

2.    Impact:  
#RemoteForensicCSI is a growing international community, with participants from five continents. Additionally, the number of views relating to seminar recordings hosted on YouTube (#RemoteForensicCSI, n.d.) is reaching 1,390 views, and associated open-access resources accessible through the Lecturemotely website (Rushworth et al., 2021) reaching 15,300 views. Social media comments by participants on LinkedIn and Twitter include: ‘exchange of ideas from around the globe’, ‘fantastic resource for anyone teaching in the forensic/Crime Scene field’, and ‘great to see the strengthening of the forensic science teaching community’.

3.    Innovative and/or distinctive: 
#RemoteForensicCSI is distinctive and innovative. It has created a paradigm shift in this subject sector, in sharing educational best practice, providing peer support, and informal continual professional development opportunities, at a time of international isolation. 

Brieger, E., Arghode, V. and McLean, G., 2020. Connecting theory and practice: reviewing six learning theories to inform online instruction. European Journal of Training and Development. 44(/5). 321-339. DOI: 10.1108/ejtd-07-2019-0116

Cormier, D. (2008). Rhizomatic education: Community as curriculum. Innovate: Journal of online education, 4(5).

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