Core Area 2a: An understanding of teaching, learning and/or assessment processes

Guidelines

Statements here might relate to areas such as teaching experience, learning design, curriculum development, work-based assessment, the creation and execution of a programme of training, and so on.

Background

My teaching career in Higher Education began later on in life. Although becoming a teacher in HE was not my primary goal and I have rather stumbled into it, it is clear that this is something that suits my skills and something I very much enjoy. My official training then has not necessarily been planned as such but has been the culmination of a series of events.

In 2016, after being in my role for three years, I enrolled on the University's Postgraduate Certificate of Academic Practice (PGCAP) which I completed in 2018. This exposed me to a range of pedagogical theories, ideas and literature that I now use in my own teaching, and in the training and support of others. It also started me on the path of believing in the importance of reflective practice. Beforehand, I did not relish reflective writing and didn't always see the point but since then, I have engaged in it frequently and I'm now a convert; I can see how being a reflective teacher enables me to become a better teacher. This reflective practice also fed into my application for Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy (HEA). In February 2020, I submitted my reflective account of practice and was awarded Senior Fellowship of the HEA. I have found the experience of both the PGCAP course and the writing of my application for Senior Fellowship of the HEA a rewarding one which has given me a good foundation on which to build my career as a reflective and thus effective teacher.

Evidence of completion of PGCAP

Certificate for Senior Fellowship of the HEA

In this section, I outline three key areas that play a major role in the way I teach and support others who teach. Namely, constructive alignment, active learning, and principles relating to assessment and feedback.

Constructive Alignment

The first year of my HE teaching experience was a steep learning curve. I have always naturally been a person who works well with processes, structures and frameworks and so from the outset, I saw learning objectives (LOs) as a good tool with which to structure each teaching session. However, at the time, that was the limit of my understanding of the importance of LOs and how they can impact the learning of students. I quickly came to the realisation that this perception was limited. This came after an experience I had relating to the first assessment I set for my Year 2 module Social Psychology where students performed less well than they ordinarily would have which led to a lot of disgruntled students. My initial reaction was to blame the students for poor understanding of the material rather than to reflect on my own teaching but during my engagement with the PGCAP course, I came across the term ‘constructive alignment’ (Biggs, 1996) and realised that the students' performance was probably also a result of the lack of structure in my teaching. Constructive alignment is an approach to teaching design that ensures that all aspects of the teaching (e.g. the content, student activities and assessments), are in line with the aims and proposed outcomes of said module (Biggs, 1996).

Learning about this approach to teaching had a drastic effect on my view of LOs and how they now affect the design of my teaching. Specifically, I experienced a shift in my understanding from one where LOs provided me with a framework with which to structure each session to one where they are a key tool to also structure student learning, the way I design every teaching session and the related assessments. I will take my advanced module Cyberpsychology as an example to illustrate the change this newly acquired knowledge had on my teaching practice as I believe this is where it has had the strongest effect.

When designing this module, I wanted the discussion groups that students engage in to allow students to reflect on their learning. Initially, I gave each group different scenarios to discuss which they were to document on a Google doc (see 1b for more information). However, the first time I used this structure, some of the groups were discussing their own general thoughts and experiences - often going completely off course and not using their learning at all. This frustrated me somewhat. Reflecting on the newly acquired knowledge of constructive alignment, I realised the way I had created the discussion prompts meant they were not directly linked to what I expected students to be able to do by the end of each seminar (i.e. the LOs). This was a ‘light bulb’ moment which quickly led to the restructuring of these discussions so they directly aligned with the LOs, and importantly students were told which LOs their discussion points related to and thus how they linked to assessment. I have seen a drastic change in the way students now discuss the content whereby they are mindful of how their discussions might support their understanding of the materials and hence their performance in subsequent assessments. Two examples of the discussion summaries are below.

Seminar 2: Self and Identity Online. Google doc discussion summary

Session 4: Online Love and Relationships: Google doc discussion summary

The way constructive alignment is now ingrained into my teaching ethos has had an effect on some of my other roles. I am mentor to four junior staff, hold an external examiner role in another institution and I am often approached by other members of staff for advice on assessment. I have found myself naturally checking if assessment aligns with the intended learning outcomes of a module, and encourage others to do these self-checks with their own teaching. I have modelled my approach to teaching to a new member of staff and encouraged them to think carefully about the links they make between the LOs, the content they teach and the subsequent assessment. I recently arranged a sharing good practice event in our department in which I shared how I run my advanced module, clearly linking how I use technology to provide constructive alignment in my teaching. Colleagues provided positive feedback on this approach and some found it so useful that they have started to integrate elements of my teaching design into their own teaching.

Active Learning

Active learning is another element that heavily influences my teaching, specifically in my aim to ensure students engage in activities that can help them to construct (and co-construct with classmates) their knowledge. Active learning is a teaching method where students engage in ‘meaningful learning activities’ (Prince, 2004, p.1) and one which ideally encourages higher level thinking skills such as analysis, evaluation and synthesis (Bonwell & Eison, 1991). I use this approach in tandem with constructive alignment to ensure my students are provided with opportunities to engage in activities that help them to meet the learning objectives and thus perform well on the module (as tested by the different assessments).

One way students can do this is by engaging in activities with other classmates. In relation to the Discussion activity in my Cyberpsychology module outlined above, these allow students to not only construct their own understanding of the content while I am teaching in the first half of each seminar but they also get to share this and co-construct new knowledge by discussing their learning with others in the second half and to document that learning on a Google doc. This allows students to revisit their own active learning and that of their group that took place earlier on in the module, but also for classmates in the other groups to learn from others' experiences. In that sense, the module and particularly these discussions are designed in a way to help students ‘arrive at meaning by actively selecting, and cumulatively constructing, their own knowledge, through both individual and social activity’ (Biggs, 1996, p.348). Another way in which I encourage active learning from my students is for them to summarise an academic paper using a Padlet (see example below). This involves analysis and evaluation of the paper and they need to work together as a group to provide a succinct summary of the paper using a Padlet which is embedded into the Blackboard VLE pages for that module. This activity therefore requires not only the skills for students to work together effectively but also the higher level thinking skills outlined by Bonwell and Eison (1991).

However, students can also engage in active learning via individual exercises and in my experience, there is a sizeable minority of students who enjoy working alone rather than in a group. I am therefore conscious when designing my teaching that there is a combination of group work and individual work that involves active learning, giving students the opportunity to consolidate and extend their learning through individual activities as well as with peers through group activities. One example of where I have done this is in my Year 2 module on Social Psychology. I provide students with a downloadable workbook where each week they can document their ability to meet the learning objectives and engage in various individual activities to check their understanding, applying what they have learned and giving them a space to engage in analysis, evaluation and synthesis (Bonwell & Eison, 1991). To also give students the ability to co-construct knowledge with their peers (Biggs, 1996), I designed the tutorial for this module around group activities where they work together to identify different elements of a construct they've learned about. During 2020/21 teaching, their group responses were submitted using a Google Form which the tutor (a GTA) provided feedback on. In my student evaluations for this module, students reported that they liked the workbook as it allowed them to document their learning. One student stated 'I also really enjoyed the activity booklet Sally created it aided my learning a lot.' This shows that this individual 'active learning' provides meaningful tasks that are enabling students to understand the content to a greater degree.

Social Psychology Year 2 Workbook

Link to Google Form for student groups to submit their answers to the task

Principles of Assessment and Feedback

One of my roles in the department as GTA Coordinator is to train new GTAs and support existing GTAs in their role. Much of the marking for the first two years of our degrees is carried out by GTAs so I have naturally taken an interest in assessment and feedback practices. The two papers that have heavily influenced the way I train GTAs and my own assessment and feedback practices are Nicol and Macfarlane-Dick (2006), and Evans (2013). This gave me a set of explicit principles from which to work which could not only have an effect on the way I myself provided feedback but also on the training and mentoring I provide to our GTAs. One of the principles outlined by Evans (2013) relates to the provision of training so that there is a shared understanding of assessment and feedback. I recognised the importance of framing the GTA training within these principles since they mark much of the summative work in Years 1 and 2 of our undergraduate degrees. For example, the training now makes it explicit that GTAs should provide feedback in line with the development of each student, ensuring that their feedback helps to encourage positive motivation and self-esteem (principle 5, Nicol and Macfarlane-Dick). They are provided with a selection of examples that show how feedback can be phrased in an encouraging way and these examples are stored in the general online marking folder for all GTAs to use at any point.

Examples provided to trainee GTAs:

Example feedback on practical reports

Example feedback on essays

Additionally (and as already covered in section 1b), a key part of feedback is to provide students with clear guidelines on the most important aspects they as an individual can improve on (Principle 10; Evans, 2013). I designed new feedback forms that enabled GTAs (and staff) the space to provide this information in a manner that encourages the student to perform to the best of their ability. Since all our marking is now done online, GTAs can just copy and paste the form to the front of each student's work. Importantly, these forms have a direct link to the marking criteria on our student wiki, each of the first few sections on the form provide feedback on each part of the criteria, and finally include a feed-forward section (i.e. 'To improve...'). This latter part is where GTAs support students with the development of their writing by signposting them to the most appropriate 'How to...' videos at that point in their development (see section 1b for more information). Below are two examples taken from assessments in the 2020/21 academic year which reflect how GTAs support students via feedback.

Example Departmental Feedback Form for Essays

Example Departmental Feedback Forms for Practical Reports.

The summative assessments in our department are standard across modules and consist mostly of essays, practical reports and MCQ exams. The decision to standardise the assessment types across these modules was made to ensure a standard of quality although as a teacher I feel it does limit creativity in terms of assessment type. Formative assessments are also standardised and are optional for students. For example, in advanced modules, students are given the option to do a mock exam and get feedback from the module leader. In my experience, only about 10% of my class submit a practice essay which, in the first year of teaching this module, I found astounding. I viewed this lack of engagement as problematic. Providing feedback that allows self-assessment is a key principle outlined by Nicol and Macfarlane-Dick (2006) but how could students engage in this if they didn't do the formative assessments? Additionally, how was I as a teacher able to gauge the extent of their learning? I was therefore keen to find alternative ways of providing formative feedback to students within the bounds of the standardised system of the department that enabled me to 'know what they know' (Pellegrino, Chudowsky & Glaser, 2001) and for students to self-assess.

For my advanced module, I identified the discussion groups as a good place to do this as they were now directly linked to the learning objectives and were documented on Google docs. As outlined in section 1b and above in the sections on Constructive Alignment and Active Learning, I use these Google docs as a way to provide weekly formative feedback to my students. Since these are aligned with the LOs, students can get a feel for how prepared they are for the assessments and consequently can concentrate on areas of weakness. However, for large cohort teaching (200+ students), this is inappropriate and thus I use Mentimeter, a platform that allows users to 'text in' responses to different types of questions via an internet enabled device such as a Smartphone (see section 1a for a reflective summary of this decision). This has opened up ways in which students can create content, enabling more flexibility in self-assessing (principle 2, Nicol and Macfarlane-Dick, 2006), and provides me with the opportunity to give immediate formative feedback. It also allows me as a teacher to see where I could improve my own teaching and thus addresses the seventh principle of Nicol and Macfarlane-Dick (2006).

Seminar 2: Self and Identity Online. Google doc discussion summary

Session 4: Online Love and Relationships: Google doc discussion summary

Mentimeter responses to a question asking students to use different theories to explain one behaviour

Both these methods (using Google docs and Mentimeter) have been invaluable to me as a teacher as it immediately highlights gaps in student knowledge that I need to address in my teaching. I have found this method so useful that I shared this within our department, and at institution level (see section 4). Many other staff now also make use of these strategies. I have naturally fallen into a mentor role for others in the use of Mentimeter (see section 1c). I often give guidance to others on the type of questions to ask students and how to use the different settings on this platform to provide an environment where students can assess their own learning, and one where staff can provide formative feedback within the pedagogical frameworks for delivering effective feedback (Evans, 2003; Nicol and Macfarlane-Dick, 2006).

The Future

Moving forward with my teaching in respect of the three areas outlined above, I am mindful that there are potential changes both within pedagogy and in the technology I can use. I have already spoken in other sections about ways in which I can stay up to date with these changes and the importance of attending different types of events that can make sure my practice stays relevant (e.g. conferences, workshops, webinars). For example, new platforms may become available that are more suitable than the ones I currently use to enable me to use constructive alignment design, and provide active learning opportunities for my students. Additionally, the past year has opened my eyes to other areas in pedagogy that may start to have a larger impact on my practice than they currently do. For example, using technology more to provided blended learning opportunities and flipped classrooms is something I'd be keen to explore once teaching starts to resume to some level of normality.

In terms of the use of technology in assessment and feedback, there are also other changes that could take place in the department in which I work which I will be keen to take a major role in. Currently, most of the summative assessments are fairly traditional involving essays, practical reports and exams. I have managed to introduce a very small assessment in Year 1 and Year 2 to involve presentations and the creation of videos for lay audiences but this is minimal. Moving forward then, it's possible that technology could play an even greater role in assessment particularly if for example, we introduce assessments that involve platforms such as podcasts, wikis, online journals, blogs and vlogs. I am keen to learn how colleagues across the University and externally use technology in alternative assessments to enable students to be able to use a wide range of skills across their degree programme. It will be useful to learn what has worked and what hasn't, and for me to then reflect on how this will translate to our own students and the modules that make up their degree. Moreover, I believe that these types of skills are important for careers in today's societies. For example, many companies use online tools to support different elements of their company's activities. Enabling our students to have some experience of this will only put them in a better position for life after HE so it is an area I will be looking to develop over the next few years.