Masters Teaching: Setting New #PEDRIO

Masters Teaching: Setting New Agendas WELCOME Pauline Kneale Pro Vice-Chancellor Teaching and Learning Director of #PEDRIO

House Keeping Facilities: There are toilets located on each floor of the building. One lift is located outside of this room, with a further lift and set of stairs located on the South side of the building. Fire exits: Fire exits are through the main entrances/exits to the building. There are also a number of emergency exits on the ground floor, please follow the green and white signs to the nearest exit in the event of a fire alarm sounding. The fire rendezvous point for Rolle Building is Fitzroy Car #PEDRIO

Posters, Stands and Refreshments All parallel session will take place in Rolle Building Posters and stands will be displayed on the 6 th Floor of the Rolle Building Lunch and an afternoon tea will take place on the 6 th Floor of the Rolle Building Tea and Coffee Breaks will be on the 1 st Floor #PEDRIO

The Pedagogic Research Institute and Observatory Influencing policy and practice through research PedRIO challenge - Understand better how to enhance teaching, learning and the student experience and use this evidence in future developments of policy and practice at Plymouth University Enhance the reputation of Plymouth University as a place to study and as a national/ international leader in pedagogic #PEDRIO

PedRIO Theme Groups Critically inclusive pedagogies and the issue of Higher Education (pedagogy of hope) - Suanne Gibson Centre for Sustainable Futures (CSF) – Stephen Sterling Collaboration for the Advancement of Medical Education Research and Assessment (CAMERA) - Julian Archer Masters-level teaching pedagogies - Pauline Kneale and Julie Anderson Digital Innovation Group – Neil Witt Quantitative reasoning: employability, engagement equity and enterprise - Paul Hewson Community engagement group - Jocey #PEDRIO

Dates for the Diary 2016 events April Effective Evaluation Workshop,7 th April 2016 PedRIO 5 th Annual Conference, 8 th April 2016 Deadline for papers next Friday 15 th January 2016 June Digital Learning Conference, 29 th June 2016 VC’s 14 th Teaching and Learning Conference, 30 th June Call for Papers now open. Visit the PedRIO website for details of PedRIO theme group seminars, TLS workshops and #PEDRIO

The Challenge for Enhancement in Master’s Learning Master’s Students should be drivers, not passengers The Quality Assurance Agency Scotland, 2013, p. 5.

Your aim for today Listen, and engage in dialogue, to enable transformation in our practises around M level (PGT) learning. Be challenged in some way and Contribute to defining what research is needed next? Leave with new thinking, insights and questions to share with colleagues and students.

What has reset your thinking in the past 12 months? Graduates at this level will apply knowledge and skills to demonstrate autonomy, expert judgement, adaptability and responsibility as a practitioner or learner. Australian Qualifications Authority 2014 At master’s level, their knowledge should not be bounded by yours, The Quality Assurance Agency Scotland, 2013, p. 5. Do we know what has reset our students / tutees thinking in the past 12 months?

What do you know about the M student experience?

Mixed offerings and audiences? Very diverse student body Very diverse programmes Academic Courses Applied and professional courses Research training M+3 Recent graduates Returners Full time Part time Distance learners Adult learners 3/4 of UK PGT students are self-funded - implications for social mobility - I can do a M degree, but only locally.

How do we know what M students think? Role of the personal tutors? That regular 1:1 discussion, induction, family, how are you, how is the work going... Surveys by the people who teach may not get an honest answer – they mark my work. Courses are over so fast, improvements will not benefit these students Should we routinely obtain feedback from students 3 and 5 years later?

Happy students? Just because a student appears to be listening and nodding, it doesn't necessarily mean they are engaged in learning and happy. What characterises a happy, engaged M student - running round, being creative,...grabbing the pen to write on the flip chart - making ideas buzz around the room.

Transition and Induction

Who should own the classroom space? Are we teaching what we want to teach. The classroom can be seen as 'my space' where I talk about my own research - don't interrupt... Are we teaching what students need to learn to be effective in the workplace for the next five years? Are we treating students as the adults they are? years old Is it a real step up from final undergraduate year?

Standards and Activity Are modules all at level 7 – demanding enough? These are people with experience and the skills to co-create with you, where you can take issues where we do not know the answer, and see what they can do with them. It is a space where you can try to find answers, and it doesn't matter if they are not found. Marking the process of learning, not a list of regurgitated information temporarily held in a brain after revision.

Can we be more flexible in programme design? PGT is a static package nationally UK 180cr, usually 60 T + 60 T + 60 R For students with PhD potential, could they work in the lab / library / studio with a Prof and his team for semester 2, get the LOs / 60cr in a different way, instead? Could a student who finds an ideal placement do second semester with a company, producing a report / log / creation that demonstrates the LOs for 60cr? What could flexible learning actually look like? What does co-designed look like? In practice most people will take the main menu, - should students be able to tailor their learning to their personal agenda?

Students ‘feel’ the real life world of a researcher / practitioner Knowledge, behaviours, skills and attitudes developed Research practice and assessment mirrors real research and practice processes Motivation to continue to work in the discipline area is engendered Students understand generic and professional competencies Students know where and how learning can continue: CPD, further degrees, life long learning Module Considerations

Internationalisation How do we deliver effectively to international students? Especially people who have travelled to learn in an international context, but then spend their time with students from their own country? What are we offering in the class room and the 'cultural' student experience that makes it worthwhile? Should there be a cultural offering for all international students throughout the academic year? Is their research experience relevant to their home country context?

Assessment Is assessment enabling autonomy and research in every module?

Visibility to Undergraduates Where and how do we promote the PGT offer to UGs? How do they know this is an option - where are they meeting PGT and PGR students? Can the UG curriculum have elements where PGT and PGR students are properly involved? Engineering in UK and some US Universities vertical projects.... examples Finding ways to make PGT an aspiration for our students would be helpful

Concerns – for university? Coasting on our past successes is not an option. Postgraduate capacity must be at the heart of our national plans for long-term competitiveness and growth. Failure to do so puts at risk out future prosperity. HEC 2012 p18 Are we offering degrees of the right sort: – those who want a change of direction while in work – Those upskilling for promotion – People with disposable income who are newly retired - art, geology, creative writing,... U3A

Concerns – for university? Do programmes pay their way? Do we close programmes fast enough? UK taught masters are very short - not Bologna aligned What are the Private Providers doing within nearest 50 miles? If it is making them a profit why are we not competing for that market? Are we aggressive (enough) in changing our offer to challenge the competition?

Final Thoughts – big agenda Induction is crucial. How does this need to evolve? Is the ‘tutor role’ active, enabling student-staff interactions every (other) day? Is there enough research? Do PGT students co-create with academics and practitioners to genuinely benefit their discipline as well as their own understandings? How do we deliver on the benchmarks of autonomy, independence, responsibility and judgement? Is assessment enabling autonomy and research in every module? Do we deliver effectively to international students? Do we need some parallel modules to challenge students with different backgrounds? Can we be more flexible in programme design?