Cambridge, 17 th April 2009 Jannie Roed (Coventry University)

 Introductions  What is it all about? Postgraduate Certificates in HE – the context  Expectations and realities  Reflective practice  A few tips

In pairs, discuss (a) why you are doing a PGCert, and (b) what you expect to get out of it? Please be prepared to feed back to the group

 Recommended in the Dearing Rapport (1997) and the White Paper (2003) and mandatory in most HE institutions in the UK  Quality Assurance and transparency  Compliance with national and institutional policies  Introduction to professional practice  Support for new members of academic staff  Accreditation by the Higher Education Academy (HEA) and/or the Staff and Educational Development Association (SEDA)

 Not a ‘how to teach’ course  Introduction to institutional practices  Introduction to national policies/legislation  Work-based assessment  You are telling ‘your story’ or recalling ‘your journey’ in HE  Engaging with scholarship within your discipline  The concept of reflective practice

Evaluation by students/peers Analysing evaluation data Acting upon evaluation data Providing feedback to students/peers on the outcomes of evaluations Evaluation cycle

Peer feedbackStudent feedback  Peer observations  Sharing experiences/materials  Networking  Seminars  Conferences  Formal feedback from students  Informal feedback from students  Exam results

 Keep a notebook/diary ; include critical incidents, your own thoughts and reactions, comments from peers and students on your materials (positive as well as negative)  Engage with the literature – don’t just read it  Read newspapers and Times Higher Education to keep up with policy developments, legislation and general trends in HE  Plan your assignments or portfolio entries well in advance  Become part of a network