A FOCUS ON PROFESSIONAL LEARNING

Dr Frances Deepwell & Dr Greg Benfield, Oxford Centre for Staff and Learning Development

With thanks for content to Hilary Beale, Faculty of Health & Life Sciences & Mike Laycock, HE Consultant

WHO? AND HOW? AND WHAT?

Who are your prospective students?

Currently in work? Looking to change career direction? Innovation workers? Innovation leaders? Academic/researchers? ?? ??

Looking to the course for professional development…?

Who supports student learning… and in what ways?

Key questions in supporting professional learning

Where does responsibility for ‘success’ lie? E.g. Who is responsible for ensuring a workplace project is fulfilled?

Who assesses performance? Who assesses knowledge? What is the balance between workplace and

university? Between individual and group efforts? How do the different parties interact?

Factors which impede professional learning

Resistance to learning Problems with “unlearning” poor /outdated

knowledge or skills. Inappropriate role models Lack of protected time “Life” Limited support/feedback What else?

Support and managementissues:ScenarioThe work based learning agreement is completed and the student is half way through the project when management of the team in which the student operates changes. The new line manager tells the student that they must change their role within the organisation, denying them access to the work opportunities required for fulfilment of the project.

ELEMENTS OF ASSESSMENT

Reflective blog – shared with course participants Annotated reflective journal, which review

workplace learning through ‘critical incidents Increasingly complex groupwork projects Critical and reflective essay that uses appended

evidence of practice to substantiate learning claims

Write an answer to a client's question Present a case for an interest group Letter of Advice to .... (about policy, public health

matters .....) Prepare a committee briefing paper for a specific

meeting Book review (or article) for a particular journal

Working up to the high stakes project, or populating the e-portfolio

Working up to the high stakes project, or populating the e-portfolio (2)

Draft a research bid to a realistic brief designed to make a specific contribution to the workplace

Conference paper (or notes for a conference paper plus annotated bibliography)

Presentation Make a video (write script and produce/make a

video) Produce a poster Prepare an illustrated manual on using the

equipment, for a particular audience Observation/analysis of real or simulated

professional practice, or case study ‘You’ are the portfolio

Criteria for assessing work-based, or scenario-based learning

‘Generic’ criteria:the achievement of reflective skills; the exercise of professional judgment; the ability to communicate effectively in a range of contexts.the ability to work with othersthe ability to exercise moral and ethical judgements

Engaging students with criteria

Some issues:this might be the first time some learners have studied in this wayhow can they quickly learn the ‘rules of the game’?

Some possible responses:Create marking criteria for each mode of assessment: presentations, reflective essays, etcprovide opportunities for self- and peer-assessmentmarking exercises that enable active engagement with the criteriastructured opportunities for dialogic feedback

Students’ personal and professional development

how will the course provide opportunities for developing learners’ self-awareness of their own learning, of personal career and workplace organisational development, and of promoting the skills required at each level

how can work-based learners benefit from engaging with the e-portfolio, developing curricula vitae and longer-term development plans?

WHAT IS THE SYLLABUS?

What is in, what is out…

Your Course Research methods Project management Managing change Design Sociology Economics ??? ???

Your competitors? Uni of East London:

MSc Innovative Technology Bath: MSc Innovation and Technology

Management Sussex: MSc Technology and Innovation

Management City: Masters in Innovation, Creativity and

Leadership Eindhoven:

Innovation Sciences Grenoble: MSc in Innovation, Strategy and

Entrepreneurship Carnegie Mellon: Masters in Engineering &

Technology Innovation Management

GRADUATE ATTRIBUTES

What are graduate attributes?

‘These attributes include, but go beyond, the disciplinary expertise or technical knowledge that has traditionally formed the core of most university courses.

They are ability, dispositions, qualities which enable knowledge gained to be translated into a discipline and work place context.

Bowden, J., Hart, G., King, B., Trigwell, K., & Watts, O. (2000) Generic capabilities of ATN university graduates, Canberra: Australian Government Department of Education, Training and Youth Affairs

Why graduate attributes?

‘qualities that prepare graduates as agents of social good in an unknown future.’ (Bowden et al, 2000)

‘attributes that help prepare our students to tackle the ever evolving challenges facing them during and at the end of their studies’ (University of Edinburgh)

(Post)graduate attributes

Brookes has five graduate/postgraduate attributes, the development of which all courses must support:

a) Academic literacy

b) Research literacy

c) Critical self-awareness and personal literacy

d) Digital and information literacy

e) Global citizenship

What might your postgraduate attributes be?

Brookes Postgraduate attributes

a) Academic literacyAdvanced disciplinary and professional knowledge and skills moving beyond the emerging professional to becoming an expert member of the relevant community. This should include the ability to engage in current critical debates within the discipline and the ability to communicate complex ideas to both expert and non-expert audiences, even in the absence of a complete set of data.

b) Research literacyThe ability to design and undertake a research project in the discipline, use appropriate methodology and solve complex problems in novel situations. Awareness of current research within the discipline, and the ability to critically evaluate it

Brookes Postgraduate attributes cont’d

c) Critical self-awareness and personal literacyDemonstrate commitment to continuous self-improvement. To include the ability to lead and organise self and others; take personal responsibility in unpredictable and complex situations; make sound and appropriate decisions; to inspire and interact with others in diverse environments.

d) Digital and information literacyThe functional access, skills and practices necessary to become a confident, agile adopter of a range of technologies for personal, academic and professional use. To be able to use appropriate technology to search for high-quality information; critically to evaluate and engage with the information obtained; reflect on and record learning, and professional and personal development; and engage productively in relevant online communities.

Brookes Postgraduate attributes cont’d

e) Global citizenshipKnowledge and skills, showing cross-cultural awareness, and valuing human diversity. The ability to work effectively, and responsibly, in a global context. Knowledge of global perspectives on how disciplinary knowledge is represented and understood within other cultures; cross-cultural capability beginning with an awareness of our own culture and perspectives and the development of the confidence to question one’s own values and those of others responsibly and ethically; and responsible citizenship, actively engaging with issues of equity and social justice, sustainability and the reduction of prejudice, stereotyping and discrimination.