Professional Standards and Professional Values in HEChristine Smith, University of Salford

Professional standards/professional values in HE

 The UK Professional Standards Framework (UK PSF) for teaching and learning in HE is a descriptor based approach, whereby HE institutions determine their own criteria in the application of the framework. In order to demonstrate application of the standards, six areas of activity, core knowledge and professional values derived from the Higher Education Academy’s existing Accreditation Scheme are applied to learning outcomes and assessment activities within an HE institution’s professional development programme. This presentation focuses on the UK PSF, but specifically on the professional values within the framework.

 Professional values in HE for teaching and learning can be defined as cognitive representations of desirable abstract goals relating to teaching and support of learning that transcend specific situations but that are important to or valued within the HE academic context. Values are important for drawing our attention to important issues around, for example, equity and quality in the student experience. In the UK PSF they are articulated around notions of respect and commitment, such as a commitment to the development of learning communities. These professional values can also be described as the professional principles that guide decisions and actions for teaching and support of learning within HE academic practice. Whilst it is clearly fundamental that such values are implicit in a professional approach to teaching and practice, it is less clear how we can promote adherence to such values among a developing professional community. It is inherently problematic to suggest values are things which we could, or indeed should attempt to teach within professional development programmes, such as those for early career academic staff. There is also concern amongst some academic development practitioners that the professional skills and values associated with teaching diverse students are not well understood in the sector and that academic development programmes could do more to develop these.

 In the Learning to Teach Inclusively project at the University of Wolverhampton, original video clips of authentic classroom practice have been developed as Open Educational Resources: used to illustrate principles in practice and to provoke discussion around inclusive learning and teaching. The presentation will build on the project work to suggest and demonstrate how Open Educational Resources (OERs) could offer an innovative approach to encouraging engagement with the UK PSF. In particular the presentation will explore and reflect upon how we might employ OERs as authentic artefacts for promoting engagement with and exploration of the more abstract professional values of the UK PSF. It will consider the use of OERs for eg stimulating recall; for prompting discussion; and for critiquing professional practice. It will suggest this use of OERs with the intent of identifying and surfacing for inspection, in explicit ways, the tacit values and the extent to which these are underpinning teaching and the support of learning.

Advance organiser

The UK PSF and its professional values

OERs as artefacts: teaching-as-design (Goodyear & Retalis, 2010)

Taxonomies for learning technologies

Tools for thinking, for communicating and for acting

Exploring the video resources of the Learning to Teach Inclusively course

Reflection and discussion

UK PSF

Sector wide standards for teaching and support of learning in HE since 2006

Descriptor based framework for determining institutional criteria in its application

Areas of activity, core knowledge and professional values

Review in progress with revised version available from 2nd November 2011

Professional Values in PSF

Respect for individual learners

Commitment to incorporating the process and outcomes of relevant research, scholarship and/or professional practice

Commitment to the development of learning communities

Commitment to encouraging participation in HE, acknowledging diversity and promoting equality of opportunity

Commitment to continuing professional development and evaluation of practice

Critiquing ‘teaching’ of values Values as cognitive representations of abstract concepts

Implicit in ‘good’ professional practice and important to the HE academic context

Transcending specific situations : a way of being?

Less clear how we can promote adherence to such values including among a developing professional community

Problematic to suggest values are things which we could, or indeed should attempt to teach within professional development programmes

Concerns have been raised that professional skills and values associated with teaching diverse students are not well understood

Could academic development programmes do more to develop these? How might they?

OERs and the Open Education movement The Open Education movement

Open Educational Resources: eg courseware and content in variety of formats; software tools; learning objects; and open courses

OERs to create, adapt and use

Notions of convenience, effectiveness, sustainability and availability

OERs as artefacts of authentic practice

Teaching as design

Design of good learning tasks

Design and management of supportive learning environments

Links especially to inquiry based learning contexts

Good tasks, identifying tools and resources to make success of tasks, monitoring progress

Taxonomies for learning technologies

As media for accessing and for studying learning material

As media for learning through inquiry

As media for learning through communication and collaboration

As media for learning through construction

For learners’ assessment

For digital and multimedia literacy

Focus here on tools for …

Thinking

Communicating and discussion

Action

Video example

Watch the OER video

Consider what values might be implicit in the example OER

How you might use for yourself and/or with your learners: thinking; communicating; acting; other?

Discuss in groups

Reporting back in plenary

OER video: sharing stories

http://player.vimeo.com/video/20017357

To conclude

Immersive environments and experiences

Influencing practice

Gaining experience and understanding for critique, for reflection and for action

Open module FDOL to join to discuss these things further

Thank you for your attentionc.smith@salford.ac.uk

Time for lunch I think!