Professionalism in a HE Educational Setting

Assignment

By Ricardo Vilela

In this assignment I will explore the concept of lifelong learning looking at

contemporary definitions from appropriate bodies. I will look at different

ideas on professionalism and reflective practice to contrast with my

experience of teaching in the classroom and teaching as part of a team on

behalf of an educational institution. I will establish how improvement in the

quality of the lifelong learning sector is a concern to the government, and

which laws and regulating bodies have been put in place to monitor the

sector. Finally, I will come to a conclusion at the end where I will access the

success of my professional and reflective practise, identifying space for

improvement and areas of development.

What is lifelong learning? Let’s have a look at some definitions starting by the one

provide by the European Commission:

“A world class lifelong learning workforce that enables a more

prosperous economy and an inclusive society” is a definition proposed

by the Lifelong Learning UK, as part of their mission”

The European commission suggests that lifelong learning should be about

acquiring and updating all kinds of abilities, interests, knowledge and

qualifications, valuing all forms of learning, insight into the demand for

learning, adequate resourcing, facilitating access to learning opportunities,

creating a learning culture, and striving for excellence. On their website

they define lifelong learning as “all learning activity undertaken throughout

life, with the aim of improving knowledge and skills and competence, with a

personal, civic, social and/or employment related perspective”

In essence, lifelong learning presupposes an acceptance and inclusion of

students from a variety of backgrounds, age, beliefs, sexual orientation and

experiences. The institution and staff are predisposed to place the student

learning experience, needs and aspirations at the centre, together with an

emphasis on improving the economy and society as a whole.

The LSIS – Learning & Skills Improvement service has inherited from the

LLUK a national strategy for the lifelong learning sector into different

sectors: Career guidance, Community learning and development, Further

and Higher education, Libraries, archives and information services and Work

based learning. Notions of Professionalism are challenged in Lifelong

Learning. Sue Crowley and Toni Fazaeli (2009) suggested a revised definition

of professionalism around issues on altruism, accountability, continuous

learning and improvement, ‘collaborative autonomy’, vigilance, passion and

humility.

A the centre I work on, The Manchester College, staff are invited to conform

to the code of conduct, where the learner is at the heart of all we do,

where we should strive to be motivational and well-resourced, supportive,

fostering a participatory culture, striving for excellence, encouraging

innovation, creativity and enterprise. We are also to encompass the

sustainability and financial security of the college. The IfL – Institute for

Learning, recommends a professionalism framework around issues of

Integrity, Respect, Care, Practice, Disclosure and Responsibility, benefiting

the wider community as much as the learners or institution.

In its essential, my experience of professionalism on a practical level is in

accordance with Lee Davies idea of including reflective practice and CPD –

continuous professional development, in my routine practice as a tutor. That

practice in itself will catapult initiative in the other contexts of professional

practice mentioned above.

There are a few sounding names that helped bring reflective practice to the

surface, and provided a working framework for the effect. Schon brought up

new nomenclature such as “learning society” and “double loop learning”,

Schon was concerned with the concept of learning IN action and learning ON

action. Gibbs developed his reflective cycle model, where the reflexion

starts from a simple description of an event, and goes through five distinct

steps until building an action plan. Kolb devised a system where the stages

are brought together in opposites, such as Active Experimentation opposed

to Reflective Observation. I will expand more on this later in this

assignment, explaining how it relates to my practise.

The government in the UK has introduced legislation and regulatory bodies

to support the high standards of teaching and learning delivery in Lifelong

Learning.

“The Education Act of 2002, allows regulations to be introduced which

prohibit anyone from teaching in FE colleges if they have not served a

probationary period. 

From September 2007 Qualified Teacher Learning and Skills (QTLS) status,

conferred by the Institute for Learning (IfL), has reinforced the professional

identity of teachers in post-compulsory education and training.

From 1837 to the present day, the government has thus recognized and

supported an increase in quality in Education.

The Institute for Learning provides a code of practice that is set in place to

promote professionalism and protect learners whilst in the care of their

institutions.

The Learning and Skills Improvement Service is the sector-led body that

aims to accelerate the drive for excellence in the learning and skills sector,

building the sector’s own capacity to design, commission and deliver

improvement and strategic change.

The government used to fund the life long learning sector, whilst studying in

other institutions, such as universities, is mainly funded by the learner, via

student finance UK loans. Over the last year changes in funding meant that

lifelong learning sector is now mainly funded by Student Finance UK, via

student loans, apart from Foundation Degrees. With the introduction of ELQ

– Equal Level Qualification by the HEFCE - Higher Education Funding Council

for England, a number of students will no longer qualify for funding if they

already have a full Higher Education qualification. Both of these sectors are

bound by government legislation or acts. There is also the issue that

currently, a student will pay more for a Foundation course in part-time

mode than in full-time, which might alienate potential part time students.

This might put some part-time provision in danger of disappearing, which is

not very inclusive.

Diversity and respect can be built in the first instance at the recruiting

stage, by looking out to provide a balanced cohort, with approximate

numbers of male and female students, and enrolling people from different

backgrounds and ages. But it goes on throughout the year. The theme and

content of the class should reflect and challenge the range of experiences

of the cohort. Any breach in terms of respect should be challenged

immediately. Strong, clear ground rules should be put forward from day one.

In my particular subject, I pay an effort in rotating the students in between

all the different practical roles students perform in the TV Studio, or in

location, and have created an excel chart that helps us monitor this factor.

Looking at the suggested code of professional practise from the IfF, I can relate to the

need of acting in accordance with the needs and expectations of my institute, during

investigations or otherwise. I believe that only now, at the end of the PGCE, I’m

understanding what it means to have professional integrity in Education, as I

understand better the context of my practise, and how it relates to my colleagues and

the institution as a whole. I would suggest I started off with a higher focus on taking

reasonable care in the workplace, and respecting my colleagues and students, and

gradually come to understand and practise the other behaviours suggested by the IfL

The code of conduct of the institution I work in It’s somewhat similar to the IfL code.

I feel in our department and in my specific specialization (TV Production), I have

worked hard, alone and also together with my colleagues, to deliver best practice in

our performance. Perhaps it is the nature of TV Production as a subject that lends

itself well to most of the items in the code. Ultimately I believe it’s the unity in our

departmental staff that delivers the results. We meet every week to get updates on any

practical ongoing work the students are performing. We meet as staff, tutors and

technician, and also with the students. Our reason for meeting is indeed to develop a

creative, supportive and participative environment. We’ve improved on this by

redesigning our room layout twice this year, redesigning some recurrent processes

such as booking kit procedures and access to standardized forms. I meet up with

students for tutorials, always inciting them to explore their creativity and originally,

thus valuing the learner’s experience. We avidly look out for positive industry

partnerships, such as working together with Channel M, Manchester City Council,

Cathedral, Manchester Futsal Club, etc. We strive to provide our students with

contacts for future employment, thus investing in their financial security. We carefully

plan the acquisition of new materials and resources in conformance with the college’s

current direction, sometimes spreading acquisition over three years, like we’ve

planned for our new studio. The main key is, both at an individual and departmental

level, we strive to raise our standards at any opportunity, and consider the student

experience at the heart of our decisions, not least because the student feedback is now

available to possible future students via the national student survey

Several models of reflective practice exist today and some of the

proponents include Gibbs who created six questions or lenses through which

to look at a situation. The questions focus on areas such as how where you

feeling? What happened? and what would you do if it happened again? This

style of answering six questions is my preferred model for reflection as it is

a simple format and these questions now also form the basis for my tutorial

sessions with Foundation TV learners. Schon’s model deals with reflecting

both in and on action. This is very useful especially if something happens or

goes wrong within a session and enables the practitioner to reflect ‘on the

fly’ and adapt and flex when things get tough. Kolb describes reflection as a

cycle and this is one of the models I feel is less flexible and restrictive as it

implies that things must happen in a cyclic nature. I agree that each of the

phases can and do happen, but I find it hard to believe that the cycle

cannot happen in a similar fashion to the work of Geoff Petty and his ICEDIP

model where the user can switch gears as they see fit. Provided that all the

steps are used and none are neglected then the lenses serve their purpose

and will allow improvement.

In my classes, since last September, I started asking students to publish a web journal,

in the shape of a learner’s log, where I invite the students to register any incidents,

experiences and perceptions on facets of their learning journey. I provide Gibson

reflective model templates right from the beginning to assist the students making

sense of the experience by approaching it in a reflective manner. The model is

uploaded in the module blog and each student has his or her own blog. When I get to

tutorials with them, I also use the same model as a way of questioning their direction.

This proves to be very useful as it induces possible solutions for the student’s issue

without me having to necessarily see them face to face straight away.

At the end of every school year, my TV tutors/peers and I get together to review the

quality of the produced workload. We reflect on it in the most basic way, by just

recapping what we’ve done, register what worked and not, question what can we do

better, how should we approach what hasn’t worked as a team and individually, and

finally, we access our decisions based on the impact it will have for our students,

organization (college), staff and clients, as our outside clients are an integral part of

our course’s output.

One good example of reflective practice in our department is the way we produce the

end of year showcase live multiplatform stream. We ask the first year students to

support the second year students’ showcase, therefore they will know one year in

advance what the show is all about, and will have opportunity to come up with new

ideas and proposals for when their final show comes up. We then have the second

years (Foundation) supporting the production of the third years (BA) showcase, which

follows a similar logic as above, apart from the fact that these two shows are only two

or three weeks apart. After the third years’ showcase, the second years have to

evaluate the show and identify opportunities for improvement and solutions for any

challenges. Within a week or so, the second years will be able to put into practice

their “new” reflections and ideas. For example, on the first show we tested streaming

live via mobile phones, and on the second show, two weeks apart, we are actually

using mobiles phones already. By daisy chaining student support into other years of

the same course, we are creating a culture where the students actually feel inspired to

experiment new ideas after reflecting on their learning.

I believe the reflection we do together in the department is more akin to Kolb’s

experiential learning cycle, although we tend to move freely between the experience,

observation, conceptualization and experimentation parts of the cycle. Which is

reflected in the way we have developed our specialist IT support.

I found out that I drew something positive out of all models of reflective practise I

looked into, and that I tend to use slightly different methods depending on the task in

question, and also on the time available. I’m getting more confident as a tutor, more

knowledgeable of the professional issues that arise in this profession, but that

confidence grows en par with the level of reflexion that I’m prepared to put in. Before

I joined the teaching profession, I was already aware that there is a lot of paperwork

involved, which can be quite consuming. These days I don’t see it as extensive

paperwork anymore, more like an opportunity to increase the level of reflective

practice, and align myself with a sound code of conduct proposed by the institution or

otherwise. I feel challenged by the evolving nature of the issues in professionalism.

The greatest challenge is perhaps what Sam Duncan calls “The individual learning

experience of dual professionalism”, as I find that being a specialist in my particular

field, I need to consider levels of professionalism in both the teaching job and my

practise. It does feel like a double edged sword, since there is a limitation in time to

deal with both sides of need. I believe that not enough time is allocated to CPD, and

that not enough money is paid as an incentive, especially for somebody like me who

started teaching HE at a later stage in my life, in a college with a much greater

tradition in FE.

I will continue to align myself with all the facets proposed in my institution’s code of

conduct, aiming at a high performance. A fundamental part of that will be the level of

reflective practise I manage to endure.

References:

Atherton J S (2011) Learning and Teaching; Critical Reflection. Leaning and Teaching [online] Available at: < http://www.learningandteaching.info/learning/critical1.htm > [Accessed 23 May 2012]

Atherton J S (2011) Learning and Teaching; Reflection and Reflective Practice. Leaning and Teaching [online] Available at: < http://www.learningandteaching.info/learning/reflecti.htm > [Accessed 23 May 2012]

Duncan S. (2011) ‘On the role and potential of CPD’ CPD Matters, 2 (winter 2011/12) p.7

Ferraro, Joan M.(2000) Reflective Practice and Professional Development, Washington: ERIC Clearinghouse on Teacher Education Washington DC.

House of Commons - Culture, Media and Sport Committee (2011) Written evidence submitted by Lifelong Learning UK (LLUK) (arts 161), Parliament [online] Available at: < http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201011/cmselect/cmcumeds/464/464vw149.htm > [Accessed 28 May 2012]

Lester S. (2010) On professions and being professional. Stan Lester [online] Available at: < http://www.sld.demon.co.uk/profnal.pdf > [Accessed 18 May 2012]

Oxford Brookes University (2011) About Gibbs reflective cycle. Brookes [online] Available at: < Available at: < http://www.brookes.ac.uk/services/upgrade/a-z/reflective_gibbs.html > [Accessed 17 May 2012]

Reece, I. And Walker, S. (2007) Teaching, Training and Learning: A Practical Guide. 6th rev. ed. Sunderland: Business Education Publishers.

Schuller, T, & Watson, D (2009) Learning Through Life, Inquiry into the Future for Lifelong Learning IFFLL Summary. NIACE [online]. Available at: < http://www.niace.org.uk/lifelonglearninginquiry/ > [Accessed 19 May 2012]

Smith, M. K. (2001, 2011). Donald Schön: learning, reflection and change', the encyclopedia of informal education. Infed [online]. Available at: < www.infed.org/thinkers/et-schon.htm > [Accessed 2 June 2012]

The Institute for Learning (2011) Code of Professional Practice. IfL [online] Available at: < http://www.ifl.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/23836/Code-of-Professional-Practice-on-letterhead.pdf > [Accessed 28 May 2012]