Teaching and Learning
The University places emphasis on enabling students to develop the independent learning capabilities that will equip you for lifelong learning and future employment, as well as academic achievement. A mixture of independent study, teaching and academic support through the personal academic tutoring system enables you to reflect on progress and build up a profile of skills, achievements and experiences that will enable you to flourish and be successful.
Teaching
The course assumes that learning is best when it is active, when it incorporates experience and when it can be shared and supported through collaboration. The workshops and discussions will be based around the experiential learning cycle.
This course is work-based and the course is structured to take participants through the process of auditing their practice against each modules outcomes and values, planning to address these via the formative assessments and participant's role in teaching/ other roles in supporting students' learning.
Critical reflection plays a key role throughout the course and participants are encouraged to become a reflective practitioner, where they will explore the scholarship of learning and teaching in HE; synthesise, explain, make sense of and ultimately develop meaning from, their teaching experiences.
The module encourages peer learning and the formative assessments and study sessions provide opportunities for peer feedback and discussion. The study sessions in particular will combine inputs from colleagues across the institution and various workshop activities.
Blackboard will be used to provide module information and an online forum for discussion.
Contact time
Typically a fifteen credit module of the course will be structured:
|
Activity type
|
Number of weeks and hours/days
|
Total
|
| Taught sessions (3 study days) |
e.g. 3 x 7 hours or 7/8 x 3/2.5hrs |
21 |
| Work based learning (peer observations) |
e.g. 1 x 3 hours |
3 |
| Support sessions x 5 |
e.g. 5 x 2 hours |
10 |
| Guided independent study (including group work) |
Formative tasks and Independent study approx. 116 hours |
116 |
| TOTAL |
|
150 |
Independent self-study
Outlined above
Independent learning is supported by a range of excellent learning facilities, including the Hive and library resources, the virtual learning environment, and extensive electronic learning resources.
Teaching staff
You will be taught by a teaching team whose expertise and knowledge are closely matched to the content of the modules on the course. The team includes Dr Peter Gossman, Sharon Lesley Smith and Dr Seán Bracken, from the School of Education, alongside tutors from Institutes across the University.
Teaching is informed by the research and consultancy, and 100 per cent of course lecturers have a higher education teaching qualification or are Fellows of the Higher Education Academy. You can learn more about the full list of education staff by visiting our staff profiles.
Assessment
The course provides opportunities to test understanding and learning informally through the completion of practice or 'formative' assignments. Each module has one formal or 'summative' assessments which are graded and count towards the overall module grade.
Assessment is via the development of portfolios.
Feedback
You will receive feedback on formative assessments and on formal summative assessments undertaken by coursework. Feedback is intended to support learning and you are encouraged to discuss it with module tutors as appropriate.
We aim to provide you with feedback on formal course work assessments within 20 working days of hand-in.