Carrick Institute for Learning and Teaching in Higher Education

1. Setting Up a National Learning and Teaching Centre in Higher Education:Lessons Learned from the Australian Experience Janice OrrellCarrick Institute for Learning and Teaching in Higher EducationDirector: Disciplines, Networks and Special Projects

2. Carrick Institute for Learning and Teaching in Higher Education • An Initiative of DEST • Established and funded as a Public Company • 2005 planning year • 2006-2008 first triennium

3. Institute Values • Inclusiveness through networks and communities of all who contribute to the advancement of earning and teaching • Diversity of institutional and discipline differences • Long-term, future oriented, systemic change • Collaboration through engagement • Recognition and reward of Excellence

4. Institute Objectives • Promotion of systemic change • Recognise fundamental importance of HE learning & teaching • Develop mechanisms to identify, develop and disseminate good practice • Establish reciprocal national and international sharing and benchmarking • Identify important future oriented issues that impact on higher education and facilitate national approaches to them

5. Five Schemes • Grants • Awards • Fellowships • Discipline-based Initiatives • Resource Identification Network

6. Grants Scheme Carrick Director:Dr Elizabeth McDonald $28 Million between 2006-2008 Priority Projects • Academic standards, assessment practices • Teaching and learning spaces • Peer review Competitive Grants • Research & development of issues continuing importance • Strategic approaches to L&T – diversity of student body • Innovation in learning and teaching Leadership in Learning & Teaching (enhancement of learning & teaching through…) • Institutional leadership capacity building • Disciplinary and cross-disciplinary communities of practice

7. Recognising & Rewarding Good Teaching Carrick Director: Denise Chalmers Awards • Citations for outstanding contributions to student learning (210) • Teaching excellence (including PM’s award) (27) • Programmes that enhance learning (14) Fellowships Indicators Project: Recognition and reward of Good Teaching

8. What is New? AWARDS Recognising a wider range of contribution to student learning • Involvement of institutions in the assessment process • Regional Citation Award ceremonies • Recognition of contributions of many people. eg teaching, administration and professional. FELLOWSHIPS SCHEME • Senior Fellowship Program (4)max $330,000 • Associate Fellowship Program (10)max $90,000

9. Fellowships New initiative based on the best aspects of international fellowship programs • High profile and well resourced • Designed to promote system wide initiatives • Strong encouragement for international links and networks • Strong commitment to dissemination and implementation

10. Discipline Based InitiativesDirector: Janice Orrell Disciplines influence: • Ways in which academic work is organised • Relationship of academics to knowledge & their students • Type of intended learning outcomes Research about teaching and learning in universities (Neumann 2001, Becher and Trowler 2001, Neuman, Parry, & Becher 2002)

11. Higher Education Disciplines • Site of knowledge development • Demonstrate interdependence of organisational context and what counts as knowledge • Higher Education reflects and reconstitutes • Classifications of knowledge, • What is expertise • Knowledge worth knowing

12. Strengths of D-b Development • Engages those who must collaborate at the level of practice • Builds on agreed strengths • Attends to common problems • Facilitates common purpose and collaborative action • Enables the development of curriculum cohesions

13. Limitations of D-b Development • Much is based on common practice, not evidence • Common practice reinforces common practices and can constrain originality • It is difficult to define a discipline and classify its orientation • Risk of disciplinary silos • Limits cross-disciplinary and inter-disciplinary thinking

14. Professional learning of teachers (Knight, Tait and Yorke, 2006) Effective learning about T&L is maintained IF: Colleagues will tolerate it • Department rules can accommodate it • Tools and heuristics are there to translate generic ideas into practice • They have positions of influence

15. Inertia of Academic structures Academic disciplinary structures have failed to respond well to changes in: • Student demographics • Labour market requirements • Technological advances

16. Conservatism and Inertia protect cherished ideals Gumport & Snydman, 2002 • Longing for past glories • Efforts focus on inventing better mouse traps (Ewell, 1991)

17. Issues & Needs • Knowledge legitimation • Encourages scholarship of learning and teaching in the disciplines • Requires funds to conduct the research • Requires knowledge of educational research methods • Effective dissemination systems

18. Objectives of Carrick’s D-B I • Higher levels of d-b engagement with systemic change • Increased engagement of all stakeholders • Improved discipline-based learning outcomes • Articulation of d-b standards and qualities

19. Discipline Framework

20. D-B I Principles • Capturing the dynamic potential of D-b I • Creative interdisciplinary engagement • Focus on the student experience • Collaboration with stakeholders • Building on past successes and resources • Engage with international and global issues • Develop what is uniquely Australian • Attend to the research-teaching nexus • Sustainable, future oriented and proactive

21. Organisation • Led by Discipline leaders • Hosted by institutions • Involve multiple institutions and organisations • Utilise existing structures where they exist • Vigorously involve middle management • Adopt a common web-based architecture (RIN)

22. Transmission Awareness Knowledge Transformation Interpretation Translation Application Regeneration Dissemination

23. : Carrick Exchange( aResource Identification Network) A centrally co-ordinated service which: • Is credible and reliable • Facilitates sharing and adoption of good practice • Supports dissemination • Encourages and enables an ethos of bold innovation • Links existing Australian resources from different sites; • Links with, and capitalises on, international initiatives • Fosters international collaborations;

24. Implementation plan Three year project Three project teams: • Education.au: architecture & functionality • Ascilite: landscape mapping and user engagement • formative evaluation (out to tender) Informed by a “Think Tank” of experts and users

25. Carrick Institute Philosophy & Approach • Enabling • Collaboration • Co-production Bottom-up and Top-down • Multiple modes of engagement (grants, forums, scholarship) • Future orientation • Building on existing resources and strengths • Stakeholder engagement

26. Successes • Citations • Institutions adopting a systemised approach to Carrick Programmes • Engagement between the institute and institutions and organisations (Forums, campus visits, think tanks) • Utilisation of sector experts who have retired • DVC/PVC Forum to set priorities and top down agendas • Higher Education Enterprise Initiatives & Common Curriculum Concerns

27. Lessons Learned • The value of bringing groups with common concerns together • Need to integrate a top-down approach to address gaps and to steer attention to the “too hard” issues • Money helps, but is not the only answer • Need for support to be successful (leadership programme, expert consultants, seed funds) • Importance of adopting a systems approach (all levels and stakeholders, policy and practice) • Importance of engaging formal & informal leadership

28. Questions?