Applying for Promotion: Gathering Evidence for Learning and Teaching Excellence

1. Applying for promotion on learning and teaching 1Gathering Evidence Dr. Marita Grimwood and Professor Steve Mchanwell

2. Introductions Please introduce yourself with • Your name • Your department • One thing that makes your contribution to learning and teaching excellent or exceptional This workshop aims to increase your clarity and confidence around applying for promotion

3. What you need for promotion Achievements A clearly expressed narrative of achievements Evidence to support your narrative A fit between the evidence and the criteria

4. Structure of today’s session 1: What are my key achievements? 2: What evidence do I need for them and how do I gather it? 3. What scope of evidence do I need? 3: How do I match my achievements and evidence to the criteria? 4: Conclusions and next steps

5. Gathering the evidence

6. What can evidence of teaching achievements look like?

7. Using evidence (1) What to avoid What to aim for Clarity about your role (‘I was part of a team in which my role was… because. I ensured that…’) Clarity of impact (‘Since developing peer and self-assessment skills on my programme, grades have increased by X and employability....’) • Disappearing into the team (‘We led a project’; ‘A module was created’) • Innovation without impact (‘Students produce their own podcasts and assess each other.’)

8. Using evidence (2) What to avoid What to aim for Showing what data means (‘My scores of 4.5 are the result of…’) and Evidence-based claims (‘Since taking over the first-year module, student attainment has risen by X, and it has been praised by the external examiner.’) Corroboration (evidence from two or more sources) • Raw data (‘My evaluation scores average 4.5’) • Unsupported assertions (‘I am an outstanding lecturer’) • (If possible) a single indicator

9. Using evidence (3) What to avoid What to aim for Reflective writing* (‘After these consistently negative evaluations, it became clear the programme needed rewriting…’ • Purely descriptive writing (‘I redesigned the programme over a period of ten months.’) The three-point checklist What you did Why you did it What the impact is/was *HEALTH WARNING: Promotion and some awards need to be less reflective

10. Moving from evidence to narrative Data: ‘I have taught an average of 126 students per year.’ Narrative: How did they do? What did they progress to? Is this a large amount of teaching for your subject area? Data: ‘My average evaluation score is 4.5.’ Narrative: What was it like when you took over the module? Has there been an improvement over time? (If not, what has happened that…)

11. Rolfe et al (2001) reflective model • What? What did you do? • So what? Why was it important? • Now (or then) what? What do (or did) I do next? • I set up a project on assessment. • Students were dissatisfied with the limited range on offer and employability was suffering. • Feedback from students has been good, both on their engagement in class and employability. I plan to do follow-up survey over three to four years.

12. Exercise – identifying evidence Read the two short case studies. What are the key achievements for these two people? What evidence of impact would you want to see for each of them?

13. Some common errors Overlooking key achievements (eg. regarding something as part of daily activity) Failing to recognise evidence (eg. increasingly positive student feedback) Making unsupported assertions Assuming good classroom teaching alone will be enough So what? What effect did it have?

14. Handout You’ve already discussed evidence for one achievement. Now fill in column 2 for all the achievements listed. We will ask you for a question or observation about this process afterwards.

15. Three perspectives on evidence of teaching

16. Scope of Activity

17. Source of evidence

18. Sphere of influence

19. ADDRESSING THE CRITERIA

20. Approaching the criteria Highlight those criteria that your key achievements meet. Self-evaluation: do you need further achievements and/or evidence to make a convincing case against each? Select the achievement for which feel you currently have the strongest case

21. Developing a narrative • Pick the strongest of your key achievements, and write it up as a narrative, or make notes to speak about. (10 minutes) • Share with a partner and co-coach (5 minutes each) • Does the case withstand serious scrutiny? • Does evidence come from a range of sources? • What evidence is there of impact?

22. Concluding and reflecting….what will you do next?

23. Thank you and good luck Please get in touch if you have any queries. stephen.mchanwell@newcastle.ac.uk learning@maritagrimwood.co.uk Don’t forget there is further support available: a second workshop one-to-ones and web resources.