LTSN: Supporting quality enhancement in a complex world

LTSN: Supporting quality enhancement in a complex world Norman Jackson LTSN Generic Centre and University of Surrey www.ltsn.ac.uk/genericcentre/inst_facilitators.asp

Untangling QA & QE Quality enhancement- a deliberate process of change that leads to improvement Quality assurance - a deliberate process to check, evaluate and make judgements about quality and standards.It may or may not promote enhancement. MUST MAKE PEOPLE THINK LTSN QE debate ltsn.ac.uk/enhancement

Moral purpose for QE Teachers and HEIs voluntarily engage in enhancement activities in order to improve student learning and their experiences of HE and to respond to the ever changing needs and interests of society. ‘I define the enhancement of my role as a teacher to be one of promoting deeper and better learning in my students. To achieve this I need to understand how they learn in different circumstances and teach accordingly.’

QA & QE as part of the institutional management and self-regulation paradigm ACCOUNTABILITY DEVELOPMENT vision & leadership planning/decision making strategy & policy control & regulation rules, regulations, codes, standards, PIs, audit, assessment, appraisal, research & development innovation and experimentation, collaborative learning, research, enquiry, evaluation QA QA QUALITY ENHANCEMENT

Actions that lead to enhancement * Doing existing things better * Doing new things * Adding new things to existing things * Making better use of something * Connecting things to make different things * Expanding something * Abandoning something 1) DOING things to CHANGE and CHANGING 2) PERSONAL and COLLECTIVE CREATIVITY

scale and nature of QE 4 Radical transformation 3. Doing new things 2.Small incremental change maintaining direction 1.Making what we do explicit- checking for alignment with intentions QE by R&D increasing risk but greater potential benefits QE by QA

Why and how we change? self-motivation (intrinsic) response to external pressure (extrinsic)

Contexts for Quality Enhancement Personal - improve students’ learning and their experiences of HE, solve problems, improve own professional experience, response to external pressures. Institutional - improve quality of students’ learning and their experiences of HE, protect standards, improve competitiveness, respond to needs and interests of local/regional communities and society. National - improve opportunities for participation in HE, respond to changing needs and interests of society, improve reputation of UKplc and its competitiveness in the global market.

intrinsic and extrinsic pressures and resistances market competition legislation standards & accountability more students and more diverse students professionalisation of teaching & management employability skills institutional policies L&T & WP strategies learning through life doing more with less Sources of resistance overwork, too much change, weariness, conflicting values, beliefs. Reward systems that value research over teaching. communications & IT

To understand QE we need to understand how/why people and HE institutions change How do HE teachers develop/change? * Think of something you have changed in your teaching or course. * Why did you do it? * What did you do in order to change? * What did you actually do? * What was the result?

How do experienced teachers acquire new knowledge about T& L? Learning through doing high priority * Personal experimentation with new ideas * Discussion with other practitioners * Working in activity groups Learning through reading a low priority * exchange of information by practitioners * examples of practice Little knowledge gained through reading about T&L or reading QA documents.

TEACHING INVOLVES COMPLEX LEARNING (adapted from Kolb 1988 and Cowan 2001) 1. CONCRETE teaching 4. ABSTRACT THE LEARNING enriched pedagogy 2. REVIEW question own practice develop personal knowledge 3. DO - active experimentation self-awareness

Intrinsic motivation for professional learning 1. TEACHING DEFINES & SEEKS OWN KNOWLEDGE FOR CHANGE 1 student feedback 2 reading 3.discussion 4 personal engagement 5 external examining 6 EXPERIMENT deeper knowledge of this type of learning in this context 4. ABSTRACT THE LEARNING 2. REVIEW 3. DO IT ‘I moved gently to my aim so that I was comfortable by the time I taught the module for the third time... I had more resources and strategies.’ INNOVATION

Extrinsic motivation for professional learning seeking accountability QA / APPRAISAL retrospective self- evaluation using template or checklist taking on board student feedback, results, new expectations, benchmarks... 1. TEACHING mainly surface learning 4. ABSTRACT THE LEARNING 2. REVIEW 3. DO IT no sense of heightened self-awareness COMPLIANCE or LEARNING

Extrinsic motivation for professional learning through collaborative institutional research 1. TEACHING INSTITUTIONAL RESEARCH 1.negotiated focus and research design 2.research enquiry 3.evaluation of results 4.planned intervention conscious evaluation leading to deep learning 4. ABSTRACT THE LEARNING 2. REVIEW COLLECTIVE LEARNING 3. DO IT research informed intervention heightened self-awareness

How do HEI’s change?

PRESSURE change in HE institutions technical-rationalmanagerial world plans, strategies, rules, policies, interventions cultural world (subjects) psychological values & beliefs cultural ideas & myths CHANGE

QA/QE environment for learning and change Strong regulatory frameworks. Increasing focus on strategy. Audit/appraisal systems seeking compliance and accountability. 1 Alignment between institutional goals dept/individual goals often problematic. 2. Change driven by extrinsic pressures and compliance with codified notions of quality. 3. Investment in and coordination of support infrastructures highly variable. 4. Little research on what works. top down cultural context out side-in bottom -up CHANGE Opportunities for collaborative working and learning mainly linked to QA eg. module /programme curriculum review; preparing subject review; also PG Cert HE T&L courses.

QE in the really messy world of complexity

QA & QE seen through complexity theory QE WORLD chaos zone of complexity on the edge of chaos QA WORLD Close to Far from agreement agreement rational, technical, political and judgemental decision making Close to certainty Far from certainty Paul Tosey ‘Teaching on the Edge of Chaos’

Example of teaching at the edge of chaos TEACHING CONTEXT * weekly lectures + problem sheets & classes + exam * as classes got bigger teachers stopped marking problem sheets, students stopped doing problems and ‘hid’ in classes. * average exam marks dropped from 55-45% PROBLEM Teaching response to doing more with less resulted in poor learning outcomes WHAT WOULD YOU DO?

REVIEW & EXPERIMENT * requirement - do 50 out of 80 problem sheets or don’t sit exam * only exam marks counted * 6 ‘problem solving’ sessions run by administrators * peer assessment of problem sheets using marking scheme * no quality control! * sheets handed back immediately with peer comments * same lectures, same problems, same marking criteria, same exam RESULT * average mark increased from 45% to 80%! ABSTRACTION OF PRINCIPLES * what does this tell us about the way students learn? * what are the implications for QA and the assessment of learning? * CAN THIS IDEA BE USED IN OTHER TEACHING CONTEXTS?

mega trends in QA and QE

MEGA TRENDS IN QA & QE for learning, teaching, assessment, curriculum 1992 2002 England Scotland & Wales? QAA big issue of funding research into the impact of policy ILT regulation Investment/effort LTSN HEQC FDTL development HEFCE TLRP3 £10.5m research ESRC HEFCE: TQEF Institutional L&T strategies & coordination teams DfEE innovations

organizational agents for QE (England) Through Teaching Quality Enhancement Fund linked to institutional L&T(+WP,HR) strategies, special initiatives to support HEFCE objectives and innovation at subject level (FDTL). HEFCE Through knowledge development and collaborative strategies for sharing, identifying, understanding and expanding ideas effective/innovative practice. Requires research function to be strengthened. LTSN NCT ILT Through explicit standards, use of codes and other reference points based on acknowledged good practice. QAAILT HESDA These define three QE contexts - 1) management & planning 2) R&D 3) standards/accountability

How do HEIs connect to and make use of QE agents? HEIs managers * research to inform planning & decision making * policies & strategies change agency * organisational, subject, personal learning & development departments academics * subject and curriculum review and other development process QAA NCT HESDA other ILT LTSN GC/SCs How do QE agents work together to support HEIs?

Learning & Teaching Support Network looking outside system Government National Bodies and Associations LTSN Technologies Centre Generic Centre 24 Subject Centres JISC change agents universities Academic Departments Subject Communities Communities of practice networks/associations

knowledge & expertise in HE communities LTSN brokerage service reactive and proactive modes Institution Department Individuals LTSN what we think you would like to know what you want to know

Executivepriorities social inclusion, widening participation, fair access, retention, employability, accountability -quality & standards Funding Councils QAA HEI responses to external pressures and need to address own agendas Disciplinary interests LTSN Enhancement driven by concerns for learning and students’ experience of learning in subjects

LTSN Generic Centre focus 2002-03 COLLABORATIVE LEARNING through BROKERAGE assessment e-learning curricula for success widening participation employability The QE focus for LTSN subject centres will be determined primarily by subject communities

Specific GC work that might be of interest to Institutional Facilitators * explanations of educational principles underlying QAA policies * making sense of QAA policies overviews, guides and interpretations/analysis, practitioner commentaries * workshop materials eg programme specs * new developments eg external examining * understanding QA&QE eg quality enhancement debate www.ltsn.ac.uk/genericcentre/inst_facilitators.asp

Some ways in which LTSN might support Institutional Facilitators 1 help with understanding the educational principles and implications of QAA policies 2 support for self-study / institutional and inter- institutional research aimed at gaining more QE benefit from QA processes 3 connecting LTSN SCs with review and development work in departments 4 support for network/collaborative working and sharing knowledge of QA and how it impacts on learning, teaching, assessment and curriculum But what would you like us to do?

LTSN support for institutional self-study and self-improvement resources to support improvement of curriculum design, teaching, assessment, HEIs change agents including QA units and staff developers LTSN GC review and development processes LTSN SCs * departmental self-evaluation, * curriculum review, * teacher development * opportunities for depts to learn from other depts. * support for external examiners and others involved in peer review

LTSN: Supporting quality enhancement in a complex world