Key outcome area #2 Innovation in Teaching & Learning

1. Key outcome area #2 Innovation in Teaching & Learning Faculty Academic Committees August 2009

2. Key outcome areas

3. Development timeline • August: feedback from Faculty Academic Committees • 15 September: approval by Academic Board • 1 December: revised policy on Program Approval to Academic Board for approval • 5 May: level 2 managers, including heads of departments • 5 June: level 3 staff, including program directors • 25 June: updated Powerpoint sent to all attendees for wider use • 4 August: Academic Board endorsement in principle

4. Academic Strategy – June 2008, May 2009 Unitec will have • An institutional culture in which innovation and enterprise are expected and rewarded. We are committed to • Being student-centred in all our services and activities • Ensuring that the principles of Te Noho Kotahitanga inform all our activities • Understanding and responding effectively to the needs of Pacific peoples • Access and equity. Our provision will • Educate people for work, in work and through work. • Be delivered through flexible study pathways • Include excellent academic and pastoral support. With our stakeholders we will • Have active and responsive interaction with industry, professional and community groups to shape content, curricula and delivery modes.

5. Our curricula will • Demonstrate a commitment to open inquiry • Adopt a multiplicity of approaches and ways of being • Be based on ‘practice-focused’ educational experiences that are • contextualised and situated in practice, • interdisciplinary, • founded on and advancing current practice, • theoretically grounded as well as guided, and • both creative and critical • Promote collaborative learning • Value equitable, socially just and ethical practice • Have integrated approaches to • academic literacies as a foundation for learning, • innovative assessment, • e-learning content and support. Our teaching will • Be research-informed and inquiry-led • Acknowledge the reciprocity of teaching and research.

6. Our graduates will • Acquire a balance between specific, current content and lifelong learning capabilities. • Achieve career-enhancing educational outcomes which are critically conceptualised and practiced. • Have the knowledge, skills and attributes to face the challenges of the future and to live in a multi-cultural world • Have a capacity to contribute positively to society, manage their own careers and function competently in changing environments.

7. Auckland 2060 (Oram, 2009) – underpinning themes • Change and uncertainty • creativity and innovation • sustainability • cultural and social diversity and change • technological change including information technologies automating aspects of decision making • integrated thinking, planning and action • expanded human communication • collaboration, collaborative leadership, and collective knowledge • knowledge versus adding value to knowledge • convergence and interdependency, complexity and inter-disciplinarity • flexibility and adaptability, and resilience • fairness.

8. Our task • Reconceptualise programs as living curricula rather than as collections of courses • reframe learning as conversation • deliver programs that are integrated with the world and are genuinely dynamic • nurture resourcefulness and resilience, and • enhance, therefore, graduate outcomes. We define the curriculum not as the information content (or syllabus) of the program, but rather as the program learning experience.

9. * Living curricula involve conversations Conversations • with (and among) teachers • among students – face-to-face and on-line – with class peers and with others • with practitioners • with partners – Te Noho Kotahitanga, employers • with texts – what is the text saying? what do we have to say about the text? • with self – critical self-reflection. Research plays an important role in these conversations because findings add new voices, and the teacher’s engagement in the research process brings energy to classroom curiosity and inquiry.

10. A simplification tool S.H.E • Shrink • Hide • Embody

12. * Living curricula – draft definition • involve complicated conversations • are curiosity/inquiry led, and stimulating • are practice-focussed – educating students ‘for work, in work, through work’ • are socially constructed – self-sufficiency and collaboration are equally valued, and together they help nurture resourcefulness and resilience • blend face-to-face and web-based learning • are research-informed • have a discipline base, and are also interdisciplinary • develop literacies for life-long learning • include embedded assessment. Note: Living curricula still deliver to the graduate profile and course aims

13. * Conversations about: • Prior knowledge and experiences • Goals and expectations • Helping each other • Resources and resourcefulness • Inquiry • Disciplinary knowledge • Adding value to knowledge • Workplace practice • Technologies • Change and uncertainty • Ethical conduct • Research findings • Cultural and social diversity • Maori perspectives • Sustainability • Opportunities – including those at the intersections between disciplines • The meaning of assessment outcomes • What comes next

14. Core relationship

15. Barnett & Coate(2005) • The student has to be given ‘curriculum space’ instead of being ‘boxed in’ (p.125) • ‘[a] curriculum has to become like so many ultra-modern buildings, full of light and open spaces, different textures, shapes and relationships and arrangements for serendipitous encounters’ (p.129)

16. Curricula are ‘living’ because • they are not designed then enacted. • Experiences and pursuits are driven by curiosity and questions (why does ...? what if ...?) that arise within the learning process and lead to inquiry. • Students thus participate in curriculum design within the program.

17. The way forward Curriculum redesign (& program redevelopment) Practice/ culture development • Renew curricula to give life to the requirements of this shift – a 3 year transition Many programs already have a ‘living curriculum’. These will provide models that help show the way. • Instituting story-telling • Establishing communities of practice • Encouraging & rewarding creativity and risk-taking • Making professional development accountable

18. Evaluation • Award for engaging/innovative programs (cf Heart Foundation tick) • Snapshot tests – eg: • What is expected of you in this course? • What are you doing, and why? • What do you do when you don’t understand what’s going on? • How does this course fit into your overall program? • What do your achievements mean? • Survey of ‘student engagement’ – AUSSE • Survey of employer satisfaction

19. First cab off the rank • Graduate Diploma in Higher Education • to be rebuilt from scratch • user-centred design methodology – facilitated by Dept of Design & Visual Arts staff • studio approach – public, collaborative, critique • will embody and support Unitec’s strategic direction • Stage 1: Design brief • Stage 2: Design Team prototyping • Stage 3: Testing – meetings with user (teachers) and end-user (student) groups • Stage 4: Further design – user endorsement required before starting work on the program document • Stage 5: first new courses ready for February 2010