Professional development for Goldsmiths staff

The Higher Education Academy is a subdivision of Advance HE. The HEA has for several years offered nationally (and increasingly internationally) valued fellowships that provide independent recognition of practice, impact and leadership in Higher Education teaching and learning.

There are two main routes to fellowship:

1. An HEA accredited PG Cert programme (see the section below)
2. The submission of a written statement outlining one’s learning and teaching experience that demonstrates successful correspondence with UK Professional Standard Framework (UKPSF) descriptors

The second option is the Experiential Route.

The written statements prepared for Experiential Route applications must outline a track record of effective and successful experience and Continued Professional Development (CPD) in academic or academic-related HE teaching practice.

There are several different levels of fellowship and the form and content of statements required for each markedly differ from one another. The levels of fellowship include:

• Associate Fellow: Typical applicants include staff who are early career researchers with teaching responsibilities, relatively new to teaching or those who support academic provision (such as technicians or librarians)
• Fellow: Typical applicants are in the relatively early stages of their academic career or in an academic-related or support role with substantive teaching responsibilities or experienced academics relatively new to HE
• Senior Fellow: Typical applicants are experienced staff who can demonstrate leadership in HE learning and teaching
• Principal Fellow: Typical applicants are highly experienced staff with strategic leadership responsibilities in HE learning and teaching

Applications for Associate Fellow and Fellow involve workshops, writing retreats and individual feedback on drafts prior to submission.

A key feature of the Experiential Route to Senior Fellowship is the requirement that one works with a mentor in building the CPD claim and gathering the evidence to support it. Additional expert advice from a pedagogical and technological perspective is available from experienced members of staff in TaLIC and across the university.

If you have any questions or would like to apply, please email the Experiential Route Leader, Donovan Synmoie d.synmoie (@gold.ac.uk).

Goldsmiths' Postgraduate Certificate in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education (referred to as the PG Cert hereafter) is designed to enhance the pedagogical practice of staff involved in teaching at Goldsmiths.

Who it is for

It is open to Goldsmiths staff with at least 20 hours of teaching a year.

Credits

Goldsmiths accredits the programme in the form of Masters (M) level credits whilst the Higher Education Academy (HEA) accredits it in the form of fellowship. Thus, successful completion of the first year leads to 30 M-level credits and Associate Fellowship of the HEA (AFHEA), whilst successful completion of the second year culminates in 60 M-Level credits and Fellowship of the HEA (FHEA).

Aims

The programme aims to help colleagues to:

• receive feedback on their teaching through formal teaching observations
• exchange experience with others who teach at Goldsmiths
• reflect on their own academic practice
• explore the national and international context of Higher Education
• learn more about trends, research and theories of pedagogy
• gain accredited recognition for their Higher Education teaching practice

What it involves

The programme consists of a series of study days, teaching observations, reflection logs, projects and coursework.

During PG Cert study days, established teachers discuss existing pedagogical theory and practice informed by the lived experience of teaching at university.

Participants on the programme explore, discuss and debate theories of learning and teaching in Higher Education, and reflect on their own teaching activities, both individually and with their academic peers.

The PG Cert consistently gains outstanding participant and external examiner evaluations. Several alumni have gone on to be nominated for and to win Goldsmiths’ Student-led Teaching Awards.

Enquiries

For academic queries, please email the Programme Leader Mary Claire Halvorson m.c.halvorson (@gold.ac.uk).

For general or administrative queries, please email talic (@gold.ac.uk).

The Academic Practice Award (APA) is run by TaLIC in collaboration with the Graduate School.

What it involves

It explores all aspects of an academic career: research, teaching, administration, trends in Higher Education (HE), grant writing, publishing, practice and more.

Who it is for

This award is intended for Goldsmiths’ postgraduate students.

The benefits it provides

In terms of HE teaching, the APA can help bridge an important potential gap.

It can sometimes be difficult for postgraduates to secure tutoring positions.

Understandably, academic departments seek tutors with experience or at least some level of accreditation in teaching. However, one cannot study for an HEA accredited PG Cert in learning and teaching unless one has a certain number of contracted teaching hours. How does one gain the first step on the rung of the ladder?

Since a sizable portion of the APA is dedicated to teaching in HE, it provides postgraduate students with a qualification that can give them an edge when seeking tutoring positions.

It will also be a positive addition to one’s CV when seeking a researcher/teacher position upon graduation from one’s PhD studies.

Enquires

If you are a member of Goldsmiths and wish to find out more about the Academic Practice Award, please contact either talic (@gold.ac.uk) or graduateschool (@gold.ac.uk).

TaLIC runs a series of Graduate Tutor Training Sessions each year.

These sessions are most appropriate for new teaching staff, Graduate Tutors, Associate Lecturers and Teaching Fellows.

These are typically half-day events that focus on various aspects of tutoring such as small group, large group and practice-based teaching.

For more information please contact either m.c.halvorson (@gold.ac.uk) or talic (@gold.ac.uk).

The TaLIC Teaching Grants are awarded to project proposals that are likely to extend our knowledge or introduce innovative and/or enhanced pedagogical practice to Goldsmiths.

TaLIC offer up to £2,500 for small-scale projects (typically confined to one department) and £5,000 for large scale projects (typically involving two or more departments).

These projects must be aligned to Goldsmiths’ Learning, Teaching and Assessment Strategy (LTAS) and projects are more likely to be funded if they are of relevance to pedagogy across the college rather than being narrowly relevant to just one discipline.

Example of previously funded projects include:

• Using the HEAR to support personal tutors in engaging students with employability
• Pokemon code: Gamified learning for core programming skills 
• Expanding, re-visiting and developing Goldsmiths Information Skills Tutorial to create an online Enhanced Academic Skills resource
• Who am I as a teacher? Developing a sustainable approach to the professional development of Goldsmiths tutors, teacher training students and teachers through the adoption of an Action Learning methodology to support reflection
• A practice-based curriculum for reflective learning in Social Work

Contact talic (@gold.ac.uk) for more information.

TaLIC contributes to and runs a number of different conferences, discussion groups and workshops exploring various aspect of Higher Education teaching.

Annual John Beacham Teaching Conference

Mary Claire Halvorson of TaLIC and Prof Tim Crook of Media Communications and Cultural Studies jointly run the Annual John Beacham Teaching Conference.

The conference recognises the former Head of Media and Communications, Prof John Beacham’s influence, mentoring, standard setting and development of teaching quality at Goldsmiths.

It features a series of invited speakers from Goldsmiths and beyond. It takes place in mid September and is open to all Goldsmiths staff and students.

TaLIC Lunchtime Conversations

TaLIC’s Lunchtime Conversations are a series of small-group discussions organised and hosted by TaLIC’s Academic Developer, Donovan Symnoie.

They are held weekly during term time in the TaLIC Lounge

They focus on all different aspects of university pedagogy and include such diverse topics as:

• Who am I as a teacher?
• Anxiety - How it impacts on student population and why it seems to be becoming more prevalent
• Inclusive Face to Face Teaching
• TEF: Review of Goldsmiths’ experience so far
• Bridging the Research Teaching Divide

TaLIC Workshops

TaLIC are pleased to develop and host workshops on request.

For example, we have provided workshops on ‘An Introduction to Learn.gold’ (Confucius Institute), ‘Assessment and Feedback’ (Politics), and ‘Using WordPress’ (History).

Examples of other possible workshops include:

• Learn.gold assignments with the new Turnitin integration
• TurnItIn - effectively interpreting similarity reports and using GradeMark for feedback
• Learn.gold - beyond the filing cabinet (pages, books, quizzes, the scheduler, databases, forums etc.)

Email talic (@gold.ac.uk) for more information on the John Beacham Conference, TaLIC Lunchtime Conversations or to request a workshop.