Tag: learning development

Growth

My First 6 Months as a Lecturer: A Journey of Growth and Connection

Lee Fallin Leave a comment

As I look back on my first trimester as a Lecturer in Education Studies, I am filled with a deep sense of gratitude. After working for a decade in Higher Education in various capacities, transitioning to an academic role has been a refreshing and rewarding experience. In this blog post, I would like to share my reflections on the first six months of my journey as a lecturer. I’ll delve into my interactions with students, my growth as an educator, and my anticipation for the future. This long overdue post continues the blog series I’ve written reflecting on my new career.

While I am not new to the University or education, in moving from Learning Development to Education Studies, I am joining a new community of practice (Wenger, 1998). I still feel I have a lot to learn in this broader field, and I have supplemented my academic memberships to include the British Educational Research Association. I’m also renewing my efforts to get involved with the Society for Research into Higher Education, as well as retaining my scholarship of learning development via ALDinHE.

The student community

One of the most significant highlights of my teaching experience has been the connection with my students. I’ve commented on this multiple times before, but their enthusiasm, curiosity, and dedication have been genuinely inspiring, and it represents something I didn’t get as a Learning Developer – at least not in a sustained way. As a lecturer, I have thoroughly enjoyed witnessing my students’ creativity, especially during workshops and from marking written assessments. Reading their reflections has not only allowed me to observe their growth but, thanks to the international nature of my students, it has also provided me with valuable insights into other places on the planet. As I further integrate into the School of Education, my interactions with students have fostered my understanding of their needs, which I can now better address in the planning and delivery of my teaching. This is refreshing also – as I speak to a consistent audience, education. No need to wear multiple hats as a Learning Developer.

Supervision

Personal and research supervision have been very new aspects of my role. While I encountered pastoral issues in Learning Development, it was not part of the remit and so I would always refer the student to student support services and personal supervisors. As a Learning Developer, I actively supported research but never had the deciding role. As a Learning Developer, I would muse on ethical issues with students; I am now signing off applications as an academic. This was the kind of challenge I needed. Teaching has been a staple of my career as a Learning Developer, but there are new things to learn and do as a supervisor.

I have found personal supervision to be a surprisingly fulfilling aspect of my new role. Engaging in one-on-one discussions with my students has allowed me to establish a deeper connection with them and provide targeted guidance tailored to their individual needs (Knowles et al., 2014). Personal supervision sessions have led to many meaningful conversations, enabling me to better understand the challenges and aspirations of each student.

Research supervision has been really rewarding with my undergraduates. Although I am only supervising three students, it’s been a great way to start before heading towards PGT supervision later this month. I am genuinely looking forward to supervising master’s research projects. Though I know it will be hard work, I am excited to see the innovative and ground-breaking research our students will produce. These projects allow students to delve deep into a topic of their choice, and I am honoured to guide them through this process. I plan to attend a training session with the Teaching Excellence Academy to help develop my supervision practice. I’m also looking forward to further experimenting with OneNote as a means to manage supervision.

Internationalisation of my practice

Working with international students has been an enriching and eye-opening aspect of my new position. I have gained a wealth of knowledge from their diverse perspectives and experiences, particularly concerning the different educational systems they have been exposed to. This has broadened my understanding of global educational practices and has given me the tools to incorporate these insights into my own teaching approach. As a result, I am now better equipped to support and guide students from various cultural backgrounds, enhancing the inclusivity of my teaching methods. This is, however, a long journey – and something I expect to vary as international students vary and we attract from different regions over time.

Curriculum

The opportunity to develop and shape the content of brand-new modules has been invigorating. Working on the third-year dissertation and research module has been great as nothing is written, giving freedom to develop something brand new. I’ve really been able to contribute to the support of literature-based dissertations and can’t wait to develop this further. Being able to draw upon my expertise and experience, I have been able to design courses that are relevant, engaging, and catered to the needs of my students. This process has been challenging and gratifying, pushing me to continuously expand my knowledge and skills. As I look forward to the year ahead, I am particularly excited to support the curriculum design process for the new master’s program. I am eager to contribute my insights and ideas to this innovative program, which promises to provide students with a comprehensive and cutting-edge education.

I have enjoyed researching contemporary topics and incorporating them into the curriculum, ensuring that our students receive an education that prepares them for the ever-evolving world of education studies. My numerous posts on Artificial Intelligence and education are good examples of such learning and experimentation. This emerging technology presents countless possibilities for enhancing teaching and learning, from adaptive learning systems to AI-driven assessment tools. I am eager to integrate it into my practice further and observe how it transforms the educational landscape.

Final thoughts

In conclusion, my first trimester as a lecturer in Education Studies has been an incredible journey marked by growth, connection, and discovery. I am thankful for the relationships I have formed with my students and new colleagues, the personal growth I have experienced, and the opportunities that lie ahead. My increased understanding of global educational practices, the incorporation of my AI into my understanding of future learning environments, and the development of new curricula have all contributed to my growth as an educator.

As I move forward in my career, I am eager to continue expanding my horizons and making a lasting impact on the field of education. By staying current with the latest research and trends, engaging in meaningful collaborations, and fostering a genuine connection with my students, I hope to create a learning environment that empowers and inspires future educators and scholars.

Through my experiences thus far, I have developed a newfound appreciation for the immense responsibility and privilege of being a lecturer. As I continue to grow and evolve in this role, I am committed to maintaining the highest standards of professionalism, fostering a spirit of curiosity and passion in my students, and contributing to advancing the field of education studies. With anticipation and determination, I look forward to the many opportunities and challenges in my journey as an educator.

Reference List:

Knowles, M. S., Holton III, E. F., & Swanson, R. A. (2014) The adult learner: The definitive classic in adult education and human resource development. Routledge.

Wenger, E. (1998). Communities of practice: Learning, meaning, and identity. Cambridge University Press.

Teaching philosophy

The teaching philosophies of Learning Development

Lee Fallin 1 Comment

Introduction to Teaching Philosophy Statements

As part of undertaking my Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice, I had to produce a Teaching Philosophy Statement. I’m drawn to the approach the University of San Diego (2023) takes to introduce the Teaching Philosophy Statement, which I think sets the tone well:

The life of a teacher is an extremely busy one. From early morning until long after dark, teachers dedicate the better part of their day to their students. Amid the lesson planning, the snack breaks, the recess duty, grading and the myriad other daily tasks, it can be easy to lose sight of the why of teaching. 

Why are you drawn to the classroom, and what is it about your love of teaching that makes it a fulfilling career? What’s the overarching philosophy that guides your teaching practice? Even on the busiest school days, every teacher should be able to explain their “why” by returning to their teaching philosophy.

(University of San Diego, 2023)

A Teaching Philosophy Statement is absolutely something all Higher Education practitioners can reflect upon. It is not just the realm of academics. A teaching philosophy statement sets out core beliefs about the purpose of teaching, it sets out an individual’s approach and justifies why this is their approach. I found it a thoroughly enjoyable activity!

Lee – why share your Teaching Philosophy Statement now?

This is a good question! After all, I’ve technically left Learning Development. But, I have two very good reasons for sharing this now.

  1. I want to call on Learning Developers to write their Teaching Philosophy Statements and share them. Do it now! This will provide a rich discussion about the teaching philosophy of Learning Development. It will reflect the diversity of the profession, and allow further discussion around the values established by ALDinHE and how they are applied in the profession.
  2. I must acknowledge my teaching philosophy is changing. I am now a Lecturer in Education Studies. I want to share my Teaching Philosophy Statement as it stood a year ago. I promise to re-visit this in another blog post and update my statement for my new context. It will provide an opportunity to reflect on any similarities and differences. I think this is an exciting way to continue reflecting on that transition from thirdspace professional towards academic.

This is why my post is titled the ‘teaching philosophies’ of Learning Development. I think we need to acknowledge these statements will be numerous and diverse – just like the profession. Learning Development is a profession I still very much care about. While I may now work as a Lecturer in Education Studies, a core part of my scholarship and research will be dedicated to Learning Development. It’s why I am still involved closely with ALDinHE – and am a member of LearnHigher and the JLDHE Editorial Board.

So! Here it is – my teaching philosophy from my time as a Learning Developer…

My Teaching Philosophy Statement (2022)

My aspirations

As a Learning Developer, I feel my aspirations are very driven by my profession. Hilsdon (2011:14) defines Learning Development as the “teaching, tutoring, research, design and production of learning materials, as well as involvement in staff development, policy-making and other consultative activities” in support of student academic success. However, I believe student success can never be built on dependency, so for me, effective Learning Development must also build student independence and self-efficacy. As much as I aspire to help students, my true goal is for students to become self-sufficient so they do not need me.

Philosophical underpinning

The signature pedagogy of learning development is arguably academic literacies (Lea & Street, 1998; 2006). This approach acknowledges that writing, learning, and other academic practices are not isolated ‘skills’, but are complicated literacies situated within disciplinary discourses and power frameworks (Lea & Street, 1998). Acknowledging these complexities is vital for me to identify and confront what is not taught or is assumed – constituents of the null (Kazemi et al., 2020) and hidden curriculum (Hinchcliffe, 2020). As a Learning Developer, I work within the hidden curriculum to expose and challenge it. My role as a 3rd space professional (see: McIntosh & Nutt, 2022) is very much an enabler.

Teaching methods and assessment

The most established teaching method in learning development is the one-to-one appointment. As learning is both a complicated and individual process, such appointments allow students to engage in these complexities with full acknowledgement of what they already know and understand. As represented by Webster (2018), both students and Learning Developers bring knowledge to such appointments and operate with different levels of agency. Depending on the appointment, this can frame my role as mentor, listener, teacher, and coach. I often have to informally assess students to determine how to best support them, and which of those roles I might need to take.

The most significant challenge has been scaling Learning Development beyond appointments to help more students, and there are three approaches I have taken. Firstly, there is workshop-based instruction, which allows similar principles from appointments to be applied in a group situation, extending capacity. Second is the creation of self-support resources like University of Hull (2021) SkillsGuides. These allow students to access help at a time that is convenient. Finally, there is ‘integrated practice’ which involves directly teaching in timetabled sessions as part of the curriculum. Integrated practice is arguably the best and most inclusive way to increase access to Learning Development.

While I do not set or mark student work, I do have a role in assessment. One common task involves helping students prepare for an assessment set as part of their course. This can be as simple as demystifying the essay in an appointment or teaching a whole class the principles of public communication to help them write a wiki article. I also support students with formative feedback to help them develop their response to an assessment, or provide them summative feedback on a previously marked piece of work to help them develop further. For me, this is all about supporting student learning.

Inclusivity at the heart

Inclusivity is a core value of my practice. I have worked hard to promote inclusive practices, helping ensure students can be successful no matter their background, neurodiversity, or protected characteristics. This goes beyond legal obligation – it is simply the only ethical approach to teaching. Furthermore, I aspire to uphold the ALDinHE[1] (2018) Manifesto for Learning Development, which strives to increase participation in HE and legitimise different forms of student knowledge. As I work across all disciplines taught at Hull, I need to respect different approaches to knowledge too.

Looking to the future

For me, the PCAP is an opportunity to improve my teaching further. I now have over 10 years of experience working in HE, and I still have things to learn. I’m proud of my Senior Fellowship with the HEA and fully intend to work towards Principle Fellowship in the future. I’m also keen to maintain my professional accreditations with ALDinHE and Microsoft Education, as well as gain my accreditation with the Association of Learning Technology (ALT).

[1] Association of Learning Development in Higher Education – the professional body for learning developers

Writing your own Teaching Philosophy Statement

As I shared in my introduction, I’d love to see more Teaching Philosophy Statements shared from Learning Developers. If you want to know where to start, check out this guide: What Is a Teaching Philosophy? Examples and Prompts. Please share yours and pop the link in the comments section below.

References

ALDinHE (2018) Manifesto for Learning Development. Education, Association for Learning Development in Higher Education. Available online: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1KJnC7e2l5xnA44FWsOxaKkKNx4SQKlX2/view [Accessed 19/04/2022].

Hilsdon, J. (2011) What is learning development?, in Hartley, P., Hilsdon, J., Keenan, C., Sinfield, S. & Verity, M. (eds), Learning development in higher education. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 13-27.

Hinchcliffe, T. (ed), (2020) The Hidden Curriculum of Higher Education. Advance HE.

Kazemi, S., Ashraf, H., Motallebzadeh, K. & Zeraatpishe, M. (2020) Development and validation of a null curriculum questionnaire focusing on 21st century skills using the Rasch model. Cogent Education, 7(1), 1736849.

Laurillard, D. (2002) Rethinking university teaching: A conversational framework for the effective use of learning technologies. London: Routledge.

Lea, M. & Street, B. (1998) Student writing in higher education: An academic literacies approach. Studies in Higher Education, 23(2), 157-172.

Lea, M. & Street, B. (2006) The “Academic Literacies” Model: Theory and Applications. Theory into Practice, 45, 368-377.

McIntosh, E. & Nutt, D. (eds) (2022) The Impact of the Integrated Practitioner in Higher Education: Studies in Third Space Professionalism. Oxon: Taylor & Francis.

University of Hull (2021) SkillsGuides. Available online: https://libguides.hull.ac.uk/SkillsGuides/ [Accessed 23/04/2021].

University of San Diego (2023) What is a Teaching Philosophy? Examples and Prompts. Available online: https://pce.sandiego.edu/teaching-philosophy-examples [Accessed 26/01/2023]

Webster, H. (2018) How to implement effective 1:1 tutorials, Association of Learning Development in Higher Education Annual Conference. University of Leicester, 26th – 28th March. Leicester: Association of Learning Development in Higher Education.

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Love books - a heard in pages

Re-engaging with assessment and feedback – week 2 reflections

Lee Fallin Leave a comment

One of the defining characteristics of my time as a Learning Developer was that I did not get involved in assessment marking and feedback. There were a handful of exceptions, including some early work for the Business School and our contribution to the Postgraduate Training Scheme. Both of these opportunities were phased out early on in my career, and as such, I’ve not done marking in some time. I know many people who dislike marking – but it was always something I kind of missed. Marking assessments is an essential part of the academic cycle, and the provision of summative feedback helps students to develop moving forwards. I always missed not being part of that. It feels like one of the significant differences between many thirdspace professionals and academics.

While I didn’t do regular assessment marking and feedback, I was certainly up-to-date with the literature and theory in many places. Part of my role as a Learning Developer was helping students to understand their assessments – even if I didn’t set them. I think the vast majority of my appointments were with students focusing on an assessment. It was also a growing area for workshops, with many academics inviting us to run in-curricula sessions on specific assessments. These requests often focused on assessments that step away from essays and reports. I’ve run many sessions on posters, presentations, public communications and more. Yet… I didn’t actually mark the work or provide that summative feedback. That always made me feel like a fraud every time LTHE chat turned to assessment.

Re-engaging with assessment

That brings me back to my reflections on my new job as I finish my second official week as an academic. Assessment and feedback are very much within my remit now. In fact, we’ve just finished the first and second marking for all the postgraduate dissertations from the last year. Given my start date, I only had second marking to do – but it was so nice to get back into assessment. It’s made for quite an inspiring start to the academic year for me, reading about all the fantastic things our outgoing students did in their research over the last year. This has also energised me for the year ahead and the research supervision I will be doing in my own role.

Using assessment and feedback to reflect forwards

I should also note that assessment is exciting from a programme design perspective. The work that students produce gives us opportunities to reflect on how we can continue to improve assessment moving forwards. This could involve different support, new guidance, better clarification or fundamental change to assessment. As one academic year ends, another begins. With postgraduate courses, there is little gap in-between, but we must find the time to reflect on practice. I had the luxury of not being involved in the previous academic year, coming in fresh for 2022-23. Next year I will need to pay close attention to this transition and make sure I pen in time to reflect between the years.

I don’t feel like I can say much more on assessment at this point other than acknowledge that contrast to my previous role. Assessment and feedback are rarely in the remit of thirdspace professionals, and that is something worth unpicking in my reflections over the course of the year.

Reflecting beyond assessment

Before closing, I just wanted to note that other things beyond assessment happened this week as well. I got to deliver my first lecture for the MA programme, covering a lecturer who was away. I also got to see my supervisees for the first time and develop my understanding of personal supervision. Finally, all my weekly workshops took place, and I had the opportunity to get to know my students and their research interests further. More to unpack in a future blog.

Earlier this month I reflected on leaving the thirdspace. This post continues my reflections on the transition to my new job!

Pre-sunset at the end of the day

The magic start date – plus or minus 2 days

Lee Fallin 1 Comment

Earlier this month I reflected on leaving the thirdspace. This post continues my reflections on this transition.

The start date for my new position is technically the 1st of October, in two days’ time. Despite that, I’ve already dipped my toe into the School of Education’s conference, moved office, spent whole days in my new building and attended meetings. This all took place thanks to my internal move, allowing me a smoother transition instead of dropping into the deep end. However, while that magic start date is coming up, it actually felt like the real start was two days ago as this was my first teaching. Hopefully, the +2 or -2 makes sense now 😅. It still kind of feels weird blogging about the build-up to a starting point that has already kind of happened (in reality) – but hasn’t (contractually) at the same time.

Earlier this week I blogged ahead of my first teaching sessions. Today I have the benefit of reflecting on this experience.

Workshop time: A day without slides

My first two sessions this week were both workshops. This gave me a full two hours with my L7 workshop group and another two hours with my L6 students. These sessions were entirely activity-based, requiring me to teach through facilitation. There were no slides or detailed plans, just the knowledge in the room: both mine and my students. This felt novel. Refreshing even. It is fair to say, however, that as an outgoing Learning Developer, this shouldn’t be the case… What happened to my Learning Development practice and signature pedagogies?

Massification of Learning Development

A decade ago, when I first started as a Learning Developer, it was all about high-quality, one-to-one appointments and small group-based workshops to facilitate learning. Somewhere over the years, as demand for the service grew and as the resources in our team changed, this support model changed. Appointments were still important, but those small workshops had rapidly turned into lecture-like sessions. While it was never by design, this model kind of crept up on us.

The development of Learning Development

For my old role, the Learning Development workshops were 90 minutes long and delivered in two parts. First, we used to intentionally ‘lecture’ students for 30 minutes, and then our volunteers facilitated activities for the following 60 minutes. This model was based on Peer-Assisted Study Sessions (PASS), and it worked really well. This approach helped us to support large levels of demand and maintain high-quality provision. Statistically speaking, the impact of this on reach was HUGE – but, unfortunately, this model failed when we struggled to recruit volunteers. This needed to be addressed and to maintain the service level and include more students, much of our provision moved online (well before Covid-19).

With the move online, we also recognised that 90-minute online sessions were unattractive – and so reduced the sessions to 60 minutes. In parallel to this, the most significant area of our service rapidly became in-curriculum teaching. With guaranteed reach and high capacity, this model also favoured lectures (all be it interactive). Again, from a reach, supply and demand perspective, this was a no-brainer. However, it also reflects the transition from workshop to lecture. Although this transition in pedagogy was never intentional, it worked – and still remains the best approach to meet demand.

As a Learning Development team, we long desired to bring back interactive workshops or introduce small-group teaching. However, it was a hard sell – even to ourselves. Given the pressure on our time and the demand for the service, it was hard to justify anything that might reduce capacity. I know this is not reflective of all Learning Developers and Learning Development Teams – but I also think it is common. It can be challenging to argue a different path when that can reduce capacity.

What does this all mean for this week..?

Back to this week’s teaching

It might feel like this post went a bit off-topic – but bare with me. As I alluded to above, the exciting thing about these first sessions I delivered as a lecturer is that the workshops were activity-based. Don’t get me wrong – I will also deliver lectures – but the most substantive part of my teaching will involve workshops similar to this. Obviously, this approach is not new to me, but it has been a while. I hadn’t realised how much I missed this approach until this week. It feels like I’ve left the thirdspace only to rediscover one of the signatures of my old practice. It’s been exhilarating to be facilitating once again. Delivering so much content without the structure of slides made this all intellectually stimulating.

Workshops in practice

My first workshop focused on supporting L7 students with understanding research. It was based on three questions, and I intentionally made no detailed plans as we were expecting late arrivals. This means that I had no idea if I would have three people in the room, or 30. The lack of detailed plans allowed me to be flexible with what I delivered, and I rocked up with flipcharts and marker pens as I think they allow a lot of options. After introductions, I asked students to share what they already knew about research and get it all down on flipchart paper. This was to reassure everyone that they had a starting point of pre-existing knowledge, and it also allowed everyone the opportunity to get to know each other. The two hours sped past and were over before we knew it. It felt dynamic, engaging and student centred. It feels like a while since I’ve been able to deliver content like this!

This opportunity continued into the afternoon with my L6 session. We were discussing research philosophy and positionality – which worked perfectly as a dynamic session. Everyone placed themselves on a spectrum of positivism to interpretivism and then mapped their own positionality. The discussion and debate in this session were outstanding, and I got some great feedback from the students. It was freeing to be delivering this type of session again, and I look forward to more of this next week.

Final thoughts

The best thing about both workshops is that I will see the same group of students next week. I mentioned this in my last post, but it remains nice to think that we can build upon what we started this week. I also believe that as we get to know each other more, the co-learning and knowledge construction will no doubt grow. I think this is important for educational research as we bring part of ourselves into research. This means discussing ourselves. Anyone undertaking such research needs to be a reflexive, self-aware and critical practitioner. Talking about ourselves is always easier with people we know.

Leaving the thirdspace

Lee Fallin 3 Comments

For the last decade, I’ve been working in the thirdspace as a Learning Developer based within the University Library at Hull. Learning Developers work to support student learning, often working to challenge and expose the hidden curriculum to empower student success. This support is delivered in many ways and can include personal appointments, bookable workshops, online courses, resource development and in-curriculum teaching. Over my time as a Learning Developer, I regularly engaged in all these formats. It is also important to note that as a profession, Learning Development is diverse – with some based in Faculties and others in central services. Whatever that base, it is usually a defining aspect of that specific learning development role, framing the role, responsibilities and relationships that surround it.

Learning developers as thirdspace professionals

The position of Learning Development can also impact contracts – either professional or academic. Here lies the problem. Learning Development rarely aligns with the academic-professional dichotomy, and this is the same for many professions that engage in academic-related activities. This has been heavily investigated and theorised by Whitchurch (2003, 2008, 2009) as The Rise of Thirdspace Professionals.

[Thirdspace professionals include] teaching and learning professionals, research managers, learning technologists and staff in academic practice, library and information systems. The situation would therefore appear to be more complex than a straightforward ‘academic’/‘non-academic’ extrapolation from employment statistics. Although they may be classified for employment purposes as non-academic, an increasing proportion of such staff are likely to have a mix of academic and professional credentials, experience and roles.

(Whitchurch, 2003)

My life in the thirdspace

Serving as a thirdspace professional has been a hallmark of my career for the last decade. It has brought advantages allowing me to: engage across a broad range of academic disciplines, develop different forms of (non-academic) expertise and embrace networks of other thirdspace professionals. I even recently collaborated on a book chapter (in press) with a colleague that embraced the benefits of this thirdspace position. There have, however, been disadvantages. Thirdspace professionals can lack the same development and progression opportunities as academics, can have limited opportunities for scholarly practice (contractually) and rarely engage in the holistic whole of academic practice. These opportunities and challenges have characterised my practice and development for 10 years now – but this is all about to change. As I discussed in #NewJob, I’m starting as an academic in my new role: Lecturer in Education Studies. In short, I’m leaving the thirdspace in 10 days time.

The photograph at the top of this page is my empty desk in the Library. Everything is all cleared out and moved to my new office. This moment was kind of symbolic for me. For me, the empty desk represents leaving the Library, leaving colleagues and moving towards something new. BUT, one thing is clear. It isn’t only the Library that I am leaving. I’m also leaving the thirdspace.

The academic space

My new career will see me enter the academic space (whatever that is). I’m on the teaching and scholarship pathway, which should see the majority of my time spent on teaching with some space for scholarly activity – including pedagogic research. What that means in contrast to the thirdspace, I’m not sure. Some people tell me it won’t be so different. Others say it will be different – a new journey. Time will only tell what the reality will be. I look forward to sharing that journey here. 😄

I opened this post with a photo of my old, empty desk. My old workspace. As this post marks the start of a new (academic) journey, it feels fitting to close the post with a photo representing that start. So, in contrast to my cleared-out desk, here I am, all set up in my new corner of the office. This is going to be my new home for a while, and I look forward to reflecting on the journey. 😅

Far from the thirdspace, this photograph shows my new office. Three bookshelves sit above a computer desk with two monitors. The space is colourful with plants, books and posters.

One final note – I’m clear that this new role does not mean leaving Learning Development. As a Lecturer in Education Studies, I intend to have a scholarly interest in Learning Development, and I hope to take everything I have learned from learning development practice into my future teaching. I’ll also remain involved with ALDinHE, though accept my contributions are from a different position now.

Reference list

Whitchurch, C. (2009) The Rise of the Blended Professional in Higher Education: A Comparison between the UK, Australia and the United States. Higher Education, 58(3), 407-418.

Whitchurch, C. (2008) Shifting Identities and Blurring Boundaries: the Emergence of Third Space Professionals in UK Higher Education. Higher Education Quarterly, 62, 377-396. 

Whitchurch, C. (2003) Reconstructing Identities in Higher Education: The rise of Third Space professionals. Routledge.

Why I don’t like Gibbs’ Reflective Cycle in reflective practice

Lee Fallin 3 Comments

Reflective practice

Reflective practice is a core tenet of many professions. From nursing to teaching – reflective practice is an aspect of qualification, a requirement of professional bodies and an accepted aspect of practice. Reflective practice requires an individual to engage in conscious thought about an experience, event or practice. Such thinking should be critical; considering both what has worked and what has not. The aim of such reflective thinking is to identify what went well so that you can keep doing it – and what hasn’t worked well so you can change it. In short, reflection should be a useful tool for future action. Reflection also requires some form of expression – from writing in a personal diary or keeping notes on your practice to having a conversation with peers or writing a formal essay. Reflection needs communicating – even if it is only for your own use.

Three stages of reflection for reflective practice: 1 - have an experience 2 - think about an experience 3 - put learning into practice

While there are many different academic models of reflection, they usually revolve around three core components: an experience, thinking about an experience and then putting that learning into practice. Popular models include Kolb, Gibbs, Schön, Rolfe et al., ERA and Brookfield. As a learning developer, I see these models used frequently in student work. There is, however, one model I see more than any: Gibbs‘ Reflective Cycle – and I’m sick of it.

Gibbs’ Reflective Cycle

Before I start the critique, I should first say that Gibbs’ model has its uses. The rigid structure serves some students well, setting out how their essays should look. Instead of fretting over planning, this is largely set out in Gibbs’ model.

Another advantage is that it annexes descriptions into a single section. While this can cause other problems, it at least contextualises the role of description in the rest of the piece – it is a small aspect. I also like how Gibbs’ refers to feelings as a distinct aspect. Feelings are often overlooked and their prominence in the Reflective Cycle is helpful at framing reflection as different from normal discursive academic writing.

Describe what happened briefly. Feelings - Describe feelings/emotional response. Evaluation - What was good/bad about response. Analysis - How do you make sense of it? (use research). Conclusions - General conclusions. Specific conclusions - Action Plan What would you do next time?
Gibbs’ Reflective Cycle (Image from University of Hull, 2021)

Criticisms of Gibbs’ Reflective Cycle

Having given Gibbs some form of an introduction, this section briefly lists the issues:

  1. The Reflective Cycle is boring – The six-stage model leaves little breathing room for interpretation or expansion. It produces essays that are samey.
  2. The Reflective Cycle determines paragraphs – Most implementations of Gibbs’ model force students into a single paragraph per stage of the model. This doesn’t scale well as essay lengths increase, leading to too much description and feelings. It also does not provide much freedom on how different elements of a reflection are structured.
  3. The Reflective Cycle can lead to superficial reflections – This is because Gibbs does not require the writer to challenge values or assumptions associated with any of their actions in the experience.
  4. The Reflective Cycle fails to draw connections – Without linking the experience being reflected upon to other events, there is a missed opportunity to demonstrate depth.
  5. The Reflective Cycle focuses too much on the reflector – While reflection is a highly individualistic thing, most approaches to it consider there are others. However, Gibbs fails to move beyond analysis of self. This can make reflections self-serving as opposed to individually useful (and sometimes that means challenging!).
  6. The Reflective Cycle fails to pose probing questions – While deep, probing questions certainly can be associated with some of the aspects of Gibbs’ model, as presented in overview, these are lost. This, again, leads to superficial reflections.
  7. The Reflective Cycle fails to engage critical thinking – While the model has components of evaluation and analysis, these are simply defined. Evaluation and analysis should present an opportunity for critical thinking – but this is largely absent.
  8. The Reflective Cycle fails to contextualise – The distinct sections for description and feelings are set towards the front of an essay. This can makes it difficult to links between different aspects of evaluation and analysis with elements of description.
  9. The Reflective Cycle confuses novices – So many students struggle to differentiate the evaluation and analysis. This can lead to mixed up sections. I also don’t know if the analysis and evaluation are the right way round. Sometimes I’m in favour of swopping – and others in favour of the status quo.

These points demonstrate many of the weaknesses associated with Gibbs’ Reflective Cycle. I often find simpler models more effective as they give more freedom and space for tailoring to the task required.

Other options

When considering Gibbs, it is also useful to consider that other models are available. My favourites right now are:

Rofle

Rolfe et al’s (2001) framework focuses on three questions:

  • What?
  • So what?
  • Now what?

While this may seem simpler than Gibbs, I feel it allows more flexibility and adaptation. The three questions lead writers to consider a combination of description, links to theory and actions to take forward.

Brookfield

Brookfield’s (2005) four lenses encourage reflectors to consider an event from multiple perspectives

  • Lens of their own autobiography as teachers and learners
  • Lens of students’ eyes
  • Lens of colleagues experiences
  • Lens of educational literature

This directly addresses one of the critiques of Gibbs – that there is no consideration of others in depth.

Using LEGO as a teaching aid for academic writing at university

Lee Fallin Leave a comment

This post will introduce my approach to using LEGO to teach academic writing. I conduct a lot of personal appointments with foundation and undergraduate students. For some students, ordering their ideas and structuring them is a real challenge. This problem tends to stem from:

  • not knowing where to start,
  • a sense of being overwhelmed,
  • the volume of information they consult,
  • the volume of information they feel *needs* including in their assignment.

Further, it is not just a case of ordering ideas, but structuring them that can be problematic. I feel that a lot of the poorly structured essays that I see are failing at the paragraph level. This is a real issue for a lot of students, especially those with less writing experience, those who have taken a break from education, or those who have no experience of essay-style examination. The latter is particularly an issue for international students from countries with different approaches to higher education assessment, often focusing on examinations above coursework essays.

This post will detail how I’ve used LEGO to discuss some of these issues with students, and use it to help them outline their approach to academic writing. This starts with a student I saw a couple of weeks ago. I was struggling to communicate the structural elements of an essay to them. The student had lots of ideas, but simply did not know where to start and all the approaches in study skill books were simply not working for them. Instead of just rephrasing, I tried a different approach, running downstairs to grab my tub of LEGO. I think LEGO bricks are an excellent way to visualise some elements of academic writing and decided this was the perfect time to give it a go. I think this metaphor for academic writing structure can really help students struggling to structure their ideas – or more appropriately, to help students who are overwhelmed with their own ideas and sorting them out.

Let me know what you think by commenting below, or getting in touch via @LeeFallin. You can also find out which LEGO sets I’ve used to build my teaching and research kit.

Using LEGO as a metaphor for academic writing

When planning your essay, it can be really daunting. You end up with ideas all over the place:

LEGO bricks spread all over a table in no order

You need to order these ideas into groups. The act of doing this enables you to identify the major aspects of your essay. As expected, some ideas will be discarded at this phrase too (see the pile to the right side). It is still worth keeping a record of these as they may be useful at a later stage (who would EVER throw a LEGO brick in a bin!?!?!):

LEGO bricks grouped into piles of the same colour. Some to the right are discarded.

Once you have grouped all of your ideas like this, they form the basis of your overall argument. Each brick group is an aspect of this, forming one of the micro-arguments that lead your reader to the conclusion in your overall argument. These micro-arguments (brick groups) may by represented in an individual paragraph, or across a group of paragraphs. This process is not easy. At this idea stage, some of your groups will end up too large and you will need to break them up across two or more paragraphs. When this is the case, it is hard to distinguish which paragraph an idea belongs in. In reality, you are more likely to come across this problem later in writing when you have an oversized paragraph that you need to break up:

A pile of yellow LEGO bricks of subtlety different shades

When all the elements of your points, arguments or ideas are grouped into their individual paragraphs, they need further structuring:

A pile of brown bricks come together into a block

A solid paragraph should have a good structure. I recommend TEAL as a good starting point:

  • Topic – A brief introduction to what the paragraph is about. What is your point?
  • Evidence – Academic evidence, reflections, your own research/data
  • Analysis – The ‘so what’? Persuade the reader that your conclusion is the correct one
  • Link – Link this paragraph to the next – or to your overall argument.

(Indeed – this stage may be the *best* starting point for some students, but the route described so far is excellent for those who struggle to structure all their ideas in the planning phase)

TEAL is a good way to structure all those ideas into a coherent paragraph:

An assembled block of brown bricks

LEGO bricks are an excellent metaphor for how you need to link all these elements together. The bumps and they way they interlock with bricks above makes this point clear. Everything with a paragraph must coherently link together and make sense:

Photo of lego blocks - demonstrates the

Once you have your individual paragraphs, they need to be assembled in the right order. This is often done as you go along, but as you being to edit, you may realise they need re-ordering. It isn’t just the structure that may change, and as you edit, some smaller points may need removing as you further refine your ideas (and try to get under your word count):

A long block of assembled bricks. Colours are striped in groups to represent paragraphs.

All of these elements together can help you rule your own writing:

LEGO monarch with crown

Taking this into practice

To put this into practice, I often recommend students grab a stack of post-it notes or use a mindmap to get all of their ideas on the table. The principles above serve as a great framework from which to interpret all these ideas. Working from the ideation phase, grouping/sorting and refining the order and breaking it into paragraphs. If all else fails, literally using the LEGO bricks works well too. Small post-it notes can be used to adhere ideas to the bricks in a way that doesn’t require cleaning them afterwards. This works perfectly with Duplo too.

The model above is designed to help students identify their main points, group their ideas under these main points, and then divide those points into interlinked paragraphs. As the bricks represent, these all need ‘clicking together’ to form a stable essay (or stable LEGO model!). This may seem a little obvious for advanced writers, but it is certainly worth trying with those new to academic essay writing. As above, please let me know what you think! I should also note a quick thank you to my colleague Sue Watling. She indicated this approach was interesting when I mentioned it in conversation, so I figured it was worth expanding on my blog.

LEGO, the LEGO logo, and the Minifigure are trademarks and copyrights of the LEGO Group. ©2021 The LEGO Group.

The development of university teachers vs. the learning developer

Lee Fallin Leave a comment

Today I had the pleasure of starting my Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice (PCAP). As a learning developer, my journey is atypical to the peers on my course. This article serves as my first reflection about this. Our first reading was Kugel’s (2006) How professors develop as teachers. Kugel discusses a typical development pathway for lecturers — moving from an understanding of how to teach students towards an understanding of how to support their learning. In this, there are six stages, each characterised by the changing focus as lecturers develop their practice:

The transition from teaching to learning

This model was interesting. Kugel discussed how new teachers tend to focus on themselves as they begin to teach. They move towards solidifying their own discipline knowledge before starting to take into account students. These initial changes focus on teaching. The understanding of students develops, acknowledging them as receptive, then active learners. These later stages begin to focus on learning above teaching. Finally there is an understanding of learners as independent — with the core role of the teaching being to support students to teach themselves.

While I can see much in this model, it’s an interesting reflection for me as a learning developer.

The primary role of a learning developer is to help learners achieve that end goal — independence. While there are many nuances to this, ultimately learning developers are aim to work with students to help them develop their own autonomy and self-sufficiency. So… do learning developers really jump to the final stage of Kugel’s model?

Perhaps. At least at first. As a new practitioner starting in the learning development field 9 years ago, I feel I started from day 1 as a practitioner supporting this goal. Perhaps somewhat light in the tools I had at my disposal – but a focus on independent learning all the same. What I didn’t realise was that learning development itself had an underlying literature I needed to understand. As such, I perhaps worked backwards through some of Kugel’s model. I had to back-step and develop myself and my disciplinary knowledge to ultimately make me better at supporting that learning.

That backwards learning was important. It made me appreciate the diverse ways in which most academic tasks can be achieved. Without this understanding, there can be a focus on promoting your practices — or at least a narrow range. Inclusive higher education practices should never aim to reproduce yourself. More importantly, it required me to understand what teaching means, and how in reality, it wasn’t really that important in most learning development encounters. Indeed, it wasn’t even something I did that much. That brings me to my last reflection on this paper.

This final reflection relates to ‘teaching’ itself. The paper focused on teaching alone. However, as educations, we have more tools than teaching alone. As learning developers we are coaches. We are mentors. We are cheerleaders – and yes! Sometimes teachers. Yet, teaching isn’t everything. It is just part of the story.

What is Learning Development Scholarship?

Lee Fallin Leave a comment

This post forms a personal reflection of a session I attended at the Association of Learning Development in Higher Education (ALDinHE) Conference 2019.

On day one of the ALDinHE Conference, I attended the Research Funding & Scholarship of Learning Development session led by Dr Maria Kukhareva & Dr Carina Buckley. This was a really interesting, interactive session, structured around the following question:

‘What is scholarship?’

This led to a rather expansive view of scholarship, not only accounting for peer-review publications, but also wider scholarly activity such as review, conference involvement and so on. However, this led to the eventual question of:

‘What is learning development scholarship?’

This question is not as easy as it seems. Scholarly activity can be pinned down and defined. Yes – there are different interpretations, but it is easy to find something that generally applies to most people. How learning development contributes to the wider scholarship of learning and teaching in higher education is however a bigger question. There must be something distinctive about it that makes it stand out against the scholarship of language learning, education and other fields.

What does learning development contribute? What is unique about learning development research?
Boyer’s model of scholarship (1990)

What makes learning development scholarship distinctive?

The real challenge of defining the distinctiveness of learning development scholarship perhaps lies with the difficulty of defining learning development. Our practices are incredibly diverse and sometimes disparate. If practice is so varied, can the scholarship be coherent enough to be classed as distinctive? While I struggle to answer this one, I ‘feel’ there is something distinctive about learning development. This is not so distinctive as to pry away from the disciplinary foundations of education as a discipline (psychology, history, sociology and philosophy), but I believe it is distinctive enough to carve out it’s own corner in the higher education literature.

This *feeling* I have regarding the distinctiveness of learning development has roots in my practice. This is because I *feel* my practice and approach is distinctive in comparison to traditional lectureship. This is because I am supporting the development of attributes, competencies, skills, approaches and so on – just not the development of disciplinary knowledge. This does not mean I have no knowledge base and convey no knowledge, just that such knowledge is of ‘being a student’, learning, writing and so on.

So – back to the question at hand. What does make learning development distinctive. We were encouraged to approach this question creatively, and this is the model the group I was part of ended up creating:

A conceptual model answering the question. The paragraphs below explain this in detail.

In the above photograph, you can see some of our core ideas. One of my primary contributions was the ‘lens’, as I feel learning development has a different view and approach to scholarship than other areas. In short, it is distinctive. There IS a learning development way of looking at things, even if we can’t exactly define it. I also built the pile of rubble and labelled it as ‘What is learning development?’. I promise you that the answer to that question is under those bricks. It just isn’t uncovered yet. Interestingly, I paired ‘lens’ with ‘reflection’. I think this was to highlight the reflective nature of our practice (or at least the development of it).

We also had knowledge, philosophy, inquiry, evidence and discipline(s) also on the table. These are all ideas long associated with scholarship. Once again, we had an interesting debate about what learning development brings to the table. The one we were really unsure about was ‘Mastery’. I’m still not sure how I feel about that, and this is the reason I picked it up. I think it is perhaps better related to scholarship with ‘status’ – a term another table has picked up.

I added the term ‘validity‘, because any research and scholarship must be ‘valid’ – but I think we can take this further as it links back to the question.

What makes learning development as a distinct approach a valid contribution to the wider higher education literature?

Reflection on what learning development is

This does not answer the big question. The closest thing we have to this are the ALDinHE values:

  1. Working alongside students to make sense of and get the most out of HE learning 
  2. Making HE inclusive through emancipatory practice, partnershipworking and collaboration
  3. Adopting and sharing effective LD practice with the HE community  
  4. Commitment to scholarly approach and research related to LD
  5. Critical self-reflection, on-going learning and a commitment to professional development 

Beyond these values, we did have a nod to practice on our model.

On the model, you can see a precarious bridge from one table to another. To fall of this bridge is to plummet between the tables. This kinda represented the journey students are on, with each step of this bridge further and further apart. While the definition of learning development is buried on our model, one thing is clear. We exist to fight anyone who would push a student off the bridge. We exist to help them over it – not to lead them, but to give them the abilities they need to take themselves over it.

You will see this bridge is hidden behind a wall. Sometimes the way ahead is unknown. It is difficult. It is hidden. We often tear that wall down to help students see where they need to go – and enable them to get there.

References

Boyer, E. L. (1990), Scholarship reconsidered: Priorities of the professoriate. [PDF], Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching