Peter Lumsden
Abstract below...
The Post-graduate Certificate learning and teaching in Higher Education
(PGCert) at UCLan is a work-based CPD Programme aimed
at professionals working within a HE environment. It offers professional accreditation, and
provides structured opportunities to develop, evaluate and apply knowledge and
understanding of HE issues and pedagogical tools and concepts, thus enhancing
professional skills and activity in teaching, assessing and supporting the learning
of a diverse body of students (excerpt from course handbook).
The
teaching and learning strategy of the course aims to utilise and maximise participants’
own experiences to assist the learning process. This has involved a variety of
teaching and learning approaches including; action learning sets, seminar paper
presentations, discussion and debate. All of these took place in real time in a
physical space.
More
recently the design has moved significantly from purely class based sessions
with supporting material on the VLE, to a mixed mode, employing adobe connect
as an on-line delivery tool, a course blog as an element of assessment, and
action learning sets as an integral part of class-room sessions. All three of
these innovations have made important, while slightly different, contributions
to the learning experience; between them they have supported the development of
a community of practice (Lave and Wenger, 1998) and have provided opportunities
to deploy the various lenses of the critically reflective teacher (Brookfield,
1995). The blog has enabled learning from the other elements of the course, as
well as from the practice of blogging itself, to be captured and evaluated on
an on-going basis (Bartlett-Bragg, 2003). Emergent themes from the blog
postings are presented and mapped against established concepts of learning and
teaching, including peer-supported learning, communities of practice and
coaching.
References:
Bartlett-Bragg, A. (2003) Blogging to learn. http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CDEQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.csus.edu%2Findiv%2Fs%2Fstonerm%2Fblogging_to_learn.pdf&ei=v91gU83YCom_PIGdgdAN&usg=AFQjCNHYxTAJDz14Zo2_Ib_PV6VF8UjoTQ&sig2=HRgS2lOnOta37uwY7NPPYA&bvm=bv.65636070,d.ZWU
Accessed 2.6.2014
Brookfield, S. (1995) Becoming a
critically reflective teacher. Jossey-Bass: San Francisco
Lave, J., & Wenger, E.
(1998). Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning, and Identity: Cambridge
University Press
