Vignette of Practice: Taking dementia education to the next level

Taking dementia education to the next level Dr Chris Russell, Teresa Atkinson, Mary Bruce, Nicola Jacobson-Wright – School of Allied Health and Community Ensuring that those who support people living with dementia are skilled and knowledgeable is essential to providing quality care (Surr, 2020). We are a small teaching team, formed in 2019 to develop a new Postgraduate Certificate in Person-Centred Dementia Studies delivered fully online. The content and andragogy are rooted in our underpinning values embedding our passion for person-centred dementia care into our teaching and beyond into professional practice. The course was developed in response to the need to reach professionals with differing constraints on opportunities to engage with education. We decided to develop a fully online programme, delivered via synchronous and asynchronous… Read moreVignette of Practice: Taking dementia education to the next level

Vignette of Practice: Out of sight, out of mind? Academic Liaison Librarians Online and Beyond

Vignette of Practice: Out of sight, out of mind? Academic Liaison Librarians Online and Beyond Sarah Purcell, Kathryn Devine, Shona Raymond, Alison Taylor, Jennifer Dumbelton, Ros Sykes, Jo Dunn, Beth Connors and Andy Searle – Library Services Figure 1: L to R: Jo Dunn, Shona Raymond, Sarah Purcell, Ros Sykes, Allie Taylor, Kathryn Devine, Andy Searle, [Beth Connors]. The Academic Liaison Librarian Team advises, teaches, and supports students, researchers and academic colleagues at the University of Worcester and across our partnerships (V1, V2). We are a professionally qualified team (A5) who support literature searching and academic referencing, and promote the effective use of physical and online library services, integrated at both course and module level. Our team ethos of sharing knowledge, undertaking professional development and… Read moreVignette of Practice: Out of sight, out of mind? Academic Liaison Librarians Online and Beyond

Vignette of Practice: Course design and development including enhanced use of Pebble Pad and the Pebble Pocket App for undergraduate level 4-6 teaching

Course design and development including enhanced use of Pebble Pad and the Pebble Pocket App for undergraduate level 4-6 teaching Glyn Harding, Michelle Morgan, Craig Williams and David Mycock – School of Sport and Exercise Science One of the assessments in SPRT 2034 ethics requires students to collaborate with Drama and Law staff and students to participate in a real-life innovation cross department experience court case to analyse the ‘ethical implications’ of applied practice. Through this approach, we underpin our delivery with the School of Sport and Exercise Science core teaching values (see Figure 1) to ensure high-quality teaching and the promotion of inclusive practice. Furthermore, synchronous online learning (developed through Covid 19) has enabled students and lecturers to interact live, retaining the student-teacher interactions… Read moreVignette of Practice: Course design and development including enhanced use of Pebble Pad and the Pebble Pocket App for undergraduate level 4-6 teaching

Vignette of Practice: The PGCE Secondary Education Magazine Commonwealth Edition

The PGCE Secondary Education Magazine Commonwealth Edition Rebecca Davidge, Simon Huson, Elena Lengthorn and Rachael Moore – School of Education Our Secondary PGCE team developed and delivered a series of teacher educator workshops on decolonising, diversifying, and democratising our subject curriculums in light of the murder of George Floyd in the summer of 2020 and the local Birmingham Commonwealth Games in 2022. A further catalyst for this project was the exploration of the inspirational text Empireland: How Imperialism Has Shaped Modern Britain by Satnam Sanghera (Sanghera, 2021). Reading of Empireland enabled us, as a group of university tutors, to discuss our preconceptions of the British Empire. The book took us on a learning journey which included a clearer understanding of the past, present and possible… Read moreVignette of Practice: The PGCE Secondary Education Magazine Commonwealth Edition

Vignette of Practice: Enhancing the student experience in occupational therapy and physiotherapy practice placement modules

Enhancing the student experience in occupational therapy and physiotherapy practice placement modules Annabel Heaslop, School of Allied Health and Community   As part of the BSc Occupational Therapy and Physiotherapy courses, students are required to complete over 1000 hours of successful practice placement for students to register with the HCPC as Occupational Therapists and Physiotherapists following graduation. While students generally provided positive feedback regarding the practice placements themselves, historically, practice placement modules (in which placement occurs) have not received high levels of student satisfaction on modules evaluations. When planning to deliver my second-year practice placement module for Occupational Therapy and Physiotherapy students and associated learning, I reviewed student feedback from the preceding module. I used this feedback to implement changes to my existing module and… Read moreVignette of Practice: Enhancing the student experience in occupational therapy and physiotherapy practice placement modules

Vignette of Practice: When the World Shuts Down: Delivering a Successful Teacher Training Course

When the World Shuts Down: Delivering a Successful Teacher Training Course Dan Hughes, School of Education I was the course leader for PGCE Primary when the COVID-19 pandemic forced a lockdown in March 2020 and the challenges for the course were significant. The impact was that our 2019/20 trainees could not go into school for their final placement and face-to-face lectures were stopped. Placements are fundamental to professional courses; they give the trainees time to put theory into practice. The third placement of their year is also where they are assessed against the Teachers’ Standards (Department for Education, 2021). This could not happen, and the question was simply, what do we do? We delivered an entire nine-week online curriculum, supported by coaches/mentors, that focused on… Read moreVignette of Practice: When the World Shuts Down: Delivering a Successful Teacher Training Course

Vignette of Practice: How a Team Approach to Practice Education Combatted the COVID-19 Effect

How a Team Approach to Practice Education Combatted the COVID-19 Effect Terri Grant, School of Allied Health and Community This case study demonstrates how effective leadership has led to increased placement capacity that resulted in occupational therapy and physiotherapy students at the University of Worcester meeting their placement requirements as the country went into lockdown in 2020. In addition, it demonstrates how we have prepared for a 350% increase in placement capacity over a 6-year period. The Practice Education team was developed in 2018 after the professional regulatory body identified the need for an increase in staff dedicated to placement development. I saw the opportunity to develop a more integrated strategy, suggested the creation of an integrated team to my line manager and agreed to… Read moreVignette of Practice: How a Team Approach to Practice Education Combatted the COVID-19 Effect

Vignette of Practice: “Not another three-hour lecture”: A Blended Delivery Approach

“Not another three-hour lecture”: A Blended Delivery Approach Team Teaching Award – Richard Pepperell; Dr Christian Edwards; School of Sport and Exercise Science     Introduction Our case studies focused on the development (case study 1) and delivery (case study 2) of two new scientific principles modules in the undergraduate Physical Education (PE) curriculum. Here, we focus specifically on case study 2 demonstrating our use of a blended approach to the delivery of these modules during the COVID-19 pandemic. Background The Wolf report (2011) prompted several UK Government policy changes across the 14-19 education sector that were designed to increase the rigour of accredited courses. Within the PE and sports sector, these policy changes led to an increase in the sports science content required within… Read moreVignette of Practice: “Not another three-hour lecture”: A Blended Delivery Approach

Vignette of Practice: Embedding Real World Learning Through Inspirational Guest Speakers

Embedding Real World Learning Through Inspirational Guest Speakers Team Teaching Award – Dr Kay Emblen-Perry, Senior Lecturer and PRME Coordinator; Dr Paulo Mora-Avila, Lecturer and School Liaison Coordinator; Rachel Cooper, Lecturer and Accounting and Finance Course Leader; Worcester Business School In the Responsible Business L5 module, we include weekly guest speakers [A1]. This approach is inspirational to students, module tutors and the guest speakers themselves, as we will explain. The use of guest speakers each week is unique within Worcester Business School (WBS) and is innovative, as it is not seen elsewhere within education for sustainability. Our practice frames our pedagogical approach to the module which involves students exploring a live case study, and in 2020/21, this was the University of Worcester (UW); weekly guest… Read moreVignette of Practice: Embedding Real World Learning Through Inspirational Guest Speakers

Vignette of Practice: St Jude’s Virtual School: An Innovative Response to COVID-19

St Jude’s Virtual School: An Innovative Response to COVID-19 Team Teaching Award – Judy Miller, Isabelle Schäfer, Dave Hunt and Suzanne Lawson; School of Education Tutors in the PGCE secondary teacher training team created a virtual school called ‘St. Jude’s’ to develop trainees’ skills and attributes for those who were well but having to self-isolate due to COVID-19 during their school experience placement. St. Jude’s was an online innovation born of necessity but developed through genuine pedagogical approaches for teaching excellence. The online platform was a hidden area on Blackboard only accessible to trainees who had to self-isolate. St. Jude’s registration provided a series of activities designed to support their programme of study (A1) with activities to teach and support learning (A2). Subject tutors interacted… Read moreVignette of Practice: St Jude’s Virtual School: An Innovative Response to COVID-19