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

Resources for understanding and supporting student engagement with learning

Resources for understanding and supporting student engagement with learning have been collated into a spreadsheet for staff to review and use. The resources are organised into different tabs according to type (such as conference outputs) and with the following information provided: title, year, summary, institution or author and website link. Questions can be sent to j.simpson@worc.ac.uk.

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

Building student resilience

Resilience is fundamental for student retention and it is one of our graduate attributes.  Resilience enables students to cope with the challenges, obstacles and setbacks they are likely to experience on their learning journey, and to graduate with the capabilities and mind set for success.  The term can be applied to both academic and personal aspects of the student experience and is increasingly associated with student well-being, academic buoyancy and a ‘growth mindset’. A proactive approach to developing student resilience as part of the curriculum at Worcester is therefore important because it will support our objectives to improve student retention and graduate outcomes.  We want our students to understand and demonstrate the behaviours, actions and mindsets that constitute resilience, and to be able to articulate… Read moreBuilding student resilience

A framework for organising and managing a module for blended delivery

Some ideas on basic good practice to help you and your students engage effectively with a module where the teaching is in different modalities.  Covers things like weekly intros, interactivity, managing and resenting content, directed learning, accessibility and what students said they appreciate from their experience of online learning in ‘lockdown’. Open the file in powerpoint mode 2020.09.04 A Framework for Organising and Managing a Module v4  

Top Tips for Course Leaders in Preparing for Blended and Physically Distanced Learning

Tips and Hints for Course Leaders in meeting student expectations for engaging learning in ‘blended’ modules.   Covers very practical issues about checking students’ digital capabilities, building a sense of belonging, establishing course team protocols, setting up simple buddy systems, using your course rep and monitoring engagement with Blackboard.   Top Tips for Course Leaders in Preparing for Blended 7.9.2020

Welcome

Welcome to the Realising Teaching Excellence blog at the University of Worcester, where we hope to keep you informed about teaching and learning developments, create dialogue around developing excellence, and introduce you to examples of interesting practice. The “Teaching Excellence” page has the latest news on learning and teaching The “Interesting Practice” page has a range of learning and teaching case studies See the “Resources” page for useful guides and information including the “Busy lecturer’s Guide to Inclusive Practice” and information on student transitions and Teaching Awards The “Tried and Tested” page contains examples of enhancement activities undertaken at module and course level which have been evaluated and proven to have been effective. Our “Projects” page shows updates and outputs from the various learning and… Read moreWelcome

Vignette of Practice: Level 2+ Award Programme by Craig Williams; School of Sport and Exercise Science

Level 2+ Award Programme by Craig Williams; School of Sport and Exercise Science     This case study provides an overview of the rationale for, and impact of the ‘Level 2+ Award Programme’, an accredited Sports Coaching Award Programme at the University of Worcester (UW). Launched in 2011, the programme provided students with the opportunity to achieve recognised vocational qualifications within a mandatory first year coaching module (SPRT1024). The embedded Level 2 coaching award programme was designed to develop vocational coach education qualifications for UW students, which provided affordable and flexible vocational learning whilst also enhancing student employability and placement readiness. The blended learning aspect of the program permitted students to accredit prior learning gained in the module towards the Nationally accredited 1st4sport Level 2… Read moreVignette of Practice: Level 2+ Award Programme by Craig Williams; School of Sport and Exercise Science

Vignettes of Practice: Design and delivery of a new Module – GEOG1123 Climate Change People Policy and Action

Dr Sian Evans and Dr Matthew Smith; School of Science and the Environment This case study demonstrates how we designed and delivered a new 15 credit L4 geography module ‘GEOG1123: Climate Change: People, Policy and Action’, with a specific focus on constructive alignment (Biggs, 2003), student engagement (Coates, 2006 p. 17, Kahu, 2013, Bryson, 2014 p.3), and active learning (Prince, 2004, Michael, 2006). The module was developed in line with UW’s Policy & Regulatory Framework, Learning and Teaching Strategy 2015 – 2018 and Technology Enhanced Learning Strategy 2015 – 2019. Our goal was to take the students on a journey of discovery of the topic as well as themselves by developing their personal reflective practice and enhancing their ability to become independent learners. Critical to… Read moreVignettes of Practice: Design and delivery of a new Module – GEOG1123 Climate Change People Policy and Action