Caroline Turnbull

As many fellows will be aware, moves are slowly underway to establish a Teaching Fellow Special Interest Group to support Teaching Fellows and other colleagues from across the University who are already active in mentoring or have an interest in becoming mentors. SIG-M is keen to support, develop and enhance mentoring work done in relation to Teaching Fellow and HEA Fellow applications, but recognises that this is only one of a number of areas of mentoring activity which Teaching Fellows routinely support. As well as recognising the work done in developing colleagues, the SIG aims to support Teaching Fellows and other active colleagues within their mentoring roles, offering the opportunity to reflect, share practice, consider external resources and develop networks.  There is also the very exciting opportunity to work with colleagues in the Office of the Vice Principal (Academic) in the development and implementation of a SEDA mentoring/coaching award.

If you are interested in joining the group or finding out more, then please contact Caroline Turnbull (c.turnbull@napier.ac.uk). An inaugural lunchtime meeting of the group is currently scheduled to take place on Thursday 17 of November at 12.30pm in Craiglockhart (room TBA). If you are interested in finding out more, please grab your sandwiches and join us. Again, drop Caroline a note so we have an idea of who to expect. We look forward to working with you on this exciting opportunity.

New SEDA PDF award in Mentoring and Coaching

Angela Benzies

At the Teaching Fellow Appointments Panel in September 2010, there was a discussion about how we might develop our use of mentoring to support applicants for Fellowship. A year later, we have a new national award available through the Staff and Educational Development Association (SEDA) and are working on plans for an Edinburgh Napier programme that could make a significant impact on educational development in the broadest sense, far beyond the Teaching Fellow community.

SEDA PDF

Many of us will be familiar with the SEDA, partly through their accreditation of academic programmes offered by the Office of the Vice Principal (Academic), i.e. the Postgraduate Certificate in Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (PgC TLHE) and the Master’s Degree in Blended and Online Education (MSc BOE). SEDA’s Professional Development Framework (PDF) provides a flexible way to accredit professional development activities within institutions. There are a number of named awards which essentially form templates that institutions can use to write their own programmes. Up until this summer there was no award covering mentoring or coaching specifically.

Developing the idea

The Teaching Fellowship Scheme’s external assessor, Professor Diana Eastcott, is a nationally recognised expert in mentoring and offered her assistance in developing this area within the Teaching Fellow community at the outset. Diana’s experience of setting up and supporting the operation of the Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU) mentoring programme (which was based on the Action Research PDF award) was particularly helpful, as was the generous assistance of Carol Maynard from LJMU, who is also a SEDA PDF committee member and our PgC TLHE external examiner. Supported by the SEDA PDF Committee Chairman, Stephen Bostock, Diana and Carol, I developed a proposal for the new award that was approved by the PDF committee in June, with finishing touches made over the summer.

The Edinburgh Napier Mentoring/Coaching award

Many existing Teaching Fellows act as mentors to those making applications for Fellowship, as well as supporting colleagues in applying for Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy.  Quite apart from this, Fellows are often involved in mentoring others in connection with a range of educational development work, e.g. through grant-aided Teaching Fellow projects, as part of School-based learning, teaching and assessment enhancement work or as tutors or School mentors for the PgC TLHE. In considering all this, it is clear that there was huge potential to recognise existing achievement as well as to develop capacity in mentoring to support academic and professional development.

Coaching has been included alongside mentoring in the award title and learning outcomes, which allows institutions flexibility about how they will develop one or other or both within their own programmes. We are yet to make the final decision on this but at present are likely to offer options to our participants that match their specific needs. The curriculum includes identification of where mentoring and/or coaching may be beneficially used and the development and implementation of strategies and plans for appropriate schemes or for the mentoring/coaching of individuals, all referenced to the theory within the relevant literature. The assessment involves reflection on actual mentoring/coaching work done by the participant during the course so is orientated towards practice and our particular environment. 

A full description of the new SEDA award may be obtained from the PDF web pages at: http://www.seda.ac.uk/pdf.html.

Where to now?

Writing the SEDA PDF award was stage 1 of a 2-stage process, and stage 2 is not insignificant as the curriculum needs to be completed, materials gathered, assessment finalised, an external examiner appointed, an online presence created in Moodle and the official recognition event conducted. However, we are progressing well and I’m delighted that Elaine Mowat of the Professional Development team has joined me to form the programme team, bringing her particular expertise in technology enhanced learning, and we have a number of Teaching Fellows who wish to be part of the pilot in 2011/12. I’ve had further discussion with LJMU colleagues about their mentoring award and our Teaching Fellow Scheme, with a meeting in Edinburgh on 19 October and a visit to Liverpool planned for November. 

One area we have been looking at recently, partly through the work of Professor Mark Huxham, is how we involve students in the development of the curriculum. I’d like us to take this approach within this mentoring programme, especially as the participants currently signed up are experienced and highly committed individuals with much to offer in terms of contributing ideas on what they would like to learn, how they would like to learn it and how they wish to be assessed. As such an approach fits with our work on student engagement and the current QAA Enhancement Theme, Developing and Supporting the Curriculum, we could learn from the process as well as the result of this programme development.

There are other mentoring initiatives ongoing within Edinburgh Napier at present and my strategy has been to maintain links with colleagues in HR and FECCI in particular so we can be aware of developments and, where possible, share expertise and outcomes. My thanks are due to Jill Meighan, Mohammed Hameed, Sandra Cairncross and Marie Kane, who have taken the time to discuss this with me over the summer. Each mentoring scheme has its own specific aims but it is clear that there is much overlap.

The availability of an externally accredited mentoring award at Edinburgh Napier is a significant development with the potential to recognise existing good practice, enhance it and build capacity for learning and teaching development across the University, including development of our external reputation. I welcome feedback on this initiative and would be interested in any assistance you feel you could offer. Further details of the award will be reported through the tfj in due course.

tfj october 2011, news, sig m, mentoring

Last updated 195 days ago by TFJ