Area of Activity 5: Engage in Professional Development in Subjects/Disciplines and their Pedagogy, Incorporating Research, Scholarship, and the Evaluation of Professional Practices

A5: Engage in continuing professional development in subjects/disciplines and their pedagogy, incorporating research, scholarship and the evaluation of professional practices

K1, K2, K3, K5, V1, V2, V3, V4

Introduction

My professional practice as an educational developer has been characterised from the beginning by a scholarly approach to learning and teaching, incorporating pedagogical research, scholarship and evaluation of practice. In fact, this is probably the fundamental characteristic of my practice. As an educational developer it is the key way of gaining respect from academics and developing trust in relationships, which then works as a lubricant to engage academic staff in learning and teaching improvement, as well as more in depth pedagogical discussions. In short, engaging in the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) has the potential to create a level playing field for educational developers such as myself, which in turn then allows us to work towards learning and teaching enhancement and innovation at an institutional level.

Research and scholarship as professional development and network building

Educational developers such as myself have different titles and different job descriptions in different higher education contexts. For example, they are sometimes called ‘academic developers’, sometimes ‘staff developers’, sometimes ‘curriculum developers’, and sometimes ‘professional developers’ (Clegg, 2009; Kek & Hammer, 2015). This diversity in terminology is important, as it not only reflects the ways in which we, as educational developers, are viewed in particular contexts, and thus our status, but also our effectiveness in driving institutional learning and teaching agendas, i.e. the 'bread and butter' of what we do. The latter is indeed our primary role: the enhancement of learning and teaching across universities, which involves assisting academic staff in improving their teaching practice.

As noted, instigating and developing research and scholarship projects that involve academic faculty staff have been an integral part of my practice since I began as an educational developer at USQ, and this continues to be the case. It is therefore also intimately linked with my professional development, as it often involves participating in conferences, seminars and symposia as collaborator, mentor, researcher, and educational developer. The 'carrot' part of these collaborations from the academics' point of view is the research output that comes out of it, but in the process, they also often engage in reflective practice and innovative pedagogical practice in their classrooms, which they then evaluate and write about. This therefore presents a win-win scenario from my points of view, because it allows me to engage with academic staff around their learning and teaching practice, enhance my academic reputation, and model good practice. This often has a snowball effect in that their colleagues then see the benefits of doing this, which creates further opportunities.

As noted, in my everyday practice, all of these strands weave in and out of each other along a continuum. For example, I may invite an academic staff member to present on a particular aspect of their practice in a CPS workshop. I may then suggest to them that they apply for institutional Teaching Development Funding. If they have no experience in doing so, I will guide and mentor them. This may then lead to a joint conference presentation and/or a journal article, which benefits both (or all) of us in ways I have described. In a similar vain, and for similar reasons, I have been intimately involved in organisational Learning and Teaching events, such as annual learning and teaching weeks and in XJTLU's case, the annual Learning and Teaching Colloquium. Again, this provides opportunities for academic staff to showcase their practice, and it provides a focal point and 'carrot' for them to work towards, which I can then use to gently push them along, with or without my direct involvement if they wish. 

Conferences I have helped to organise include the Enabling Pathways: 3rd National Conference of Enabling Education at USQ in 2009, and the 40 Years Batchelor Institute Conference in 2014. Both were followed up with refereed publications for academic staff who shared their practice. Most recently, I was involved in co-organising the Annual Learning and Teaching Colloquium at XJTLU, which had as its key note speakers Etienne Wenger and Beverly Wenger-Trayner. It was thus directly related to our institutional strategic approach to professional development as it relates to learning and teaching, namely a Communities of Practice approach (Huijser, Wilson, Johnson, & Xie, 2016). Furthermore, we also made sure that most of the presentations were captured in digital formats and these continue to be used as resources in professional development that we, as the Academic Enhancement Centre at XJTLU, organise or manage.

Beyond institutional contexts, I also engage wherever possible in cross-institutional collaborations and/or sector-wide projects. The most recent one of these was a collaboration for a symposium on social media in higher education with colleagues from Deakin University. Before that, I was one of the main contributors to an Australian Office for Learning and Teaching grant project called Learning Analytics: Assisting Universities with Student Retention, together with colleagues from Charles Darwin University, University of Newcastle, Murdoch University and Griffith University (West et al., 2016; West, Huijser & Heath, 2016; Huijser, West & Heath, 2016). Again, I do not see this type of engagement as stand-alone, but rather as another strand in the tapestry that is an educational developer's professional practice.

Finally, I frequently engage in research and scholarship with my immediate educational development colleagues. For example, at XJTLU, I am currently involved in a number of projects around our practice in the Chinese higher education context. All of these projects lead to publications, which further enhances our credibility across the institution. In this way, all these strands intertwine, and momentum around learning and teaching builds up.

Clegg, S. (2009). Forms of knowing and academic development practice. Studies in Higher Education, 34(4), 403-416.

Harmes, M., Huijser, H., & Danaher, P. A. (Eds.) (2015). Myths in education, learning and teaching: Policies, practices and principles. New York: Palgrave MacMillan.

Huijser, H., Wilson, J., Johnson, D., & Xie, J. (2016). Implementing a Communities of Practice model to enhance learning and teaching at a transnational university in China. Compass: Journal of Learning and Teaching, 9 (13). 

Huijser, H., West, D., & Heath, D. (2016). The potential of learning analytics to systematically address diverse learning needs and improve student retention in Australian higher education. Advances in SoTL, 3(1).

Huijser, H., Ober, R., O'Sullivan, S., McRae-Williams, E., & Elvin, R. (Eds.). (2015). Finding the common ground: Narratives, provocations and reflections from the 40 year celebration of Batchelor Institute. Batchelor, NT: Batchelor Press.

Kek, M. Y. C. A., & Hammer, S. (2015). Theorising academic development as an academic discipline? Exploring academic developers’ ways of research. In M. Tight, & J. Huisman (Eds.). Theory and Method in Higher Education Research (pp. 235-255). Wagon Lane, UK: Emerald Publishing.

Kek, M. Y. C. A., & Huijser, H. (2017). Problem-based learning into the future: Imagining an agile PBL ecology for learning. Singapore: Springer.

West, D., Huijser, H., Heath, D., Lizzio, A., Toohey, D., Miles, C., Searle, B., & Bronnimann, J. (2016). Higher education teachers’ experiences with learning analytics in relation to student retention. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 32 (5), pp. 48-60. 

West, D., Huijser, H., & Heath, D. (2016). Putting an ethical lens on learning analytics. Educational Technology Research & Development, 64 (5), pp. 903-922.