student feedback and leadership - Office for Learning and Teaching

Student Feedback & Leadership
3.3 Cycle Three: Engaged Leadership
3.3.1 Introduction
The third action research cycle involved the design of approaches to build
leadership capacity by transferring lessons being learnt within and beyond
those leaders engaged in the project. Table 3 presents a summary of the action
research process, identified as Engaged Leadership, that occurred in this third
cycle. This cycle roughly paralleled the end of the first year of the project and
thus provided a useful ‘pause point’ to the action research process.
Table 3 Action Research Cycle Three: Engaged Leadership
CYCLE THREE
ENGAGED
Transfer Lessons
LEADERSHIP
Formal – Informal
Networking
PLAN ACT OBSERVE REFLECT
Project website Need to involve Active engagement
pedagogy experts
Facilitate sharing
of ideas
Facilitate reflections
and analysis of
leadership critical
success factors and
barriers to building
leadership capacity
ARTs
Develop interview
and focus group
guiding questions
and analyse data
from interviews
Develop evaluation
tools, data collection
and analysis
Case study developed
for website
Heads of School
presentations to
disseminate
Extra funding support
by DVC(A)
Presentations to Grad.
Cert. Tertiary T&L
Interviews held
with cross section
of senior leaders.
Mid project review
‘Not invented here’
syndrome
Different roles
of Facilitators
Analysis of interviews
revealed no extra
insights from Plenary
decision
Is evaluation singular
or group think
Systematic approach
to networking
Role of learning
and teaching expert
(facilitator)
Need to balance
‘pure’ and ‘applied’
approach to research
Purpose and
appropriateness
of interviews?
How to avoid
a ‘blame’ culture
when things
go wrong
3.3.2 Plan
While Cycle Two demonstrated the second leadership element of a
collaborative approach to student feedback, it was recognised that moving
from the existing competitive culture (both between academic disciplines
and also between academic and Service ‘managerial’ approaches) presents
a significant challenge for universities. This led to the next cycle that focussed
on exploring action to engage more leaders by transferring the lessons being
learnt from the project to the broader university community.
Page 48