A Handbook for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education Enhancing academic and Practice

462 ❘
Teaching in the disciplines
small group teaching, support services and an appropriately tailored range of practice
placements. It is essential to subdivide cohorts, provide good academic and pastoral
tutorial systems, provide learning support where needed, make good use of technology,
and resist the temptation to over-lecture and over-assess.
The student population contains great diversity: age, culture, the languages spoken at
home, prior educational preparation and prior work and life experience. For example, a
class may contain mature students with family care responsibilities and significant work
experience, often as care assistants; alongside school leavers with more up-to-date study
skills but limited life and work experience; alongside graduates from other disciplines
who bring a wide range of insights from their earlier studies to nursing and midwifery
programmes. This vibrant diversity is likely to increase as the number of foundation
degree graduates rises (both in subjects that are intended to lead people into health and
social care careers and unrelated subjects). Although stimulating for learners and
education providers, the extent of diversity provides some challenges for curriculum
developers and tutors; and increases demand for education that can be delivered more
flexibly and throughout working lives (DoH, 2001; NMC, 2006). Interprofessional
education (see above) is an example of deliberately increasing the diversity of a learning
group.
ROLES AND ORGANISATIONS THAT SUPPORT LEARNING
A wide range of roles support student learning and there are prescribed professional and
educational requirements for some of these (Glen and Parker, 2003; NMC, 2006). This
ensures that professionals who guide students’ learning and assess students’ performance
have appropriate experience as nurses or midwives; and have studied the relevant
educational principles.
Mentors
Within practice areas each student must be allocated a mentor (NMC, 2006). Mentors
facilitate students’ learning by providing or highlighting appropriate learning
opportunities and assess the students’ practice, taking responsibility for identifying
whether prescribed or negotiated outcomes have been achieved. The mentor must
indicate whether he or she considers the student fit to practise. The NMC requires
particularly experienced ‘sign-off mentors’ to be allocated to students for their final
practice experience.
Practice teachers
Practice teachers have been introduced for programmes that enable students to register
as a specialist community public health nurse from September 2008 (NMC, 2006). This