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

480 ❘
Enhancing personal practice
Carrying out and writing up the assignments, however, was hugely important in
fixing critical lessons about best practice, developing practical skills and, above all,
in rendering my practice reflexive.
2 Use information, as appropriate, from students, peers, colleagues, the
literature and other sources of good practice to inform the review (evidencebased).
The process of writing the case studies has enabled me to discover a world of
theory and scholarship in the field of applied adult learning that I was formerly
unaware of.
Discussions with my mentor about each assignment became as valuable as the
summative feedback.
I found carrying out both the further reading and the assignments a vital part of the
learning experience. The further reading particularly served to reinforce and provide
a larger evaluative context for what was learned in class.
3 Use their self-reviews to develop their practice to benefit students (enhancing
student-centred learning).
The process of reflecting upon my current practice enabled me to sharpen my
awareness, not only of my students’ needs, but of my own needs as a practitioner.
It [the assessment process] has given me the confidence to introduce novel teaching
approaches which I might have avoided previously.
4 Stay current both in what they teach and the methods they use to provide
learning opportunities for students (current and relevant).
In this sense, the PGCLTHE assignments, though demanding at times, enabled me
to see how important it is that I continue to read the current literature about
assessment, course design, e-learning, and related subjects, in order to continue to
provide an appropriate teaching and learning experience for my students.
5 Behave professionally as teachers and managers of learning, in terms of the
values, norms and expectations of their discipline, institution and wider
society (values-based).
The requirements of PGCLTHE assignments were such that I had to engage more
fully with the language of higher education, and with the relevant quality assurance
documents that pertained to my own subject area.
Participants have also made some more general comments about time
commitment and value added:
Doing the assessment gave me space, and a reason, for developing my practice when
I would not, otherwise, have been able to carve out timeto do so.