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

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Glossary
Peer tutor/tutorial Tutorial facilitated by fellow students (peer tutors).
Performance Indicator (PI) Measures of achievement of individuals or organisations,
often expressed in terms of outputs.
Personal Development Plan (PDP) A range of formal and/or informal mechanisms
that promote reflection by an individual of their learning, performance and/or
achievement and that encourages planned personal, educational and career
development (see also progress files).
Personal epistemology A person’s beliefs about knowledge and its development;
comprising beliefs about: knowledge and knowing; knowledge construction; and the
evaluation of knowledge.
Personal Response System (PRS) Individualised electronic means of ‘voting’ (e.g.
indicating preferred answer), often used in large classes.
Placement/placement learning Placing students outside their home institution for
part of their period of study, often work placement in which the student ‘learns on
the job’.
Plagiarism Presenting others’ work as one’s own.
PLE Loosely used to describe a system which allows learners to manage their own
learning in a more student-centred manner than is typically encountered within VLEs.
A PLE may not be a single platform or application, but may make use of various
integrated tools.
Podcast Adigital media file (containing sound and/or video) which is distributed over
the internet and to which users can subscribe for download and playback on computers
or portable playback devices such as MP 3 players.
Portfolio (teaching portfolio) A personal collection of material representing an
individual’s work (e.g. to demonstrate achievement and professional development as
a university teacher).
Praxis Synthesis of theory and practice in which each informs the other.
Probation The initial phase in employment with a new organisation in which a member
of staff ‘learns the job’. In higher education, this usually involves periods of formal
training and development; often the probationer is supported by a mentor. Many
institutions set formal requirements that staff are expected to meet for satisfactory
completion of probation.
Problem class Typically a session in the teaching of mathematics, engineering and
physical science in which students work through problems and derive solutions with
the support of a teacher and/or tutor/demonstrator. Not to be confused with PBL
sessions.
Problem-based learning (PBL) A pedagogical method introduced in the 1960s; much
used in medicine. Curriculum design involves a large amount of small group teaching
and claims greater alignment with sound educational principles. Learning and
teaching come after learners identify their learning needs from a trigger in the form of
a scenario (‘the problem’).
Professional doctorates Afield of studies that is a professional discipline. It is a research
degree with a significant taught element plus research project published as the thesis.