Sarah then cam with some of her colleagues to my seminar entitled Institutional processes: enablers or inhibitors to change? I described the Institutional Processes SIG, some activities I had engaged in such as changing the module descriptor to remove the need for minor modifications and what we have done around plagiarism. My handout contained some bits from Richard Seel on emergence which cause some interest and I circulated further papers, including Paul Tosey's Teaching at the Edge of Chaos.
The handout also included the following random thoughts around how policy, strategy and processes to do with learning and teaching interface:
My ideal:
- There are agreed loose boundaries that encourage collegial action
- And everything enhances student learning: “I’m helping to put a man on the moon”
- Unintended consequences may be enriching rather than be assumed to be detrimental
- Risk-taking is encouraged (and rewarded)
- Individuals should be accountable for their actions but not in a ‘one size fits all’ way as there are distinct subject/disciplinary/professional cultures which are more often than not more important to the individual academic than the University’s or Ministry of Education’s views or policies
- The focus of quality assurance and enhancement should be on trust, taking responsibility, having pride in our actions, and acting professionally otherwise we promote a compliance culture
- Need to ensure processes, systems and regulations enable educational change and enhance the learning experience
(Lewis Elton)
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