High quality education and legal issues

1
High quality education and legal issues

• Consistent or in conflict?

2
Issues and challenges

• Institutional reflective practice the challenge
  of aligning what we say with what we do
• Designed vs experienced learning environments
  the challenge of student perceptions
• Our responsibility and/or theirs the challenge
  of teacher perceptions

3
The reflective institution

• Has an explicit model of quality teaching which
  informs teaching related decisions
• What is our model, and how explicit is it?
• What do we say we offer?
• Focuses on quality enhancement reviewing and
  improving current practice
• Does our practice reflect our espoused model?
• How do we act on known concerns?
• Addresses quality feasibility removing
  impediments to quality teaching and learning
• Do our policies and procedures help or hinder?
• Modified from Biggs, 2001

4
What do we espouse about our model of quality
teaching?

• Statements espousing values eg
• higher education to enable students to reach
  their full personal and career potential. (UTS
  Mission statement)
• Practice-based education, innovation,
  sustainability, internationalisation, ethical and
  social responsibility (Teaching and Learning key
  strategic plan 2001-2004)
• Policies and procedures eg
• Course accreditation - graduate attributes
• Assessment policy - Criterion-referencing
• Codes of practice for supervisors and students
• Quality processes - CMIS, SSS, SFS
• Course information for students

5
Challenges of implementation

• To what extent do our courses reflect the public
  statements we make?
• How do we respond to known issues of concern? If
  they put us at risk legally or if they dont?
• Boring lecturers
• Out-of-date course material
• Poorly managed groupwork
• Inadequate supervision
• Lack of reasonable alternative assessment
• Are policies implementable implemented?

6
Designed vs experienced learning environments
the challenge of student perceptions

7
Students perceive the learning context in a range
of different ways
Student prior experiences, expectations
conceptions, orientations
Students perceptions of the learning context
Students approaches to learning
Students learning outcomes
Designed learning context course
characteristics, teaching, assessment
Student satisfaction
Modified from Prosser Trigwell, 1999 Ramsden,
1992
8
Aligning the designed and perceived learning
context

• Constructive alignment between learning
  objectives, teaching and learning activities,
  published assessment tasks and criteria, actual
  marking and feedback
• Alignment between marketing and handbook
  statements and what we offer
• Helping students to experience the variation
  between their perceptions and ours
• Making our tacit intentions more explicit
• Asking students to compare their perceptions with
  each other and with our intentions (eg what do
  they think will gain a pass for an assignment? A
  distinction? A fail?)

9
Our responsibility and/or theirs the challenge
of teacher perceptions
10
Teachers conceptions of teacher and student
responsibilities for learning
McKenzie, 1999
11
Are legal and educational issues consistent or
are there conflicts?

• Consistency
• being a reflective institution, providing what we
  promise
• aligning student and institutional perceptions
• Possible conflicts
• Two classes of students?
• Reducing resources - do we promise and aim for
  lower educational quality?
• Competition between institutions - promising what
  we cant provide

12

• Were your expectations met by todays forum?
• What are the consequences if they werent?