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Where I intend to go...

So in addition to reflecting on how I got to this position I am also required to consider my future. To do this I have gone through my previous appraisals, I have usually met all of the PDP requirements although my MA has been ongoing, as has achieving the post graduate certificate in Learning and Teaching in HE. Previous requirements have been the Teaching Toolkit, my NVQ and training courses relevant to accreditation and sexual health and substance use as one of my projects focuses on sexual health and substance use.

Currently on my appraisal my line manager and I agreed that I should attend more conferences and focus more on the research/knowledge transfer side of my role. This is something I am not particularly confident with, I have ideas for research, especially relating to my job but research seems like something 'bigger' than I am prepared for. I have completed evaluation reports and obviously for my undergraduate dissertation I completed original research, although not for my MA, that is only theory based. I think the problem is, i'm not sure what I am meant to do. I attended a researchers meeting at UCLan and was assured new researchers would be welcomed, I found people there to be patronising and difficult with no one having any time to explain anything. One member of this particular research group was incredibly rude to me personally and about my research so I have not ventured back into peer 'support' until I am a little clearer about expectations. In my role, research seems to be the last priority most of the time, although my line manager is exceptionally supportive, something more urgent usually seems to get in the way of our discussions about research and on two appraisals now the research side has been 'ongoing' meaning we haven't got round to sorting it yet. Research and knowledge transfer is something I am really hoping to progress in. I hope my MA improves my research skills. In the future I am really hoping I get the opportunity to present at conferences and share what I have learnt through my projects.

My future plan definitely includes more teaching, I would like to lead on more modules and support our third years through their dissertations. I have ideas for course development but recognise in this economic climate we are unlikely to be developing new courses for some time. I enjoy taking a pastoral role and would like to have some responsibility for retention as I am good at advising students. The future, although a little uncertain, looks exciting and full of possibility.

How I Got Here

After looking at the marking criteria I realise that although this blog was meant to be reflections on my experience of teaching and learning I am also supposed to look at how I got here. I have previously looked at how, through my career, I have ended up in this role but not truly reflected on it.

When I began working at UCLan it was as a support assistant offering alternative accreditations to the young people the Centre for Volunteering and Community Action (CVCA) worked with, this was within my comfort zone and meant I was still working with young people. I had previously left a job in which I was the victim of workplace bullying and was so happy to have found a new job, although the role when I started was a fixed term contract for 6 months. After starting I soon learnt the CVCA has the sort of leadership which means if you fit into the team, they will do anything possible to ensure your contract is ended and you progress within your role. Within the first 6 months of my employment I had the opportunity to attend 2 conferences and went on 4 external training courses enabling me to deliver various forms of accreditation and even write my own forms of accreditation. Towards the end of my contract the centre was successful in gaining a contract to deliver 'energisers' to NEET (not in education, employment or training) young people and I interviewed to run the project, I was successful, meaning I had a contract for another 2 years. At the beginning of this contract I had an appraisal, I suggested to my manager that as I was now going to be working with notoriously difficult young people that I would like a qualification or training in youth work or advice and guidance. At the time I also felt that a qualification like this would mean I would be able to get a new job should my contract not be extended for a second time as developments in the youth service meant I would be unable to get a job without one. My manager agreed and I completed a NVQ level 4 in IAG (information, advice and guidance). On reflection, this course was a fantastic development opportunity, it was funded through UCLan and I had the chance to learn from peer observation and those who work in the field to complete it, I got on brilliantly with my NVQ assessor and completed the qualification in just over 3 months. During the time I was running the NEET project the CVCA was writing a degree in Volunteering and Community Action, I was aware of this but at the time was much more focused on the project management which was a huge challenge, one I was entirely unprepared for and which without the support I received from my management could have been a huge disaster. The degree began and the first year ran, obviously I was aware of the students, as they were usually in our office, but I paid little attention until my manager mentioned that as there was now going to be two years of students I might be needed to teach on the degree. I remember going home that night and wondering if this was really happening to me, I was 23 years old, with an undergraduate degree and a few years of experience in the field. Was I really the right person to teach other students? The first year I taught I took over a module from a colleague who was on maternity leave, luckily public speaking has never bothered me and as all the experience of HE teaching I had previously was large lectures with a tutor talking in front of a powerpoint I imagined it would be the same. My first lecture was daunting, the students were surprised to see me and I found it difficult to ensure my lectures lasted for the correct amount of time (a problem which has followed me through my teaching). That first year I received really positive MEQ's and started to realise that this might be the career for me, more than anything I really, really enjoyed teaching. Since then I have taken on my modules each year, this year I was module leading 5 modules and teaching on another 2 in addition to my project work. This meant I had the opportunity to change modules, re-write lectures and give students different learning experiences. This is not to say there was not problems, I was only given 2 of the modules I led on a week before teaching started as previously these modules had been taught by an hourly paid lecturer who was no longer employed. This was daunting and meant I was not able to change the lectures as much as I would have liked, however feedback has been good and I am generally happy with how it went. Through, what I feel is an incredibly fast rise from a support worker to a lecturer I have tried to 'go with the flow', at times I have been overwhelmed by the whole thing and have constantly struggled to define myself as an academic, or see myself as a lecturer. I feel lucky to be in the role and conflict with colleagues who have been in the role for a long time and do not seem to appreciate how incredible it is. I am lucky to have an incredible line manger who challenges and pushes me every step of the way and doubt I would feel so confident was it not for her. I am determined to enjoy every part of the role and push myself further. In my next blog I am hoping to set out the future, where I want to go with my learning and teaching.

Library at 10pm on a Friday night

As I write I am sat in the 'quiet' area of the library trying to get some of my EH4102 project done and also trying to contend with the 20,000 word MA dissertation hanging over my head whilst writing a half an hour presentation for another MA module and a 5,000 word, what can only be described as philosophy essay, for another MA module. Although I can't pretend this is my venue of choice for 10pm on a Friday night it has led to me some interesting reflections, firstly, how can my students work in this environment, I usually have a beautiful home office in which to work and where I choose to work if I am not required to be on campus. Today, however I needed some books and also to be away from some of the distractions at home. The library at UCLan is big, has a number of group study rooms and silent study area's and a fairly extensive library of books, although is moving towards paperless e-books in lots of areas. I have so far moved 3 times to avoid noise and chat (once out of a supposably silent room into another) and have struggled to find one book I needed and when found the others both are in terrible condition. Tonight is a relatively quiet time for the library so how do my students work here when it is busy, when everyone has assignments due in? How do they find books when everyone a course is competing for the same book? I wonder if we, as academics are too fast to dismiss student concerns regarding lack of facilities and how difficult it is for them to complete work on time. I know I have been dismissive of concerns such as these, suggesting 'just using e-books' or 'spending less time on 'Facebook' (easier said than done, I now learn) but its easy for me to dismiss them when I don't have to rely on others to provide reading materials or a suitable place to study. In addition to concerns about the library this experience has also led me to reflect on how difficult being a student really is, especially when balancing studying with paid employment and a social life. Being engaged in higher education is a challenge, some of the students I teach have up to 7 children, in addition to husbands who are often expecting them to fulfill a particular role in addition to University work. I have reflected previously how my students struggle with group work and how frustrated they become when the rest of their group fail to turn up or complete work and in addition to considering these issues in relation to changing assignment procedures perhaps I need to consider them in relation to a pastoral role and ensuring that my students are actually able to complete the work they are given. This would prove more difficult in the Burnley campus as the library is one room with no silent study areas and the campus closes at 8pm meaning if they, like me, find it easier to study in the evening they would have little opportunity.

EH4102 - lesson 2

Last week was the second lesson for EH4102. I was unable to attend. However I was not particularly worried about my lack of attendance, I did not gain anything from the first lesson and was unsure I would gain anything from the second. As I missed the lesson I am required to write 500 words on the reading given to us for the lesson, I have not yet completed this but will do it this week. The consequence for not attending the lesson did make me think about how putting something like this in place will potentially improve attendance. I have been struggling to make specific my project question, I am now wondering if there is something around attendance and the theories for improving HE attendance, for example my colleagues and I were discussing only recently whether it would be fair to give a small percentage of marks over to attendance and contribution in lectures in order to encourage or tempt students to attend and contribute. I would be interested to know how many students choose to write a small amount of words rather than attend a lesson. Something to think about for my project perhaps.


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Guest Lecturers

Hi, last week was almost my final week of teaching, in Citizenship and Cohesive Communities I was due to be teaching abbot identity, instead of teaching this lesson I had a contact from Lancashire County Council who works with the travelling and gypsy community in Preston to bring a member of the community with him to give a talk and answer questions from my students. I felt it was particularly interesting as there has recently been a popular television show called 'my big fat gypsy wedding' which painted the travelling community in a particularly bad light. The students enjoyed the lecture and learnt about identity from someone with a very different identity to themselves. As a number of my students are Asian and Muslim, they found their cultures shared a lot of similarities, both expect females to take on similar roles, care for a family and not work. Both are concerned about young women and the things they can learn at school, both have males who take on a more dominant role. It was interesting to see how students responded when they realised they were similar to someone they had previously held negative pre-conceived ideas about. The students were really great, asked lots of really relevant and interesting questions and were able to explore the concept of identity by comparing their identities and sharing why it was important to them. In reflection as a lecturer, in the future I would prepare more for an analysis of the guest lecture, I had prepared some questions to ask, just case my students didn't, however I didn't need to as the students were very engaged. It would have been even more positive to explicitly link the guest lecture to the rest of the module content and the learning aims, this would have been easy but I think, as with other lecturers, I had thought if there is a guest lecturer, this is a lecture you don't need to prepare for.
The second lecture was a more normal lecture, I feel really comfortable teaching now. The students are responsive and engaged in what I am saying, I felt happier with my colleagues lecture, I had a little time to change it and make it suited to my style, this made me much more comfortable and I felt like I was a better lecturer.
Students are now beginning to become concerned about assessments, in the modules I teach on there are no exams, the students are required to complete a group presentation and an assignment. This leads to a number of issues, every year students complain as some of them inevitably end up in a group with students who do not put enough work in, other commitments prevent them from meeting groups and they all leave work until the last minute and expect extensions. To combat some of these issues I have given the students time to work together on their presentations when I am present, this means they are able to ask questions and I can see who has turned up. Although this can't affect their mark, it does seem to make students feel that they must attend which in turns leads to less complaining about disengaged members of their groups. I have been clear on my policy on extensions which is that I am very unlikely to grant an extension unless they have genuine and good reason. And I have trialled whether giving individual marks for a group presentation is a viable option. The next week is tutorials in which students have time to complete work and ask me questions and then the following week is presentations. I am looking forward to seeing how they turn out.



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Someone elses group

This week i covered my colleagues classes as she was off sick, I also gave my lecture in a module which is team taught. I really enjoyed giving my lecture on the team taught module, the module is called bullying interventions and talks about how schools and organisations deal with bullying, I teach the lecture on cyberbullying as it is something I have a particular interest in and have in the past attended a conference around and have written a paper about rape in online role playing games.
It is lectures like this one that makes me realise that I simply get paid to have interesting conversations with intelligent people about things I am passionate about, most of the students were unfamiliar with me and my teaching style and seemed to enjoy that I was asking their opinions and bringing relevant examples into the lecture. I went slightly off topic at points and facilitated discussions about the Internet in general, how social networking is used and some examples of the Internet being used in controversial ways, for example a case of a women being sacked via facebook after posting a negative comment about her boss. These incidents, although not directly cases of cyberbullying, served to help the students consider the negatives to social networking or how easy it is for people to view information or interact with you, even if you do not ask them to or give them express permission to do so. I found these conversations really interesting, there were some quite different opinions in the group and this meant the students were challenged and had the opportunity to learn from others, I enjoyed this, I was able to contribute and give them new ideas and suggestions to include and facilitate the discussion learning on to more relevant topics. During the class I also spoke about the legislation which could be used to prosecute for cyberbullying, although no specific UK laws are in place there are a number which could be used together. I had expected the students to already be aware of this information but they weren't and they seemed very interested to learn. This lecture really increases my confidence with teaching, I have learnt that I am much, much better and much more comfortable when teaching something I have prepared and am genuinely interested in. I am able to teach other modules and I think do them well, but given the number of problems I have faced in my teaching this year and that for the majority of my modules, I was only given the teaching load the week I started teaching I really enjoyed having time and energy to prepare for this one lecture.

The other subjects I taught this week were the subjects I normally teach in Burnley but due to my colleague being off sick I took over her classes in Preston while another colleague who lives in Burnley taught mine. The lectures went pretty well, the groups in Preston are known to be much more difficult to engage and tend to dislike interacting during lectures, instead preferring to be talked at. I found this to be the case but it wasn't as bad as I expected, the students took a while to respond but then participated in a really good debate about gun laws in the UK. I much prefer teaching my Burnley group but after successfully engaging a group of students who are notoriously difficult to engage I feel much more confident about my teaching ability and am looking forward to going in next week.


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EH4102 - first lesson

Yesterday was the first EH4102 lesson. I came back from the residential, I am on in order to attend.
The lesson was centred around around some reading we were asked to complete around the scholarship of teaching and learning. Initially we were asked to go through the reading and discuss based on some questions given to us by the tutor. Having not done the reading I turned to my colleagues and found that on our table of 6 people, only one had done the reading. She was able to explain them and we attempted the questions. I found that I did not really gain anything from this activity, it was unfortunate that no one had completed the reading but is, I think, a reflection of the people on the course and their reasons for completing it. The majority of the participants seem to only be enrolled on the postgraduate certificate in learning and teaching in higher education in order to gain the SD2 and because they have been told to do so by line management or as part of their appraisals. Although I am happy to be completing another qualification, especially one so transferable, I also feel that I am only completing it in order to meet targets and am not sure I truly have enough time to complete it or give it as much time and commitment as is really required. In the lesson, we discussed the value to students associated with the scholarship of learning and teaching, I felt that it was interesting to learn how other people work, the way that other people are encouraged to get involved in research and the way this affects their teaching. During the discussion I found I didn't really understand some of the concepts, for example I can see the value of lecturers being scholarly in their specialist field, this has value to the student as it means they are professionals and are teaching relevant material, also that they are able to give relevant, 'real life' examples. However i was unsure on difference between that and scholarship relating to learning and teaching, perhaps this would have come from completing the reading but even those who had read the material seemed unsure. Other than what was read before the lectures I did not learn any new information or hear about any new ideas, it meant I found the first part of the lesson difficult to participate in and did not really enjoy it.
The second part of the lesson we were split into action learning sets, in which we discussed the project assessment for the module and people's queries or questions regarding it. I found this part more interesting and relevant although I already and a pretty good idea about what I wanted to do and how I was going to go about it. I found I had a lot, possibly too much, to contribute and hopefully was able to help my colleagues. Although I can see the value in action learning sets I found it to be a laborious process which is not suited to my learning style. I find it difficult to stick to the particular sections of the process and wanted to skip ahead or ask questions when it was not time to do so in line with the model, I find this frustrating as I am very much the sort of person who prefers action to talking about action and the action learning sets model seems to me to be a little bit unnecessary, all in all this lesson was not something I would have chosen to do, I would prefer a little more information or at least something which is going to make me consider the way I currently work and if there is anything I can change. I felt that the onus was absolutely on us to discuss read, work and then solve others problems, the tutors did not play a particularly big role and I would defiantly not teach in this way to my students.
I feel like I have been very negative but I am trying to use this blog in a truthful, honest way in order that I can gain the most from it. I did not enjoy or gain much from the lesson and would not encourage others to attend.


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Didn't enjoy this week

I didn't enjoy teaching quite as much as normal this week, it seems as though my blog is very negative at the moment but I think this is just a negative few weeks and I'm hoping it picks up soon.
One of the things that has really got my attention is that the students I teach are genuinely interested in the module I do not write but do teach on. The students do a lot of research and reading before the lectures and have a large knowledge base of the subjects we are talking about. Although I am interested in 'gangs and gun crime' and I do read up around the lecture content before I teach, this week the students knew more than I did and it was obvious from their questions and comments that the lecture did not teach them anything new or allow them to consider any new perspectives. I am not sure how to solve this issue, I want to provide the students with a good experience but the lectures provided for me are not doing so.
I have tried to read more and have recently looked into guest lecturers, for example ex gang members who will be able to provide the students with a new experience. Before the next lecture I am going to do more research and watch some of the films suggested by the students which contain gangs or gang references, I am also going to modify the lectures, maybe to include debate or group activities, enabling students to consider others perspectives. Maybe it is that my role needs to change, if I cannot be an information giver then perhaps I should become more of an facilitator, enabling the students to discuss and learn from each other.
Lots to think about, I wish I had more time to put my ideas into practise.



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Contracts and changing lecturers

I found out this week that I have not had my project re-funded, which means that my contract ends in June and am unlikely to get it extended past this academic year. I feel like the change in lecturers has affected our students a lot already, although there has been a core teaching team of 3 lecturers since the degree began, there has been 9 other lecturers come and go. The uncertainty definitely affects my performance, I am very conscious that I may not be teaching students the following year and I am conscious that our students learn the style of particular lecturers who then are not there the following year or in some cases the following semester. During this week I found it difficult to remain motivated, rather I was worrying about my job and thinking about other potential career paths. I was not motivated to create good, usable lecturers for whomever will take over my modules, instead I delivered the already existing lectures with little modifications. My students noticed immediately that I was not my normal self, asking me what was wrong, 20 minutes into the first lecture after receiving the news one of my students had to ask me to slow down as I was talking to fast and just trying to get through the lecture.
This week I am going on a residential with a number of my students. I am looking forward to building a good relationship with them but at the same time it is difficult to remain in authority when your in your PJ's.


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This week

I currently only teach at the Burnley campus of UCLan, teaching two modules to the foundation degree. However, initially I was supposed to be teaching one module across two campuses, due to a timetable clash my colleague and I changed our teaching responsibilities so she teaches my module in the main campus and I teach hers in the Burnley campus. This has led to us sharing lectures and using each others resources rather than replicating work. This week, the lecture I was teaching for the module my colleague leads was a briefing about the assignments they are required to complete. This experience led me to reflect on the difference in our teaching styles, and how difficult it is to use someone else's lectures, especially when they use different techniques and have much less input than I would choose to have. My colleague often asks students to 'do the work themselves', by this she means setting students group activities and asking them to complete them and feed back to the class. I find this a relatively difficult way to teach, especially as we both teach classes of non-traditional students, often mature students or students for whom English is not their first language. I find that using a lot of activities can be quite 'hit and miss' and often relies on one or two students being present and contributing to a discussion or taking a lead in activities which they soon tire of. However, as I am not writing the lectures for one of the module on which I teach, I have no choice but to change my style and use the resources I have access to. This week I have appreciated how difficult it is to use someone else's lectures, I realise how difficult it must be for her, she is using my lectures which are written in completely different style, I will definitely be including more options for activities in the future, enabling her to use the content she feels most comfortable with. Although next academic year I will ensure I have time to change the lectures I am using and if necessary, write new ones.

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First Post

Hello,
My name is Jenny, I am an early career researcher and lecturer from the University of Central Lancashire. I teach on the BA in Community Leadership and also on the Foundation Degree in Volunteering and Community Action, teaching a number of modules across both degree's which run from separate campuses.
This blog will be used as a regular reflection tool, as a way to reflect on my practise as both a teacher and a learner, through my role as a lecturer and also in my role as a student on the Post Graduate Certificate in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education (PGCLTHE) and in my role as a student on an MA in Criminology and Criminal Justice.
The primary reason for this blog is as an assignment for my PGCLTHE, which asks us to reflect upon our journey as a teacher to date, our current practise and also our future journey in line with SEDA and HEA guidelines. However I am hoping, that due to the format and ongoing nature of completing a blog I will benefit from this reflection more than I have from reflecting in the past.
I have been teaching for 3 years at UCLan and before that worked as a project support in the same department. I teach on a few different modules, including core modules such as 'Volunteering and Safety Management' and 'Citizenship and Cohesive Communities' both of which contain a lot of theory and are mainly taught through traditional style lectures. I also teach a number of modules which are optional if completing the degrees and which are also validated as elective modules, this leads to some really interesting class groups, in particular one module in which I usually have an even mix between degree students and BA Sexual Health students.
My background lies in youth and community work and I have spent some time working with young offenders, my plan was never to teach, I imagined I would spend a lot longer working in the community. I am, however, very lucky that my role allows me to continue project work and enables me to continue my development in community work whilst becoming experienced in lecturing.
It is this conflict, between my natural ability and my experience as a youth and community worker and my current role as an academic and lecturer which much of this reflection will focus on.
Hopefully I will blog regularly.
Jenny

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