Andrew MiddletonHead of Academic Practice & Learning Innovation

Learning habitRe-imagining PPDP - A Context for Conversation, Imagination and Connection

Simon and his camera CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

@andrewmid

"[The] changing external higher education landscape; the changing needs of employers and the changing demands and expectations of our students, necessitate a step change in the way the University supports the transition of students into and through its undergraduate and postgraduate provision and beyond."

Learning and Teaching Strategy 2020

Joshua Tree National Park CC BY-2.0

‘The best thing any education can bequeath is the habit of reflection and questioning.’ AC Grayling, 2000

So why is it so difficult to engage our students with reflection and PPDP?

Simon Powell CC BY-2.0

Based on: Dacre-Pool, L and Sewell, P, (2010), Moving from conceptual ambiguity to operational clarity: Employability, enterprise and entrepreneurship in higher education, Education and Training, 52, 1, 89-94. Also online

Employability

DegreeKnowledge,

Understanding& Skills

CareerDevelopment

Learning

ExperienceWork and Life

Generic Skills EmotionalIntelligence

Reflection and Evaluatione.g. PPDP

Self-efficacy Self-confidence

Self-esteem

Recognise Lifewide & Lifelong Context

Learning ecologies

Developing the Habit

Transform the ways in which students engage with, reflect on,

and record their journeys to ‘becoming professional’.

Change the discourse

Ashley Holmes (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Finding the Habit – look at how people relate to each other

Develop the idea of course meaning community and experience

Reassess thinking about engagementFoster habits that develop belonging, identity and ‘becoming professional’.

Create the space

An integrated and lifewide viewof PPDP and employability

PPDP needs to be habitual and develop thinking approaches that are fit for life

PPDP needs to be established as relevant and core during pre-enrolment

Course-long and course-wide engagement with PPDP means that PPDP becomes a key tool in tutoring

Daniel Go CC BY-NC-2.0

PPDP needs to be concretised - removed from the abstract and made real

Re-imagining Personal & Professional Development Planning requires

Habitual learner engagement from first contactreflecting on action in and out of the classroom

The SEP enabled us to have an imaginative conversation as a universityIt provided focus through• Externality and value• Creativity• Finding and reaching out to existing special interests• Developing a resource• Providing us with a visible reference point for innovation

Aliza Schaffer (CC BY-ND 2.0)

A Context for Conversation, Imagination and Connection

What difference did the SEP make?

What have we done since?

• High profile Venture Matrix unit as key interprofessional and external learning agency now integral

• Develop value around (e.g.):– Co-curriculum– ‘Belonging’ and identity– Peer learning– Tutoring– Transition agenda

• The Connected U toolkit – developing and maintaining a professional profile with social media [presentation layer]

• Social media portfolios and e-portfolio [development layer]

Alyssa L. Miller (CC BY 2.0))