preparing for your college review

Transforming lives through learning

Preparing for your college review

HMI Jan Davidson

Student Team Member – Szabolcs Kotek


Themes

• Who we are and what we do• Pre-review• Review week• Post review


Education Scotland – who we are and what we do…

Part of the directorate that deals with Lifelong learning and post-16 provision.

We review or inspect –– Colleges– Private colleges and English language schools– Prison education– Community learning and development– Careers information, advice and guidance

service


The context

• HM Inspectors undertake reviews of standards and quality in Scotland’s colleges on behalf of SFC


What is the main purpose of the review?• to support and promote quality enhancement in colleges

to provide the best possible experience for the learner; • to provide information to Scottish Ministers and the

public on the quality of colleges and the education and training they provide;

• to complement college-led internal review and self-evaluation; and

• to identify excellent practice.


Working with colleges: three key principles:

High quality learning:

Learner engagement

Quality culture


Evaluative activities

Annual engagement

Subject based or thematic

aspect reports

External reviews of colleges


High quality learning

• How effective are the college’s learning and teaching processes?

• How well are learners progressing and achieving relevant, high quality outcomes?


Learner engagement

• How well are learners engaged in enhancing their own learning and the work and life of the college?


Quality culture

• How well is the college led and how well is it enhancing the quality of its services for learners and other stakeholders?


Pre-review phase

Managing inspector:• meets Principal and Chair of the Board/Regional Lead,

staff and learners;• agrees essential documentation from college or access

to college intranet; • arranges for the return of the Learner Engagement arranges for the return of the Learner Engagement

QuestionnaireQuestionnaire; • liaises over arrangements with College Nominee.


Review week (varies depending on size and nature of college)

3 x full days in college:• Monday all day• Tuesday all day• Wednesday all day• Evening classes as appropriate• Outreach classes as appropriate• Team meeting at the end of each day – in college

(attended by college nominee)


Arriving at evaluations

• discussions with learnersdiscussions with learners and other stakeholders

• discussions with staff and managers

• observations of learning and teaching

• review essential documentation such as learning and teaching packs, internal review or self-evaluation reports, achievement information, including PI data


Discussion of findings

Friday – MI, one colleague and STM:

• discussion of findings with Principal, SMT and student president.student president.


From draft to final report

• summary evaluations two weeks after external review• draft report sent accuracy check meeting Principal

and Chair/Regional Lead• publication of report on the Education Scotland

website• development of a learners’ version of the reportlearners’ version of the report


What will the report say?

• Overarching statement of effectiveness:

Effective

Limited effectiveness

Not effective

• Plus supporting statements to provide detail


After the external review

• College prepares action plan• SFC determines whether follow-up required• College HMI visits college and monitors progress on

Main Points for Action and areas for development• Within a year – college BoM publishes response

• Annual engagement process by Education Annual engagement process by Education ScotlandScotland


…the principle of student engagement implies … that colleges … support the development of students as co-creators of their learning who take responsibility for their own learning …and … are involved in decision-making about their curricula, teaching and learning, and all aspects of the student experience.

- ‘Final report of the Scottish Funding Council’s Joint Quality Review Group’,

2008


Quality improvement and enhancement –

beyond the review…

Learners

Reviewers(HMIIs, AAs and STMs)

Staff

Co-evaluators of the learner experience

Co-evaluators of the learner experience

Co-creators of learning


Annual engagement visits


Any questions?

[email protected]

preparing for your college review

Documents