Centre for Academic Practice
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://eresearch.qmu.ac.uk/handle/20.500.12289/29
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Item Academic practices and the disciplines in the 21st century(Routledge, 2012-01) Trowler, Paul; Saunders, Murray; Bamber, Veronica; Bamber, Veronica; Saunders, Murray; Trowler, PaulItem Against the Grain: E-Assessment in the Physical Sciences(Society for Research into Higher Education and Open University Press, 2009-03) Court, Scott; Bamber, Veronica; Bamber, Veronica; Knight, Peter; Saunders, Murray; Trowler, PaulItem An institutional programme - a national model for evaluation?(Routledge, 2010-08-30) Bamber, Veronica; Stefani, L.Item Carrots but no Sticks: Resource-led Enhancement(Society for Research into Higher Education and Open University Press, 2009-03) Mason, C.; Laidlaw, A.; Humphris, G.; Bamber, Veronica; Bamber, Veronica; Knight, Peter; Saunders, Murray; Trowler, PaulItem Challenging Students: Enabling Inclusive Learning(Routledge, 2015-07) Bamber, Veronica; Jones, AnnaItem Enhancing Learning, Teaching, Assessment and Curriculum in Higher Education(Open University Press, 2009-03) Bamber, Veronica; Knight, Peter; Saunders, Murray; Trowler, P.Higher education is a particularly complex site for enhancement initiatives. This book offers those involved in change a coherent conceptual overview of enhancement approaches, of the change context, and of the probable interactions between them. The book sets enhancement within a particular type of change dynamic which focuses on social practices. The aim is to base innovation and change on the probabilities of desired outcomes materializing, rather than on the romanticism of policies that underestimate the sheer difficulty of making a difference. Following a theoretical introduction to these ideas, there are case studies (from the UK, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Norway) at the national, institutional, departmental and individual levels, illustrating the argument that enhancement is best achieved when it works with social practices in real institutional and organizational settings. In a final section, the authors link the case examples and theoretical frameworks, inviting readers to consider their own enhancement situations and apply the 'frameworks for action' offered in earlier sections of the book. The book doesn?t offer quick-fix solutions but aims to support change with practical examples, conceptual tools and reflexive questions for those involved in change at all levels. It is key reading for higher education lecturers, managers, educational developers and policy makers.Item Evaluating learning and teaching: institutional needs and individual practices(Taylor & Francis, 2012-03) Bamber, Veronica; Anderson, SallyRather than a rational, technical activity, evaluation reflects the socio-political dynamics of the evaluative context. This presents a challenge for universities and the individuals within them, who may assume that plans or policies for evaluation will result in straightforward outcomes. This small-scale study in one institution looks at the tensions between institutional evaluative needs and individual evaluative practices. The results indicate that for staff in the institution, evaluative activity is largely autonomous and self-driven, rather than following institutional policy. A discretionary framework for the evaluation of learning and teaching was developed which may be a useful tool for educational developers in their analysis of evaluative practice.Item Evaluative practices and outcomes: issues at the institutional level(SRHE and Open University Press, 2011-06) Bamber, Veronica; Bamber, Veronica; Saunders, Murray; Trowler, PaulItem Evaluative practices and outcomes: issues at the self-evaluative level(SRHE and Open University Press, 2011-06) Bamber, Veronica; Saunders, Murray; Trowler, PaulItem Evidencing the value of educational development: Charting a course on the waves and winds of change(Michigan Publishing, 2023-12-18) Groen, Jovan; Hoessler, Carolyn; Ives, Carolyn; Bamber, VeronicaAcross higher education, educational developers and theirsupporting campus communities are being called upon to scale up evidence-informedpractices, to enhance student experiences, and to document the changes. Thisarticle builds on the work of scholars who have taken up this evaluativechallenge, by examining varied aspects of the evidencing process using anadaptation of Saunders’s (2000) RUFDATA framework for evidencing value.Reflections on emerging patterns and tensions in the evidencing of educationaldevelopment are subsequently discussed. We argue for making evidencing value apurposeful and intentional process, and we chart a path forward for creatingand implementing a vision for the age of evidence.Item Framing development: concepts, factors and challenges in CPD Frameworks for academics.(2009) Bamber, VeronicaThe National Pay Framework in UK universities has brought not only new pay arrangements, but the expectation that reward, recognition and appraisal systems will also be 'modernised', and that frameworks for staff development will connect in with these. This paper considers whether generic continuing professional development (CPD) frameworks are appropriate for academic activities, and contributes to the debate on reward and recognition for teaching. Finally, the paper offers recommendations on what CPD frameworks might look like in university cultures in which academics still expect autonomy and discretion over their own deveItem From student representation to student partnership(Wonkhe Ltd., 2023-04-18) Bamber, VeronicaRoni Bamber reflects on a 20 year journey through quality enhancement in Scotland.Item Institutional evaluative practices: quality, enhancement and regulation(SRHE and Open University Press, 2011-06) Bamber, Veronica; Bamber, Veronica; Saunders, Murray; Trowler, PaulItem Learning and Teaching in the Disciplines: Challenging Knowledge, Ubiquitous Change(Routledge, 2012-01) Bamber, Veronica; Bamber, Veronica; Saunders, Murray; Trowler, PaulThe 'tribes and territories' metaphor for the cultures of academic disciplines and their roots in different knowledge characteristics has been used by those interested in university life and work since the early 1990s. This book draws together research, data and theory to show how higher education has gone through major change since then and how social theory has evolved in parallel. Together these changes mean there is a need to re-theorise academic life in a way which reflects changed contexts in universities in the twenty-first century, and so a need for new metaphors.Item Learning and Teaching, Disciplines and Social Practice Theory(Routledge, 2012-01) Bamber, Veronica; Bamber, Veronica; Saunders, Murray; Trowler, PaulItem Making Practical Sense of Enhancing Learning, Teaching, Assessment and Curriculum(Society for Research into Higher Education and Open University Press, 2009-03) Saunders, Murray; Bamber, Veronica; Trowler, Paul; Bamber, Veronica; Knight, Peter; Saunders, Murray; Trowler, PaulItem Mixing Decks: Frameworks for Master's Scholarship(John Wiley & Sons Ltd., 2015-07) Bamber, VeronicaPostgraduate taught education in universities is under-researched compared to research on undergraduate learning and teaching. This results in two missed opportunities: making evidence-informed improvements to postgraduate taught education and integrating such improvements into thinking and practice. A commitment to evidence-informed improvement cycles at personal and local levels can generate knowledge, which can also inform practice in other settings. However, researchers who are new to learning and teaching research may not feel fully equipped, on the basis of their disciplinary knowledge, to undertake such inquiry. This paper considers and offers a case study of the use of frameworks that can support these practitioners in investigating students' understandings of what is expected in postgraduate study. With a flexible set of tools or frameworks on the mixing decks of postgraduate taught inquiry, such researchers are potentially better equipped to gain a good understanding of their students' learning.Item Our days are numbered – how metrics are changing academic development(Wonkhe Ltd., 2020-12-18) Bamber, VeronicaItem Our days are numbered: Metrics, managerialism, and academic development(SEDA, 2020) Bamber, VeronicaItem Postgraduate taught students and preparedness for Master's level study: polishing the facets of the Master's diamond(Taylor & Francis, 2017-08-09) Bamber, Veronica; Choudhary, Carolyn J.; Hislop, Jane; Lane, JudithTransitions are increasingly recognised as difficult, and less has been written about transitions to postgraduate taught programmes than about transitions into undergraduate or doctoral study. A Scotland-wide project found that new taught Post-graduate (PG), and staff teaching them, can be unclear about what is expected at Master's level, and proposed a framework of seven facets that indicate how students are expected to engage with Master's study. The facets and accompanying resources were designed to be discussion tools, to promote staff and student discussion of what is expected in their programme and subject. In a follow-up project at one university, a questionnaire was designed and distributed to postgraduate students asking them to rate their current level of ability against the skills and capabilities identified as facets for Master's level study. The project found students felt ill-prepared for particular aspects of Master's level study, with sub-group differences between disciplines. Master's courses are intensive and fast-moving, so this has implications for students' preparedness for successfully navigating through their programmes. Some suggestions on how students can be better briefed on what to expect are made.