INTRODUCTION - GETTING STARTED
The organisation and philosophy of the course.
Philosophy.
This course is about a coherent approach to faculty appraisal - not evaluation.
It is about getting the best from your teaching staff by encouraging reflection
and giving teachers choices within a structured programme.
It is about quality and therefore qualitative in nature.
It does not rely on quantitative data with numbers to be misinterpreted by those
removed from the classroom setting.
It relies on the qualitative and guided interpretation of all those involved
in the teachers' daily working lives.
Therefore, this online course follows the same principles as outlined in the
first unit:
Reflection, Quality and Respect of our teaching staff.
Organisation.
The course is divided into ten units.
Each unit is divided into four stages:
READING
REFLECTION
PRACTICE
GUIDED DISCUSSION
We would expect you to spend about an hour on each stage although you may well
find that some stages take longer and some shorter.
Reading.
Each unit begins with a short paper, which takes you through that stage of the
appraisal process.
You should begin by creating a new folder on your computer called FACULTY APPRAISAL.
Each unit will ask you to complete a number of short tasks.
Your responses to these tasks should be typed into a Word document so that at
the end of the course you will have ten documents named from Unit 1 to Unit
10.
These documents will act as your reflective journal throughout the course.
Reflect.
At the end of each paper you will be asked to reflect upon the reading before
you implement what you have read.
Each paper finishes with a number of questions that will guide you through this
reflection.
You will then email the Word document for the Unit to your tutor who may well
ask follow-up questions before you begin the practice.
These follow-up questions will guide you towards a complete reflective journal
page for each unit.
Once you have finished the first couple of units you will have a clear idea
of what is required in the journal for the subsequent units.
Practice.
This is the implementation phase when you put into practice what you have been
reading and reflecting upon.
The aim of the reflection and following discussion stages is to create an environment
whereby you are naturally self-observing as you go through this practice stage.
We advise you to take notes immediately before, during and after the practice
stage so that you can fully partake in the discussion stage.
Guided Discussion.
Each course will have between 8 and 16 participating supervisors, senior teachers
and managers.
Each participant is expected to contribute at least two significant turns to
the guided discussion.
A course tutor will lead the discussion asking participants to publicly reflect
on their experience of the practice stage.
You will find that the more detailed your notes were at the practice stage,
the easier your contributions will be at the discussion stage.
The two turns will most likely be your public reflection and a considered response
to the ensuing discussion.
In our experience, there may be many more turns for some units. The most likely
being the units on Setting Objectives, Observations and Student Evaluations.
The tutor will bring the discussion to a close when the discussion demonstrates
that the participants are ready to progress to the following unit.
Registration.
Email the administrator to register
for the course and gain access to the other units and the discussion board.
Conclusion.
At the end of the course, the conclusion guides you towards building a cycle
of faculty appraisal into your department or institute's action plan and ensures
you receive your certification.