2. Academic Advisers Annual
Report 2011
To evidence our achievements, we have drawn from the
following data.
Workshop evaluations
Feedback from individual staff.
Assessment against individual job descriptions.
Assessment against Te Puna Ako’s strategic plan.
Assessment against our own team plan.
Personal reflections.
Minutes of team meetings.
4. Supporting the Academic Strategy
We have continued to share and support the Unitec
Academic Strategy through
our Teaching and Learning Community of Practice
workshops
departmental support
collaboration with Maia and the Pacific Center.
Our slideshow has been viewed 495 times.
5. Supporting the Living Curriculum
(including the Tick)
For 2011 our Teaching and Learning CoP has over 100 blogs posts,
notes and events which support the Living Curriculum. We have
continued to integrate the Living Curriculum key themes into our
work, including our workshops, mentoring, departmental support,
and workshop design. We have made key resources accessible
to staff in our workshops, departmental support and CoP. A small
sample:
Engaging in Complex ConversationsThe Living Curriculum resource wiki
The living curriculumThe living curriculum (2)
More on the living curriculumInitial thoughts - operationalising the living curriculum
Mapping the LC: Assessment Questions to consider about the Living Curriculum I
Questions to consider about the Living Curriculum II
6. Support to the eLearing
Strategy
We have been actively involved in supporting the
strategy throughout 2011. On involvement has
included:
as liaison support for eLearning Community
Coordinators in departments
the creation of an online Community of Practice for
teachers at Unitec
providing Moodle training
providing eLearning in our workshops and other
services.
7. Supporting Prctice-Based
Learning
Members of Unitec’s Practice Based Learning CoP
travelled to Napier for the New Zealand
Association for Cooperative Education
conference (NZACE).
Everyone who attended presented on best
practice, a topical issue or research project.
Diana Ayling is a member of the NZACE Council
and an editorial board member of the Asia Pacific
Journal of Cooperative Education.
http://www.nzace.ac.nz/conferences/2011.shtml
8. Provide support for
assessment, learning and
teaching development
initiatives with academic
staff and department
communities
9. Support to Departments
Throughout the year, we have worked with every
academic department, Maia and the Pacifica
centre to provide professional development in:
curriculum design
assessment
Facilitation
Evaluation
Other training was provided to departments as
requested
10. Support to teaching staff
In 2010 we have advised over 29 individual staff,
including:
New teacher mentoring
Mentoring for promotions
Mentoring for upgrading qualifications
Mentoring for awards
74 teachers attended either promotion or practice
portfolio workshops
11. Te Puna Ako Workshops
212 Attendees in 2011, with workshops in:
Design, assessment, facilitation, evaluation for
new teachers
‘Master classes’ in the four competencies for
experienced teachers
The four competencies for the Living Curriculum
12. Support to Communities of
Practice
Using a social constructivist approach to teacher
learning and development, we have continued to
support a range of communities of practice at
Unitec. 15 groups are now established through
the T & L Community. These communities are led
by a variety of Unitec staff, and are largely self
sustaining.
http://tlcommunityunitec.ning.com/groups/group/li
st
14. Curriculum Development
and the Living Curriculum
Curriculum Development continues to be a key
element of our work with teachers and teaching
communities.
We have modelled integrated course design in all
our workshops in 2011, with a view to giving
teachers positive learning experiences. The
feedback from the workshops has been very
positive and we are happy with our approach.
support for development of both Pasifika and
Matauranga Maori components in programmes
and courses.
16. NZQA has mandated a new approach to quality
assurance and this will impact on programmes,
curricula and teachers.
In order to support teachers to adapt to the new
environment we have posted a range of resources
online.
We have changed our evaluation workshops and
teacher support to include exposure to the 6
evaluative questions and support for good evaluative
practice.
In our own practice we have continued to evaluate
our work. We have sought feedback from workshops.
We have continued to share our activities through our
blog and maintain a wiki which records our activity
throughout the year.
http://tpaacademic.blogspot.com/
http://tpaadvisors.wikispaces.com/
18. Scholarship of assessment, learning and teaching
remains at the heart of our work with teachers. We
continue to explore and research in a range of
teaching and learning areas, presenting in the local,
national and internation arenas.
Ayling, D. &Hebblethwaite, D. (2011) Facebook: From
offline to online communities of practice in practice
based learning. Published in the proceedings of the
14th Annual Conference of the New Zealand
Association for Cooperative Education, Napier, New
Zealand, April, 2011.
Ayling, D. & Flagg, E. (2011) Being where teachers
are - an online community of practice for tertiary
teachers. Published in the proceedings of the 14th
Annual Conference of the New Zealand Association
for Cooperative Education, Napier, New Zealand,
April, 2011.
Flagg, E. & Ayling, D. (2011) Teacher engagement in
a Web 2.0 world: Developing your online teaching
and learning Community of Practice. Published in the
proceedings of ASCILITE, Hobart, Australia,
December, 2011.
19. Simon Nash has been the coordinator of the research
seminars.
Ed and Diana presented a workshop on Supported
Experiments at the 2011 Unitec Teaching and Learning
Symposium.
Simon Nash participated in a Fishbowl on the Living
Curriculum at the 2010 Unitec Teaching and Learning
Symposium.
Conferences:
HERDSA: Research Symposium - Diana and Simon
NZACE - Diana and Ed.
The Strategic Technology Conference - Diana
ASCILITE - Diana and Ed
21. In 2011 we have continued to use a variety of tools and
mechanisms to evaluate our own work, that of our team
and of Te Puna Ako more generally.
Each member of the team has developed their
teaching portfolio
We have evaluated our workshops - feedback has
been overwhelmingly positive.
Masterclass workshops staff stated they found us to be
informative and supportive. They were impressed by
the range and quality of resources made available to
them. They are impressed with the follow up individual
support.
Peer Observation of Teaching for Te Puna Ako staff,
and all of us have had our teaching observed in 2011.
http://tpaadvisors.wikispaces.com/Informal+Feedback
23. Unitec’s strategic goals are explicit in our work.
We seek to create a supportive environment
for teachers and students.
We are active in our commitment to Te
NohoKotahitanga. In 2011 Dr Ed Flagg and Nina
Pelling were members of the Tangata Whenua
committee.
Diana Ayling has supported initiatives in
curriculum development and elearning in
theTangata Whenua committee
We have continued to support the integration
of Matauranga Maori into curriculum and to
encourage learning and teaching approaches
which support all learners
24. Conclusion
We offer valuable support and resources to teachers
at Unitec.
The increased attendance at the generic workshops,
the increased portfolio activity, and the continued
support of the online professional development
community of practice is a clear endorsement of our
approach from staff.
We have had good engagements with new teachers,
and demonstrated outputs in scholarship of teaching
and learning.
We continue to support a range of Unitec activities
through various committees and projects.
