Incorporating Personal Development Planning and e-portfolio use into curriculum

design

Janet Strivens

Rob Ward

Our starting points:• PDP connects directly to ‘core institutional business’ –

curriculum, assessment and overall student development/experience, especially in the context of enhanced offers for 2012.

• The EPPI Research Synthesis (2003) confirmed that Personal Development Planning did indeed ‘support the improvement of students’ academic learning and achievement.’

• ‘graduate attributes in their fullest sense are much broader than just employability – graduate attributes have relevance to all aspects of the student experience and therefore have a range of linked agendas, e.g. curriculum renewal, HEAR (Higher Education Achievement Report), work-related learning, PDP (Personal Development Planning) and ePortfolios’.

• Unless graduates are capable of articulating and evidencing the learning and development that they have developed through their undergraduate education they are likely to be at a substantial disadvantage in the graduate labour market.

So - why is PDP important ?

• It is about students becoming autonomous, independent, thinking for themselves– the real purpose of HE

• It enables students to articulate what they can do

PDP is therefore:

• not a bolt on extra;

• an integral part of learning in HE;

• best addressed by all academic teaching

staff;

However….

Academic staff:view PDP in qualitatively different waysand many have difficulty with valuing PDP.Why?Students:‘In feedback obtained from students, it is evident that they initially find consideration of the ideas and themes of PDP and employability irrelevant and are merely eager to get on with `doing ****’. Employability as a driver is unlikely to work for all all of the time… 

Academic study emphasises individual achievement and engenders competition, whereas PDP activities often emphasise honesty (as a basis for development) and collaboration…

One challenge… getting beyond a structural view…

There are a number of different models of PDP implementation which have been adopted across the sector to support the needs of particular groups of learners: 

Discrete - where PDP is conceived as additional to, and separate from, the curriculum. Here, learners tend to be encouraged to engage in PDP, with perhaps some support from tutors or others, but whether, when and how they do so is left largely to the learners themselves.  

Linked - where PDP is viewed as being parallel to, but also having explicit links to, the curriculum.  

Embedded - where PDP is embedded in specific elements of a programme, which provide the main support for PDP.  

Integrated - a whole-curriculum approach where all or most parts of a programme involve activities which are aligned with PDP processes, including those in the workplace.

Extended - where PDP processes are included in the curriculum but also serve explicitly to integrate learning activities (such as volunteering or peer mentoring) outside the curriculum.

And the ‘pedagogy of the status quo…’ (Cowan, 2011)

1. Programmes are conceived by teachers.

2. Programmes or courses are subdivided into self-contained modules;

3. Each module has its own explicit learning outcomes which the course team has decided that learners should achieve;

4. Assessment is arranged by the course team to validly and reliably determine achievement of the intended learning outcomes;

5. Learning and teaching activities should be purposefully planned to support achievement of the intended learning and development;

6. The desirable integration and compatibility of items 3-5 is described as alignment, and is featured as a desirable goal or ultimate quality of well-designed curricula.

Prezi presentation

Available at: http://prezi.com/oit3briejtov/incorporating-personal-development-planning-and-e-portfolio-use-into-curriculum-design/

The Patchwork Text

Janet Strivens – Educational Development Division,

University of Liverpool

Anthony Sinclair – Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology,

University of Liverpool

Origins of the Idea

• A three-year multi-disciplinary research project 2000-2003– e.g. Greek Tragedy, Social Work, Biology

• 3 higher education institutions– Anglia Polytechnic (Anglia Ruskin) – lead, Nottingham

Trent, Cambridge

• Incorporated:– Reflective learning, self- and peer-assessment,

collaborative learning, metacognition– Increased student engagement through weekly, short

tasks and immediate feedback

How it worked…

• Curriculum– Based on collaborative group work– Weekly, short (c. 500 word) writing tasks (the

‘patches’), different genres– Shared with peer group for immediate discussion /

feedback– Tutor samples tasks for feedback, assesses final

synoptic text

• Assessment– A reflective synthesis which uses (a selection of) the

weekly writing tasks as evidence of ‘stitching together’ the patches

Issues (positive / negative)

• Encourages– Increased student engagement– Development of writing skills through frequent

practice / feedback / authentic audience– Awareness of alternative perspectives / responses

to tasks– Ability and willingness to assess own and peer

performance

• But

The Patchwork Text Today• ‘Patchwork media’: beyond writing tasks, patches

may be a wide range of digital artefacts• Frequently associated with the use of e-portfolio

technology (which lends itself to synoptic commentary linked to different artefacts as evidence

• Many different disciplinary contexts and levels of adaptation of original model to different circumstances, no ‘canonical’ model

Example

• “Palaeolithic Cave Art in Europe”• Level 3 module• Develops on knowledge gained from level 2

“The Archaeology of the Upper Palaeolithic in Europe”

• Assessment– Coursework essay – 25%– Presentation – 15%– Exam – 60% (two essays in 2 hours)

The ‘Patches’

• Concept map – “What is the the nature of Palaeolithic art?”

• Timeline – the key ‘events’ in the study of Pal. Art• Critical Review of an article – ‘dating’• Critical synopsis of 4 articles – naturalism in art;

figurines• Concept Map – “The technology of Palaeolithic Art”• Critical Review of an article – ‘interpretive paper’• A Research proposal• Synoptic reflection on learning outcomes of module

Concept Map

Why these ‘patches’

• General Learning Skills as well as module learning• Concept Maps – familiarity, encourages broader

picture• Critical review of an article – critical reading skills

for dissertation• Critical Synopsis – background chapter in

dissertation• Timeline – how disciplines develop – ideas & data• Research Proposal – research led teaching

My synoptic commentary• An opportunity to ‘discuss’ not lecture

– Facilitated a richer contact time

• Encouraged me to think in greater depth about their learning skills

• Provided me with better feedback on individual strengths /weaknesses in learning skills– Critical reading, synopsis, understanding causality,

research pragmatics

• ‘Blackboard’ does not lend itself to a patchwork text

Student Comments• “Patchworks are a lot more work than a single

assessment, but also force me to study at home regularly. All in all a good thing…”

• “Ptexts work very well, welcome change to single question essay assessment”

• “The patchwork texts are very useful and I’ve found that the feedback has been prompt and helped me gain knowledge & understanding on Palaeolithic Art”

• “The patchwork texts enabled me to continue working and re-read each section of work rather than put it to one side until revision time!”

Further Information

• Original project published in a Special Issue of Innovations in Education and Teaching (SEDA Journal) 2003 Vol. 40. No. 2

• Current Project– Digitally Enhanced Patchwork Text Assessment– Funded as a JISC Innovations project– www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/programmes/elearning

/ltig/depta.aspx– www.wlv.ac.ukdefault.aspx?page=24876

PDP and Employability Activities within the ??? Curriculum

• A ‘spine’ of core modules, providing a clear framework for engaging students in PDP and in helping them to think about `graduateness’ and employability.

• L1:skills module ‘Practising Geography’;• L2: Residential field course module, application

of skills to the investigation of ‘real world problems’ in the field;

• L3: ‘capstone’ module ‘Applying Geography’

Reformulating practice

• A place to start… Learning design; assessment; using technology…

• The tenets of the manifesto… and their implications…• Identify a curriculum context… traditional semester-

long module, long thin module, overall curriculum outcomes…

• Explicitly ensure practice – and outcomes – become explicit to students and can be used by them in relation to further learning and progression…

Back on the Ranch: the Curriculum Re-design task

1. Identify a curriculum context you have the capacity to influence… traditional semester-long module, long thin module, overall curriculum outcomes…

2. Frame your proposed change(s) – whether evolutionary or revolutionary - making use of appropriate tenets of the manifesto… and their implications…

3. Explicitly ensure practice – and outcomes – become explicit to students and can be used by them in relation to further learning and progression…

4. Send your jottings to rob@recordingachievement.org by 31 May. All jottings need to be understandable by anyone who does not know you – or the circumstances you describe (so, like graduates, please ‘write for audience’)!

5. All contributions will be circulated to all attendees (no contribution, no circulation!)