 I can think of only one person that I might allow to follow Joseph O'Connor and I'm delighted that she's going to be doing the next presentation before lunch. It is the last session before lunch but it does require our very special attention because part of what the forum has been doing a lot of, particularly in the last year, is consultation around a national approach to professional development. I know that all of you have a really vested interest in this part of the forum's work and that almost everyone in the room here has made an important contribution to the emerging picture that Terry is going to paint for us today. Dr Terry Maguire, most of you know her by now. She's the director of the National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education. She grapples like no one I know with the complexities and perspectives of so many dynamics to do with teaching and learning and she's done that this year in particular with the challenges around professional development in order to build an initial model for Irish professional development from which we will then be able to generate national guidelines. Remember that this is still a work in progress. Remember that what she's going to be presenting today brings together and tries to make sense of the diverse contributions that have been made from throughout the sector and I think Terry's another powerful storyteller and I think what she's going to do now is tell the story of what you told us and try to present it in a way that makes sense and will give us a route for moving forward. So I'm delighted to welcome Terry to take us through where we are now with this. Thanks a military. Thanks a million Sarah. I'm not sure I'm going to do it as well as Joseph O'Connor just did but let me tell you when I arrived at the forum in October 2013 I was told I had two big jobs to do. I had to write a roadmap for building digital capacity for higher education and we had to develop a professional development framework. No pressure then first day on the job. I said OK so what do we do. We worked hard and with the team we did develop the roadmap for building digital capacity. We spent the first nine months working looking at professional development and what was happening internationally. We actually went went to hear and to see what how have other higher education systems tackle this issue. And then we realized that we didn't have any national data. We didn't really have a clear picture of what was already happening in the sector. So we took time to look nationally at the sector at what the accredited professional development that was on offer. What non accredited professional was development was on offer that the what was actually happening in the discipline groups and we pulled it all together and it culminated in the 10th of March with an actual a document on professional development for consultation. And that was only the start of the process. So what we did Sarah and I went out and we actually met 22 22 different institutions. We talked face to face with lecturers with senior staff with heads of department about professional development and what was interesting about that which was quite an iterative process because when it actually started we actually got some ideas from the conversation and we would integrate those ideas into the next conversation and the next conversation. We also opened up the consultation for submissions and we got 41 submissions. So what we did with those was we read every one of them many times and said what are the top 10 things you're saying to us through this submission. What are the key things for you that this professional development framework should have. I'm not sure we've got it right. We've done our best to try and interpret what you've said. I think one of our biggest lessons we learned was from our interviews with existing professional development bodies and we weren't interested in how their standards worked or anything like that. We said to them how did you do it and they gave us very good advice. They said take very small steps and consult loads. So this morning is one of those small steps. What we've done is actually to try and interpret from all of these months of work what kind of a model of professional development would actually suit Irish higher education in our context. So what did you tell us. Well the first thing you told us which was very insightful was what types of professional development what do you consider to be professional development. There was a strong voice for please don't have professional development considered as just something that's a credit. Remember the conversations we have in the tearooms. Remember the conversations we have at events like this talking to people. That is as important in terms of professional development. They said don't forget that some of us have interests and we have for example we may be interested in problem based learning. We might have a particular technique that we use. We might be short of sharing that trying it out in our class. We go to conferences. We give papers. We share our ideas. Allow the framework to actually include that. Allow the framework to include all the structured accredited professional development that's offered through our institutions. And there's a huge amount currently being offered. And is there any potential for that to be able to be accredited in some way. So that's something that we need to consider. One of the other things that was very very strong was you said whatever we do we need to make sure that Irish professional development is very values based. That it has a very strong values based. And what was interesting was that there was huge agreement about the values that should be included. So one of them. So you said they had to be inclusive. You had to recognize that the teaching population in higher education institutions now is quite diverse. There are people working full time. There's people working part time. There are learning technologists who students are yourselves the staff. And the framework could not be able to meet all of their needs. It had to be evidence based and scholarly. Sarah Moore always says it had to be the anecdote to know the antidote to anecdote. It had to be authentic. There was a huge amount of you said please don't make this something that's just tick box. This has to have meaning. This has to be valuable to us in our careers. It has to remember that teaching is collaborative. We work with our peers. We work in teams. We work with our students and recognize and integrate that into the framework. And in terms of being learned centered be learned centered in terms of making sure that it focuses on our particular development. But also that it includes it includes it encourages us and fosters us to be very learned centric on our whole approach. So the next step probably is well how do we integrate all of that all of these values into an emerging framework. We don't have the answers yet but we're hoping that you'll be able to help us to find some. One of the other things that was came across very clear was that teaching isn't a linear process and that given time good teachers stop. They reflect. They look at the evidence. They take a decision. They move on. They reflect. They look at the evidence and they move on. Now sometimes that's not always possible for us to actually do. Time restricts us and structures around us sometimes restrict us but it's something that they said bring back you said bring back into professional development bring back that reflection bring back that evidence base and make it a very strong part of the framework for Ireland. The other thing you said was we're all different please it can't be one size fits all because every one of us have particular pathways that we actually want to follow and you're the framework that the develops has got to take that into account so no pressure then okay all right and then said and remember also that when I start as a teacher I start as a as and we've we've called it in this particular version we've called it a newcomer but it means I'm new to teaching and I start and sometimes for some of us it's I walk in and I'm very confident and then reality sets in a little bit later on sometimes I'm not that confident and I build up my confidence so there's a very different cohort but one of the things about the actual research that we did is that there is a consensus across the sector that having supports in for those that are coming new to teaching is really really important and some of the recognition that happens so I'm new to teaching and I'm trying to grasp the whole system but then what do I do I've delivered my first set of modules and maybe I've even done them twice and you know it went well I felt I'd done better the second time and and you come to that stage in my in your career where you say well you know I'm willing to try new things now so we're trying to capture it by looking at calling it a practitioner and the words here we need your help we don't know what the right words are but I'm trying to explain to you what we mean and hopefully together we can find the right words to actually to actually use so at the practitioner stage you're in teaching a few years or a couple of years you're getting a bit more confident you're willing to try you're perhaps contributing to module developments and then as your career pushes on you may well become more in a mentoring role you might take a position for acts to lead a program team to actually do some developments and and then you may well be actually a leader a leader who actually through new knowledge is pushing out and saying look what you can do look what's possible and I think this is some of the stuff that we have to build in and integrate into the professional development framework and one of the other things that we learned from the accredited professional development approach was that we looked at what was already being delivered and 40 percent of what you deliver was around teaching methods about 15 percent was about reflective practice you had you also building research skills and the fourth element was building digital capacity so already the accredited programs that exist in Ireland have these particular characteristics so we said okay what else has come through from what you've been saying to us what else has come through we looked at all the learning outcomes but we didn't hear that the conversation around it so what else has come through one of the things that came through was you're very important what you bring in to the classroom is really really important and I think that was really exemplified by our work with the heroes these were individuals that brought into the classroom their own attitudes beliefs and they did something with it and that I think we need to make explicit as part of a framework that we have to be conscious of what we ourselves are bringing into the classroom and how good and bad that actually impacts on our teaching another thing that came through was that the sector itself is very diverse and it's changing rapidly and the way that we're actually working now is quite different to the ways that we're working in five years pathways within institutions are changing and we need time to stop and actually look at our professional identity at various times throughout our career and set goals and targets for what we actually might want to achieve what do we want to do so again it's taking that time out explicitly as part of the framework to say well this is where I am now this is where I think I'm actually going in this particular phase and to have to have those sort of stop points to actually work towards the other thing that came through and I this morning Joe talked to about David Putnam and he has been very influential and and our board and he also influenced a little bit about including this although came across very strongly from the sector as well and he said to us at one stage he said I'm often criticized because I'm a film director and what the hell do I know about teaching and I still I talk about teaching and I said well what do you say to them and he says well I tell them that being a good film director is all about communication and I would have thought is not what teaching is about too so I think we need to recognize that communication and professional communication and dialogue is a really key aspect of good teaching and look at the circumstances and the variety of states where we actually have to communicate we communicating from one to five hundred we're communicating one to one we're communicating in small groups we're encouraging teamwork we're communicating online we're facilitating discussions online we're communicating with industry we communicate perhaps with media there are huge amounts of communication that's happening and most important we're communicating with our colleagues and with our students so professional communication has to be a key element of the actual framework professional knowledge and skills and this is where all the teaching methodologies and the subject knowledges are perhaps are actually captured and within this we see it is very clear that there's two sides when we were around talking through the sector we spoke to people that consider themselves teachers who happen to be engineers and we also talked to people who consider themselves engineers who happen to be teachers but if you're teaching engineering you need to know engineering and you need to know teaching so there's a need to develop and maintain your subject knowledge within your discipline area within your professional area so that has to be a key part of what you do so that everything that you're actually doing in your classroom is relevant to the students when they go out to that workplace we have to look outside and make sure we're keeping ourselves up to date with what's actually happening in there in in the workplace and make sure that we're integrating all of that into our teaching we also need to look at our teaching yourself and the developments within our own disciplines and what's actually possible and what pedagogies are actually working best we need to look at the evidence we need to keep our own teaching up to date and the final thing is and there was we had a big debate about whether this should be put in explicitly or not but when we actually read what you said there was a very strong sense that this had to be made explicit right now the development of personal and professional digital capacity in our consultations there was a sense that that that those things digital were kind of seeping in without being explicit and yet when the documentation came back to us there's a very strong sense that you know we need to realize we need to acknowledge we're now working and living in this digital world and we need opportunities for our staff and for our students to actually develop skills for this digital world and to be quite and so we're being quite explicit about the need to develop personal and professional digital capacity and the way that it we're kind of viewing it is through the the the different areas that have been identified by the all aboard project find and locate identity and well-being all of the different elements so that would actually do it and the other thing that you said is please don't don't make everything at level nine some of us in terms of our digital literacy need need entry points not at level nine so that we can develop our skills from where we're actually at so I think that's an important aspect of the framework that we need to integrate and finally the last thing you said was please remember the context within which we're working please remember that we work within an institutional context and if this is to work we also need to support institutions to help make it work so having listened to all of this what our first step is is that this is our first stab at interpreting what you have said and we now need your help to see whether we've actually got it more or less right and we'd really appreciate feedback and I've actually left leaflets of the actual model and all the descriptions outside in reception at lunchtime and it'll also be on our website so we really would appreciate some feedback and the second step is that as the feedback comes in we're going to continue in partnership with the qqi developing national guidelines along the lines of this and we would hope to have a very draft copy of these out to institutions by the end of january beginning of febru these are for consultation this is where we actually need your help have we got to everything that needs to be included are there things we've missed are the things in there that shouldn't be in there we need your help to actually write these guidelines properly and once the guidelines come back in we're also going at the same time we're developing institutional guidelines for the enhancement of teaching and learning and these guidelines is actually positioning professional development as part of an enhancement suite for institutions and we're developing guidelines just to support institutions in terms of how you might do the the guideline or you might work towards the enhancement of teaching learning whether you're a program team or it might be at a departmental level or it might be at an institutional level and they'll go out to the sector sometimes around March April and they'll come back in around June and then we would hope that some institutions would agree to work with us to pilot some of the guidelines in the new academic year to see if they work this is this very start this is just one small step in the process and I think we have to go slowly and I think by working together we can make sure that we have a professional development framework that suits our needs and our context thank you you can sit down on a comfy chair now and I'll join you in a second and I just think that there's so much there to reflect on and I'm really grateful to Terry for her leadership and to all of you for the roles that you've played in helping to inform this process um the it's it's very important I think now that we take some questions and answers but I'm conscious that this format is not ideal for really getting involved in a kind of an in-depth discussion so please see this as part of this ongoing conversation um but let's take a few questions from the floor while we can now before we close off before lunch thank you so much Terry is that Barry Barry O'Callaghan um I chair the leading for learning group with the second level principles and deputies association just a few comments at Terry um cpd we all know what it means we all are very versed with it with the three letters and what exactly it means um there's a real danger certainly at second level at possibly a third level that it becomes a tick box and Terry you alluded to that you mentioned that that term um doing courses and building up ours in fact is a teaching council requirement coming in very shortly at second level and the real danger there is that teachers will go off and do their courses and no one will be any wiser um I like to refer to my cues and Terry you're familiar with the work of my cues is a UK based college at the trainer but it works for teachers and I think the cpd um understanding that he has will have relevance for everyone that's a teacher his cpd is creating professional dialogue because if cpd does not result in a professional dialogue within the profession then what is it and that's my first point my second point it's one that I made to Sarah and Terry and Joe um over the uh coffee break and that relates to translate the transitions rather um as many of you will know the second level system um is I suppose we could generously say stuck we see junior cycle reform which is quite a modest reform by international standards bogged down half of the profession and more uh as as witnessed by the ASCI decisions um we're knocking into politics here but they're not willing are able to move from where they are there's a real danger that if you get your act together and I at this term sounds awful if you're very successful in what you do at third level in developing pedagogy and teaching and learning there's a real danger that that unless second level moves with you second level is going to be so far behind that when people come to third level and your engine is pouring a ticking over that a second level the second level people coming in will be so far so far left behind so it's I think it's really important that Terry you know this for conversations that we have had that as you move forward that the second level system must not be left behind it must be engaged in some meaningful way thank you thank you Barry I think the avoiding of the bureaucratic tick box exercise which is your first point is something that we've all been very cognizant of and in terms of designing something that's really going to be authentic the links to second level I think have been reiterated by you Barry and that really does echo an awful lot of the stuff we Joe and I talked about earlier on and you'll see echoes of that later on today Terry do you want to speak to any of that no but I I know that Barry and I have been having a lot of conversations in this space and Barry I'll throw the question back at you how best to engage with teachers with teachers at second level we've we've talked we yes we talk to the teaching councillor but how do we get that engagement well I don't I don't have an answer but I I do know I mean a lot with lots of professional dialogue yeah and I do know that that um I think the fact that the third level that you have this body called the forum for teaching and learning a third level or whatever its proper title is the fact that you have it a third level is a huge pointer for us at second level because nothing like this formally exists at second level so perhaps the success of what you're doing will will and the engagement then with the department and the powers that be can I think the fact that if you if you're successful then we can point and say listen there's a model that second level can can look at and and build success upon so I think engagement and I think connection I think lots of dialogue with us but also with the powers that be um to ensure that the the success that you have a third level carries down into second level and connects also with primary level because pedagogy is good pedagogy good learning is effective learning is effective learning be it for a 10 year old or a 20 year old thank you Barry I think we'll definitely reflect on those ideas and encouragements I think as we go forward is there a question from anyone else oh thank you I'm I'm really interested in the profession development framework I'm dying to and you get more involved and to see it worked out and to see it used as a tool a support tool for educators a tool to help us clarify along with our institution what our goals are so that we can be all singing the same hymn sheet one thing that I am interested in and it's only one thing because lots of the other things you've covered I think really well in the presentation and thanks for that Terry my concern and question I suppose is will there be a room in this framework to um acknowledge professional projects rather than professional research in the discipline you know so professional um barrister's coming in from the field and talking to students in relation to um a brief they're currently working on the value of that an architect coming off the site and coming in with a set of plans you know it's not discipline research obviously uh but they're extremely active in the space and perhaps we'll never be researchers um but at the same time that what they bring to the learning space is is essential in many cases that's an excellent point Terry did you want to say well I just think that the in terms of the the model is is the first piece and then it's how you actually try and and make sure that all of those who actually want to actually integrate in with the framework how that happens afterwards is is the more challenging piece but the whole idea is that it is as inclusive as possible yeah I think that we'd be doing a real disservice to the sector if those kinds of projects and methods of engagement weren't incorporated and recognized very clearly I think that's something that's come very clearly from the the sector already but thank you for reminding us on this and the other thing is of course that that people will be starting at different points where you know once the framework emerges so one of the the big jobs of work that we'll be doing in the next few months is is alongside the development of the guidelines how do we also develop processes to enable people to be able to position themselves themselves along the framework so yeah do other countries have that facility for recognizing professional projects on frameworks does anybody know I actually didn't come across it no I haven't either but I haven't done a lot of research it's just curious and it might be something it could be something exciting and innovative or it could be something that we'd be in trouble for but anyway we can but we should keep it on the table for discussion and see and see how we can carve it out yeah and I think that that also raises another important point though and that is what is made explicit I mean we don't want to create something that's going to be to straightjacket institutions and yet the same time there are certain really core ideas and values and and dimensions that will need to be made really explicit and so it's it's striking that balance and thinking through that and I think you're quite right because something that looks perfectly logical in one context can be very contentious in another and I think we just need to be very cognizant of that so thank you is there another question that I think we have time for one more yeah right I'll be on you Terry yeah hi bride how you keeping um my my kind of taking all of this is I'm curious as to where the whole digital technology thing is going as regards all of this you know and more importantly I suppose it's it's a question for you guys in terms of what influence does the forum have on the department in terms of us rolling out more digital technology in the institutions I mean what kind of role can you guys play in that I mean does the minister listen for us I'm talking in terms of finance really you know that we need to we need to upgrade an awful lot of the institutes in terms of our digital capacity okay perhaps I'll just answer that one of our pre-specified projects Brian which is initiating actually on the ground on the first probably around the first of January is actually to do a review of the current infrastructure within institutions and the actual scope for this project was designed by the actual sector itself so the criteria in terms of reference were agreed and that's going to take nine months and I think again because the information isn't there this will be the first time that there will actually be information real information about the infrastructure across higher education and I think we'll be much better placed then to see where we are and if we are to develop what actually needs to be done I'm going to draw the discussion to a close there's going to be plenty more time to interrogate Terry and me about how we made sense of all of your consultations and enormous thanks again to all of you for the role that you played and particular thanks to Terry Maguire for presenting it in the way that she did thank you so much