Wicked competencies

After talking to Beverley Oliver yesterday about her ALTC National Teaching Fellowship (see earlier posts) I decided it was about time that I followed the advice of my colleague Gordon Joughin (now at the University of Queensland) and find out about ‘Wicked Competencies’.

So, I’ve found a paper that looks interesting and recommend that others read it too.

Peter Knight and Anna Page in their Report to the Open University’s Practice-based Professional Learning Centre The assessment of ‘wicked’ competences say

‘Wicked’ competences are achievements that cannot be neatly pre-specified, take time to develop and resist measurement based approaches to assessment. On the basis of knowledge of assessment practices in higher education in general, it was anticipated that there would be acute problems assessing this class of outcomes. And they are also important outcomes of higher education, since they are widely valued by employers and smooth the path of study and other forms of research.

If you are as intrigued as I was you can read more:

http://www.open.ac.uk/cetl-workspace/cetlcontent/documents/460d21bd645f8.pdf

 

 

Professor Beverley Oliver new ALTC Fellow

There is exciting news with the announcement that Professor Beverley Oliver from Curtin University is a 2011 ALTC National Teaching Fellow. Several University of Wollongong staff will recall Professor Oliver’s visit to Wollongong in November 20101. The University of Wollongong is one of eleven partner institutions on this project of Beverley’s. Several academic units at Wollongong may be interested in this project. A short extract of information on Beverley’s Fellowship is pasted below and a link for further information provided at the end of this extract.

Conversations about graduate capabilities inevitably turn to standards: academic staff, business and industry, the community, students and graduates seek clarity on the level of achievement required for safe practice and professional readiness. Course (program) leaders, students and industry partners are often guided by predetermined lists of generic attributes, professional competencies and outcomes. However, many seek clarity about the level of performance required during the course, at graduation and beyond (for example, how well a journalist or pharmacist is expected to be able to communicate at graduation). In addition, in an increasingly evidence-based culture, the sector is seeking new ways to assure the achievement of such standards.

This fellowship proposes to engage curriculum leaders of undergraduate courses from any discipline to work with their colleagues, industry partners, students and graduates to:

• define course-wide levels of achievement in key capabilities, articulated through standards rubrics
• implement strategies to evidence student achievement of those standards (through student portfolios and course review processes, for example)
• share the validity, challenges and opportunities of such approaches through scholarly publications.

Colleagues are encouraged to access an introduction to these concepts and join a community of practice and scholarship at <http://tiny.cc/boliver>.

http://www.altc.edu.au/altc-national-teaching-fellow-beverley-oliver

ALTC announce four new projects on assessing graduate outcomes

The latest edition of the ALTC (Australian Learning and Teaching Council) News  (18 April 2011) announces four new projects on assessing graduate outcomes. Here’s a short extract and a link so you can read more. They all look interesting.

‘Four new ALTC-funded projects will focus on quality assurance and assessment of graduate outcomes, with almost $1 million dollars to be invested over the next two years.

Each project covers different territory in terms of research methodology and focus but all ultimately aim to better connect assessment to the needs of industry and students as well as to the broader goals of universities themselves.’

http://www.altc.edu.au/April2011-strategicpriorityproject

Why should we consider mapping ‘discipline standards’ in the curriculum?

One of the topics I get asked about when I provided advice to faculties and individual academics about curriculum development and curriculum mapping is the place of the Discipline Standards (a project of the Australian Learning and Teaching Council ALTC) in curriculum. At least one discipline at UOW is going to map their curriculum to their discipline’s Threshold Learning Outcomes and they plan to use the Curtin University Curriculum Mapping Tool to do that.

For one view on how the discipline Threshold Learning Outcomes (TLOs) might influence curriculum review and design you might like to watch a series of four podcasts (each one is between 3 and 6 minutes long) developed when Professor Lynne Hunt (Pro Vice-Chancellor, University of Southern Queensland) interviewed Dr Carol Nicoll (CEO, Australian Learning and Teaching Council). The topics covered are:

What do teaching standards mean?

Do standards lead to standardisation?

What is the relationship between teaching standards and professional accreditation?

What should universities do to accommodate teaching standards?

Why curriculum mapping?

With number of courses developing curriculum maps it is worthwhile to consider the purpose of mapping a curriculum.

This is what the University of Wollongong Curriculum Review Guidelines say:

The purpose of curriculum maps is to clearly demonstrate what the outcomes of a course are and how these relate to UOW Graduate Qualities, Faculty/Discipline Qualities, any external competencies, and how the outcomes are achieved through the individual components of the course.

Graduate Qualities Resouces: Web Pages

At the University of Wollongong we have two web pages that can be useful starting points for teachers and students interested in finding out more about the UOW Graduate Qualities. The first one is primarily for students. Marcus O’Donnell is leading the ongoing development of this site. You can find it at http://www.uow.edu.au/student/qualities/index.html

The other site is intended to provide resources for teachers who are embedding the UOW Graduate Qualities in their everyday teaching and in student assessment tasks. Bronwyn James is leading the development of this site which is located at http://www.uow.edu.au/about/teaching/qualities/index.html