Sharing Practice Policy

Sharing Practice Policy for the Graduate School’s Professional Development Programme 


Rationale 

The Graduate School system of sharing practice has been designed to ensure, develop and support the quality of the provision offered. The scheme positively supports all tutors in their own professional development, complementing existing internal quality assurance mechanisms and is intended to be compatible with College peer observation policy. Graduate School tutors are invited to share best practice via this mechanism every three to four years.  

Guiding Principles – Developing & Sharing Practice 

Current internal quality assurance mechanisms include support for all new (or nearly new) tutors by sharing practice with a peer. This peer will attend a workshop and any instances of good practice or areas for development will be identified and may be followed up to ensure that the minimum standard for workshops is achieved. Any instances of best practice will be shared, if the tutor agrees, following discussion with the peer.   

The Sharing Practice Policy Form is completed and monitored by the Graduate School’s Programme Lead, Manager of Graduate School Administration and the Head of Pedagogy. This ensures maximum sharing of good practice and a summary document will be sent to the Graduate School's Postgraduate Development & Experience Committee (PDEC), on an annual basis. 

Objectives

The objectives of the sharing practice policy are to: 

  • encourage and motivate tutors to reflect on the effectiveness of their teaching and learning  
  • inform tutors for their professional development and to inform planning for their development 
  • help tutors explore ways of enhancing the student learning experience 
  • foster discussion and dissemination of effective practice in teaching and learning 
  • contribute to quality assurance processes  
  • to share good practice across Graduate School courses

Procedure

At the start of each academic year, the Postgraduate Development Coordinator and Manager of Graduate School Administration will develop a schedule, matching tutors to a suitable peer. Peers will be drawn from members of the Graduate School’s tutor team and if necessary, members of PDEC. Once the schedule has been confirmed, the Postgraduate Development Coordinator will email all tutors due to participate in sharing practice. It is estimated that peer sharing will occur at least once every three years.  

  1. The peer is given a copy of the Graduate School’s Postgraduate Development Coordinator Sharing Practice Guide sheet, to assist with the sharing of practice. 
  2. The peer does not need to see the entire workshop but should see enough to make a useful and informed discussion, typically about 50 minutes. 
  3. The tutor and peer meet to discuss the session immediately after the workshop or as soon as possible thereafter. 
  4. The peer should provide a copy of the completed form to the tutor which should include formative feedback and summarise instances of good practice. 
  5. Once tutor and peer are happy with the information included in the completed form, it will be submitted to the following members of the Graduate School for information/review,  
  • Manager of Graduate School Administration 
  • Head of Pedagogy   
  • Graduate School’s Programme Lead 

An annual summary document giving details of the sharing of practice will be provided to PDEC.