Spheres of Influence: Ventures and Visions in Educational Development*

3-6 July, 2002
The University of Western Australia
Perth, Western Australia

Abstract

Institutional policy development in the service of improving teaching and learning - implementing graduate qualities at the University of South Australia

Ted Nunan, University of South Australia, Australia

The University of South Australia has initiated a policy development which involves all graduate programs developing a set of seven generic qualities in graduates. These generic qualities are elaborated and made specific to a discipline or professional area through program design. Changes to program design have resulted in changes to teaching, learning and assessment arrangements as these are now shaped to develop the elaborated qualities over the three or four years of a program. Students are encouraged to recognize their learning and the development of skills by formally recording their achievements in the qualities as part of the course teaching and learning methodology. This policy development is a major and universal mechanism for improving teaching and learning. For example, to develop the generic quality of 'being an effective problem solver capable of applying logical, critical and creative thinking to a range of problems' requires that opportunities for progressive development of this quality need to be embedded within the curriculum and that teaching, learning and assessment is directed towards the particular quality as it is elaborated within the discipline or professional area. It also requires that students understand how they are involved in the development of this quality and whether they are achieving satisfactory development of the quality. In short, the development of this and the other six qualities of a University of South Australia require a range of student centred teaching and learning strategies and cannot be achieved through transmission techniques of teaching or through surface learning. Consequently, the policy development is a central driver of both outcomes and processes that constitute good teaching and learning. The paper provides details of the policy developments in the area of graduate qualities, looks at the impact of this development upon professional developers and assesses the effectiveness of the developments upon institutional wide efforts to improve teaching and learning and its outcomes. Particular attention is given to the ways in which educational developers have strategically used this policy development in structuring professional development activities aimed at improving teaching and learning.

Key words:
Graduate qualities; Strategic use of graduate qualities within professional development; Student recording of achievement of graduate qualities

Objectives, outcomes and activities:
Information on institutional teaching and learning frameworks and the use of graduate qualities: example of using graduate qualities within professional development to improving teaching and learning.

Ted Nunan is an Associate Professor in Distance Education at the Flexible Learning Centre of the University of South Australia. He is involved in research, policy studies and professional development in distance education and flexible learning and delivery approaches. He has published extensively on quality and standards in distance education and theoretical issues in distance education and flexible learning including chapters in Routledge works in these areas. His most recent writing has been in the area of change in higher education, particularly in relation to the development, assessment, and recording of achievement of generic qualities of graduates has been published by Kogan Page.

Contact: Ted Nunan, email: ted.nunan@unisa.edu.au