Foundations and Principles in My Context of Practice
Thinking About Curriculum Reform
Curriculum development and implementation is an important facet for any educational program these days. There is little question that ongoing critical review is key to maintaining current pedagogies, keeping abreast of learner needs (as well as other stakeholder needs), changes to the educational environment and responding to the fiscal challenges institutions face.
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Implementing change is not easy and faculty, students and managers must be committed to the lengthy and ongoing efforts that serve to keep a program current.
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In an effort to document key concepts related to curriculum reform, I have outlined key concepts in a Popplet below:
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Resource:
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Hubball, H., & Burt, H. (2004). An Integrated Approach to Developing and Implementing Learning-centred Curricula. International Journal for Academic Development, (9)1, pp. 51-65.
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Foundations and Principles in My Context of Practice
Equally, as interesting (for me) are the articles related to leadership strategies. Discussions on the website certainly lead me to think about how to balance my role as faculty and a coordinator in the program. I read an article from September 2015 related to “Managing Student Complaints” which held some great advice.
I think that this website will also be a great springboard to further inspire English for Academic Purposes faculty. I developed a “Lunch and Learn” sharing forum for our faculty and I think that we could build some workshops centered on the strategies/ideas highlighted on the Faculty Focus website.
The website is also a great portal for professional development opportunities. One particular conference of note is the Teaching Professor Conference. I have not attended the event, however I have a colleague who has had the opportunity to go and he highly recommended the conference.
What professional contributions I hope to make in the professional space.
In terms of professional contributions, I would like to think that I could potentially write and submit an article for publication on the website. They have some great articles on culture in the classroom. One article related to culture that caught my attention was “Activities for Building Cultural Competencies in Our Students and Ourselves”. I think I could definitely add a voice to the website one day.
For now, I will begin by commenting on some of the more current website posts and see if there is any response to my feedback.
How these spaces can contribute to my growth as a professional.
I think that spaces such as these are a great means of exploring current ideas and considering other opportunities in the teaching and leadership context. I think that the articles cover a breadth of topics and provide excellent questions to guide my own self-reflection. They also offer practical strategies to further implement the ideas.
What mode of communication best suits the space?
The mode of communication utilized by Faculty Focus is primarily articles written and submitted by industry professionals. There is an opportunity to comment after the article and I will attempt to engage other readers in some discourse. They also house some free podcasts, which I will take some time to peruse. One additional mode of communication is Twitter at “#talkhighered”. I searched the tag and will continue to follow communications there as well. I was able to connect to one additional Twitter community (as a result of my #talkhighered search) that also has great information – “Inside Higher Ed”.
Analysis of Faculty Focus: Type of Curricular Design that Guides Planning, Instruction and Evaluation
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Faculty Focus is richly entrenched in student centered teaching and learning. The articles are rife with self-reflection and opportunities (for the teacher and learner) to review and consider alternative viewpoints and strategies in practice.
Faculty accessing the website are likely seeking to inform their practice and looking for a form of self-actualization and/or empowerment. Philosophically, the website is encourages a number of contemporary viewpoints, but is largely pragmatic in its platform. The editorials encourage use of an array of different teaching and leadership strategies that seek to promote intellectual as well as sociological growth in higher learning education.
I would highly recommend Faculty Focus as a resource.
The professional community I have chosen to highlight is a website called “Faculty Focus”. It is a website focused on highlighting issues related to higher education teaching strategies and managed by Magna Publications.
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Issues I encountered in an attempt to gain access. How I overcame the issues and issues that need my further attention.
Utilizing the website is not particularly problematic. It is easy to negotiate and they have an option to sign up for free newsletter. The newsletters are a weekly publication and very relevant to the context of my practice. One observation I would make is that currently my use of the website is limited, as there is a cost of $99.00 per annum to gain full access to the articles and resources. I am contemplating the expense and will make a decision once I have had the opportunity to fully explore the benefits of a membership. There are definitely some unique opportunities such as a “20 Minute Mentor” that I would love to take advantage of.
Why I selected the context of professional practice that I did.
I selected the Faculty Focus website as I found the articles to be quite thought provoking. For example, a post from November 10, 2017 entitled “Questions for Bringing Your Instructional Practices into Focus”, asked some great questions related instructional practices and presented the opportunity for me to review my own practices and consider areas for change.