Excellent teaching practice is central to the student experience at the Coventry University Group. We recognise that individual colleagues will be teaching across a range of disciplines with different learning outcomes, as well as working with distinct- and often diverse- groups of students.
As an Assistant Lecturer (Teaching), gaining an appreciation of the key pedagogic theories that underpin the various practical approaches to teaching and learning is a great way to enhance your teaching practice. Doing so will also enable you to identify the most appropriate methods for the context that you are teaching in.
Essential Background
- Coventry University Group uses an innovative Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) called Aula. It is essential that all teaching staff are familiar with its key functions. The guides below will get you started
- The Coventry Educators Digital Fluency Course is designed to help colleagues to gain a deeper understanding of all things digital in relation to teaching and learning at Coventry University Group. The course takes around 4 hours to complete in total and it will be helpful to complete it in the first month of your contract.
- Watch this video (11:28) on Active, Applied, Social and Inclusive Learning from the Curriculum Development Team.
Getting Started
- Familiarise yourself with Coventry University Group’s established teaching observation scheme. Whether observing a colleague or being observed yourself, the scheme offers a great way to develop and inspire your own practice. You may wish to discuss this in more detail with your line manager.
- At times, teachers may be required to deal with challenging or disruptive behaviour in class. You may find this advice from the University of Wolverhampton useful.
Take it Further
All new staff with less than five years teaching experience are required to undertake the Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice in HE (PgCAPHE). Complete the application form and discuss this with your line manager as their support will be valuable. This course is aimed at new staff joining Coventry University Group with less than five years full time teaching experience in Higher Education, who do not already hold a PgCAPHE equivalent. If you have more than five years HE teaching experience but do not have a PgCAPHE equivalent then you could join the course under accreditation of prior experiential learning (APEL) or consider applying directly for AdvanceHE Fellowship.
- Digital resources and practices are deeply embedded into contemporary teaching practice- and the two will continue to become progressively more integrated. With this in mind, is valuable to evaluate your digital skills using the Jisc discovery tool, which is available nationally to staff and students.
- Further advice and how-to guides from colleagues across Coventry University Group can be found on the Teaching Knowledge Base and the Digital Toolkit, focusing on how to get the most of tools from across the EdTech Ecosystem.
- Explore AEPD’s case studies eBook for some great examples of teaching and learning in practice from across the University Group.
Try it Out!
- Schedule some time to compete the Digital Fluency course mentioned above- the first section should take about an hour.
- Think of a time when you experienced challenging behaviour in the classroom. What did you do? Would you do anything differently in the future?
- Observe a colleague’s teaching practice- this can be an informal arrangement, or as part of a peer observation scheme. What, if anything, could you adopt from their approach?
Finished here?