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 Professor (Teaching), you will often be expected to use pedagogical theories to not only enhance your own practice, but to support your module or course teams. You will also be involved in quality assurance and enhancement processes to ensure that student have effective and high-quality teaching.
Essential Background
- Aula lies at the centre of Coventry University Group’s EdTech Ecosystem. It is essential that all teaching staff are familiar with Aula’s key functions. See 10 Aula Learning Design principles as a starting point for creating high-quality Aula resources or explore the Aula tab on the Curriculum Transformation Project page.
- Further advice and how-to guides from colleagues across Coventry University Group can be found on the Teaching Knowledge Base and the Digital Toolkit.
- You may be asked to act as an Academic Conduct Officer (ACO), or otherwise be involved in work around students’ academic integrity. Take a look at the support offered by the Academic Integrity Unit, in particular Academic Conduct Officer training.
- 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 as well as insights into how to support your module team.
Getting Started
- What support do your teaching team need? Use the development narrative for Assistant Lecturer or Lecturer as a starting point, or explore the Professional Development Framework. For digital literacy, the Jisc Discovery Tool is a good starting point.
- At times, teachers may be required to deal with challenging or disruptive behaviour in class. As a Senior Fellow, you may also need to support colleagues or team members facing this behaviour. You may find this advice from the University of Wolverhampton useful.
- 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.
Take it Further
- As your role involves the leadership of teaching and learning you could consider applying for AdvanceHE Senior Fellowship.
- Join the Active Learning Community of Practice to connect with other colleagues with an interest in active learning, or try out one of the ideas in 100 Ideas for Active Learning from the Sussex University Open Press.
- 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 complete 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? What support could you offer your team in similar circumstances?
- Sign up to Vygo, the university’s peer led observation and mentoring platform. You could observe a colleague’s practice or receive support and mentoring in a specific area of interest such as active learning or assessment design.
Finished here?