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What was the context for the collaboration?
The programme leader on the BSc Natural Sciences (MAPS) programme contacted the ACC to request some integrated academic communication support for their third year undergraduate literature review module.
At the time this involved the ACC sharing materials which the PGTAs could include in their workshops on academic writing. However, this quickly led to a much deeper collaboration.
Over the past three years the ACC has worked in partnership with the Natural Sciences department to redesign the module in order to embed academic literacy development and provide ongoing support for PGTAs, who deliver fortnightly writing workshops for the students.
What did we do?
The module convenor, academic communication lecturer and PGTAs met regularly to develop the overall module, the assessments and the content of the sessions, taking a collaborative principle-first approach to course design. The three main principles which informed the redesign of the module were:
- Actively engage students in the feedback process.
- Encourage students to work collaboratively.
- Emphasise the importance of writing as a part of the scientific process.
The ACC lecturer designed worksheets which helped with different parts of writing a literature review (e.g. synthesising sources, writing an introduction), and the PGTAs guided the students in fortnightly writing sessions which incorporated activities that enacted the module principles.
The ACC lecturer delivered an initial teacher training session at the beginning of the term, and continual pedagogic support for the PGTAs was given by both the ACC lecturer and module convenor on a Teams channel. This support mainly involved giving teaching advice and commenting on lesson plans.听
What factors made this an effective intervention?
What has made this an effective intervention is the fact that it is a long-term collaboration between the module convenor and the ACC lecturer. 听The ongoing dialogue and collaboration between the module convenor, ACC lecturer and PGTAs has also been very beneficial.
As the ACC lecturer has led on materials development, this has given the module convenor more time to deal with the varied tasks of administering this complex module. The PGTAs have felt supported on an ongoing basis in terms of their teaching. The students are becoming more aware of what feedback-for-learning means, and they are engaging more with the writing process as they are given dedicated time within sessions for writing practice. 听听
What our staff and students say
鈥�鈥淚鈥檓 sure I鈥檓 not the only lecturer leading a module based around an extended piece of writing, but whose expertise is not in academic communication. Bringing the ACC lecturer on board as an embedded consultant has given me the confidence to try a lot of innovative teaching practices which has had a demonstrable impact on student experience. I鈥檇 highly recommend module leaders get in touch with ACC to try this approach in your own modules.鈥�
Peter Bratby, BSc Natural Sciences 鈥� 3rd Year Literature Review Module Convenor.
鈥�鈥淚 think your (the ACC lecturer鈥檚) feedback was thoughtful and insightful, and will really help me to make my lessons more effective for the students! I really appreciate the resources that you shared previously (which made a huge difference in the session last week) and the ones that you have provided today.鈥�
Rhys Evans, a previous PGTA on the support he has received on his teaching from the ACC lecturer.