The current climate in H.E. for lecturers, students and leaders of both of these groups can be uncomfortable. Discomfort is generated by a perception that measures such as the Teaching Excellence Framework and module questionnaires operate as proxies for evaluation of the performance of academic staff. These processes of evaluation (managers evaluating lecturers who are evaluating students who are evaluating lecturers) potentially disrupt the traditional trust between lecturers and their students that is required for effective learning.
‘The Use and Abuse of the Student Voice’, funded by a Leadership Foundation Small Development Project grant, investigates the challenges for academic leaders created by the need to develop education in the context of evaluation of teaching by students. You are welcome to share the emerging findings of our project at a national workshop on Friday 20th October at Sheffield Hallam University. We aim to help colleagues to make best use of the student voice to recognise and support teaching excellence. We will also use workshop participants’ feedback to further define and develop the project’s leadership materials.
The event will be of interest to staff in Higher Education involved in making use of student evaluations of teaching, and to leaders of academic staff with a commitment to using the student voice productively to inspire professional development.
The workshop is free and includes lunch. You can register for a place on Eventbrite.
If you have any queries about the event please contact the research leads Jill LeBihan J.Lebihan@shu.ac.uk and Stella Jones-Devitt at S.Jones-Devitt@shu.ac.uk