HKworkshop

//**I wonder if people have been thinking about these matters over the holiday season and might want their memory refreshed concerning our discussion in December. These are the notes that we sent out just after the session - Jo**//



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Questions, comments and discussion
//Many apologies – the notes that Peter made on the powerpoint slides from earlier discussions were somehow not saved. If anyone has their own notes of those discussions from the middle of the workshop, please email us at the addresses below and we will update these pages. Many thanks for a really interesting and challenging conversation!//


 * //Question//**//:// is it REALLY true that ‘learning happens – like rust?’ For example, the difference between espoused and in-use theories – what we think we do and what we do in practice are not always the same. People can be stuck in not-learning situations.
 * //JT (with hindsight)//**: Perhaps this is where notions of lifelong learning / CPD and social learning are important. Educational development needs to set up opportunities for learning conversations, spaces where it is easy to talk about things we //don’t// know and //don’t// understand - for professional learning conversations between colleagues … the sorts of spaces that enquiry into practice makes possible. This may be a major culture change and it isn’t an easy thing to accomplish.


 * //Question//**: Can you talk about the distinctive nature of the OU”s central organisation – for example, the benefits of horizon scanning?
 * //PK://** The latest idea is to form a pan-University centre for **curriculum, pedagogies and enhancement**. It will aim to draw on projects and initiatives that provide learning affordances. The ultimate aim will be to create the usual OU-quality materials, with the additional benefit of a new notion of quality that engages end-users (tutors and students) in revising and updating – responsive, rapid, personalised learning.
 * //Comment://** A positive move towards OU tutors having ownership and participation in development of courses


 * //Question//**//:// In terms of implications for staff development, is there some opposition between a Canon of Knowledge approach and. a set of conversations and experiences - formal v non-formal?
 * //PK//****:** perhaps we can enhance the quality of those experiences by conversation - content-free but with a shape / purpose
 * //Comment://** I think we are talking about sites for learning (not necessarily physical sites) – activity, curriculum pedagogy – organized through processes that are embedded in units (departments and schools) rather than owned and located in staff development.


 * //Question://** Does the organization of educational development needs to overcome the fallout from modularisation – cramming content into courses but not programme-wide thinking or integration?
 * //PK://** Yes, I think we are proposing a move towards expertise-informed practice. Professional formation needs to cover the full range of achievements for professional practice (for example, self-organisation, passion, working with others)

CONCLUSIONS
Staff/Ed development represents and embodies a particular expertise and set of knowledge / skills. Two questions to ponder: ² Might we be more effective by attempting to steer that learning which is happening anyway? ² Are we yet operating on good theories of how professionals learn across their professional lifetime?

Peter.knight@open.ac.uk and j.tait@surrey.ac.uk 11th December 2006