Professional Development Opportunities
Your School should provide you with some form of professional development, and it should also keep you informed of any other relevant staff professional development activities. Take advantage of these opportunities, as they will help to enhance the learning and teaching experience for you and your students, as well as forming an important part of your career development as a whole.
In addition to these formal opportunities for professional development, you should also have access to informal opportunities, through meetings with your course coordinator, meetings with the teaching team you are a part of, and general interaction with the academics in your School.
Workshops for sessional staff | Workshops for all teachers | Teaching portfolios | Scholarship of Learning and Teaching
Target Group |
Sessional teachers, particularly new staff |
Date |
refer FASS faculty website |
Contact |
Ann Aylmer |
Target Group |
New sessional teachers |
Date |
Module 1: Preparing to tutor Module 2: Facilitating interaction Module 3: Self-Managing Refer ASB faculty website |
Contact
|
Carolyn Cousins |
Target Group |
New sessional teachers |
Date |
Induction Session Date TBA |
Contact |
Jill Cowley |
Target Group |
New and continuing sessional teachers in FBE |
Date |
dates and topics to be confirmed |
Contact |
Nancy Marshall nancym@fbe.unsw.edu.au
|
Target Group |
New and continuing sessional teachers in COFA |
Dates |
dates and topics to be confirmed |
Contact |
Graham Forsyth g.forsyth@unsw.edu.au |
Target Group |
New tutors and lab demonstrators |
Date |
dates to be confirmed |
Contact |
Carol Russell carol.russell@eng.unsw.edu.au |
Support for tutors including learning and teaching training, mentoring and peer observation
and feedback.
Target Group |
Sessional teaching staff |
Date |
Ongoing |
Contact |
Peter Brown peter@maths.unsw.edu.au |
Targeted orientation sessions and training workshops for staff taking on specific roles in the
new medicine program.
Target Group |
Faculty of Medicine full time and casual staff, teaching as scenario group facilitators, communications skills tutors, clinical tutors, ethics tutors and case method tutors |
Date |
Orientation and training workshops are held each year in February and repeated in July as required when new staff join the program |
Contact |
Scenario group facilitators, Case method tutors: Communications skills tutors: Ethics tutors: Clinical tutors: |
Target Group |
New tutors and laboratory demonstrators |
Date |
Contact Edsquad for dates |
Contact |
EdSquad: edsquad@unsw.edu.au |
The UNSW Network in Learning and Teaching (UNILT) workshops are facilitated by academic and professional staff who have a demonstrated interest and expertise in learning and teaching. The facilitators of the workshops come from different disciplines at UNSW and design workshops whose topics take into account the needs of students and staff. Workshops are usually held on Fridays during session (10am-1pm). The workshops are open to all UNSW staff, and they are free.
For further information, visit the link above or contact Jacqui Mcmanus at j.mcmanus@unsw.edu.au
Foundations of University Learning and Teaching (FULT) is a comprehensive program introducing new and existing staff with teaching roles to the principles and practices of learning and teaching at university. The program explores a variety of topics relevant to your teaching role, including the learning process, curriculum development, learning and teaching strategies, educational technology, and approaches to assessment. The program is free to all UNSW staff.
The program consists of an initial five-day workshop and four additional half-day workshops.
Participants will be invited to choose four of the six half-day workshops offered. Details about the half-day workshops will be available following the initial five-day workshop.
Visit the above link for more information, phone extension 55989 or email lt@unsw.edu.au.
For information on other workshops, you can go to Learning & Teaching @ UNSW website - http://www.learningandteaching.unsw.edu.au/content/workshops_events/about_events.cfm?ss=2
or visit the Professional Development Schedule on the UNSW Corporate site - www.unsw.edu.au/learning/pve/developmentschedule.html
Your school should keep you informed about any other professional development opportunities that are relevant to you.
A teaching portfolio is a document that sets out your learning and teaching activities and achievements, and places them within the context of your own learning and teaching philosophy. It presents evidence regarding your effectiveness in teaching as well as evidence relating to your ongoing development as an educator.
You may want to begin the process of developing your own teaching portfolio by recording your reflections as a sessional teacher on the relationships between your teaching and your students' learning, together with evidence of your effectiveness and professional development as an educator. More and more such portfolios are expected in promotion and are perceived very positively when applying for an academic position.
See useful information on preparing a teaching portfolio.
As your experience as a sessional teacher builds, and confidence in
your learning and teaching skills grows, you may find that you want to
engage on a deeper level with issues surrounding student learning, and
effective learning and teaching practice.
SOTL involves:
(Vanderbilt Center for Teaching, 2005, " The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL)", viewed 13 Feb 2008 URL: http://www.vanderbilt.edu/cft/resources/teaching_resources/reflecting/sotl.htm
Getting involved with the Scholarship of Learning and Teaching (SOTL) is an effective way of facilitating this engagement. It's also a great way to build networks, and enhance your learning and teaching career. For a detailed explanation of what constitutes SOTL, in addition to information on how you can become involved in it, please visit the SOTL pages on this website.