Martin Rich

Do teaching fellowships actually improve teaching? If you want to get promoted in UK academia you will probably need to apply for an Advance HE fellowship. But there is widespread scepticism that this extended ‘box-ticking exercise’ improves pedagogy,...

For those interested after today's #LTHEchat, I wrote the 2nd (more positive) part of this article - I think you need a subscription whether insitutional or individual to see it. Do teaching fellowships actually improve teaching? www.timeshighereducation.com/depth/do-tea...

Thanks @richbale.bsky.social for a particularly worthwhile #LTHEchat

That does seem like an opportunity to encourage a continuing interest in pedagogy & in pedagogic innovation & it would be good if an active & lively community of Advance HE fellows could be part of that #LTHEchat 2/2

A6 #LTHEchat it's a cliché to relate this to AI but we're going through a period of change in the way that we consume & interpret information that's at least comparable to emergence of widespread use of the Internet 25 years ago. This has profound implications for HE (& won't make unis obsolete) 1/2

Provide effective & constructive briefing. Recognise that the PSF is sometimes an awkward fit with teaching in some disciplines. Ensure that it's a useful process for personal reflection & not just a hurdle to be jumped over to enhance a CV or gain promotion #LTHEchat 2/2

A5 #LTHEchat this was a big part of my Times Higher article. Link fellowship to other initiatives about learning & teaching - eg a group might work together on a teaching innovation then could apply together for fellowship citing one another as collaborators. Ensure transparency of process 1/2

Completely this! At PFHEA level it's proving really hard to figure out where there's too much 'I' or too much 'we' #LTHEchat

A4 #LTHEchat for me, the teaching team, professional staff across a range of functions & especially those whose role didn't fit into traditional silos, peers in other unis with similar roles, also to some extent students given work on co-creation of material & students as partners

I had a lot of discussions on whether my experience is really PFHEA level especially around strategic impact & what happens beyond my institution given my leadership roles were more focused on what my own uni was doing #LTHEchat

A3 #LTHEchat I found gathering evidence both difficult & worthwhile once I'd done it. There are all sorts of sources but making the connection & getting the level of detail right is tough

A2 #LTHEchat the flip side is that it can look like a tick-box exercise eg when claims are referred on minor but specific points so the feedback is more how to present it than how to do some useful reflection so there's an imperative on mentors in particular to make it constructive

A2 #LTHEchat SFHEA applications in particular, not just my own way back but those I've mentored, & even those which have been difficult to get right, have been really valuable for reflection & identifying relevant case studies. Also the applicants form a useful community of practice

A1 #LTHEchat I should probably also say that I was in formal leadership roles with undergraduate learning, 1st course director then associate dean, for around 13 years before going on sabbatical

It's actually much more difficult to pitch the claim right at D4 than at D3. At D3 there's lots about leading & mentoring others, at D4 there's more tension between emphasising my own work & emphasising what other people have done with my leadership #LTHEchat

A1 #LTHEchat my role right now is a bit unusual because I'm in the middle of a spell of sabbatical from teaching except I've come back to teach - in other words it's a split sabbatical. I'm an education-focused academic in a business school principally working with undergraduates

I’m an SFHEA working on ‘upgrading’ to PFHEA so recognise that there are various poacher/gamekeeper dynamics in that process #LTHEchat 3/3

Also discussing how we could address her concerns so I included I hope constructive ideas on how fellowships could be better implemented in institutions. It was a bit disappointing that some comments on the articles dismissed my colleague’s experience without engaging with her concerns #LTHEchat 2/3

I’m Martin in London. Particularly interested in this #LTHEchat because among other things I had a piece in the Times Higher about fellowships a couple of years ago. A colleague who had very negative experiences of the scheme wrote about these & I did a companion article defending the scheme 1/ 3

Blue rather than green but the end of the New River Path closest into London is very near City St George's Clerkenwell campus - see www.thameswater.co.uk/media-librar...

Quite - there are all sorts of current issues more broadly which aren't necessarily conducive to promoting sustainability (this is BlueSky after all so that's not an unpopular view here) & of course for me at least work/life balance is important. Thanks for a great thought provoking #LTHEchat

A6 #LTHEchat for me specifically? Perhaps go back to my answer to q1 & think about how the lumper/splitter dichotomy works for students in the context of sustainability especially for undergraduates preparing for potentially 40+ years in the workplace

Coming back to the point about greenwash, be prepared to explain it isn't just about putting cardboard boxes in the recycling nor about living an artificially austere life & it has multiple facets #LTHEchat 2/2

It certainly helps if it's recognised as important by the institution. Otherwise there's an element of internal politics: knowing who might be influential & open to pursuing an initiative, knowing when to pursue it, being v clear about the benefits etc #LTHEchat 1/2

A5 #LTHEchat time & institutional support (I should say my own uni is good on the latter). Sustainability should of course run through all that we do but sustainability initiatives do need to compete with others for resources & indeed for staff & student attention

A4 #LTHEchat a lot of my working life at least is about balancing competing pressures & that was a whole lot more the case when I was in leadership roles up until last year. If you recognise the competing pressures & also that you won't always get it right I think you're much of the way there

Thank you - incidentally the video clip is from a C4 programme broadcast in 2019 & is a great conversation starter #LTHEchat

Good question! I think it's valid to ask people in different disciplines why sustainability could be relevant to what they're learning even if the link is tenuous & also how they practise sustainablity in their scholarship #LTHEchat

Apparently the waste from producing Greek yoghurt is highly toxic & its disposal is tightly controlled. I use a 2 minute video clip then start discussion about possibilities: can you detoxify the waste & do things with it, might you try different processes or different types of yoghurt? #LTHEchat

I'd have something on UN sustainable development goals & something to establish embedding sustainability rather than it being a bolt-on. A month & I'd devise something including all of these & also cultivating a holistic approach even for students for whom it doesn't come naturally #LTHEchat 2/2

A3 #LTHEchat given a minute I'd determine a discussion 1 or 2 to get students thinking about sustainabity & ideally different views & perhaps run the Greek Yoghurt/toxic waste exercise that I've used as a wicked problem exercise, a morning & I'd put together a session with something on greenwash 1/2