SEDA Specials
is a series of relatively short monographs on up-to-the-minute topics
in higher education at a price designed to facilitate wide circulation
among lecturers and support staff. They bring you the distilled
experience and opinions of leading practitioners in a form which is
designed to facilitate easy assimilation by hard-pressed staff. SEDA
Specials provide stimulus for both a greater understanding of
developments in higher education as well as improving professional
practice.
All SEDA Specials are directed at new or relatively inexperienced
lecturers - though experienced lecturers will also find many new ideas
and approaches among the more familiar.
SEDA Specials are attractively printed and presented in an A4 format.
SEDA Staff Induction Portfolios 1 is a folder comprising a compilation
of Specials for easy distribution in handy wallets. Seda Special 34 Evidencing the Value of Educational Development Veronica Bamber ISBN: 978 1 902435 56 5 In the precarious world of educational development, where an
argument for sustainable resources always needs to be made, this Special
advances a number of local and global approaches of how such work is integral
to the future quality of higher education. In very challenging times, this
agenda is too important to ignore. This Special thus addresses a vital topic
for Educational Developers – the ‘impact’ agenda. Editor Roni Bamber advances a
strong argument that goes to the heart of much educational development work,
that of using evidence as a tool of persuasion to encourage colleagues to think
differently about how current imperatives in higher education might effectively
be evaluated.
Rather than impact, Bamber argues – with admiral support
from a range of distinguished contributors – Educational Developers should
instead aim to evidence value. In this publication, a variety of perspectives
are provided to assist others in this important persuasive task. If, as this
publication suggests, ‘impact’ is the wrong target, the educative potential of
the UK and international accounts included here are helpful tools that
Educational Developers can use to influence others – especially senior
colleagues – as to the nature and value of development work. Contributors provide
examples from practice that enable us to reflect on and argue for the value of
what educational development activity can do.
Price: £12.00Seda Special 33 Supporting Educational Change Ranald Macdonald ISBN: 978 1 902435 55 8 This SEDA Special draws together the ways in which academic
and educational developers support change in their institutions and nationally.
It reflects the history of educational change and the role of SEDA’s members
and others in supporting (and leading) educational change over the last 20
years. It is an important text for all innovative teachers, managers,
researchers, learner support staff and others engaged in the improvement of
student learning as it draws on a number of emerging ideas and literatures. With
strong theoretical chapters and fascinating international case studies, readers
will find much to engage with to develop their own practice of working with
change.
Price: £12.00Seda Special 32 Developing Community Engagement Kristine Mason O'Connor and Lindsey McEwen ISBN: 978 1 902435 54 1 Many
students now expect to do some of their coursework “in the community” –
projects, consultancies, reports, advice, research and a host of other forms of
community engagement. Students know they need these sorts of experiences, to
build up their skills and strengthen their employability. Universities know
they need these sorts of links, to support their commitment to community
involvement. Academics know that well-designed community learning can transform
students in so many ways.
This SEDA Special addresses these ideas head on by having as its core aims the
improvement of the student learning experience within the community and
the enhancement of HEIs’ connection with, and overall value to, society.
Drawing on a variety of evidence bases - including five practical case studies
of university community engagement - the Special explores how we can develop
staff capacity for enabling accredited community-based learning, and support,
recognise and reward this range of work. The Special is intended to inform policy
makers, senior managers, educational developers, quality assurance personnel,
course leaders and academic staff, by stimulating debate and discussion around
what constitutes ‘good practice’ in this important but hitherto neglected area.
Price: £12.00Seda Special 31 Putting the 'S' into ED - Education for Sustainable Development in Educational Development Edited by: Debby Cotton, Stephen Sterling, Vivian Neal and Jennie Winter ISBN: 978 1 902435 53 4 How and
why might we embed sustainability in the curriculum, campus and culture of HE
institutions? This is a key current issue, both in the UK and internationally.
This SEDA Special is targeted at the educational development community,
sustainability co-ordinators or others seeking whole-institution change around
sustainability. The wide range of thirteen UK and international authors provide
unique perspectives on issues as diverse as formal and informal learning
through the campus and curriculum, sustainability pedagogies, sustainability
and employability and the development of communities of practice. This Special
is practical and accessible to the non-expert, providing clear advice and
guidance built on contributors’ successes and failures in this fascinating and
important area of rapidly-developing practice. The foreword has been written by
Brian Chalkley, Emeritus Professor at Plymouth University.
Price: £12.00Seda Special 30 Developing Reflective Practice with Early Career Academics Edited by
Louisa Sheward and Marian Renshaw ISBN: 978 1 902435 52 7 This Special takes a novel turn, as it is one of a small number of
publications on developing reflective practice that features the voices of
early-career academics. Actual accounts of critical incidents, their analysis
and potential resolutions, form the core of the Special. From these accounts,
the main concerns of new lecturers, as they begin teaching in higher education,
are foregrounded.
The PGCert programme from which these critical incident analyses are
taken, uses a variety of methods to discuss and encourage reflection on issues
that arise in practice. This approach is explained in Part 1, which gives a
critical overview of the development and support of reflective practice, and
considers the complex concerns around supporting and assessing critical
incident analyses, especially ethical and professional issues. How reflective
practice is modelled and supported in a PGCert programme is detailed. This
summary is followed, in Part 2, by 13 critical incident analyses from a range
of disciplines, volunteered by early-career academics. Concerns range from
issues of student engagement and the pitfalls of technology, to learning to
manage disruptive behaviour. It is hoped that these critical incidents will be
useful to others as a source of discussion in those PGCert programmes that aim
to develop reflective thinking, writing and practice.
Price: £12.00Seda Special 29 Learner Engagement: A Guide to Negotiated Work-Based Learning Mike Laycock ISBN: 978-1-902435-51-0 Recently, government directives have highlighted once again graduate
employability as a key priority for business and emphasised the importance of opportunities
for students to enhance their work-related skills. Work-based learning has been
developing in UK higher education since the early 1990s. Many university
programmes already use workplace problems as a learning resource, involving
students in typical work-based practices such as action learning projects and
individually negotiated learning agreements or contracts. Additionally, the
blurring of the boundaries between learning gained in the HEIs and elsewhere
has gained a foothold over the years in the practice of assessing prior
experiential learning and in accrediting in-company training schemes.
This SEDA Special examines a range of issues surrounding work-based
learning. In particular, it looks at contemporary notions such as ‘employer
engagement’ and ‘employer responsive provision’ and re-evaluates them in the
light of a pedagogically-based perspective which is driven by learner-managed
learning, with the outcomes of that learning negotiated between the learner,
the employer and the academy. The Special also re-examines the on-going debate
about the nature and creation of ‘legitimate knowledge’ and provides an
overview of some practical aspects of the delivery of negotiated work-based
learning and its assessment. Price: £12.00Seda Special 28 Working with Cultural Diversity in Higher Education Edited by
Monika Foster ISBN: 978-1-902435-50-3 This Special includes an introduction
from Monika Foster and overviews from Yvonne Turner and Jude Carroll. Its 16
chapters are in four parts: Supporting induction and transition to UK higher
education; Teaching on cultural diverse programmes; Enhancing the experience of
Chinese students and Enhancing the experience of Indian students.
Is this Special for me?
Aimed at colleagues engaged in work with international students in the
UK HE context in subject studies, staff working in graduate school skills
support, staff working with postgraduate students, staff working on
collaborative programmes overseas and in the UK, colleagues working in educational
development to support tutors on culturally diverse courses and programme
developers and management, this Special deals with the current ‘hot’ topic of
UK HE. This Special builds on Special 23 by taking a wider view of culturally
diverse education and the opportunities it offers. It does so by providing
unique insights and advice on teaching and supporting international students
and looking into ways of making the multicultural environment work for all and
so promises to be relevant to a wider educational audience.
Price: £12.00Seda Special 27 Creating a Profession - Building Careers in Educational Development Edited By Stuart Boon, Bob Matthew and Louisa Sheward ISBN: 978 1 902435 49 7 This SEDA
Special explores the career development of educational developers at a time
when educational development units and developers themselves are seen as being
increasingly important in informing and supporting the quality enhancement
agenda within higher education. Through a series of personal reflective
accounts, this volume examines the career paths taken by a number of
educational developers at various stages in their careers and includes the
profiles of professionals from the UK,
Ireland, Australia and North America.
By providing a rich and detailed snapshot of the state of educational
development in HE today, this publication sets out to inform the sector,
institutions and individuals alike, and by providing some answers – while posing
even more questions –
the editors hope to open a dialogue concerning the future professional
development and support of educational developers within HE.
Price: £12.00Seda Special 26 Students Supporting Students Edited by Jacqueline Potter and Daphne Hampton ISBN: 978-1-902455-48-0
Ten years ago the practice of structured approaches to enable students to support their fellow students was only just beginning to emerge within the context of UK higher education. Since then many universities have introduced peer learning and student-to-student mentoring schemes. This volume presents five contemporary case studies which showcase different approaches to students supporting students and which emphasise the importance of peer learning schemes, demonstrating the breadth and richness of positive impacts such schemes can have. Examples are included of peer learning across and within disciplines, within and outside the taught curriculum and within on- and off-campus settings. Each example encompasses the deliberative, critical examination and evaluation of each scheme in relation to its purpose or purposes, and the strength of evidence – with particular emphasis on the student voice – from which summary implications are drawn by the authors. The case studies are positioned within the wider context of contemporary issues which educational developers set at the heart of their work and practice – student retention, student engagement and student success. This volume offers readers the opportunity to reflect on the ideas presented here and to adopt or adapt them to the diverse contexts of their own institutional needs and priorities.
Price: £12.00Seda Special 25 Personal Tutoring in Higher Education - Where Now and Where Next? Mike Laycock ISBN: 978 1 902435 46 6 British higher education has always had a reputation for good personal tutoring but, as Mike Laycock writes: “… the personal tutor system has been under strain for some time.” In this extensive literature survey he extracts the core issues, such as which model a university might be using, who is doing the tutoring, what sort of tutorial relationships are they forming, what might be the benefits and the costs, and how any system might be supported.
He analyses the various models which are being deployed and offers many case studies which show recent and interesting developments. In particular, he explores the relationship between personal tutoring and widening participation, retention, the first year experience, on-line and distance learning and Personal Development Planning. He also explores the business case for investment in this area, and the staff development implications of the models in use.
The special is also intensely practical, as Mike Laycock summarises his survey with a full set of recommendations for future action. The bibliography comprises nearly 200 items, giving the full background to this vitally important subject. Price: £12.00Seda Special 24 Supporting Academic Writing Among Students and Academics Edited by Sarah Moore ISBN: 978 1 902435 44 2 For the latest SEDA Special, a team of experts from across the sector contribute to addressing the critical subject of writing effectively in academia, producing information for the benefit of a wide range of education professionals including lecturers, developers and support providers. The challenges of learning how to write, when to write and how to improve both the standard of writing and the ease with which writing can be accomplished are explored from the points of view of both students and staff. This Special includes a series of exercises designed to provoke thought, assist planning and provide templates for creating writing programmes or informal courses at all levels of higher and further education. Price: £12.00Seda Special 23 Enhancing the Experience of Chinese Students in UK Higher Education - Lessons from a Collaborative Project Edited by Monika Foster ISBN: 978 1 902435 42 8 This SEDA Special takes an international theme, addressing the experiences of Chinese students studying higher education courses both in the UK and on collaborative programmes with British universities in China. Using the results of an innovative and impressive two-year project involving colleagues and students in China and in the UK, as well as current research, contributors explore methods aimed at helping Chinese students to cope with, and excel at, their studies in the UK.
In Part One British and Chinese contributors discuss the cultural impacts and implications for students and teachers, including advice on how both parties can adapt to each other.
In Part Two, Chinese academics discuss the principal challenges Chinese students face when interacting and learning in English and adapting to a new learning environment. Price: £11.00Seda Special 22 Student Engagement Len Hand and Colin Bryson ISBN: 978 1 902435 40 4 What is meant by the term engagement? What is the importance of engagement for students and teachers in higher education? And, perhaps most importantly, what causes students to engage or not to engage with their university education? This publication seeks to answer these questions and looks at the role student transition, student support and assessment can play in enhancing engagement. It will be useful for anyone faced with the challenge of improving levels of student engagement in their institution. Price: £11.00Seda Special 21 SEDA PDF - A Tool for Supporting and Structuring Continuing Professional Development Frameworks Ruth Pilkington ISBN: 978 1 902435 38 1 This SEDA Special explores how the SEDA Professional Development Framework (SEDA PDF) can be used to award, structure and inform the CPD frameworks that may arise within organisations as a result of the current drive to professionalise and assure HE professional development. It provides a means of mapping SEDA PDF awards onto the UK Professional Standards Framework descriptors and uses a series of case studies to show how awards have been used by institutions, as well as how SEDA PDF has been applied to institution-wide CPD Frameworks. Whatever your role and context, this publication provides an invaluable tool for comparison and development. It ensures you are able to inform your work with a stronger understanding of the options and approaches available nationally through SEDA with respect to CPD. Price: £11.00Seda Special 20 Leading Educational Change Edited by Bland Tomkinson ISBN: 978 1 902435 37 4 This SEDA Special presents a series of essays, by authors with experience as Heads of Educational Development units, looking at some of the strategic issues in running educational development units. In addition to chapters on what leadership means in this context and a background of educational development in the UK, there is discussion of the links between educational development and strategy and also with the scholarship of teaching and learning. Price: £11.00Seda Special 19 Enhancing University Teaching Through the Effective Use of Questionning Mike Watts and Helen Pedrosa ISBN: 1 902435 35 4 In this new SEDA Special, authors and experts address a fundamental facet of education, the role of questioning. The three sections of the paper contain articles which discuss and explore how teachers and learners can structure, improve and deepen their learning experience by asking the right questions, and how classroom questioning can be used and enhanced. Price: £11.00Seda Special 18 Employability: a rationale and examples of practice Edited by Mantz York, Ruth Pilkington and Kristine Mason O'Connor ISBN: 1 902435 30 3 This publication arose from a joint SEDA-ESECT event attended by representatives from over thirty HEIs. It is a must for all HEI institutional strategic planners, curriculum designers, academic staff, educational developers and careers advisers who are committed to promoting the employability of their graduates. Price: £10.00Seda Special 17 Developing and Assessing Students' Oral Skills Gina Wisker ISBN: 1 902435 29 X This SEDA Special looks at the development and assessment of oral skills in Higher Education, focusing on the shy fresher through to the PhD candidate. The collection is a mixture of short, sharp pieces exploring various practices and successful strategies, which colleagues might like to alter and develop for their own context, and longer more reflective research and/or evidence-based essays that consider strategies in practice over time.
It considers a variety of learning and teaching practices and strategies related to underpinning learning and teaching theories. It also provides some opportunity to speculate on what skills are to be learnt and how we might ensure that there are explicit criteria for their assessment, appropriately managed and observed by a variety of colleagues. It is intended to be useful for colleagues in a variety of subject areas and different roles in Higher Education, whether lecturers or learning and teaching advisers, staff developers or learning support colleagues. Price: £10.00Seda Special 16 Equality, Diversity and Inclusivity: curriculum matters Christine Talbot ISBN: 1 902435 28 1 This SEDA Special is intended primarily for those who are relatively new to teaching in Higher Education, although it is also likely to be of interest to those who have been working in the field for some time but who wish to consider the issues of ‘ Equality, Diversity and Inclusivity' in the Curriculum in more depth than hitherto.
The Workbook briefly reviews (by way of background) statistical information on the student body, the broader context of Higher Education in the UK, particularly in relation to the widening participation agenda and the 2003 White Paper ‘The Future of Higher Education', and recent ‘equality' legislation.
It looks in detail at ways in which those involved in teaching and learning in Higher Education can influence the curriculum in order to ensure that no students are discriminated against in the process of learning and teaching and, further, that all students are positively affirmed as individuals in the course of their studies. It does this via a consideration of the content and the delivery of the curriculum, an examination of the use of ICTs, and finally by taking a close look at assessment.
Attention is paid to the particular needs of overseas students and disabled students as well as to the needs of women and mature entrants, of UK students from a variety of racial, ethnic and religious backgrounds, and of students of different sexual orientations. There are many examples of good practice drawn from a variety of sources and ample opportunities to reflect upon your own attitudes and practices in this area.
The author is Learning Development Officer at the University of Leeds . She has a wide experience of teaching in schools, further and higher education and has conducted research in the areas of race and gender issues. Price: £10.00Seda Special 15 Employability: learning through partnership with employers Ruth Pilkington ISBN: 1 902435 27 3
Income generation, work-related
learning, PDP, employability, learning organisations. Can all these concepts be
linked? They can be and are as this resource for staff developers shows. The
publication is a result of experience drawn from working on a number of
projects. It shows how working with employers can create opportunities, which
can support learning for individuals, organisations and academic communities,
for example.We all recognise that work placements can provide a wealth of
learning for students, but they can also be exploited to create valuable
learning opportunities for staff, employers and departments. The publication
suggests how this might be managed and supported by staff developers, managers
and organisations using examples from practice. Work placements form only one
aspect of a whole range of work-related learning activity that forms part of a
progression of experience which can be focused under the terms PDP and
employability. The paper suggests a series of models and tools to support
discussion and the embedding of these concepts. Often the responsibility for
supporting new initiatives such as those around placements, employability, and
collaboration with employers is left with isolated individuals in the field. The
text explores how this might be brought into the systems and processes of the
organisation in order to secure valuable knowledge and experience for the
organisation. It offers case studies and ideas for how staff developers might
support this.
Aimed primarily at staff and education developers, but also of value to academic departments and managers, this text is a resource offering ideas, models and tools for exploring and embedding some of the most keenly debated issues around how we can bring employers into higher education and make employability a living part of academic activity.
Price: £10.00Seda Special 13 Practical Ideas for Enhancing Lectures P Davies ISBN: 1 902435 23 0 This Special deals with a crucial issue for all HE and FE lecturers - how to improve the quality of lectures - and outlines a range of practical ideas and strategies around eight key headings. Price: £10.00Seda Special 11 Academic Tutoring K Mason O'Connor and L Oates ISBN: 1 902435 07 9 This publication considers the purposes of academic tutorials in the context of recent changes within the higher education sector. It identifies a range of tutoring skills and good practice appropriate to face to face tutorials and tutoring at a distance. Price: £10.00Seda Special 5 Developing Your Teaching Through Reflective Practice Liz Beaty ISBN: 0 946815 74 7 Looks at the nature of professional development; professional development and reflective practice; continuing professional development; plus ways of developing teaching practice, including collecting student feedback, observation of teaching, action learning, researching teaching etc. Price: £10.00Seda Special 3 Getting to Grips with Assessment Sally Brown and Brenda Smith ISBN: 0 946815 59 3 Includes assessment by principle; assessment issues; assessment methods;
choosing appropriate methods; streamlining assessment; plus difficult questions
students may ask and an 'assessment manifesto'. Price: £10.00Seda Special 2 Teaching and Learning in Small Groups Ranald Macdonald ISBN: 0 946815 64 X A very useful introduction, which is also partly in a workbook format. It covers
principles and guidelines; when and why to use groups; types of groups; focusing
groups; group skills; group activities; the role of the tutor; what can go
wrong; assessing group work. Price: £10.00Seda Special 1 Lecturing to Large Groups Brenda Smith ISBN: 0 946815 54 2 An excellent introduction and with advice, useful techniques, and pedagogical explanations. Can be used as a workbook because it is liberally interspersed with activities and mini-assignments for the reader. Short, well laid out, but comprehensive. Price: £10.00Seda Special SIP1 Staff Induction Portfolio Various Authors ISBN: 0 902435 32 X
Contains:
SEDA Special 1 - Lecturing to Large Groups
SEDA Special 2 - Teaching and Learning in Small Groups
SEDA Special 3 - Getting to Grips With Assessment
SEDA Sepcial 5 - Developing Your Teaching Through Reflective Practice
SEDA Special 13 - Practical Ideas for Enhancing Lectures
Discounts are available for purchase of multiple copies: