Presentation at The Future of Postgraduate Education Conference 12th June 2014 Inside Government

1. Developing learning and teaching in
postgraduate education?
A tale of one programme’s development
Dr Katy Vigurs
EdD Programme Director
School of Education
Staffordshire University

2. Programme Values?
• Applying the Learning Brokerage framework:
– Understanding the current situation
– Gaining entry and building trust
– Making learning meaningful
– Promoting learning success
– Addressing organisational issues
(Thomas et al., 2005)

3. Context is everything?
• Working to understand the current EdD situation
– Who are our students?
• Full-time education professionals / part-time students
• Home students / living and working in England
• Aged 35 – 60
• Juggling many identities / roles – very busy people
• Non-traditional doctoral students?
– What are their ‘needs’?
– Use understanding gained to inform programme
delivery

4. Relationships matter
• Building trust with EdD students
– Establishing positive relationships from the start
– Challenging assumptions about effective
relationships for learning in doctoral study
– Demonstrate interest and professional respect – a
more equal footing?
– Be human and humane

5. Fostering student learning
• Making EdD learning meaningful and authentic
– Strategies for building a community of researchers
and connecting to existing communities
• Cohort level
• Across the cohorts
• Across the wider EdD community
• Across the wider education research community
– Developing learning through real research
scenarios – provide a ‘research team’ experience
– Selection of guest lecturers – communicate ‘warts
and all’ approach to research

6. Supporting students to achieve goals
• Promoting EdD learning success – developing
researchers
– Ongoing research skills audit and action planning –
foster autonomy and responsibility
– Student research blogs – sharing & debating
– Peer mentoring relationships
– Personal tutoring in programme stage
– Preparation through assessments set
– Formal assessment feedback
– Informal support and feedback: conference
presentations, development of abstracts and articles
– Invitation to weekend writing retreats
– Signposting to other developmental opportunities

7. Addressing organisational issues
• Maintaining an EdD programme team that includes
colleagues who are:
– Active researchers – role models
– Networked – currency and connections
– Passionate and enthusiastic - inspiring
– Responsive and flexible – always learning and adapting
– Open and transparent – making visible academic life
– Community members – contribute to research community
– Digitally literate – digital pedagogies and interactions
– Engaged in development of postgraduate education –
identifying and using resources (e.g. Vitae RDF)

8. Concluding comments
• Why did our students nominate us for ‘Best
Teaching Team’ at the Prospects Awards?
• Is there anything innovative about our
approach?
• Would our current approach to learning and
teaching in the EdD be the same if the student
body was different?
• What different relationships for learning exist
in postgraduate education?

9. References
• Thomas, L., Slack, K., Thexton, W., Vigurs, K.,
Casey, L., Quinn, J. and Flynn, N. (2005)
Learning brokerage: Building bridges between
learners and providers, London: LSRC.
http://eprints.staffs.ac.uk/1174/1/2005_Learning_Brokerage_Report_-_Workpackage_2.pdf