1. APP PGR: Workshop 1
Course introduction,
Reflective Practice and
Teaching Philosophy

2. Find someone who……
• Help yourself to tea and coffee, and find somewhere to
sit.
• Write your name in bold on a large post-it note.
• Activity: Use the sheet on your table to start a
conversation with others in the room, by finding
someone who fits each criteria. Write their name in the
box (try to find a different person for each box).

4. Student and tutor ‘pledge’
• To get to know you and
support you on the
course.
• To model good practice in
teaching and learning.
• To share methodology
and resources.
• To reflect regularly
• To make the APP PGR as
relevant, useful and
enjoyable as possible
• To be contactable
• To listen to you
• To engage with an open
mind and willingness to
learn.
• To think about your own
subject discipline in
relation to the course.
• To try out all activities
and approaches.
• To engage with your
fellow students on the
course.
• To reflect regularly
• To read pedagogic
literature
tutor students

5. Learning outcomes (workshop 1)
• To clarify the constituent parts of the APP PGR
and understand its position in the Higher
Education teacher training framework.
• To familiarise yourself with the e-portfolio and
begin to edit it.
• To reflect on who you are as a teacher, by
beginning to construct a Teaching Philosophy.
• To examine a range of models and examples of
reflective practice.

6. The APP framework

7. APP PGR + Postgraduate Award
To start the programme, students should have completed the
Preparing to Teach introduction and Moodle content, have
supervisor approval and 15 hours of teaching.

8. Key tenets of the course
• Core and free choice workshops for experiential learning
• Moodle space for course management, dialogue, resources,
online activities and groups.
• Digital badges for formative, peer assessment
• E-Portfolios for assessed pieces and reflective practice.
• Twitter hashtag for shared endeavours and announcements
#apppgr
• Subject mentor for coaching and teaching observations
• Assessed pieces working towards Associate Fellowship status
• Reflective practice over the duration of the pathway
• Engagement with pedagogic literature – both generic and
discipline-specific

9. Situating the APP PGR
Departmental
/institutional
context
community
Local
community of
practice
(group/course)
E-portfolio
and reflective
practice
Workshops
and assessed
pieces
Teaching
and learning
in higher
education
and beyond
Higher
Education
Academy
Pedagogic
literature
Discipline or
field

10. The UKPSF
(Higher Education Academy)
Activity: Where do you ‘sit’ in relation
to this? Take some time to complete a
brief, initial self-assessment against
the dimensions of the framework.
Write notes, draw pictures but keep
this draft document.
• The UKPSF is a national framework by
which all who work in teaching and
learning in HE can benchmark their
skills, knowledge and experiences.
• Achieving a level of HEA fellowship is a
recognised status and ‘teaching
qualification’.

11. Integrative learning through
e-portfolios
Cognitive
PhysicalAffective
Knowledge,
Analysis,
Synthesis and
Evaluation
Academic
‘norms’ (e.g.
referencing)
Attitude, self,
emotions,
identity,
change
Curation,
‘craft’, digital
literacies,
publication,
management

12. Celebrating the ‘it’
“It changed
my life..”
“This the best
thing I have
ever done!”
“I always thought I enjoyed taught
courses where you go along and take
notes etc - this course was more
interactive - learning from each other,
sharing experiences , which I really
enjoyed. It has impacted on my teaching a
lot - I stress to my students now that by
taking part in discussions, helping each
other generate ideas for written work etc
they will learn a lot more than just by
listening to me.”
‘Transformation’ in perspective and professional identity
from an Teacher Trainee at Warwick

13. Digital badges
• A recent development in distance and online learning, digital badges can
account for competences, skills and knowledge acquired on a course, as well
as being used to motivate and encourage persistence.
• They are closely linked to the concept of ‘gamification’, another
phenomenon which has been of recent interest in education.
• On APP PGR we will experiment with digital badges as a learning community
– students, tutors and course administrators can award our badges.
Activity: In small groups consider the criteria for each of our digital badges.

14. Teaching Philosophy
• One of the assessed pieces in the e-portfolio is
a Teaching Philosophy statement.
• This sets a baseline for your practice, but is
also an evolving account of yourself as a
teacher.
• Your teaching philosophy evolves from your
own experiences as a learner, experiences as
you think and teach and the influences of your
peers, institution and literature.

15. Lenses for reflection
Brookfield’s lenses, accessed at:
http://molingchui.myblog.arts.ac.uk/files/2015/09/reflection-02-new.jpg 09/10/16 ; 18:15

16. Rich pictures to evolve thinking
Rich pictures are used for
articulating a state of
‘unknowing’, dealing with
emerging themes and
starting a process or
enquiry.
• Use little or no words
• Draw or add
meaningful images
• Capture chaos and the
‘unknown’
• Explorative, narrative,
playful
Activity: Engage in a rich picture exercise as
the basis for your teaching philosophy
statement. Work alone initially, but you will
be invited to share with a peer as part of the
exercise.

17. What is reflective practice?
Activity: Work in small groups to discuss what you understand
by reflective practice.
This could include:
• Broadly, what the term might mean.
• Specifically what you might reflect on, when and why.
• How a teacher might reflect

18. Reflection in/on action
• Schon (1991) describes a model
of reflection ‘in’ and ‘on’ action.
• There are many other models of
reflective practice, which have
evolved from theories of
experiential learning (Dewey, for
example) and from professional
practice.
• Reflective practice is a
ubiquitous theme in teacher
education, but can be a
transformative tool and pivotal
to developing pedagogical
understanding.

19. Activity: considering different models
• Look over the model you have been presented with
• Make sure the model is clear to everyone in the group.
• Use the Internet to find out a little more about the
model/add some details to your understanding.
• See if you can come up with at least one example of this
model ‘in action’ (this might be based on your own
experiences or an example you find online).
• Be prepared to disseminate your findings to others.
Models of reflective practice

20. Trigger Incidents

21. I look back at this experience confused by my attitude on entry. I entered the class
interested and open minded at the opportunity of learning some tactics. However, I
came out with a completely new philosophy towards being a teaching assistant, and
ultimately a teacher in the future. I entered attempting to find ways to simplify my job
and make it easier, but came out inspired to potentially become a teacher in HE as a
career. This motivation continued as I began to apply a new attitude and strategy in
my class room.
On entry into the workshop, my expectations were to learn strategies which
minimise: dry mouth, increased heart rate, feeling of dread, nerves about students
knowing more than me.
I left the workshop inspired to fulfill these myself, but still uncertain; it was only once
went into my first class four days later where I attempted group work for the first
time, I could see the alternative feelings of satisfaction, definitive learning from
students, student satisfaction and decreased nerves. In addition, I received voluntary
verbal feedback from several students stating that they really enjoyed my lesson.

22. What are we reflecting about?

23. Activity: Look at the examples of reflections from real
students (teacher trainees). Rank these pieces of writing in
terms of their ‘reflectiveness’.
You might like to consider:
• Use of language (which words indicate reflective practice?)
• Tone (formal, informal, professional,other?)
• Content – what they are writing about
Be prepared to share your thoughts with the whole group.
Analysing writing

24. Reflections on the course
Things you might reflect on:
• The workshops (core and free choice)
• Critical/trigger incidents in your teaching
• Departmental occurrences/meetings/decisions
• Events, conferences and other activities
• Your readings in the literature and/or sector materials,
including news items.
• The assessed pieces in your e-portfolio
• Anything else!

25. Feedback on reflections

26. Critical closing questions
Can you identify ways in which your knowledge,
understanding or views have shifted, as a result of
attending Workshop 1?
Can you identify one (or more) teaching/learning
methods or resources that you have used today that
you could take forward into your own practice?

27. Things to do before the next
session…
• Establish a subject mentor in your department
• Familiarise yourself with your e-portfolio and add some notes to the
UKPSF or Teaching Philosophy sections.
• Write a short reflection on Workshop 1 in your journal (use one of the
reflective models to start you off).
• Use the Group forum or chat facility or take to Twitter to talk about
the first workshop.
• Complete the post-workshop evaluation form in Moodle to
gain your first digital badge!
• Get in touch with the APP PGR team if you have any questions:
apppgr@warwick.ac.uk