Values in Higher EducationApplying a disciplinary lens

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Overview•W

hat do we mean by values and why do they matter in HE?•C

ase studies (as methodology and example)•A

rticulating participants’ own values/ethical principles• Personal, institutional and disciplinary perspectives

•Values, teaching and curriculum design

•Locating values in practice: further work

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Why explore values?

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Activity 1: What do we mean by values?

•Please make some notes about what you understand by the term ‘values’.

•Please identify about 3 values that you feel are inherent in higher education.

•Discuss these ideas in groups of 3 or 4.

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Why address values in HE practice?•V

alues are at the heart of our identities as academics, and they shape our decisions as teachers and researchers. Yet, values and ethics in university teaching feature less frequently than we might expect in professional development courses for academics.

•Bruce Macfarlane, suggests that there is a dearth of literature on the topic of 'managing the ethical implications of teaching in modern higher education', and he calls for the bridging of the gap between a professional competency approach to teaching in HE and the 'ethical complexities' of being a university teacher. (Macfarlane, 2004)

•Gap between teaching of ‘techniques’ in HE CPD courses and engaging in ethics, values, politics and social context for higher education. (Malcolm and Zukas, 2001)

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Case studies and dilemmas

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Case studies

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Activity 2: Working with case studies•P

lease see the handout entitled ‘Values in HE case studies’ and select 2 cases to consider.

•Please consider the cases from a disciplinary perspective.

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Activity 3: Developing a case study or dilemma

•Please think of an experience that you have encountered in your practice that has posed a sort of dilemma for you as a teacher. Please draft a rough case study from this material.

•Please share your rough draft with others in the group:• To what extent is this dilemma specific to your discipline?• To what extent could the thinking around this case study

usefully involve people from other disciplines?

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Examining and articulating values

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UKPSF statement of professional valuessource: UK Professional Standards Framework for teaching and supporting learning in higher

education

Professional Values

•V

1 Respect individual learners and diverse learning communities •V

2 Promote participation in higher education and equality of opportunity for learners

•V3 Use evidence-informed approaches and the outcomes from research, scholarship and continuing professional development

•V4 Acknowledge the wider context in which higher education operates recognising the implications for professional practice

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Activity 4: Examining value statements•P

lease listen to Dr Holly Smith interrogating the HEA 2006 values:

•Please consider the 2011 HEA value statements:• How would you amend these values?• Are there values you would like to add? • This is a generic set of values. What discipline-specific values would you add to

the list?

•Please discuss your amendments in pairs.

• (adapted from an exercise developed by Holly Smith)

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Disciplinary values

Please find a set of values articulated by your discipline. Sources for such a set might include

• Professional disciplinary bodies• HEA – subject repositories• Faculty or departmental statements

Law Society 2010 Manifesto

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Activity 5: Critically examining disciplinary values

The aim of this activity is for participants to develop a critique of the disciplinary values that you have identified. Here are some questions that might help:

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hat assumptions are made in the statement(s) you’ve found? •W

ho benefits from your acceptance of them? •W

ho might disagree with them? •A

re there any contradictions between them? •W

hat are the implications for academic practice?•T

o what extent are these values in accordance with the HEA value statement that we’ve just considered.

•What might you amend or add?

(Adapted from Smith, H. 2011)

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Examining practice through a ‘values’ lens

•Curricular perspective (teaching content)• Where are the values of your discipline present in the

curriculum?• Would you like to foreground values in your curricula?

•Pedagogical perspective (teaching practice)• How are your values realised in your teaching?• Are there ways of further grounding your teaching practice

in your values (personal, professional and/or disciplinary)?

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References•H

arland, T. and Pickering, N. (2011) Values in Higher Education Teaching London: Routledge.

•Macfarlane, B . (2004)Teaching with Integrity London: Routledge.

•Malcolm, J. and Zukas, M. (2001) ‘Bridging pedagogic gaps: conceptual discontinuities in higher education. Teaching in Higher Education, 6 (1), pp. 33-42.

•Smith, H. (2011) ‘Audio Commentaries: HEA Values’ - MP3 produced for the CPD4HE project: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/calt/cpd4he .

• Smith, H. (2011) ‘Values in HE’. OER module produced for the CPD4HE project: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/calt/cpd4he.

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Learning Resource MetadataField/Element Value:Title Disciplinary Thinking – Values: Workshop slides

Description Presentation slides for a workshop on values in HE teaching and academic practice

Theme Values

Subject HE - Education

Author Colleen McKenna & Jane Hughes: HEDERA, 2012

Owner The University of Bath

Audience Educational developers in accredited programmes & courses in higher education.

Issue Date 24/05/2012

Last updated Date 02/08/2012

Version final

PSF Mapping A1, A4, A5, K1, PV1, PV2, PV4

License Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.

Keywords ukoer, education, discthink, disciplinary thinking, hedera, university of bath, values, academic practice

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