Red U (Nov 2015)
Developing teachers in veterinary education
Abstract
There is increased recognition that teachers in further and higher education should be trained in teaching, learning and assessment to support more effective student learning. However, there are challenges in training these teachers, who are disciplinary specialists with heavy workloads and no time to study. As ‘education’ is a discipline with its own epistemology, engaging these teachers involves demonstrating this difference at the outset and providing opportunities for them to integrate their own discipline-specific practice to personalize the training. We describe a postgraduate certificate course that was designed as discipline-specific training for teachers in the veterinary and paraveterinary sectors. Participants underwent an experiential learning cycle by becoming ‘students’, and had ‘first-hand’ experience in understanding how their own students learn, how best to utilize different teaching methods and how assessments can drive learning. The central philosophy of the course was to develop a reflective practitioner and this was achieved using a tutor-tutee model with formative feedback. The course was delivered in face-to-face (F2F) mode and by distance-learning (DL) to widen access and flexibility. Through the integration of F2F and DL modes, all participants experienced the use of technology in educational design and delivery. The demographics of the 152 participants of the program, which has been running since 2010, show that the majority is veterinarians working in further and higher educational institutes and are early to mid-career academics. Additionally, 25% of the participants are from outside the UK showing the need for a discipline-specific course that can be studied at a distance.
