Developing and Implementing your departmental change initiative Mick Healey HE Consultant and Researcher

A warning to us all A conference is a gathering of important people who singly can do nothing, but together can decide that nothing can be done. Fred Allen

Developing and implementing your departmental change initiative A. Creative Thinking 1 Share and prioritise ideas within teams (45 mins) 2 Identify question / issue your team would like help with (10 mins) B. Liquid Café Issues in developing and implementing your departmental change initiative (35 mins) 4 Plenary discussion (10 mins)

Creative thinking In your group individually write down on post-its your ideas for developing and implementing your departmental change initiative One idea per post-it Doing things better versus doing better things Developing unique selling point Implementing the University Strategy

Creative thinking In a round each of you should read out one idea and without elaboration or comment add it to the flip chart. Keep going until all the ideas have been added.

Action planning As a group allocate each idea to one of: a)Common and feasible b)Innovative and feasible c)Innovative but not yet feasible Discard any ideas you feel are common but not feasible.

Action planning Innovative Not yet feasible Innovative Feasible Not yet feasible Feasible Common Innovative Common Feasible

Prioritisation Each person should individually vote (by putting their mark on the relevant post-its) for the three ideas that they would prioritise for moving your departmental change initiative forward.

Action planning Each team should agree THREE ideas that they are going to prioritise in the next 6-12 months.

Identify team question / issue Each team should come up with ONE question / issue you would like to discuss with others present in the room. This is best phrased as an open question e.g. How can we best engage students in giving peer feedback? How can we persuade other members of the department to implement our departmental change initiative to …..? Write the question on a piece of paper ALONG WITH YOUR TEAM INSTITUTION AND DEPARTMENT and give to me to display.

Developing and Implementing your departmental change initiative Liquid Cafe

Liquid Café Write your Q at the top of the flip chart. Summarise your project on a piece of paper in no more than two sentences. One person from each team should act as table host Stimulate discussion around your Q Capture main ideas discussed (text, pictures, diagrams etc). Others should participate in discussions at other tables – add ideas to flip charts Law of two feet 20 mins

Questions for discussion 1.How can we engage students to act upon the feedback that they receive? (LSBU – STEM & Social Work) 2.What are the most efficient and effective ways of creating a personal dialogue with students around assessment and feedback? (Huddersfield) 3.What interventions are you aware of which have enhanced assessment and feedback OR academic support? (LSBU Law) 4.How can we create a culture where staff can constructively critique each other? (Hull)

Questions for discussion 5.How can we enhance student engagement and participation in group work? (Aberystwyth) 6.How can we improve students perception of their own progress? (LSBU – Arts & Media) 7.How can we best engage professionals who have a teaching role? (QUB – Medicine) 8.How do we overcome institutional barriers to encourage inter-disciplinarity in teaching & learning? (QUB – Creative Arts; RGU – Pharmacy)

Reflection and action planning Please return to your team table Table host should brief the other team members with the main points of the discussion (5 mins) Agree action points you want to implement (5 mins)

Plenary What ideas have arisen from the creative thinking and Liquid Café sessions which are applicable beyond your specific departmental change initiative?

THE END For more pictures and a 1.5 min movie of Tess see: