The University of Western Australia - Faculty of Life and Physical Sciences

MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE FACULTY TEACHING AND LEARNING COMMITTEE

held in Room 1.58, First Floor, Physics Building on Tuesday 9 September 2008

Present:

Professor Geoff Hammond (Chair) Ms Jenny Gamble (Faculty Manager) Dr Nancy Longnecker (CATLyst)

Representatives from Schools: Dr Jan Meyer (Anatomy and Human Biology) Professor Don Robertson (Biomedical, Biomolecular and Chemical Sciences) Dr Vance Locke (Psychology)

Other Representatives: Dr Jane Emberson (Academic Student Advisor) Ms Marjan Heibloem (Representative from FNAS) Dr Mark Cregan (Senior Lecturer/Faculty Offshore Programs Director) Mrs Judy Fetherston (Representative, Faculty Offshore Programs) Ms Felicity Renner (Biological Sciences Library) Ms Jacqueline McNally (Postgraduate Student Representative) Apologies Dr Peter Whipp (Sports Science, Exercise and Health) Associate Professor Ian McArthur (Physics) Associate Professor Les Jennings (Head, School of Mathematics and Statistics) Miss Matilda Oke (Undergraduate Student Representative)

Mrs Kath Williams (Executive Officer)

1. MINUTES

RESOLVED – 11

that the minutes of the meeting of Teaching and Learning Committee held on Tuesday 12 August 2008 be confirmed subject to the following corrections.

• Date of the meeting Tuesday 11 August be changed to Tuesday 12 August

• Item 5. Chairs Report “Teaching and Learning Opportunities Priorities Plan (OPP)” be changed to “Teaching and Learning Operational Priorities Plan (OPP)”

2. DECLARATIONS OF POTENTIAL FOR CONFLICT OR PERCEIVED CONFLICTS OF

INTEREST No declarations of conflict were declared.

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3. ITEMS/BUSINESS IN PROGRESS FOR NOTING SINCE PREVIOUS MEETING

Item/Business in Progress Progress Update Status Teaching and Learning Guide for Faculty Staff. Draft to be checked by

Faculty Student Advisor and Faculty Manager prepared by Ms Heather Morton

On hold.

Identify instances of enquiry-based teaching in their Schools with a view to disseminating these instances more widely in the Faculty.

School representatives to report

To be discussed at October meeting

Faculty policies in relation to scaling. School representatives to identify: 1. what methods of scaling or mark adjustment, if

any, they implement, and 2. what these methods are intended to achieve.

School representatives to report

To be discussed at October meeting

Faculty policies in relation to scaling. Determine if standardised marks can be calculated and reported in SIMS.

Chair and Faculty Manager to report

In progress

The specification of learning outcomes for courses and majors offered in the Faculty.

CATLyst to report at October meeting

4. UNDERGRADUATE LEARNING AND TEACHING RESEARCH INTERNSHIP SCHEME (ULTRIS)

Members were informed of a new research internship scheme designed to provide selected undergraduates the opportunity to undertake research on some aspect of teaching and learning. The scheme (ULTRIS) will offer 10 internships (one per faculty and for the School of Indigenous Studies), each worth $3000. More information about the Internship can be found at: http://www.catl.uwa.edu.au/undergraduate_l_and_t_research_internship Applications close on 3 October 2008 A number of options were considered but it was determined that the project should relate to issues identified in the Faculty Report on student experience, utilise new facilities in the library, which would compliment the FNAS project.

ACTION The CATLyst in consultation with members of the Committee will put forward a proposal.

5. CHAIR’S REPORT

The Chair reported as follows:

• University Policies in Relation to Scaling The Chair informed members that this issue had been raised at a meeting of the Associate Deans. It was clear that University policy requires: Any scaling must be approved by the School or Faculty and any scaling of marks must be described in the assessment mechanism on the relevant unit outline.

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Members requested clarification of mark adjustments for unseen problems. The Chair informed members that students would need to be notified in advance of any adjustments that were applied routinely and systematically. Adjustment of marks for an unforseen problem (such as a systematic discrepancy between markers of an assignment) would not be classed as scaling.

• English Language Skills The Chair reminded members that English Language skills were required to be shown in at least one unit in a major sequence.

ACTION The CATLyst to audit each major sequence to determine whether English Language Competency skills are shown in at least one unit in each year level.

• Restructure of Teaching At the last meeting the issue of implications of Psychology unit restructure on the BSc (Neuroscience) degree were raised. The Chair responded that the Head of School had reassured him that students would not be adversely affected as prerequisites would be removed and this meant that students could take the prescribed unit in either their second or third year of study.

• Review of Assessment

At the meeting the Chair distributed the Report for Faculties on the Review of Assessment at the University of Western Australia (Attachment A).

ACTION Members to consider the report in their Schools for discussion at the October meeting.

6. TEACHING AND LEARNING OPERATIONAL PRIORITIES PLAN (OPP) The top Teaching and Learning priorities indentified by Schools at the July meeting had been circulated to members via email. The following had been identified as priorities:

Anatomy and Human Biology • Sustainable and efficient teaching • The Teaching-Research nexus. Biomedical, Biomolecular and Chemical Sciences • Reviewing efficiency and effectiveness of undergraduate teaching • Continuing to improve undergraduate and postgraduate student experience • Recruitment of high-quality students. Physics • Streamline unit offerings to a high-quality core. Psychology • Teaching infrastructure – offering units in alternate years • Research experience currently available to second-year and third-year students will be

included in the first-year curriculum. Sport Science, Exercise and Health • Reduce staff-student ratios • Upgrade laboratory facilities.

It was agreed that the top three priorities for the Faculty were:

• Sustainable and efficient teaching • The Teaching-Research nexus • Generic student experience.

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RESOLVED – 12

ACTION Faculty manager to add implementation strategies and targets and report back to the Committee and inform the Dean of the top three priorities for the Faculty.

7. ISSUES RELATING TO PSB A question was raised as to whether the Faculty offer a straight BSc through PSB to enable students who have already completed a bachelor’s degree to complete the BSc as a second degree. This would require completing units to the value of a minimum of 72 points, including all requirements of the major sequence. Although this option was available to main campus students it wasn’t available to PSB students apart from Psychology where the students complete a double major in the Graduate Diploma in Psychology (available in 2009). Options put forward for consideration were making BSc Science and Technology available to PSB students or registering the straight BSc with selected majors. The preference was not to offer the BSc. However The Director agreed to conduct some market research in Singapore.

ACTION Academic Student Advisor to consider views and report back to the committee. ACTION Faculty Offshore Programs Director to conduct some market research in Singapore.

The committee was also asked to consider whether students undertaking studies through PSB be allowed to undertake a core unit for a third time within the BSc course. This proposal was not accepted on equity grounds and it was agreed that the current practice of requiring students to complete these units on a ‘Not-for-Degree’ basis continue.

8. TEACHING AND LEARNING INDICATORS At the last meeting members were given a copy of the 2008 Teaching and Learning Indicators. A supplementary report of those indicators indicating where the faculty performed below the average had been emailed to members (Attachment B). It was pointed out that the majority of the data in the Teaching and Learning Indicators 2008 report have been derived from the Australian Graduate Survey and the results were based on the sub-group of graduates who responded to the survey and may not be representative of the overall experiences of all graduates. Furthermore, the measures were largely of student perception of teaching and not objective measures of achievement. The Chair reiterated that the Faculty had scored well and noted that the indicators would be used in distributing the Learning and Teaching Performance Fund (LTPF). Member’s views included:

• Students’ views of what academic staff did differed from the views of the staff themselves • The Completions per Separation rate for the Faculty in 2007 was 72.9%. It was noted that

the BSc was a feeder to other programs. Members agreed that it would be useful to have a breakdown of those students that do not go on to complete their course.

• The Chair had looked back at SURF and Student Surveys in School Reviews relating to Learning Resources and the results were generally positive except for computing facilities in BBCS. This had since been addressed. However a small number of units were consistently rated as being inadequate in relation to learning resources and need to be addressed by Schools.

Any further thoughts that the committee have in relation to this item should be forwarded to the Chair.

ACTION Chair to ask the Director of the Institutional Research Unit if it would be possible to

provide breakdowns of the destination of students who do not complete their course.

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9. TEACHING QUALITY INDICATORS PROJECT UWA is a partner in the Teaching Quality Indicators Project which is supported by the Australian Learning and Teaching Council. A copy of the draft framework for evaluating teaching quality was tabled at the August meeting. The purpose of the project was to develop indicators of good teaching which would help academics (particularly new appointees) develop and document their teaching. The Faculty had been asked to provide feedback by the end of September. The Chair had already responded (i) that detailed prescription of criteria had the potential to stifle creativity in teaching. (ii) that the area of activity defined as integrating scholarship, research and professional activities was too diffuse and needed to be differentiated; and (iii) the different ways in which the teaching and research nexus could be enhanced should be described. Members agreed that the document was useful and should be used as a guide to staff rather than being prescriptive.

ACTION Chair to report back to the Office of the Pro Vice-Chancellor (Teaching and Learning)

10. CATLYST REPORT CATLyst reported that a call for papers had gone out for the States Teaching and Learning Forum to be held 29-30 January 2009 at Curtin University of Technology. Full papers are to be submitted by 24 October 2008. Further details were circulated by email and are available on the web at: http://otl.curtin.edu.au/tlf2008/

11. SCHOOL REPORTS Psychology – Dr Vance Locke reported that the restructure of second and third year units was continuing. Biomedical, Biomolecular and Chemical Sciences (BBCS) – Professor Don Robertson reported that the School was in the process of gathering data on English Language Competency tasks in unit outcomes and determining the specification of learning outcomes for courses and majors. Anatomy and Human Biology (ANHB) – Dr Jan Meyer reported that the School had simplified its occupational health and safety rules to facilitate administration and compliance.

12. STUDENT REPRESENTATIVE REPORT The Postgraduate Student Representative reported that it was important that postgraduate students be aware of the Postgraduate Student Association (PSA), as many postgraduate coursework students were not aware of its existence. Members agreed that the activities of PSA could be provided in schools by Program Coordinators. Details of the association can be viewed on the web at: http://www.psa.guild.uwa.edu.au/

ACTION School representatives to ensure Postgraduate Coordinators make postgraduate students aware of the PSA.

13. ADMISSION TO HONOURS PROCESS A Member requested clarification on admission to Honours process. In particular, whether students were restricted to undertaking honours in the discipline in which they had undertaken their major. The Faculty Manager advised that Schools wishing to admit a student to the honours program who had not completed the appropriate major were required to submit a detailed case that established the relevance of the student’s background to the program.

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14. NEW GRADE FOR FAILED COMPONENT A member requested clarification of the introduction of a new grade ‘FC’ which indicated that although the student had achieved a score greater than or equal to 50% a compulsory component of the unit had been failed. The issue was scheduled for consideration at the next Faculty Board meeting.