Higher Education Funding Council for England

Centre for Higher Education Practice, The Open University

HEFCE 99/55

September 1999

Institutional learning and teaching strategies

A guide to good practice

This document contains the Contents and Executive Summary only. The full report is available in Word or RTF formats.

Contents

Executive summary

1. This guide has been written to support institutions as they prepare their learning and teaching strategy and plan for the implementation of their strategy, in advance of responding to the HEFCE by 31 January 2000. It was written by Professor Graham Gibbs of the Centre for Higher Education Practice, the Open University and is intended to provide institutions with guidance and inspiration when developing their learning and teaching strategies. Further details about the HEFCE initiative and funding support can be found in paragraphs 15-18 and in HEFCE 99/48 published in July 1999.
2. The guidance in this document builds on what is currently taking place, and what has been learnt by institutions, so as to share best practice. Institutions vary enormously and are at different stages of development of their strategies, and there is much to learn from others’ experience. Brief case studies have been included, drawn from a range of mainly English universities, institutes and colleges. These case studies have been anonymised.
3. The guidance draws on a survey of current practice (Annex 1), the literature on learning and teaching (Annex 2) the literature on organisational change (Annex 3), on research into innovation in learning and teaching (Annex 4), and developments in the use of learning and teaching strategies in other countries (Annex 5).
4. Learning and teaching strategies are not developed from a blank sheet, but build on existing institutional practice and structures, and in particular on existing mission statements, policies, quality assurance systems and change mechanisms. Such development is considered in paragraphs 33-43.
5. There is no blueprint for learning and teaching strategies, in terms of either documentation or management and implementation. Institutions are trying to achieve different things with their strategies, and this inevitably means that strategies look very different from each other.
6. Different types of institutions also tend to have characteristically different strategies and to implement them in different ways, though differences are not as wide as one might expect. Institutional size has more impact than institutional type. The purposes of learning and teaching strategies are considered in paragraphs 25-32.
7. Despite these differences, there are common components to comprehensive strategies. Without some of these components it is less likely that a strategy will be implemented or will achieve what is intended. These components are considered in paragraphs 44-58.
8. Developing a strategy that staff understand and believe in can take a considerable amount of time and effort, but without this investment it may not be possible to implement a strategy effectively.
9. Implementing a strategy successfully may require co-ordinated action across a range of functions, policies and existing committees. One strength of the use of learning and teaching strategies is the increased co-ordination and focusing of effort to improve teaching.
10. Implementing learning and teaching strategies requires more than a statement of policy: it requires the use of change mechanisms of varying kinds to bring about action on the ground. The most commonly used change mechanisms are considered in paragraphs 59-76.
11. Where learning and teaching strategies are not embedded in an effective quality assurance system which has a forward-looking quality enhancement function, there may be a need to develop monitoring and evaluation to check what is being implemented and what the consequences are.
12. The experience of implementing learning and teaching strategies over time leads to changes in their nature. The key changes include:
    • simplification and reduction in the number of goals
    • focus of effort on a smaller number of well-supported initiatives
    • a longer term perspective with annual goals set in the context of a rolling five-year plan
    • more emphasis on devolved responsibility for implementation, with more emphasis centrally on strategy, leaving choice of tactics to departments and teachers
    • more consultation and communication to build stronger staff commitment
    • more effort to provide support for change rather than simply stating that it ought to happen
    • more effort to acknowledge and reward improvements in teaching
    • more effort put into managing implementation of the strategy, and monitoring of change
    • periodic updating of strategies in the light of evidence from monitoring and changed circumstances and priorities
    • recognition that the cultural and value shift associated with a new vision of learning and teaching may be a long, slow process.
13. Learning and teaching strategies have a relationship with other components of institutional planning. They sit alongside research strategies within an overall institutional mission and operational plan. They are underpinned by strategies for supporting infrastructure, such as an information strategy and an estates strategy. Giving teaching this central strategic position may involve organisational change, including new senior management positions, changes in committee structures and responsibilities, and teaching development groups at departmental level.
14. As the development and implementation of learning and teaching strategies is an extended process involving much learning, the HEFCE will support institutions with seminars, guidance and the collation and sharing of good practice.