The UTS Educational Fellowship Program (UTS-EFP) offers a supported pathway towards international recognition of professional, effective and inclusive teaching. The program will be available to all UTS academic and professional staff involved in the teaching and support of high quality learning, and as we prepare, we’re sharing stories from those in the UTS community who have been through the Fellowship process.
In this blog we hear from Dr Helena Robinson, Senior Lecturer in the Transdisciplinary (TD) School and Deputy Director (currently Acting Director) of the Bachelor of Creative Intelligence and Innovation. Helena was awarded Fellowship in 2019 as an Interdisciplinary Lecturer at the University of Sydney. She then served as an assessor for Associate (AF) and Fellowship (F) candidates via the University of Sydney’s accredited Advance HE Fellowship program.
Whilst Helena undertook a different route to Fellowship from the program offered at UTS, her insights illustrate how the process helps you consider your own educational practice, and how to link it to evidence you can use in a Fellowship application.
Q1. Why did you apply for Fellowship?
In 2019 I had just been employed as part of a new team of education-focused academics. Along with most of my colleagues, I completed a Graduate Certificate in Education (Higher Education) that year, as I felt it was important to have an educational qualification on top of my disciplinary training. In one of the subjects, we had the option to choose assessment tasks that would scaffold the process of writing a Fellowship application. I thought that gaining Fellowship would be an excellent way to gain formal recognition of my teaching contributions alongside the Grad Cert qualification.
Q2. How did you find the process of putting your application together?
If I’m being honest, I found the process to be quite involved and time-consuming! It took me a while to wrap my head around the specific terminology used in the Professional Standards Framework (PSF) that underpins the Advance HE process, how the different dimensions of educational practice interact, and how to link examples of my educational practice to the PSF. It took a while to get used to the genre of writing needed for the application, but I was grateful to have a structured opportunity to articulate my teaching philosophy, identify my teaching achievements, and weave these into a coherent and compelling narrative.
Q3. What kinds of scholarship, research or other evidence-informed approaches did you draw on?
The Grad Cert exposed me to useful educational concepts and I was able to interpret my teaching approaches through that lens when it came to my application. For example, I found Ryan and Deci’s Self-Determination Theory very compelling in explaining how to increase learner motivation by designing learning tasks for a triangulation of student autonomy, competence, and relatedness. I have quite a structured approach to learning design, and I found Biggs’s outline of Constructive Alignment a useful framework to describe the process of building a curriculum out from overall intended learning outcomes to specific classroom activities and assessment tasks. Kolb’s Experiential Learning Cycle was also useful in justifying the authentic and WIL aspects of my teaching practice.
Q4. What kind of ‘evidence’ did you provide that showed the impact of your practice?
I found Brookfield’s four lenses of reflection (students’ perceptions, colleagues’ perceptions, theory, and personal experiences) to be a handy reference point when thinking about where to find evidence of impact. In my application, I followed an underlying structure for each paragraph or section that went something like: claim relating to teaching practice > reference to relevant educational literature > specific examples of associated activities > evidence of desired impact. As evidence, I used a mix of unsolicited student commendations for teaching, student survey scores and comments, colleagues’ emails related to aspects of my teaching practice, peer observation of teaching reports, feedback I received on a Grad Cert assignment documenting a teaching innovation project, and student reflections on learning.
Q5. What advice can you share with others starting the Fellowship process?
It’s easy to be overwhelmed by the unfamiliar jargon and specific structure required for the application. It takes time to put together, and this can feel a bit burdensome on top of your core work. My advice would be to break the process down into smaller chunks, and not to aim for a ‘perfect’ draft the first time around. I found it useful to look at exemplars of successful applications, and to get feedback on my drafts. It also helps to create a dedicated folder for evidence of teaching impact, so that you have it easily to hand later on (you’ll continue to get value out of this if you apply for teaching awards or promotion!).
Is Fellowship for you? Find out more…
If you’re curious to know more about this internationally-recognised fellowship program, there’s a new podcast series from Advance HE to talk you through the basics, including:
- Fellowship to enhance teaching and learning (25 mins) introduces Advance HE’s Fellowship team to talk about the value and impact of Fellowship for higher education professionals.
- Introduction to Senior Fellowship (42 mins) includes insights into the application process, tips for applicants and the value of Senior Fellowship for your career and professional development.
- Using reflection to evidence effective and inclusive practice for fellowship (31 mins) discusses how you can use reflection on your teaching practices to help produce the evidence needed for a successful Fellowship application.
There are plenty of UTS resources to explore too. The UTS Educational Fellowship Program Sharepoint site has updated information, applicant handbooks, and key dates for applications. If you’re ready for the next level of detail, use the Advance HE Fellowship Category Tool to identify the closest match for your current practice, then explore our Fellowship Readiness Grid for Associate Fellow (AFHEA), Fellow (FHEA) or Senior Fellow (SFHEA). For a personal perspective, read about Amanda Lizier’s application for Senior Fellowship and what helped her put it together.
If you have questions about Fellowship, you can contact us via uts-efp@uts.edu.au. Keep an eye out for program registrations later this year – we can’t wait to welcome you to the UTS Educational Fellowship community.
Feature image: a student presentation from the 2024 BCII Creative Intelligence Capstone project showcase