This half day workshop-style event organised by WIHEA's Teaching Recognition and Reward Learning Circle, aimed to take us from the Warwick (and sector) understanding of teaching excellence (i.e., where policy is made, awards granted etc.) to the idea of the ‘Everyday Excellence’ we all embody in our teaching practice, most particularly in the challenging circumstances of the last 12 months.

The event had a celebratory tone - but focused most clearly on enabling practical 'take homes' from the event themes to support and enable surfacing and recognition of all of our Everyday Excellence (e.g., building promotion cases, enhancing the student voice etc.).

We really hope you enjoyed the event!

Dr Lucy Hammond, Associate Professor (Warwick Medical School) and Dr Elisabeth Blagrove, Senior Teaching Fellow (Psychology), Co-Chairs of the WIHEA Teaching Recognition and Reward Learning Circle, May 2021

Monday, 24 May 2021, 13.00 - 16.15

Welcome, Introduction & Student Panel 13.00 - 13.45

The event welcome and introduction was given by Dr Lucy Hammond and Dr Letizia Gramaglia (Director of WIHEA). We then moved into a student panel discussion to hear more about the student perspective on Everyday Excellence.

Teams link

Session title: Student Voice - What is Everyday Excellence?

Session leaders: Jess Humphreys and Dr Jane Bryan

Speakers: Huijun Shen (PGT), Adam Agowun (UG), Pula Prakash (UG), Charlotte van Herwijnen (UG), Ashley Storer-Smith (SU), Luke Mepham (SU), Oluwalanaire Aderemi (PGT), Eleanor Hassall (UG)

Session aimed at: All who teach, consider promotion and prizes and Heads of Departments.

Session summary: This session asked student panellists drawn from across the University with a variety of different perspectives, what they considered to be ‘everyday excellence’.  

This kick-off session situated the student voice right at the very heart of the event and the conversation about ‘everyday excellence’ and helped us answer the question 'are we rewarding the things that matter most to students in promotions and prizes?'

Parallel Session One: 13.45 - 14.30

Session title: Capturing Everyday Teaching Excellence in Promotions Applications

Session leaders: Dr Lydia Plath and Dr Catherine Bennett

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Session aimed at: Anyone seeking promotion, or supporting others in promotion applications.

Session summary: This interactive workshop session enabled participants to further understand the ‘Teaching and Learning’ bands of the Academic Promotions criteria, and to begin to identify how they can make a case for promotion using examples of everyday teaching excellence in their own practice, through discussion with colleagues. The session used a combination of small breakout rooms and large-group discussion in order to share practice, answer questions, and to demystify the promotions criteria in relation to teaching and learning.

In advance of the session, participants were encouraged to read through the Academic Promotions criteria and the examples provided by TR&R, as well as to bring some examples of their teaching practice to discuss in the workshop.

Session title: Everyday Excellence in Early Career Teaching

Session leaders: Dr Caroline Elliott and Dr Nicholas Jackson

Speakers: Dr Roxanne Douglas (English), Dr Atisha Ghosh (Economics) and Emma Southall (Maths)

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Session aimed at: Early career teachers, including but not restricted to: postgraduate teachers, teaching fellows, postdoctoral researchers who teach, and those in more senior roles who are relatively new to teaching.

Session summary: This workshop session showcased some examples of teaching excellence from early career teachers, providing suggestions regarding what constitutes good practice across both more discursive and technical subject disciplines. Participants were encouraged to consider examples of teaching excellence in their own teaching. It is often important to be able to demonstrate teaching excellence in academic job applications, promotion applications and when applying for different levels of HEA fellowship. Hence, participants were provided with guidance on the collation of evidence of good teaching practice.

Break 14:30-14:45

Parallel Session Two: 14.45 - 15.30

Session title: A Dialogue with Heads of Departments on Teaching Recognition

Session leaders: Dr Stefania Paredes Fuentes and Dr Leticia Villamediana González

Speakers: Prof Katherine Astbury (Head of the School of Modern Languages and Cultures), Dr Miriam Gifford (Deputy Head of School of Life Sciences) and Prof Nick Vaughan-Williams (Head of PAIS)

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Session aimed at: All staff with teaching and teaching-related duties.

Session summary: This was a two-way dialogue on creating a culture that values and rewards all aspects of teaching and learning. During the session, we first presented the participants’ answers to these two following questions:

1. How do you feel your everyday teaching related work is recognised by your department and/or university?
2. What do you think you could do to recognise a colleague’s efforts in teaching?

This was followed by a dialogue with Heads of Departments on how they celebrate and recognise teaching within their departments and how teaching recognition has changed and will change after Covid-19. We hope this session enabled participants to identify their own and their peers “everyday excellence” in teaching, beyond prizes and recognition schemes.

Session title: Everyday Excellence: Engagement and impact

Session leaders: Prof Ian Tuersley and Prof Sarah Richardson

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Session aimed at: Those interested in learning how to develop their impact and engagement activities and learn more about Warwick Institute for Engagement and anyone interested in using such activities for promotion, recognition and reward purposes.

Session summary: Impact, engagement and outreach activities happen every day. They do not have to be high profile organised events but could be chance encounters, conversations or knowledge sharing. Very often they are closely associated with teaching and learning. This workshop introduced the Learning Circle on Promotion & Impact, Outreach and Engagement which is part of the new Warwick Institute of Engagement. The Learning Circle is led by Ian and Sarah who are both also founder members of the WIHEA Learning Circle on Teaching Reward and Recognition. The bulk of the session was about sharing examples of impact and engagement activities and how these may be developed to support cases for promotion, reward and recognition. The workshop also addressed the opportunities and challenges of impact, outreach and engagement activities for those in different roles.

In advance of the session, participants were encouraged to engage with the Warwick academic promotions criteria.

Plenary with Panel - Perspectives on Everyday Excellence in an Extraordinary Year: 15.30 - 16.15

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There is little doubt that the last 12 months have presented personal and professional challenges that few could have foreseen. In the HE sector, this has incorporated greatly increased pressure on academic, administrative and support staff, together with uncertainty, stress and wellbeing issues for our students. However, that is not to say that, within this environment, these challenges have not elicited truly awe-inspiring excellence in teaching and learning across the sector. At Warwick, this event gave us the opportunity to celebrate this Everyday Excellence, and here, to explore it via the diverse perspectives of our distinguished panellists.

Professors Helen Higson OBE (Aston University) and Chris Ennew OBE (University of Warwick), together with Sandev Panaser (University of Birmingham), a Warwick Alumnus and Assistant Psychologist for UoB Wellbeing Services and the PAUSE charity for young people, have naturally, each experienced the global pandemic’s impact on HE within their institutions. Their background, professional remit and current focus gave each a valuable and distinct voice in our plenary session, starting with a short introduction to their experiences of/ views on Everyday Excellence in an Extraordinary Year. We then went on to examine these perspectives more deeply, using questions from our audience.

Session leaders: Dr Liz Blagrove and Dr Sandra Pereira

	Professor Helen Higson, OBE (Aston University) Helen Higson completed her first degree in English Literature from Newnham College, Cambridge, followed by an MA with the Open University and a PhD at Birkbeck College, London. Until 1st March 2021 Helen was Provost and Deputy Vice-Chancellor at Aston University. She is now Professor of Higher Education Learning and Management in Aston Business School, and Director of Accreditations. Helen is a Principal Fellow of Advance HE, and a National Teaching Fellow. Her current research includes intercultural training, employability competencies and closing the degree attainment gap. Helen was awarded the OBE in 2011 for services to Higher Education. Helen serves on a number of regional and national boards, including Advance HE and Ravensbourne University London, and as Deputy Chair of the TEF subject panel. In September 2020 was appointed Vice Lord-Lieutenant of the West Midlands.
	Professor Chris Ennew, OBE (University of Warwick) Christine graduated from Cambridge University and completed her PhD at Nottingham. She began her academic career as an agricultural economist at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1985. She then moved to the University of Nottingham and in 1995 was promoted to Professor of Marketing. She has served as Deputy Director of Nottingham University Business School and Academic Director of the Business School at the University’s Malaysia Campus during its start-up phase (2000-2001). From 2004-2007 she was Dean of Social Sciences and from 2008-2016 she was one of Nottingham’s Pro-Vice-Chancellors, and served as Provost and CEO of the University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus. She joined the University of Warwick in August 2016. In 2016, Chris was awarded an OBE as part of the Queen’s Birthday Honours, for services to Higher Education and British-Malaysian Relations. Click on Chris' photo to access her full Warwick profile.
	Sandev Panaser (University of Birmingham) Sandev has an interest in student mental wellbeing within the context of education and teaching. He currently works for the University of Birmingham coordinating a partnership between Forward Thinking Birmingham, The Children's Society and the university to deliver the Pause mental health service on campus. In addition to this, his role as Assistant Psychologist with Birmingham Women's and Children's Hospital focuses on developing mental health resources for teachers and school pupils. Finally his role with Taraki, a Punjabi mental health organisation, sees him facilitate safe mental health spaces online and in-person for Punjabi men. He continues to ensure these roles join up across the city of Birmingham, ensuring access to education with positive mental health continues to develop.

Recording link