The first Education and Strategy Conference successfully brought together over 40 WEA tutor organisers and tutors from across the English regions and Scotland to share their views on the operation and future direction of the WEA. The conference was held on held 20 and 21 May in Sheffield.
This is Claire Nussey's note of the event that also appears in 'WEA News'.
The opening speech 'What is to be done?' was given by Professor Frank Coffield, Emeritus Professor of Education at the Institute of Education at the University of London.
Professor Coffield gave a lively and provocative talk on ways to develop and improve learning and teaching and provided his thoughts on what action needs to be taken by the government, senior managers in further education, tutors and students to help achieve this.
A key point of the speech was that that these are not separate groups - they must work together to improve teaching and learning. Professor Coffield used examples from his experience of teaching in FE where senior managers in FE, tutors and learners regularly sit round a table to discuss key issues together. Professor Coffield also talked about developing a partnership between tutors and learners - that they learn should from each other. For example, feedback on work should help the learner know what they have done well and where they could improve but should also help the tutor plan what they teach next.
The speech was a fantastic opening for the rest of the conference, which focused on some of the WEA’s new strategic priorities. Workshops over the two days included Sustainability and Climate Change where tutors and tutor organisers shared interesting examples of how issues around sustainability are being introduced into many different subjects.
Other workshops included looked at what is happening in the classroom – how to develop effective learning relationships between tutors and learners; how field staff support and work with tutors; time-management and how do we meet the needs of students with mental health issues.
As key themes throughout the workshops were communication and sharing ideas This has always been a complex matter in the WEA with its dispersed provision. A workshop on the development of Moodle was very relevant. Moodle is like an internet site with a password where WEA tutors can download WEA documents and information and share ideas with each other for teaching.
The conference provided a great opportunity for tutor organisers and tutors to meet colleagues from other regions and share their experience of what helps to develop good learning and teaching and how improvements could be made.
The conference generated lots of suggestions for improvement around communication, engagement and ideas for the classroom between tutor organisers and tutors. Many agreed to keep in contact with each other by e-mail and phone. Those attending agreed that the conference should become an annual event, with a clear focus on looking at the progress which has been made on the actions and issues that were raised at the previous conference.
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