Professional Development event for CPE tutors

On Saturday 25th June 2016, we held a professional development event for all our tutors.

The event included a plenary session as well as parallel training and discussion sessions. Continuing and Professional Education is committed to facilitating personal and career development opportunities which enable tutors to achieve their full potential and contribute to the provision of excellent teaching in the Division.

The day began with parallel sessions on ‘Understanding Learning Styles’ and ‘Using Electronic Resources’. Learning styles affect every student. Some like a ‘hands-on’ approach, whereas others might learn from watching other learners. The session introduced tutors to a variety of learning styles and enabled them to understand and better appreciate the differences in their students’ learning styles, so that they can implement best practice strategies into their module delivery, activities and assessments. The latter session was a drop-in, hands-on session on how best to access Cardiff University’s vast array of electronic resources.

Following a short break, the event continued with ‘Identifying and Supporting Students with Dyslexia’ and ‘An Introduction to Blended Learning’. The latter session focused on ideas for using Learning Central (the University’s virtual learning environment tool) and University supported technologies to facilitate blended learning, an approach which combines online learning with face-to-face tuition. The former looked at how dyslexia can be supported in the classroom.

The plenary session – ‘Small Group Teaching: Techniques, Benefits, Challenges’ – followed in the afternoon. This focused on two areas. The first looked at the basics of small group teaching and included discussion on the tutor’s role and the influence of social factors. The second considered some models of group work, such as ice-breaking activities, brainstorms and buzz groups.

Tutor feedback from this and previous professional development events has been very positive and has shown that the event is an ideal opportunity to meet, socialise and exchange good practice with fellow university teachers.