Opportunities for recognition and professional development
The Centre for Teaching Innovation champions learning and teaching and the many opportunities across the University that support professional development, exchange, dissemination, reward and recognition and the building of a successful CV. These include:
- The HEA accredited Professional Recognition and Enhancement Scheme for Teaching (PRESTige) offering Fellowships in different categories
- Awards including the National Teaching Fellowships, Westminster Learning and Teaching Excellence Awards, the Vice-Chancellor’s Awards for Teaching and Academic Excellence, and Staff Appreciation Awards presented by the Student Union
- Presenting and showcasing your work at the annual Learning and Teaching Symposium and at Faculty Teaching and Learning events
- The reader and professorial pathways: Research, Scholarly Activity & Leadership; Teaching, Scholarly Activity & Leadership; and Business, Enterprise & Scholarly Activity
If you are seeking a career pathway in the higher education sector within a teaching-focussed route you will need to take advantage of a variety of opportunities to develop your profile and expertise in teaching.
This might include taking advantage of local teaching and learning grants to support teaching evaluation and interventions, conducting larger research studies, attending conferences and symposia and getting involved in teaching and learning networks and events, such as those listed on our events pages. Making your findings public provides important knowledge exchange, and practitioners sharing their scholarship can become informal leaders of change, building a reputation and influencing the practice of others.
Westminster Learning Communities, with their focus on scholarship, pedagogic research and the promotion of teaching and learning, will also provide an exciting way for you to get involved in a teaching innovation and enhancement culture.
There are teaching-related roles across the university which you might have an opportunity to get involved with or to support such as:
- School Director of Learning, Teaching and Quality.
- Learning, Teaching & Quality Representatives.
- PRESTige Advisers
- Chairs and members of Validation and Review Panels.
- Course Leaders and Module Leaders
- Personal Tutors and School Senior Tutors
- School Employability Coordinators
- Mentors
Consider how you can connect with others and seek out professional development opportunities, for example:
- Cross-faculty or cross university forums that bring people together
- Join or start a Westminster Learning Community
- Ways to share your ideas and innovations with other colleagues informally
- Provide resources to be showcased on the CTI website
- Become a mentor to a colleague
- Participate in peer review and observation processes
- Become an academic lead for a Students as Co-Creators project
- Use social media to demonstrate your teaching achievements such as through staff blogs, your online profile and twitter
- Organise, attend or present at networking events, conferences, seminars, workshops and lunch and learn sessions.
