Staff Development Strategy

The Dearing Report (1997) emphasises the importance of Staff Development in the current changing Higher Education (HE) environment. HE institutions are strongly recommended to put in place appropriate Staff Development Strategies to support all staff and encourage involvement in the development and implementation of university-wide policies and strategies. Effective Staff Development is essential to support new approaches to learning and teaching, such as those recommended in the Dearing Report, and meet changing needs of institutions. In particular, the increasing integration of Communication and Information Technologies (C&IT) in all areas of academia will require IT skilled staff as well as trained students.

In a competitive global educational market, universities are keen to be awarded national prizes and the Investor In People (IIP) award is one that many are working towards or have already obtained. The progress structure required to achieve this award offers a framework for an institution-wide Staff Development Strategy.

HE institutions are recognising the important part that Staff Development can play in the improvement of quality in learning, teaching and assessment. Ahead of the possible implementation of some of Dearing's recommendations, universities are setting up Staff Development Units responsible for academic and professional development. In some institutions, Post-Graduate Teaching Certificates and Diplomas are awarded internally to teachers who have successfully completed year-long courses. Moreover, it is not rare to find universities offering porfolios of Staff Development activities, in particular in Information Technology (IT), some of them being also accredited.

The emphasis on the acquisition of IT skills by teachers and learners alike is very much in accordance with the expected major role C&IT will play in HE in the near future. All subject areas will be under pressure to integrate C&IT in their programmes. Historically, language teachers have been keen to adopt new technologies and adapt them to traditional approaches. There are a growing number of C&IT-based research and development projects in language learning and teaching in the United Kingdom. The participating institutions in the WELL project are disseminating good practice nationally in the use of Web resources, and aim to contribute to the promotion of appropriate Staff Development in the use of C&IT in language learning and teaching in individual institutions.