Focusing on Strengths: Using Appreciative Inquiry for Teaching Observation

Focusing on Strengths: Using Appreciative Inquiry for Teaching Observation

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  Briefing Paper: for theNational Teaching Fellow Symposium, New Model Insitute for Technology and Engineering, Hereford 20/21 May 2025 • Appreciative Inquiry • Example of murder mystery for research methods “Last time at Uni I hated research and the tutor who taught it was not engaging and never answered our questions. I was really excited for today as loved that the tutors could be ‘silly’, that it was interactive as well. I am very competitive so games are great for me and I felt I took more in.” Student R Integrating Appreciative Inquiry into teaching observations helped our Nursing Science department meet OFSTED's standards, earning an 'Outstanding' grade while supporting collaborative growth. Extract from the OFSTED report “Leaders use the universities research expertise to inform the highly effective training of staff. For example, a senior academic staff member has led training on ‘appreciative enquiry,’ which lecturers now use as part of their teaching. As a result, staff are very well supported to develop their teaching skills, applying current research-based practice to enhance the very high quality of training for apprentices.” Reviewing, assuring and enhancing educational practice Peer Review of Educational Practice (PREP) at BU is about collating evidence for good practice, and building our confidence as we move further towards integrating our apprentice students with our undergraduate and CPD provision. This case study illustrates: • Why we do PREP • How PREP supports and develops educators • Our Strengths based model (Appreciative Inquiry) • Our robust processes and feedback and feedforward mechanisms Keywords: Peer review, evaluation of practice, teaching observation, quality assurance, appreciative inquiry
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  What does theOFSTED framework actually say? The key document is the Further Education handbook, which covers Higher Education as well. While the handbook doesn't explicitly use the term "staff development," it emphasises the importance of effective leadership and management in fostering a high-quality learning environment. Key points include: • Leadership and Management: Inspectors assess how well leaders and managers ensure that staff have the necessary skills and knowledge to deliver high-quality education and training. • Professional Development: The handbook highlights the role of leaders in promoting continuous professional development (CPD) opportunities for staff to enhance their teaching practices and subject knowledge. • Quality Assurance: Effective systems should be in place to monitor and evaluate the impact of CPD on teaching quality and learner outcomes. Thus teaching observations are a vital component of Ofsted inspections in further education (FE) and more recently HE settings. Inspectors need to evaluate the quality of teaching, training, and assessment, focusing on their impact on learners' progress, knowledge acquisition, and skill development. Inspectors assess the effectiveness of teaching, learning, and assessment by considering: • The extent to which teaching methods inspire and challenge learners. • How well teaching enables learners to develop independence and achieve their potential. • The use of assessment to support and promote learning.s • The effectiveness of feedback in helping learners improve. • The promotion of equality and diversity through teaching. Below are three main areas of concern that staff articulate about OFSTED; these are NOT the case! a. No Requirement for Grading Individual Lessons: Ofsted does not mandate providers to grade individual lessons or teaching sessions. b. No Specific Format for Lesson Plans: There is no prescribed format or expectation for detailed lesson plans during inspections c. Focus on Impact: The emphasis is on the impact of teaching on learners' progress and outcomes, rather than on teaching styles or specific methodologies. Teaching observations - approach in the Department of Nursing Sciences • Quality assurance – how teaching contributes to the quality of education and training • Quality Enhancement – sharing effective practice • Staff development – so we can learn and share good practice
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  • PSRB bodies– having a process helps to answer the question: how do we know our teaching is excellent? How PREP supports and develops educators • All teaching staff are placed in a small group (known as a ‘huddle’) to assist the processes of observation, resource sharing and feedback • Each huddle has a nominated lead who allocates huddle members into pairs for teaching observations • Pairs share lesson plans, observe each other’s teaching, and complete a feedback questionnaire • Teaching observations highlight innovative, creative and engaging practice. • Pairs then conduct feedback conversations after the observations, based on the principles of Appreciative Inquiry, a strengths-based approach that focuses on what members want to grow and flourish in their teaching. The pairs of staff drew upon a prompt sheet comprising the questions the observee would enter into an online form, after reflective discussions with their observer. The form enabled a comprehensive report to be generated for the OFSTED team to interrogate, enabling them to tri-angulate evidence during their inspection.
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  Appreciative Inquiry isa robust and defendable stance from which to frame a teaching observation and quality enhancement body of work. It builds upon and assists in the cross-tabulation of the values of the institution, the discipline and the Apprenticeship scheme, and evidences an institution's commitment to delivering a high-quality learning experience. The shift from ‘problems’ to what works well underpins much of what OFSTED is seeking. Appreciative Inquiry seeks to focus on what is positive and uses that to generate theory which itself can be applied to practice in the future to maximise achievements. It was developed by David Cooperrider as a “conceptual reconfiguration of action research” (Cooperrider and Srivastva 1987, p.130). Appreciative Inquiry distinguishes itself from action research in two key ways. Firstly, rather than being focused on problems it adopts an appreciative stance, one that seeks to embrace what is currently working well. Reed (2007, p.22) observed this was based on Cooperrider’s experience that “asking positive questions seemed to be a very productive approach in both finding new information and exploring new methods” With the principle of empowerment and involvement (DoH 2015, chapter 1.1) An affirmative topic choice sets a “strategic course for the future” (Cooperrider and Whitney 2005, p.17), where “people share and develop ideas together” (Reed 2007, p.96). The affirmative topic choice ensures the chosen topics “focus on what members of an organization want to see grow and flourish” (Whitney and Trosten-Bloom 2010, p.132). The focus on the organisation is common within AI literature due to its concentration on organisational development. • Appreciative inquiry is about development • Building on positives rather than trying to fix problems • Appreciating strengths can stimulate enthusiasm for development Thematic analysis outcomes of the teaching observations:
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  • Safe andinclusive classroom staff/student collaborations that enable sense making through role play, group discussion, technology enhanced learning tools, psychological safety experienced by students • The Integration between theory and practice, with real life examples • The promotion of critical thinking and reflection; especially enhancing the learners to reflecting upon complex health care needs • Diversity and Inclusion are embraced in the classroom, with staff ensuring social determinants and culture are considered when planning and delivering sessions • Innovation and creative pedagogies embedded as part of wider sets of learning resources, with Lego Serious Play, Expert patients, Collage, Service users, ‘Teddy tales’ all cited as examples • Appreciative Inquiry was highly valued as an approach for discussions Impact: • Written up as an OFSTED Case Study for the Inspection team • Over 90% of DNS staff undertake a teaching observation (2023/24) • This new approach is being piloted with our Business School colleagues for their L7 health leadership apprentice scheme • Early indications show deeper understanding with the process • The pilot will feed forward into a wider delivery as further programmes welcome their apprentice learners. Holley and Goldsmith supported the process by running a series of webinars (online) sharing the evidence base underpinning appreciative inquiry, and answering any staff questions as the process got underway. To follow up, the HUGE report was made available to staff, and the findings of a thematic analysis were turned into Infographics. These were shared at one of our departmental meetings and printed and disseminated in the department. Both are embedded in this report. • Strengths of Using Appreciative Inquiry • Sharing Excellent Teaching Practice
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  References (With thanks tothe late Dr Matthew Simpson) Cooperrider, D.L. and Srivastva, S., 2013. A Contemporary Commentary on Appreciative Inquiry in Organizational Life Appreciative Inquiry in Organizational Life☆ Cooperrider, D. and Srivastva, S.(1987). Appreciative inquiry in organizational life. In R. Woodman and W. Pasmore (Eds.), Research in organizational change and development, Vol. 1, pp. 129–169. In Organizational generativity: The appreciative inquiry summit and a scholarship of transformation (Vol. 4, pp. 3-67). Emerald Group Publishing Limited. Department of Health Mental Health Act 2015 https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a80a774e5274a2e87dbb0f0/MHA_Code_of_Practice.P DF Reed, J., 2010. Appreciative inquiry and older people–finding the literature. International Journal of Older People Nursing, 5(4), pp.292-298.
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  Salyers, M. P.,Firmin, R. L., Gearhart, T., Avery, E. and Frankel, R. M., 2015. What we are like when we are at our best: Appreciative stories of staff in a community mental health center. American Journal of Psychiatric Rehabilitation [online], 18 (3), 280-301. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15487768.2015.1059383 Scerri, A., Innes, A. and Scerri, C., 2015. Discovering what works well: Exploring quality dementia care in hospital wards using an appreciative inquiry approach. Journal of Clinical Nursing [online], 24 (13-14), 1916-1925.https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25940022 The FE (and HE) Skills handbook https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/further-education-and- skills-inspection-handbookeif/further-education-and-skills-handbook-for-september-2023 Wright, M. and Baker, A., (2005) The effects of appreciative inquiry interviews on staff in the UK National Health Service. International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance [online], 18 (1), 41-61. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15819127 Whitney, D. K. and Trosten-Bloom, A., 2010. The power of appreciative inquiry: A practical guide to positive change. 2 nd Edition. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers.
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  Example of goodpractice: Adapting our Social Sciences murder mystery for RNDA Nursing Apprentice students The ‘Research Methods’ component of a programme is one that many students are concerned about, and find the learning difficult, inaccessible and in some cases, incomprehensible. Professor Sam Porter, the head of Social Work and Social Policy kindly agreed to be ‘murdered’ by his team, but in the best possible cause – creating an interactive ‘murder mystery’ for students, where they have to unveil his murderer through investigation of different research methods. The cast were filmed by our learning Technologist., and a series of video clips produced, which are accessed via a QR code. Link to video clip: The plot is set…. The students, in their groups, then explore the building looking for clues – including love letters, diaries, information from the ‘beating heart’ of the University (the library) and have to work out from the clues and conversations with Dr Ethnography (starring Orlanda!) and Dr Grounded Theory (starring Richard!) on the day. The two suspects engaged in conversation with the investigating teams ‘in role’. For our new cohort of RNDA students, we adapted slightly so there was a ‘Nursing’ flavour for one of the clues, and the library prompt was located next to the shelving for Nursing textbooks!
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  Student feedback wasoverwhelmingly positive, with one student saying: “Last time at Uni I hated research and the tutor who taught it was not engaging and never answered our questions. I was really excited for today as loved that the tutors could be ‘silly’, that it was interactive as well. I am very competitive so games are great for me and I felt I took more in.” Acknowledgements: • The BU SWSP team, Dr Lou Oliver, Dr Orlanda Harvey, Richard Williams for sharing their creation, and working with us to deliver it • Dr Rowena Slope (RNDA Programme Leader) and Dr Helena de Rezende (RNDA group personal tutor) • Jakob Rossner, HSS Faculty Learning Technologist If colleagues would like to find out more, or run this themselves, please talk to Dr Lou Oliver in the first instance. For further information, contact Professor Debbie Holley and Dr Ben Goldsmith, Bournemouth University.