- Maths/Stats PCAPP
Maths/Stats PCAPP
Postgraduate Certificate in Academic and Professional Practice,
Mathematics and Statistics version: M/S PCAPP
M/S PCAPP is principally a qualification in University Teaching, though it also offers training in other aspects of academic practice. To earn it, participants produce a portfolio of work based on their experiences teaching two modules (or, exceptionally, one) in the undergraduate and postgraduate Mathematics and or Science degrees.
Who takes M/S PCAPP?
Unless exempted at the time of hiring, all new permanent staff at Warwick are obliged, as a condition of passing probation, to complete postgraduate training in teaching and professional practice, though previous experience and previous training can taken into account (see Accreditation below). For staff in the Mathematics Institute, two routes are possible: M/S PCAPP, and the LDC version, plain PCAPP, which is is open to academics from all departments of the university. Temporary Lecturers, are also able to take either form of training if they want. For three year Temporary Lecturers there is a strong argument in favour of taking it, besides its intrinsic value as training in teaching: if your position is upgraded to a permanent one, then your period of probation is deemed to run from the beginning of the temporary appointment.
M/S PCAPP consists largely of the addition of a critical, reflective component to the ordinary activities of lecturing and examining, together with support and guidance provided by a module mentor for each of two courses that you teach. Usually, but not necessarily, these will be the first two courses that you teach at Warwick. Participants also attend a small number of workshops over the year, some of which are listed below.
If you are new to university teaching in the UK, you should seriously consider participating in at least some of the activities listed below, even if you do not want to complete PCAPP. They will help you with your teaching!
Beginning M/S PCAPP
1. Enroll in PCAPP, by completing the MS Word Registration form available on the PCAPP website, and sending copies to Jenny MacDonald, in LDC, and Jane Hutton in the Department of Statistics (the M/S PCAPP Co-ordinator), indicating that you want to take the M/S version. Once you are enrolled in PCAPP you will have access to the list of workshops on the LDC PCAPP website - the M/S PCAPP workshops are listed below. Once you are enrolled in the M/S PCAPP, LDC will appoint a LDC adviser for you, normally someone from LDC itself or on secondment to LDC from another department, who will, among other things, observe one or more of your lectures.
Though preferable, it is not essential that you formally enroll in M/S PCAPP at the start of the year, but if you intend to take it you should enroll by the middle of the first term.
2. Activities begin in mid-September with the two-day Induction Course for lecturers new to teaching Mathematics, Statistics and Operations Research in the UK, run by the HEA Maths Stats and OR Subject Centre in the University of Birmingham. All M/S PCAPP participants should attend this. The registration fee for Warwick Maths participants is paid by the Mathematics Institute, and you should let the M/S PCAPP coordinator know that you want to attend so that your place can be booked. In 2010, it will take place on Thursday September 16th and Friday September 17th 2010. If you are only arriving in the UK to take up your position at Warwick after the date of the induction course, you can attend it a year later.
Once the academic year begins
The next step is to choose module mentors, one for each of the two courses you will be teaching during the academic year. Each module mentor should be an established member of staff who has suitable subject knowledge, and knows something of the course you will be teaching, either through having taught it previously, or through having taught courses which precede it or follow on from it. The co-ordinator can advise you about who to ask if you are in any doubt. The remaining activities are now:
(i) Decide on the areas in which you would like to develop professionally; PCAPP is concerned not only with teaching, but with research also, and, for example, offers workshops on grant applications and grant management. You may find it helpful to discuss this with your mentor(s) and/or the PCAPP co-ordinator.
(ii) Decide on workshops to attend. The M/S PCAPP workshops are listed here below, and LDC's workshops on their website. Tell Georgina Copeland in Maths which Maths/Stats PCAPP workshops you will attend, and register with LDC for the LDC workshops you plan to attend. Most LDC workshops are repeated at several times in the year, and the organisers need to control the number attending each session.
(iii) Decide with the M/S PCAPP co-ordinator on a schedule - when you are going to do what.
As part of probation, you have to attend workshops on
'Introduction to Research at Warwick' (mandatory)
'Introduction to Research Supervision' (mandatory)
'The role of the Personal Tutor' (mandatory)
The first two are run by the LDC (Learning and Development Centre); for the third you can do the Maths/Stats PCAPP version.
(iv) Complete a form detailing the results of your analysis.
Participants to attend the following Workshops
A1: MSOR Induction Course Birmingham University
A2: Workshop on A level mathematics (Dr Richard Lissaman) 15 November 2011
A3: Workshop on personal tutoring (Professor W. Kendall) 8 November 2011
A4: Teaching and Learning forum (Professor Jane Hutton) 29 November 2011
Students comments on assessment and feedback tbc
PhD Supervision tbc
Participants to choose 2 of the B List Workshops
B5: Reviewing and evaluating your teaching
B9: E-Learning Techniques: An Introduction
Participants to choose 3 of the List C Workshops
C1: Supervising and marking maths & stats projects: tbc open to all staff
C2: Video Assessment and feedback of math sciences: tbc open to all staff
C3: Video Link Lecturing - tbc
C4: Computer Algebra based tests: the cases for and against tbc
Plus
C5: One further course from List C belonging to PCAPP
Pedagogic Review (4500 - 5000)
Negotiated Project (4500 - 5000)
3. Teaching Observations
Teaching observations are probably the most valuable part of any training in teaching. Participants in Maths/Stats PCAPP must be observed four times and carry out two observations themselves. The list of different obesrvations is given below.
A record of each observation should be kept on the appropriate form (Teaching Observation form), available here. They are not the same as the forms used for standard Mathematics Institute Peer Observations. Important: part of the form must be filled in by the lecturer and read by the observer before the lecture.
List of observations
- Be observed by your LDC advisor. Although the LDC adviser is unlikely to be a mathematician, their expertise in teaching observation counts for quite a lot. It may be worth organising this as the first of your observations.
- Observe an experienced staff member. All lecture- courses in Mathematics have to be peer-observed in any case, so this fits with established practice. For this observation only, use the standard departmental peer-observation form, available from Georgina Copeland.
- Observe another participant from the Maths/Stats PCAPP group (preferably someone from maths).
- Be observed by another participant. Persuade them that this is not a meaningless formality (we hope you agree), and that they should find something useful, even critical, to say about your lecture.
Be observed by your module mentor(s): either
- once in each of two different modules that you teach, or
- once at the start of PCAPP and once towards the end, if you are teaching only one module in the year.
Module mentors also should be encouraged to write something more than the all too frequent "No problems were observed". See some sample observations for an idea of what can be said about a mathematics lecture, and Observing Teaching for the University's guidelines. Ask your observers to read these in preparation for the observations!
The review should discuss the planning, delivery, assessment, feedback and evaluation of your first two modules (or module, if you've only taught one during the year). Undertake an in-depth critical review of your own recent pedagogic practice. Ideally, your review should focus on one or more aspects of your teaching, which would benefit from further development or improvement. You may also wish to discuss your review with your departmental mentor, your module mentors, or other departmental colleagues before undertaking this task. Your review should be informed by your teaching observations, and should include a section written after you have marked the exams for the courses you have taught - at such a moment one is particularly aware of the limits of one's teaching success, and it's therefore a good moment for reflection.
As preparation for the review you should read Steven Kranz's book "How to Teach Mathematics", or Burn, Appleby & Maher (1998) 'Teaching Undergraduate Mathematics', Clark & Clarke (1959) 'The Art of Lecturing', or some other comparable book. Your review should be supported by reference to this and to other academic and educational development literature (whether subject-specific or generic) - see Resources for some suggestions - and, where appropriate, should also make recommendations in relation to, for example, the future development of e.g. a module or course and any relevant curriculum, assessment, evaluation or delivery strategies. In completing this review, you should specifically:
- Critique your own professional skills as demonstrated in specific teaching situations
- Outline any specific needs and ways of meeting them, which you (and possibly others, e.g. your module mentors) may have identified in your teaching and upon which you wish to focus on in future.
The following Pedagogic Review was highly commended by the internal and external examiners: 
Pedagogic Review
5. Negotiated Project of 4500-5000 words
The project topic should be discussed in advance with the M/S PCAPP Coordinator, who should also be shown a draft version before it is submitted. The Coordinator's comments and questions can lead to significant improvements in the project, and it is advisable to take heed of these before submitting the final version, rather than some time later, when your interest in the project topic may have waned. It is expected that a link to the project should be posted on this website.
Past projects: Martin Hairer on Oral Exams; Stefan Grosskinsky on Interdisciplinarity; Sascha Ott on Outreach; Anastasia Papavasiliou on Teaching Mathematics of Random Events
Route (1): A Departmental Project
A project focused on an aspect of your academic practice which you wish to explore, or which might enhance or support your teaching or departmental responsibilities. The project should, ideally, be of benefit to both you and the department. There is considerable scope for choice. Projects can address issues such as
- Plagiarism
- Student diversity
- Postgraduate student support and training
- Student passivity
- Special provision for strong students
- The organisation of assessment, student admissions, supervision, personal tutoring etc. within the department
- Developing a new curriculum area or adopting an innovative teaching method
- The organisation/management of e.g. a suite of modules, a course or research training skills for undergraduates or postgraduates
- Maintaining standards
OR
Route (2): An Evaluation of Academic Practice and Principles
This option enables you to undertake an in-depth, critical evaluation of the `principles and practices' relating to an academic issue which interests you and is likely to have arisen out of, for example, your teaching observations, your participation in PCAPP-related workshops, or your Professional Group meetings. Potential topics might include:
- Learning from student performance
- The impact on teaching of a culturally diverse student body
- The characteristics of high quality lecturing
- Research-led teaching: the implications for undergraduates
- Barriers and obstacles to effective postgraduate learning
- An analysis of student drop-out rates in your department
OR
Route (3) A Research Review
This route comprises three parts: A, B and C (total 4500-5000 words)
Part A: Providing evidence that an RAE-able peer-reviewed research paper has been accepted for publication/has recently been published (i.e. during your period of registration on PCAPP).
The article:
- Must be relevant to your teaching and based on research either undertaken at Warwick or completed whilst at Warwick
- Must NOT have been published before you joined the University
You will need to provide evidence that the paper has been accepted/published (i.e. copy of acceptance letter from publisher; copy of the article itself; written confirmation from your Head of Department that the article is accepted by the department as meeting the requirement and RAE-able).
AND
Part B: A Review of the research skills (1500-2000 words) that you consider you have acquired or enhanced whilst undertaking the research or writing the paper, plus an evaluation of the way in which you envisage your future research developing.
Whilst the nature of research skills and their enhancement varies across disciplines (as well as in accordance with prior experience), evidence of research skills enhancement might include:
- Developing collaborative research either within or beyond Warwick
- Preparation of funding applications
- Acquiring specific new research skills (e.g. IT based)
- Reviewing research papers
- Organising research symposia
- Undertaking research supervisions; research project co-ordination etc.
AND
- Part C: A critique of the concept of ‘research-led teaching’ and the way in which you interpret it within your own disciplinary context (2500-3000 words)
Portfolio Items
Your certificate is awarded on the basis of the material you submit in a portfolio at the end of the year. This consists of:
a) Action Plan (form available here)
b) Workshop Log (form available here)
c) Teaching Observation Forms
d) Pedagogic Review
e) Project
Assessment is usually carried out by the M/S PCAPP coordinator and LDC advisor.
Resources
Accreditation
It is possible to obtain exemption from some or all of the training on the basis of previous teaching experience, through a process known as APL - Accreditation of Prior Learning. Please contact the M/S PCAPP Co-ordinator to discuss this option.
