Effective practice |

Pathways of curiosity

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Provider
Coleg Sir Gâr a / and Coleg Ceredigion
Number of pupils
2795
Date of Inspection
Information about the college
Context and background to the effective or innovative practice
Description of nature of strategy or activity
What impact has this work had on provision and learners’ standards?
How have you shared your good practice?

Information about the college

Coleg Sir Gâr and Coleg Ceredigion became an integrated college in August 2017 and is now one college, with two brands and seven campuses across Carmarthenshire and Ceredigion. The two campuses that form Coleg Ceredigion are in Aberystwyth and Cardigan. Coleg Sir Gâr has five campuses in Ammanford, Gelli Aur, Jobs Well, Pibwrlwyd and Llanelli.  

The college delivers a wide range of vocational courses with progression opportunities available on most courses to the next level, apprenticeships and higher education.  Currently the college has 5,505 further education learners, of which 2,795 are full-time learners and 2,710 are part-time learners.  Of the full-time learners, 80% are learners at Sir Gâr and 20% are at Ceredigion.

Context and background to the effective or innovative practice

The college has a strong commitment to continuous professional learning to enable staff to develop their skills, and to support the college’s aim to deliver an inspirational learner experience. The college’s Excellence Pathway professional learning model encourages staff to engage in self-reflection and self and peer assessment to identify areas for development in order that they can access appropriate and individualised professional learning opportunities.

Description of nature of strategy or activity

Bespoke pathways for professional Learning - Culture of Curiosity 

The college is committed to inspire curiosity in all those who work and learn in the college. The college supports staff to be innovative, creative and to challenge themselves to learn in order to inspire learners to do the same. The college recognises that in order to role model the power of curiosity to learners, staff needed to lead by example.

The college’s pathways of curiosity are a bespoke series of professional learning routes that staff can opt to take. This enables staff to access a personalised and tailored suite of professional learning activities that is closely matched to their individual needs. Following the reflective process of self-evaluation and professional discussions, staff can opt to follow a pathway for an academic year based on identified areas for development and their natural sense of curiosity. Each pathway is supported by the central teaching and learning team working in conjunction with faculty management teams and the senior leadership team. Pathways include: action research pathway, EdTech pathway, industry pathway, new starter pathway, professional qualification pathway, leadership pathway, governor pathway and a bilingual pathway.

Action research pathway 
The programme is designed to last the full academic year with each member of staff released from teaching for 2 hours a week.

Staff submit project proposals and constructive feedback is provided by a panel who support the project development from the outset. Creativity is nurtured and staff are able to take their project in the direction they feel is relevant to their practice; they are able to decide the focus, the methodology and the nature of the outcomes. Through one-to-one support staff have ownership of how the project will evolve and adapt as new learning is acquired. The programmes distinctive features include:

  • Guest speaker programme 
  • Technique workshops
  • One to one support 
  • Peer review Groups 
  • Festival of Practice and website. 
  • Supported to share and publish work.

What impact has this work had on provision and learners’ standards?

In 2021-2022 the college’s Action Research theme focussed on Engagement and Retention. In the current climate, post-pandemic, the college target of 90% for attendance for learners was a difficult threshold to reach. In March 2022 the college wide attendance was 86% and as of May it has decreased to 84%. 

Below are snapshot examples of data that support the positive impact on attendance for those groups of learners taught by staff engaging in action research. The data was taken in May 2022 as staff completed their projects. 
The Music Technology Project utilising the Thinking Environment current attendance for groups involved in the project: Level 3 Year 1 = 92.9%, Level 3 Year 2 = 92.8%. The current attendance of the group not involved = 79.2%.

Creative Industries lecturer:

In my Year 2 group the attendance went from 83% to 92.9% which impacted engagement and successful completion of the course. Successful completion then improved from 88% to 100%, with 40% of students achieving a Distinction grade, compared to 28% in the previous year.

Giving learners the ownership of selecting their own timetable has not only increased attendance, it has improved engagement and enthusiasm. Allowing learners to have ownership of their timetable, selecting from a selection of workshops has enabled projects to become more multidisciplinary. A costume designer could select to learn welding alongside pattern cutting. This project arose to further align to the art & design world, where practitioners need to be more multidisciplinary, agile and adaptable to the economy.

Festival of Practice 
The programme culminates in the college Festival of Practice and a website is produced which gives each practitioner a platform to share their thinking and progress. The festival sessions are workshop driven and staff across the college can select sessions they would like to attend based on their own curiosity. The sessions are interactive and encourage those attending to consider how the ideas explored can be embedded into their own areas of practice. The website is an open forum where staff are encouraged to be creative in the presentation of their work through blogs, vlogs, photos, presentations, toolkits, learner and staff voice interview soundbites and formal writing.

How have you shared your good practice?

During 2021-2022, the Action Research Programme was one of two professional learning initiatives explored as part of the Welsh Government’s National Professional Learning Project led by UCU. The outcome of this project has led to the college formally sharing the development of a research culture in four partner colleges as part of the Collaborative strand of the Professional Learning fund for 2022-2023.

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