Applying for membership of ILT

Yesterday (Wednesday) morning I attended a workshop about preparing an application for membership if the Institute for Learning and Teaching in Higher Education. There's a fast track entry route that closes at the end of July so if I want to apply now's the time to do it.

I have mixed feelings about membership of ILT. For a start it'll cost me £75 per annum and I'm alread a member of a professional body - the British Computer Society - in fact I am a Chartered Engineer (CEng) no less!

An interesting outcome of the workshop was the extent to which the 'Initial Entry Route for Experienced Staff' application concentrates on introspection and personal reflection on the worth and approach of an individual's teaching and learning experience. I still need to check out the criteria used by the accreditors when assessing applications.

The bulk of the application requires personal statements of about 500 words for each of the five Areas of Professional Activity:

1. Teaching and the Support of Learning: Please indicate the range of teaching and learning support activities in which yor are involved. Choose up to three of these activities or techniques you use and comment on how you came to use them and why you think they are successful. The accreditors will wich to seek evidence of a rationale for choosing activities and techniques used and how they relate to developing the learners' understanding of the subject.
2. Contribution to the design and planning of learning activities and/or programmes of study: Please identify the ways in which you contribute to the design and planning of learning activities. These might include both involvement in the design or re-design of courses and programmes and identifying and planning different kinds of interaction with learners in different contexts for single sessions or larger programmes. Equally it might include indirect involvement through participation in validation panels, feedback to colleagues, on team teaching or contribution to the creation of learning resource packs and compuetr-based or open learning materials. The accreditors will wish to seek evidence of a rationale for choosing learning content, activities and techniques and how they relate to developing learners' understanding of the subject.
3. Assessment and giving feedback to learners: Please indicate how you give feedback to learners (eg in writing, orally, as part of the supervision of research students). Describe how you try to ensure that the feedback you give to learners helps them to improve and enhance their performance. Please also describe the types of assessment you use with learners, both formal and informal (formative and summative). Indicate how and why you choose the approaches and methods you use, in so far as this is your own decision, and to what extent, if any, you are involved in designing assessments. The accreditors will wish to seek evidence of a rationale for choosing activities and techniques used and how they relate to developing the learners' understanding of the subject.
4. Developing effective learning environments and learner support systems: Please comment on the range of ways in which you contribute to making the learning environment effective for learners. This might include such activities as placement or project supervision, personal and academic tutoring, one-to-one advice, counselling, learning support in IT laboratories, laboratory work supervision, studio critiques, support of work-based learning, or information retrieval and management. The accreditors will wish to seek evidence of a rationale for choosing activities and techniques used and how they relate to developing the learners' understanding of the subject.
5. Reflective practice and personal development: Please include here a brief description of the means by which you evaluate your teaching/learning support activities, both formally and informally, and how you build on what you learn about your working practices. Please refer to how you seek feedback on your practice, how you evaluate this feedback and integrate evaluation into future activities. You should also refer here to any activities you have undertaken to update yourself on aspects of teaching and learning, including staff development activities or conferences on learning and teaching. Also include participation in projects to develop learning methods.
Other information: Use this space to provide any additional information you would like to submit in support of your application; for example, if you act as a mentor to new lecturers or contribute to in-house learning and teaching programmes. You might also like to focus on activities undertaken in professional bodies or subject associations which further develop teaching and learning methods. Projects undertaken by a group or team are valued as much as individual activities. Details about the way your subject research is linked into your practice through taught courses, postgraduate support and research supervision will also be relevant.

Looks like it's going to take some time to write the 3000 words or so required!

References/Resources

Better do my homework before filling in my application. Here are some of the resources I should check out from the ILT website: