GUIDANCE

On one level, everything on this website can be considered ‘guidance’, but this section is specifically designed to offer more in-depth advice regarding the various aspects of your application across the different categories of fellowship (D1-D4). From some overarching principles regarding writing your application, including the pros and cons of the various formats you can submit in, to more specific thoughts about the writing of  Case Studies and the Reflective Narrative (Senior Fellow only). From details about the support available to you as you develop your submission to some more developed guidance on the criteria you will be assessed against. There’s plenty to read and take in here, so don’t try to do it all at once, have a look and then return as and when needed!

Quick links:
Overview
Criteria
Formats
Submission Requirements
Word Counts/Time Limits
Context Statements
Dimensions of Practice

Overview

The following is based on the Advance HE guidance for fellowship. The Sheffield Hallam TALENT scheme submission requirements differ from the Advance HE in the structure of the submission. However, all the criteria and the scope of practice indicated are the same.

Associate Fellow, Fellow, Senior Fellow or Principal Fellowships are awarded to professionals who can demonstrate they meet the relevant criteria of Descriptors 1 – 4 (D1, D2, D3, D4) of the Professional Standards Framework (PSF 2023) for teaching and supporting learning in higher education.

By applying to become an Associate Fellow, Fellow, Senior Fellow or Principal Fellow you will have the opportunity to:

  • Increase your influence and impact by gaining national, and increasingly international, recognition for your role as a leader, influencer, teacher and/or supporter of learning within the higher education context.
  • Reflect on and thereby enhance the quality and effectiveness of your work in the area of teaching and supporting learning in higher education.
  • Model good practice for other staff and be able to encourage and support them to seek recognition for their work in this area.

Please ensure that you have watched the relevant ‘Getting Started Guide’ video (coming soon) and attended a development workshop prior to commencing your application.

You may additionally find one of our full day writing retreats a useful way to set aside focused time to complete your application.  Guidance and feedback will be available from the facilitators throughout the day.

What constitutes Higher Education practice?

All your experience and evidence included in the submission must relate to HE provision such as:

If you have any questions about eligibility, please contact  talent@shu.ac.uk in the first instance.

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Criteria

The PSF 2023 Descriptors (D1 – D4) each consist of a set of three statements that form the final criteria you should be able to provide evidence for to achieve the relevant category of fellowship. The Dimensions of Practice (Areas of Activity, Core Knowledge and Professional Values) are incorporated within these criteria, but there are additional elements for each Descriptor that will also need to be met within your submission. It is important that you map against these criteria across your submission Case Studies and reflective pieces and make sure your referees focus their written statements towards the Descriptors also.

Advance HE has published guidance which will help you to understand the purpose and meaning of the Descriptors in more depth and, in particular, how they relate to each other and how you can use them effectively within your submission evidence:

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Formats

An overarching expectation relating to all submissions, in line with your practice, is that your submissions will conform to accessibility and inclusivity guidelines. For advice and guidance on this requirement and to access accessibility checkers please see the university’s Digital Accessibility Training, Guidance & Resources.

In keeping with this inclusive approach, we accept a range of submission formats to allow for your preferred way of demonstrating that you meet the PSF 2023 fellowship criteria.

For example, here are two straightforward possibilities:

Option 1 : Written
Option 2 : Recorded verbal/digital story

Both options can be used within your application. You do not have to request or justify your chosen format(s), simply insert your content in whatever format as directed in the relevant fellowship category application form.

Please refer to the submission requirements page in conjunction with the following guidance.

You should consider carefully what value will be added to your submission by the format you choose.  You may have authentic evidence of your practice which might not be well represented in a written format for example, or you may simply feel that you present verbally more effectively than in writing. Or it might be that your discipline or role makes the use of multimedia technology second nature to you. A spoken presentation allows you to communicate your case studies using a wider variety of formats, for example:

  • Recorded verbal narration with slides
  • Demonstration (eg of techniques, artefacts)
  • Use of audio-visual materials or delivery methods
  • Tours of multi-media and interactive resources or environments you have developed

Submissions will be accepted through a variety of university supported digital tools, e.g. MS Teams, Panopto, PebblePad. Specialist support for using these tools is available from the university’s Digital Learning Team and the Digital Skills Team. You will also have access to a range of online self-help training and resources in the use of digital tools, via the university’s LinkedIn Learning subscription.

Whichever option you choose, the time and effort involved is also likely to play a part in your choice. Pay close attention to how you are addressing the criteria – using a video format, for example, may tempt you to evidence your claim simply by showing examples of your practice but remember you must identify your claim first and then illustrate your claim with an example. The claim may be that you take a particular approach to meeting individual needs (V1) and your video illustrates that approach; but you need to make the case and not assume that the example will be sufficiently explanatory.

You must ensure that:

  • the maximum word lengths/timings for your fellowship category are not exceeded. We would expect submissions to be well under these maximums and encourage you to prepare with this in mind. You do not need more words/time to meet the criteria, if you find you are exceeding the limits, you are surely providing too much material and should edit your submission.
  • you explicitly reference the dimension statements of the PSF 2023 individually in accordance with your fellowship category throughout your submission. It is not enough to meet the criteria, you are also required to demonstrate awareness of them and what they mean in practice.
  • your referees are provided with access to your submission in the appropriate format so that their statements are based on your submission exactly as it is seen by the reviewers; you should check these statements and make sure they validate your practice as you need them to. As these statements form part of your evidence, you are entitled to ask your referee to amend their statements if they do not meet your needs. You must submit the referee statements with your application form.

Planning a digital story as a verbal presentation
It is vital to plan your presentation and to practice the timings.  Relate to your experience of marking student work – reviewers are doing this voluntarily. You will still need to include references to literature and map to the dimensions of practice during/within your presentation so think carefully how you do this. It is not enough simply to list all dimensions covered at the end or the beginning. Whatever media you choose to submit with, ensure it is possible to pause, rewind and review so that reviewers can make judgements efficiently, effectively and fairly.

How will my presentation/resource be judged?
In the final analysis, your submission will be judged on:

  • Convincing demonstration that your practice meets the PSF 2023 requirements (Dimensions of Practice and Descriptor Criteria)
  • The evidence you present in support of your claims

You will not be judged on your delivery or presentation skills whether written or verbal (unless these form a specific part of your claim or if they inhibit understanding by the panel).

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Submission requirements

Please refer to the submission requirements page which gives details for each fellowship category.

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Word Counts/Time Limits

A note on word counts, digital story time limits. These are in place for largely practical reasons. They are set to indicate the absolute maximum required to demonstrate what is needed. Experience over many years tells us this is true. You only need to meet the criteria as described and do not need to go above and beyond this. You cannot be given a higher mark or a distinction for any of the categories of fellowship. Many applicants have many years of experience to draw on and others far less and yet both can be recognised with fellowship. We rely on you to be selective, choosing only practice that is required to meet the criteria. Concentrate on range, depth and quality of practice rather than volume. We are diverse and work in different ways and thus we have set higher than suggested limits to take account of all participants and to model inclusive practice. For the sake of yourselves, the mentors and reviewers, use the general guidance on these pages, the individual support from the TALENT team and your own knowledge and experience to aim for a lower count than the maximums set for each submission element.

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Context Statements

The context you practice within is critical to how and why you practice as you do and thus you have an option to describe your context separately such that it informs the reviewers of appropriate background. This statement is not in itself reviewed against any of the criteria and can be up to 300 words long. These words do not count towards your overall word or timing limits and frees you up from using words unnecessarily in your submission claim itself.

Your context might, for example, relate to:

  • the specifics and/or culture of your discipline
  • your ongoing engagement with professional practice
  • your employment status
  • any additional roles or relationships with outside organisations
  • the nature of you student cohorts e.g. large/small numbers; diversity;

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Dimensions of Practice

This information is based on Advance HE guidance.

The PSF 2023 Dimensions of Practice are a key part of every application for fellowship in all categories. The Dimensions consist of three sets of statements outlining the:

Five Professional values (V1 – V5) that someone performing the Areas of Activity should embrace, exemplify and use, to underpin their Core Knowledge  

Five aspects of Core knowledge (K1 – K5) that are informed and underpinned by the Professional Values and are needed to be able to carry out the Areas of Activity at the appropriate level

Five Areas of Activity (A1 – A5) forming the essential activities undertaken by teachers and supporters of learning within HE and which enable delivery of effective practice.

The Dimensions of Practice not only reflect the complexity and multi-faceted nature of the professional role of staff teaching and/or supporting learning but are also broad and flexible enough to accommodate a wide range of practice that is appropriate to different disciplines, contexts and levels of study from level 4 to level 8. It is critical therefore to recognise the importance of context and this is emphasised by the framing of each set of statements with the prefix: “In your context…”.

Professional Values

In your context, show how you:

V1: respect individual learners and diverse groups of learners
V2:  promote engagement in learning and equity of opportunity for all to reach their potential
V3:  use scholarship, or research, or professional learning, or other evidence-informed approaches as a basis for effective practice
V4: respond to the wider context in which higher education operates, recognising implications for practice
V5: collaborate with others to enhance practice

Core Knowledge

In your context, apply knowledge of:

K1: how learners learn, generally and within specific subjects
K2: approaches to teaching and/or supporting learning, appropriate for subjects and level of study
K3: critical evaluation as a basis for effective practice
K4: appropriate use of digital and/or other technologies, and resources for learning
K5: requirements for quality assurance and enhancement, and their implications for practice

Areas of Activity

In your context, demonstrate that you:

A1:  design and plan learning activities and/or programmes
A2:  teach and/or support learning through appropriate approaches and environments
A3:  assess and give feedback for learning
A4:  support and guide learners
A5: enhance practice through own continuing professional development

Providing evidence of how you meet these dimensions within your practice is a core part of every category of fellowship from D1 – D4 although due to the more limited experience and range of practice expected from those applying for D1, only seven of the dimension statements need be met for this category.

Although these dimensions have been individually identified to articulate them for the Framework, it is not expected that in practice they operate in this discrete way. On the contrary, they overlap and depend on each other, in combination:  you will demonstrate a Professional Value whilst undertaking an Activity which requires levels of Core Knowledge to be undertaken successfully.

For example, you may be redesigning a L4 UG module (A1) that incorporates flexibility and choice in the assessment format (V2) due to feedback received from students (K5)

For this reason, it is probably best not to begin with the dimension statements when selecting practice you wish to include in your submission. Instead, select a range of examples of your practice and then map to the dimensions to ascertain which of the statements you are meeting.

The practice used to evidence meeting these dimensions will also vary depending on the category of fellowship applied for.

Those applying for D2 (Fellow) are likely to be providing examples of practice at module or course or programme level and will primarily be engaged in effective and inclusive teaching practice which has a direct impact on students, reflecting their ‘classroom’ involvement.

At D1 (Associate Fellow), however, it may be that the effective practices selected are more session based and drawn from a much narrower range of activity and may be less focussed on a subject or discipline.

At D3 (Senior Fellow), it is recognised that the applicant might no longer be involved in much direct teaching and thus their practice should demonstrate leading or influencing high-quality teaching and learning practice. Their impact on the student experience is likely to be at one remove.

At D4 (Principal Fellow), the expectation is that as highly experienced individuals usually with senior leadership roles, they will often be some time removed from direct teaching and are more likely to be engaged in strategic leadership in a sustained way that affects how other staff meet the dimensions in a more broad and collective way.

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