Assessing Transferable Skills Personal Development Planning

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Assessing Transferable Skills Personal
Development Planning

• David Cole-Hamilton
• School of Chemistry
• University of St. Andrews

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Transferable skills Embedded in the Curriculum

• Posters
• Oral presentations
• Essays
• Chemical Newspaper
• Miniproject

All involve teamwork
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Posters
4
Oral Presentations
5
Chemical Newspapers
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The Problem
Semester 2 3 sets of posters 3 sets of Oral
presentations
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The Solution

• Hold all poster sessions on the same afternoon
  with a reception for staff and all students
  (lectures the morning of the same day)
• Each activity marked by at least two staff
  members
• Markers selected from those not involved in
  teaching the module
• Only one assessment per staff member
• All staff members do one assessment
• Prizes judged by sponsor or other External person

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Assessment of Group work(Miniproject)

• Assessed Components
• Individual Report
• Group Report
• Group presentation (each individual contributes)

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Assessment of Group Report

• Peer Assessment

Peer Assessment is used to moderate an overall
mark given by two assessors
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Personal Development Planning

• Dr. Fiona Gray
• FILTA

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Personal Development Planning

• Maintaining a record of the skills developed
  during a University Degree
• Academic and non-academic
• Undergraduate Skills Record
• Royal Society of Chemistry

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Why do Personal development Planning

• If I ask a student at interview
• Did you do any group work during your
  undergraduate degree?
• and they think for a while before saying
• I seem to remember putting a poster together
  with some other students in Second year
• I am not impressed.
• If they can reply immediately with details of
  various activities, they are much more likely to
  get the job
• Recruitment Officer, Quintiles, Edinburgh

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Undergraduate Skills RecordRoyal Society of
Chemistry
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Undergraduate skills record

• Student centred
• Regularly updated
• Read over before interviews etc.
• Covers academic and non-academic activities
• Paper, on-line and downloadable formats available

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Introduction of USR Chemistry, St. Andrews

• Funding from FILTA (2002-3)
• Part time employment of Dr. Fiona Gray (2002-5)

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USR 2002-3
Fiona Gray
Semester 1 Individual discussions
Semester 2 Mentoring Training
Level 3000 (3rd Year)
58/64
22/30
Mentoring
Filled in retrospectively To enable mentoring
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Steady State Operation
Fiona Gray
Semester 1 Encouraging Checking
Semester 1 Introduce PDP
Semester 1 Training for mentoring
Level 1000 (1st Year)
Level 2000 (2nd Year)
Semesters 1 and 2 Mentoring
Semester 2 Mentoring
Level 4/5000 (4th/5th Year)
Level 3000 (3rd Year)
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Nine Key Skills

• Planning and Organisation
• Study Skills
• Handling Information
• Communication Skills
• Teamwork
• Scientific / Practical Skills
• Improving Learning and Performance
• Information/Communication Technology
• Problem Solving

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Communication Skills

• Rate yourself on your ability to
• Ask for advice and help from fellow students,
  lecturers, supervisors
• Present ideas to a range of specialist and
  non-specialist audiences
• Maintain good lecture / laboratory notes
• Provide written reports on time and of an
  appropriate length
• Plan and present an oral presentation with
  appropriate visual aids

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How it works
Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3

• Plan and present an oral presentation with
  appropriate visual aids
• Note Comments targets and Plans with evidence to
  support your scoring
• Went on a bit long rather boring two people
  fell asleep in the back row half way through
• Development Targets for Phase 2
• Arrive on a unicycle, put a bit of juggling in
  the middle, make a loud noise every time someone
  looks like dropping off
• Colin Mason suggests cutting out most of the
  detail and concentrating on the key points
• A I can use this skill very well
• B I can use this skill well, but some
  improvements could be made
• C I need to improve this skill
• D I need to put in considerable work to develop
  this skill
• E I have not had the opportunity to develop this
  skill

D
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To Assess or not to Assess
Against
For

• Will students take the process seriously if it is
  not compulsory and not assessed?
• Some students have had very bad experiences of
  PDP at school
• (National Record of Achievement)

• Students have said they would not fill in the
  record honestly if they were to be assessed or
  had to show the record to someone
• Staff are happy to help or look over what has
  been written and comment if invited

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Showing PDP is worthwhile

• Personal Development planning is for the benefit
  of the students
• They need to see it as worthwhile
• Senior students help because they can give
  practical examples of where it was important
  (Industrial Placement or job interviews)
• A staff member committed to the scheme makes the
  scheme work.
• She also picks up other problems early in first
  year (e. g. time management)

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Conclusions

• Personal Development Planning helps students
  appreciate the skills they have learnt and why
  they have learnt them
• It allows them to check before an interview what
  they have done
• They will probably not keep a skills record
  without encouragement
• Mentoring of junior students by more senior ones
  helps show the importance of PDP
• A staff member to introduce and monitor PDP helps
  greatly.