Ranald Macdonald

 

 

 

Ranald Macdonald My career, in brief My activities with SEDA  Research and scholarly interests

 

I am Professor of Academic Development and Head of Strategic Development in the Learning and Teaching Institute at Sheffield Hallam University. Awarded a National Teaching Fellowship in 2005 and a Fellowship holder of the Staff and Educational Development Association (SEDA)

 

My career, in brief

 

A bit about me at work. 

 

After a couple of years teaching in FE after University I then spent seven years as a Research Economist with Midland Bank (now HSBC) at their Sheffield Head Office. Not the most exciting of my work years!

 

In 1984, at the age of 32, I took the bold decision to give up the cheap mortgage and non-contributory pension to go back to being a full-time student. I enrolled on a one-year Post-Graduate Certificate in Education at Huddersfield Polytechnic which was designed for those wanting to teach in Further Education. My tutor, Barry williamson, encouraged those who wanted not to attend classes but to navigate our way through the formal requirements of the course using negotiated learning contracts - an approach I was to use later in my teaching. He started by suggesting I read Carl Rogers' Freedom to Learn and Paul Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed - a genuinely life-changing moment for me as I began to see the real nature of learning rather than a focus on teaching. It also got me into much of the adult learning literature which still influences me significantly.

 

I first started as a Lecture in Economics and Business Studies at Sheffield City Polytechnic, as it then was, in 1984 as a teaching practice on my PGCert and was then offered a full-time post in September 1985. My main roles were on the BTEC HND/C Business and Finance courses though I also taught Financial Intermediaries on the final year of the BA Business Studies. I was heavilty involved in curriculum development and innovative teaching approaches even at this stage.

 

In 1990 I moved to Derbyshire College of Higher Education which became Derby University in 1992. I had been recruited to help start up the BA Business Studies there as they had only run BTEC and management programmes up to then. I was presented with further real opportunities to do something different, largely based on my BTEC experience but now adopting them on degree programmes.

 

In 1994 I returned to Sheffield which was by then Sheffield Hallam University, to work in the Learning and Teaching Institute as an educational developer. Whilst I continued some teaching I had by now really moved away from my previous subjects - Economics and Business Studies - into educational development full-time.

 

In 1997 I went to the Open University for just over two years as part of the HEFCE-funded National Co-ordination Team, providing educational development support and monitoring for the Fund for the Development of Teaching and Learning (FDTL) and Teaching and Learning Technology Programme (TLTP) projects. I was now working as part of a team with people I had long held in high esteem - Graham Gibbs, Carole Baume and David Baume.

 

I returned to Sheffield Hallam University in February 2000 and, despite being tempted by a number of invitations, have been happy to remain there ever since.

 

The Higher Education Funding Council for England has funded 74 Centres for Excellence in Teaching and Learning and at Sheffield Hallam we have two - the Centre for Promoting Learner Autonomy (CPLA) and Enhancing, Embedding and Integrating Employability (e3i) together with a joint one with Coventry University on Inter-Professional e-Learning in Health and Social Care (CIPeL). I was Co-Director of CPLA, together with Professor Anthony Rosie until August 2007 when we both decided it was time to move on to other things. Anthony and I also ran one of the CETL Special Interest Groups on Institutional Processes which looked at potential institutional barriers to innovation and risk-taking and how we might reduce these.

 

My activities with SEDA 

 

I have been involved with SEDA - the Staff and Educational Development Association - and its predecessor, SCED, since about 1988 when I was still a Business Studies lecturer. It offered me a 'home' to discuss my ideas and those I met at conferences and on committees provided me with support and encouragement to continue to innovate.

 

Over the years I have been involved with a number of committees including the Conferences Committee; Networks, Membership, Marketing and Newsletter; and Finance and Administration. Between 1998 and 2001 I was Co-Chair with Liz Beaty, who is now Director, Learning and Teaching at the Higher Education Funding Council for England as well as Vice-Chair in the previous and following years. This was an interesting time for SEDA as it also saw the establishment of the Institute for Learning and Teaching in Higher Education, now the Higher Education Academy and we had to re-consider where our primary focus lay.

 

In 1998 I established a joint Educational Development Research Network between SEDA and the Society for Research into Higher Education (SRHE) with the aim of improving the quality of staff and academic development through research and scholarship.

 

In 2002 I established the SEDA Research Committee and was elected first Chair of the Committee. The Committee was re-launched in 2007 as the Scholarship, Resarch and Evaluation Committee (affectionately known as SchREC!), which I still Chair.

 

Research and scholarly interests

 

My current interests include:

• the scholarship of academic development
• promoting learner autonomy
• assessment for learning
• plagiarism and academic integrity
• problem-based learning

 

 

 

 

 

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