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FACULTY OF SOCIAL SCIENCE
LEARNING AND TEACHING STRATEGY 2009
CONTEXT
This learning and teaching strategy aims to provide an overall vision and a framework
for coordinated action to develop and enhance learning and teaching activity across the
Faculty1. It aims to put learning and teaching at the centre of Faculty activities, on an
equal footing with research and with practice/knowledge transfer. On one hand it is
informed by the University’s overarching learning and teaching strategy.
We are
especially influenced by:
 the key goal of producing Sheffield Graduates who can demonstrate "impact,
excellence and distinctiveness in their chosen field";
 the desire of the University to extend cultural and social awareness and sensitivity
and expand international horizons.
On the other hand the Faculty strategy in turn provides an umbrella for the individual
learning, teaching and assessment strategies of our constituent departments, each of
which has its own characteristic flavour. We expect the links between the three levels of
strategy - University, Faculty and Department - to evolve further over time as reviews
take place.
DISTINCTIVE FEATURES OF LEARNING AND TEACHING IN THE FACULTY
There are several distinctive dimensions of learning and teaching that offer common
threads which, in various ways, help to link the Faculty Departments together. They are:

a high degree of critical reflection on learning and teaching amongst both staff
and students and an emphasis on independence and creative thought;

engagement with society through the study of social systems, or social elements of
systems;
1
Although this is a strategy, it also provides steps towards an action plan, which will help to guide the work of
Faculty in the coming years. The intention is that a fuller, integrated action plan will be produced based on both
this strategy and the Faculty report on the Annual Reflection process.
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
a focus on issues relating to people and communities, and on the places that they
create and inhabit, often through the opportunity to work on real world or ‘live’
projects;

a diversity of disciplines and methodologies accompanied by recognition of the
interdisciplinary synergies that exist between them;

the delivery of professional (accredited) programmes accompanied by a recognition
that these programmes should go beyond training to offer a critical and reflective
education;

recognition of a ‘virtuous triangle’ linking learning and teaching, research
and practice/knowledge transfer in ways that are mutually supportive;

understanding of the contested nature of knowledge in the social sciences,
assessing different types of evidence to develop sophisticated understandings
of complex questions, and answers to them..
APPROACHES TO LEARNING AND TEACHING
We wish to develop key aspects of the University’s strategy for learning and teaching
and also to reinforce the distinctive aspects of learning and teaching in the Faculty
outlined above. The aim is to recognise and maintain existing strengths in learning and
teaching, while also promoting new responses where appropriate. We expect to take
action in the following areas:
Interpreting the University’s strategy
We want to promote the concept of the Sheffield Graduate and will make every effort
to ensure that our students are enabled to achieve successfully against the twelve key
attributes of a Sheffield Graduate that have been defined by the University. We also
want to ensure that as a Faculty we value and promote the international dimension of
learning and teaching and will:
 seek to develop some international aspect within all our programmes, and where
appropriate, ensure that curricula include an international perspective;
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 promote learning and teaching methods that are inclusive;
 encourage the development of links with international universities and help to
promote opportunities for staff to engage in learning and teaching overseas.
Connections between research and learning and teaching
As a Faculty in a research-led institution we believe that wherever possible, degree
programmes should be underpinned by research or equivalent forms of inquiry. We see
inquiry as a central aspect of our teaching and will encourage both research-led
teaching and teaching-led research. We will:

promote inquiry-based learning and seek to embed it in all taught programmes;

work towards the incorporation of significant experiences of research or its
equivalent into all undergraduate programmes to increase the exposure of
students to such forms of enquiry. These could be formally embedded within
programmes, or take the form of events and workshops that expose students to
research and researchers both within and beyond their departments and faculty.
Professionalism in practice, skills and employability
The Faculty delivers professionally accredited education programmes in more than half
of its constituent departments. We see this professional education strand as a crucial
part of our portfolio. We believe that professional education must encourage an
intelligent appreciation of the cultural, economic, philosophical, political, social and
technological context within which the different professions operate. We also recognise
that professional education can offer excellent opportunities for development of
generic/ transferrable skills and of enterprise skills.
There are also opportunities to
encourage a similar appreciation of context and the same range of transferable skills in
other Faculty programmes and the professional programmes can offer many good
practice examples which may benefit others. We will:

help our Departments to achieve and maintain the highest standards of professional
education, providing appropriate support, when
procedures;
required, for accreditation
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
explore the extent to which good practice in professional education, especially in the
acquisition by students of generic/transferable and enterprise skills, can be shared
across the Faculty; encourage all programmes to convey the key principles of ethical
practice to all participating students, embracing rigour, respect and social and
environmental responsibility;

promote the importance of enterprise elements, including social enterprise, within
all programmes, and link this to previous enterprise work done at Sheffield and in
our White Rose partner institutions;

encourage engagement with society at local, regional, national and international
levels by being outward facing and promoting involvement of staff and students in
real world and in live projects;

ensure that all stakeholders acknowledge this set of attributes and skills. which
enhance the employability of a Sheffield Social Sciences Graduate.
Indicators of success in this area will be:
 An enhanced international dimension in learning and teaching across the Faculty;
 An increase in inquiry-based learning opportunities in Faculty programmes,
reflecting appropriate embedding of the inquiry-based learning
approach in all
Departments;
 Growth in opportunities for undergraduate students in all Departments to be
involved in research or equivalent activities;
 Success in achieving or maintaining professional accreditation for relevant
programmes with positive feedback from accrediting bodies;
 Increase in engagement with mainstream and social enterprise activities.
QUALITY ASSURANCE AND QUALITY ENHANCEMENT
We believe there should be an explicit link between quality assurance procedures and
enhancement activities that aim to improve the quality of the student learning
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experience. We also think that building an excellent student learning experience should
be a partnership between staff and students.
Key indicators that are available to
demonstrate quality of student experience include the National Student Survey (NSS),
Departmental evaluation of programmes and modules and Personal Development
Planning, which can provide the basis for a continual dialogue between staff and
students throughout their learning experience, ultimately recognized by the Sheffield
Graduate Award.
The NSSis one of the few available indicators of the student
experience where we can be benchmarked against other universities. Although it is
widely used across the sector and by prospective students via league tables and online
applications, we recognize its limitations and support the ongoing discussions about
improved or alternative approaches. Overall the Faculty Departments perform well in
the NSS, with some doing extremely well. But there is still room for improvement in
some themes and in some Departments.
We recognise that the Institutional landscape around Quality Assurance is changing and
that while the details are not yet clear we anticipate that there will continue to be a
requirement for detailed periodic review of learning and teaching within Departments
and for checks on compliance with University policies. We expect the Faculty to play a
full role in the new processes as they emerge, with a focus on ensuring the quality,
standards and sustainability of learning and teaching. Our approach to current quality
assurance and enhancement activities in learning and teaching is briefly summarised
below.
Quality Assurance
The Faculty will ensure that its quality assurance procedures are robust and rigorous
without being unduly onerous and that they are designed to support Departments in
achieving excellence.
The main components of the procedures at present are
programme review, the annual reflection on learning and teaching and the external
examiner system. We will:
 develop an approach to programme review that is timely and responsive to the
needs
of
Departments, that facilitates opportunities
for cross-departmental
collaboration where appropriate, and that helps in monitoring the quality of delivery
and encourages the dissemination of good practice;
 continue to support departments in the development of new programmes/units and
in the enhancement of existing programmes/units;
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 use the new Annual Reflection process for Learning and Teaching primarily as an
opportunity to identify and spread good practice as well as to review quality and the
challenges that Departments face;
 recognise the key role that external examiners play in the maintenance of standards
and in helping us to identify common issues across departments and so seek to
develop a more consistent approach across Faculty Departments to the role of
external examiners and the handling of their reports.
Enhancement of the student learning experience
The student experience within the Faculty is necessarily diverse given the range of
disciplines and clear differences between the undergraduate, taught postgraduate and
research student experience. The Faculty also has a high proportion of part-time
students, mature students and students from non-traditional backgrounds, further
adding to the diversity of the student population. We want to develop better
knowledge and understanding of how the student experience differs and, over time,
create a stronger sense of identity in the Faculty’s student body. We also want to
foster a deeper understanding of the distinctiveness of teaching in a research led
institution and encourage staff to share good practice and engage fully with innovative
teaching methods and new technology, while also acknowledging the very real time
and workload constraints that can influence levels of engagement. We will:
 foster a sense of identity among our large community of students by engagement
with students through the Faculty student forum, establishment of a network of
student ambassadors (building on past successful student ambassador initiatives)
and piloting of a student-driven Social Sciences Newsletter;
 develop our own mechanisms for sharing good practice through follow up to the
Annual Reflection process, running the Learning and Teaching Advocates Network
and organising workshops to share practice in specific areas of learning and teaching
practice;
 continue to engage actively with University wide enhancement initiatives, including
the Learning and Teaching Development Grants scheme, the Senate Awards Scheme,
Learning and Teaching Conferences, the Teaching Commons, the Academic Skills
Hub and MASH (Mathematics and Statistics Help);
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 seek to support the next generation of Senate Award Fellows and foster teaching
excellence through support for the CILT and initiatives aimed at integrating Graduate
Teaching Assistants.
 encourage academic staff to reflect on their own teaching practice through
engagement in the new Annual Dialogue process.
The Postgraduate experience
In seeking to rebalance the size and shape of the Faculty and of individual departments
some shift in emphasis from undergraduate to postgraduate education is required. The
Faculty is already home to 60% of the University’s postgraduate taught course
students but our level of postgraduate activity still compares poorly with many of our
main competitor institutions. A PGT working group (set up before the current Faculty
structures were put in place) has already produced a document which starts the process
of developing a PGT strategy, but this needs to be developed further into a concrete
action plan. We will:
 work with the Faculty Steering Group and the Faculty Learning and Teaching
Committee to agree appropriate mechanisms for completing and implementing a
postgraduate taught course strategy building on the significant work that has already
been done;
 work with Departments to review the sustainability of existing postgraduate
programmes,
identify
key
opportunities
for
new
postgraduate
programme
development and facilitate their development;
 seek to ensure that resourcing issues are fully recognised in plans to expand
postgraduate provision to ensure high quality provision and excellent student
learning experiences;
 support the continuation and enhancement of the PGT directors’ network that has
been informally established.

Indicators of success in this area will be:
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 improved performance in the NSS, measured by the Faculty’s overall performance
relative to other Faculties and the University as a whole, and with all Departments
aiming to achieve at the level of the best in the Faculty and improving their position
relative to appropriate comparator institutions;
 greater consistency in the handling of external examiners and their reports;
 levels of participation of students in the Faculty Student Forum and in the
ambassadors network;
 levels of participation of Faculty staff in the learning and teaching advocates
network and in sharing good practice events;
 levels of participation of Faculty departments and staff in University wide teaching
excellence schemes, where they continue, such as the Learning and Teaching
Development Grant schemes, and the Senate Awards scheme, and in the new
Annual Dialogue process;

levels of satisfaction of postgraduate students on new and existing programmes,
based on the University’s agreed participation in the new PTES, postgraduate
student survey.
LINKAGES, COLLABORATIONS AND SUPPORT
We want the Faculty to develop a collective intellectual identity while at the same time
respecting the individuality of each Department. For learning and teaching this will rely
to a considerable degree on extending collaborative links between Departments, both
by consolidating those which already exist and by developing new ones. This should
not in any sense be to the exclusion of external links and we recognise that several
Departments already have strong collaborations with Departments in other Faculties
which also need to be nurtured and developed. To extend our collaborations in learning
and teaching we will:

map existing links between Departments (both inside and outside the Faculty), by
looking at dual undergraduate programmes and collaborative postgraduate
programmes, as well as both geographical and intellectual proximity;
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
identify key themes for learning and teaching that appear to offer scope for new or
enhanced collaboration while also helping to strengthen the Faculty’s identity;

promote communication both within and between Departments, in part through
greater and more active involvement of LeTs and other professional service
colleagues, who are often best placed to know what developments are under
consideration and where there may be untapped potential for collaboration;

Support Departments in identifying, developing and implementing strategies for
widening participation, and seek to share best practice in relation to areas such as
admissions, curriculum development and student support mechanisms

Facilitate the expansion of Continuing Professional Development provision.
Indicators of success in this area will be:
 growth in collaborative programmes, especially at postgraduate level, and the
success of these programmes over time;
 increase in and success of initiatives designed to widen participation.
PRIORITIES FOR THE SHORT AND MEDIUM TERM (2 YEARS)
Issues of size and shape are central to the Faculty Strategic Plan for the period 20082013, as the Faculty aims to work with departments so that they can achieve their full
potential within the University’s planning framework. Aspects of the Strategic Plan
most relevant to our learning and teaching strategy are the ambitions to: rebalance
current undergraduate student numbers more appropriately; continue to increase
postgraduate taught income; and contribute to the widening participation agenda by
ensuring that under-represented groups have sufficient resources and support to
enable them to fulfil their potential2. The primary role for the Faculty in this area is in
2
It is also worth noting the intention that the Faculty should become a major centre of excellence for
postgraduate research training. Responsibility for this straddles the ‘learning and teaching’ and ‘research and
innovation’ functions within the Faculty, but at present it is not covered in this strategy.
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support for academic planning and programme development and in facilitation and
encouragement of cross-Faculty collaborations.
This strategy sets out an ambitious agenda and while we will endeavour to make
progress in all areas it will not be possible to tackle everything at the same time. The
Faculty Strategic Plan and the outcome of discussions at the Faculty Learning and
Teaching Committee following the current Annual Reflection round suggest that
priority should be given over the next two years to:
 seeking continuous enhancement of the student experience across the Faculty, using
the NSS results, and the PTES results when available, alongside other measures of
student satisfaction, to judge progress;
 working to complete and implement a postgraduate taught course strategy building
on the significant work that has already been done;
 building on the Annual Reflection process for learning and teaching to identify and
spread good practice
especially in the priority areas identified this year, namely:
assessment/feedback and evaluation; finding ways of balancing learning and
teaching with other departmental activities and achieving appropriate resourcing;
innovation and enhancement; and student engagement.
November 2009