Chapter 5: A thick description of the participative approach 5.1 Introduction
5.2 The plan: The PDMM Media Management and Leadership Module
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Chapter 5: A thick description of the participative approach
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knowledge of leadership and management theories and principles of relevance to those working in the media industry; but also practical competence – the ability to apply this knowledge in context, and reflective competence – the ability to discern whether what they know and can do is appropriate to the situation they are confronted with. These objectives are evident in the following overall description of the module17:
This module is designed to equip students with the knowledge and skills required to perform effectively as managers and leaders within the public, private and community media sectors … students will need to demonstrate familiarity with key management and leadership theories and concepts, including issues relating to motivation, staff development and change management. Students will be required to critically reflect on how these conceptual issues influence management and leadership practice and apply these concepts in addressing specific management problems. They will also need to develop a clearly defined philosophy of leadership for themselves (see Appendix Three – pp.150).
The module is also designed to encourage students to develop the skills and dispositions required of autonomous, responsible learners and is structured in a way that encourages students to take responsibility for each other’s learning (see 4.2.6). Consistent with the communicative and emancipatory constructs of the curriculum, the module recognises the value of students’ prior knowledge and the social constructedness of knowledge (see 4.1.2).
These arguments are implicit in the course outline, which states that:
… teaching methods chosen for this course are based on an understanding that learning cannot simply be transferred from the lecturer to the students. Instead, it recognises that effective learning is a collective process in which learners and lecturers work together in developing a shared understanding of the materials being covered. It is designed to take advantage of the small size of the class and to limit the amount of direct lecturing as far as possible (PDMM, 2008: 2).
17They are also evident in the core outcomes for the module which include that, by the end of the module students should be able to:
Demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of the different theories relating to management and leadership thought and current management practice.
Describe how managers in midlevel positions in media organisations contribute to staff development through coaching, mentoring and feedback procedures.
Identify, analyse and resolve concrete and abstract management and leadership problems using evidence‐based solutions and theory driven arguments.
Articulate a personal philosophy of leadership, based on an understanding of the theoretical discourses relating to management, leadership, motivation and staff development.
Be able synthesize and analyse information drawn from academic and professional texts and to present these materials to a given audience using appropriate language.
Work effectively in teams.
Communicate effectively in a variety of different management contexts (PDMM, 2008: 2).
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The student-centred focus of the module is evident in my own understanding of teaching and learning approaches and in the way in which students have been challenged to play an integral part in the teaching and learning strategies employed. These strategies are evident in another extract from the module outline, which details how students were expected to be directly involved in the construction of knowledge:
The learning process will involve a series of presentations, with students working in groups to present on particular subjects. In doing so students will develop skills critical to effective managers and leaders, including the ability to communicate and present arguments clearly and precisely and work in teams (PDMM, 2008: 3).
By involving students directly in teaching aspects of the module I aimed to maximise the alignment between the module outcomes and the teaching and learning strategies employed.
As future managers and leaders, students will be required to facilitate learning in their organisations and to make engaging presentations in a variety of contexts. They will also be expected to tackle complex tasks in multi-cultural teams and to find innovative ways of clearly conveying complex information. As such, the teaching and learning activities themselves were intended to enhance students’ foundational knowledge while developing practical competence in authentic settings. I also aimed at encouraging deep approaches to learning by requiring students to prepare group presentations for the class. This strategy assumed that students would jointly engage deeply with the materials and spend time debating what to present, why it was important and ways of presenting concepts effectively18. Within this student-centred, or student-driven, approach I saw my role as a teacher being restricted to ensuring students understood the materials and were able to apply them appropriately within the context of a media organisation. I saw myself as a facilitator of learning who would largely contribute to the process by posing questions during group presentations and pointing out areas where theories and principles were inaccurately applied or misunderstood. In short, I viewed myself as a member of the class who, like everybody else, had something to contribute to the debates (see 4.1.3.F).
18 While for the most part I believe this strategy was effective, it was evident at times it was not achieving its optimum
potential. It was evident that, at some points, groups were not spending sufficient time engaging with each other, but were instead breaking down the tasks into manageable units and allocating particular tasks to each other. In so doing they were not maximising the potential of the approach to stimulate a deeper engagement with the readings. However, while this was never an anticipated outcome, they were developing other important skills relating to the prioritisation of tasks and delegation, which I believe are also important ingredients of effective management and leadership practice.
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The final stage in Biggs’s (1999a) constructively aligned curriculum requires an alignment between assessment tasks, learning outcomes and the teaching and learning activities. In seeking this alignment I included three primary assessment tasks in this module, each of which was designed to provide students with opportunities to demonstrate competence within specific areas of relevance to the module. These assessment tasks were:
Class presentations. Each group’s presentations were jointly assessed by the class and by the lecturer with the average of all of the students’ marks contributing 50%
towards the final grade, while I awarded the remaining 50% of the mark. Class presentations counted 10% towards the overall mark for the module.
The main course project. This project involved the development of a theoretically grounded personal philosophy of leadership, which formed one of the core outcomes of this module. This task formed the primary focus of this research and is consequently discussed in substantial detail in the next section. This assignment counted 40% towards the overall mark for the module.
The examination. This task was designed to be as authentic as possible and to provide students with an opportunity to demonstrate both foundational, practical and, to a degree, reflexive competence. The examination took the form of a 24-hour take-home paper which required students to develop a training programme for a group of new managers employed by a large newspaper chain. It sought to assess whether students could draw on and apply foundational knowledge within a ‘real newspaper context’
and counted 50% towards the final module mark.
I believe that, in providing this brief description of the Media Management and Leadership Module, I have demonstrated that there was sufficient congruence between the outcomes, the teaching and learning approaches and the assessment tasks to suggest a constructive alignment between all aspects of this module. In the next sub-section, which provides a detailed description of how the principles of participative assessment were introduced as part of the second assessment strategy outlined above, I suggest the approach was also able to meet Boud’s (2005) call for consequential validity and sustainability.
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5.3 Putting the plan into action: Participative assessment