RAER the capstone module in the LIN Postgraduate Diploma – developing the reflective practitioner

Reflection, Action, Evidence and Review is the final 5 credit module taken by students seeking the award of the LIN AIT Postgraduate Diploma in Learning, Teaching and Assessment. It is the only mandatory module on the LIN flexible pathway. Students are required to review their learning through the range modules selected from LIN or alternative providers. They develop an argument to show how they, through their previous learning, meet the postgraduate diploma programme learning outcomes. They articulate their knowledge, skills and competence to date and identify any gaps that may exist. They then plan how to meet these gaps through appropriate reading, writing and other evidence. This is self-directed learning supported by the module leaders acting as learning advisors. The module ran in 2012 for one student and in 2013 with six students. The role of the module in developing lecturers as reflective practitioners is becoming clearer as it is rolled out. As they complete the LIN and other teaching and learning modules lecturers review their practice and implement changes based on evidence from the literature and their own reflection. As they move through the modules these changes accumulate and they begin to see themselves in a different light – as discipline experts and informed teachers. The Reflection, Active, Evidence and Review capstone module is retrospective as it enables the participants to stop, reflect and identify the change in their behaviour and attitudes as a lecturer. It is also forward-looking as it enables them to plan for CPD in a coherent integrated way that links their discipline/practice and teaching. This paper presents the module, its learning outcomes and how it enables participants to develop their academic professional profile and show that they meet the learning outcomes of the LIN AIT Postgraduate Diploma in Teaching and Learning.