Academic practice and capability development

In the Promoting Excellence Initiative there is a focus on supporting and developing academic practice. In this context capability refers to the development of the individual or a team of staff through a range of measures that assist them to achieve their current goals, meet future challenges and build capacity for change.

During the 1990s a researcher working in the field of capability and quality in higher education defined capability as follows:

“Capability is an integration of knowledge, skills, personal qualities and understanding used appropriately and effectively—not just in familiar and highly focused specialist contexts but in response to new and changing circumstances.”

(Stephenson & Yorke, 1998, p.2 with author’s original emphases).

Capability focuses on people performing at effective levels in a changing working environment. It encompasses the qualities, talents and abilities that an individual or team has the potential to use or develop in the higher education sector.

The development of capability requires more than the mere acquisition of knowledge and skills, but the capacity to demonstrate these effectively in authentic settings. It also acknowledges the continuously evolving nature of knowledge and practice,  and of the contexts in which we use them.  As Stephenson points out, capability is situated—in familiar and unfamiliar contexts—and needs to take account of existing and emergent cultures, artefacts and technologies.

In the Promoting Excellence Initiaitve  the capability development strategy focuses on the enhancement of academic practice as an individual and a collective endeavour. Capability development, is conceptualised as a joint enterprise. It involves staff, academic developers and other stakeholders in collaborative work to determine appropriate goals and targets, along with strategies for their achievement. It assumes a degree of agency on the part of academics, as well as favourable conditions and appropriate mechanisms of support, will be required if improvements are to be achieved and maintained. In this line collaborative capability is not just what we do as individuals but what we do together, acting in concert.

In a generic sense staff who are capable:

• embrace continuous learning
• are creative
• ave a high degree of self-efficacy
• work well with others
• are confident in applying their competencies, and
• perform well in familiar as well as unfamiliar situations.

(Stephenson & Weil, 1992)

A key focus for the PEI project is the question of how capability might be characterized more specifically in relation to academic practice. As part of the research and development activities conducted in recent years by the Centre for Educational Development and Academic Methods (CEDAM), a set of draft principles and practices has been constructed in relation to academic practice in general and capability development in particular. Developing capability among academic staff is viewed as:

• a continuous process
• to be implemented within a sound theoretical framework,
• through effective learning experiences,
• culminating in improved performance and quality outcomes.

In other words, this approach is based on collaborative, reflective and inclusive experiences that sustain excellence in teaching capability while simultaneously building educational vision and leadership capacity.

This approach is designed to enable academics to evolve and strategise their practice in the face of increasingly complex and changing demands of the higher education sector and its stakeholders.

Aspects of capability identified for initial investment in the PEI project, therefore, can be characterized tentatively in terms of:

• reflective practice
• effective collaboration with peers
• capacity for innovation and enterprise
• individual and group agency, and
• strategic approaches to change management.

These are our initial conceptions of capability development which constitute a starting point for informed dialogue and interaction—within and beyond the ANU. As part of the PEI project, for example, these ideas will be discussed and developed further in a range of pilot projects and other initiatives that reflect a variety of disciplinary and inter-disciplinary contexts.

References

Stephenson, J. & Weil, S. Quality in Learning: A capability approach in higher education. London: Kogan Page, 1992

Stephenson, J. & Yorke, M. (Eds). Capability and Quality in Higher Education, Teaching and Learning in Higher Education. London: Kogan Page.1992