SEDA Values
Background
The Staff and Educational Developers Association (SEDA) identified a range of basic requirements that Higher Education employers would expect an accredited teacher to be competent in. Next, they established what the key skills and attributes of those involved within teaching and learning in the new Millennium would be. These were then expressed as the SEDA Outcomes.
SEDA also recognised that this in itself would be insufficient. Given the changes in Higher Education in the last decade, and the fact that changes are continuing to accelerate in ways we cannot even anticipate, a crucial requirement is that their practice is underpinned by a set of values. These will ensure that despite change that cannot always be anticipated, lecturer’s practice will continue to develop within an ethical framework. The SEDA Values were articulated to foster such development.
The central tenet is that of reflection: Without that, practice would become moribund. However with reflection and a clear philosophy based on the range of values, a lecturer will be flexible, learning from their own experience and that of their students. The values incorporate a respect for every learner, a recognition of how they learn and commitment to scholarship and working with colleagues.
| Value 1: An understanding of how
students learn. All teaching and academic administration should be informed by an understanding of how students learn and the conditions and processes that support student learning. |
| Value 2: A concern for
students’ development. Helping students to learn must begin with recognition that all students have their own individual learning needs and bring their own knowledge and resources to the learning process. Work with students should empower them and enable them to develop greater capability and competence in their personal and professional lives. |
| Value 3: A commitment to scholarship. At the base of a teacher’s competence is an awareness and acknowledgement of the ideas and theories of others. All teaching should be underpinned by a searching out of new knowledge - both about the subject/discipline and about good teaching and learning practice. All teaching should lead to students developing a questioning and analytical approach. |
| Value 4: A commitment
to work with and learn from colleagues. Much of an academic’s work is carried out as part of a team made up of teaching staff and academic support staff. The colleagueship and support of peers is as important as individual academic excellence. |
| Value 5: The practising of equal
opportunities. Teachers must be concerned that students have equal opportunities, irrespective of disabilities, religion, sexual orientation, race or gender. So, everything a teacher does should be informed by equal opportunities legislation, by institutional policy and by a knowledge of best practice. |
| Value 6: Continued
reflection on professional practice. Teachers should reflect on their intentions and their actions and on the effects of their actions. They try to understand the reasons for what they see and for the effects of their actions. They thus continue to develop their understanding and practice and therefore inform their own learning. |