Objectives

Overall, this CoP has dual purposes. First it aims to further connect and build a network of PolyU academic staff members across faculties/schools/centres both from the research and the teaching tracks to enrich the knowledge and skills in English for 

1) conducting university teaching, and for coaching students’ writing and speaking abilities
2) developing teaching and learning related scholarly writing such as project and proposals, and academic work for bringing impact to their professional knowledge and the teaching in similar areas. 

Specifically, the CoP aims to provide a network for staff to share resources, knowledge and expertise on English use and skills to: 

• enable the effective delivery of lectures and other communication with students in an English-medium context through exploring classroom language instruction and speaking English 
• explore the linguistic and organizational characteristics of students’ written and spoken tasks in different genres and their common problems in engaging in these assessments 
• enable the effective use of language for assignment task sheets and examination papers in order to address the intended outcomes of learning better 
• prepare grant proposals and academic writing for teaching and/or professional-related topics that will support a culture of producing quality scholarly writing for sharing and enriching professional knowledge

Second, the CoP also aims to provide a social network for students to connect with peers from different programmes, and with the faculty members to share their experiences of learning and aspirations of teaching in an informal and relaxed way in order to bring impact to faculty’s teaching and students’ learning.

This CoP also meets the overall objectives of the PolyU’s CoP initiatives, they are

• to bring together and connect our colleagues who share a common interest in enhancing use of English for teaching and student learning at PolyU, and to facilitate their experience sharing and collaborative professional and teaching development such as scholarly writing;
• to develop and promote effective teaching practices in the use of English in support of the University’s strategic teaching development targets stated in (i) in this section;
• to foster the culture of peer support and collaborative professional development in learning and teaching; and
• to nourish a scholarly and collegial approach to continuing teaching improvement and the scholarship of teaching and learning.

Expected OUtcomes

(i) Expected outcomes of the CoP on teaching and enhancing staff skills

This CoP aims to connect and empower staff across faculties/schools to enhance the quality of English use for teaching and their teaching and learning-related scholarly writing. The more specific outcomes include establishing a network of members across all faculties and schools as well as from EDC, LIB and RO to offer a range of professional development workshops and activities that draw upon existing expertise within the PolyU community (e.g. experienced staff from English language teaching who research in university writing genres; DRC and DLTC chairs who share information on presentation and language skills in the proposal review process, editors from peer reviewed journals who share how to successfully negotiate the publication process) and outside the University (e.g. editors of journals and publishers) to achieve the following specific outcomes:

1. Understanding the extent in which English is used in the classrooms and identifying areas to support colleagues in effective delivery of lecture.
2. Participating in the effective language use for conducting lectures in English and for promoting effective communication with students.
3. Sharing information and findings on common language problems faced by students when writing laboratory reports, project proposals, service learning reflections, case studies, academic essays, final year project reports as well as when presenting final year projects.
4. Sharing language use in assessment design and assessment rubrics for generating effective learning outcomes.
5. Preparing and supporting staff’s writing skills for teaching-related scholarly activities such as action research, the preparation of grant proposals and the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL).
6. Fostering sharing sessions in which academic staff or postgraduate students (with teaching duties) with a common purpose (e.g. delivering more effective lessons; understanding better students’ English language problems in writing and speaking; preparing a research/grant proposal etc.) meet in a supportive environment to share each other’s teaching practice and work and cultivate collaboration and social support of teaching and related scholarly writing.
7. Preparing and supporting post-graduate students’ writing and speaking skills for research-related scholarly activities such as thesis writing and conference presentations.
8. Sharing good practices and collecting data from stakeholders in order to promote academic success.

(ii) Impacts on student learning and staff development

With the above outcomes, academic staff will be able to:

• further develop their proficiency and skills in delivering effective academic lectures and interacting with students thus facilitating students’ comprehension of content knowledge and communication.
• more effectively use English for wording assignment task sheets and the assessment rubrics.
• develop a better understanding of the linguistic characteristics and organizational skills and other relevant aspects like referencing in guiding various genres of writing and speaking students are expected to produce.
• be equipped with more knowledge and a greater awareness of common language problems in different types of students’ writing, and be able to provide resources to help students to overcome these problems and strategies to cope with them in marking and giving feedback.
• possess a better understanding of the linguistic characteristics and organizational skills in producing quality proposals and academic writing with which the staff will more confidently guide their students in their own academic writing.
• enhance the knowledge of the linguistic characteristics and discourse features for professional genres in producing quality proposals for enhancing professional knowledge in teaching.
• Use the affordances of peer review and exemplars to better practice presenting their work in highly persuasive and compelling language which would enable the staff to more confidently guide their students in their own academic writing.

Work Plan and Activities

The overall aim of the CoP is to provide a network in which both academic staff and students are involved to enhance student learning experience and teaching as well as academic development. Different forms of peer support and sharing will be offered. For instance, talks, seminars, training sessions, and informal gathering will be delivered by staff who are outstanding in teaching and by experienced staff who are editors and reviewers of international journals or funded GRF project leaders. An indicative list of activities and the time frame are given in the table below:

1. Kick-off meetings & events for recruiting members (Sem 3 2020)
2. Identifying membership interests Design student and staff surveys for eSFQ questions and send them out in Sem 3 (2020) & 1 (2020-2021) Call for applications for staff development fund (every 6 months) and approve them within the period
3. Regular CoP meetings (Incorporating community building, domain knowledge and sharing practice) Annual total: 10-12 sessions and project period total: 30-32 sessions
4. Thematic workshops/seminars & invited talks/seminars by expert speakers on membership identified issues and challenges (2020 – 2022 addressing ~ 3-4 topics such as language use in lecture and in teaching; language features in student speaking and writing, action research/GRF proposal preparation, language and writing styles in academic articles for publication)
5. Peer-review sessions among colleagues with a common interest (2020 – 2022, 2-3 groups on language use in lecture, microteaching, students’ language problems in speaking and writing, grants, articles etc.)
6. Biannual membership augmentation drive (2020-2022)
7. Other formats for disseminating the deliverables and outcomes of the CoP
8. Collection of membership views on CoP usefulness, impact & future direction consolidation and evaluation of initiatives and activities (2020-2022)
9. Collection of membership views on suggestions to inform policy (2020-2022)
10. Final report to PolyU CoP Steering Panel (~ Dec 2022)