Reflections at the end of 2005.
There have been some changes in SEDA this year. In the spring Shân Wareing was elected as SEDA Co-Chair with James Wisdom. Peter Kahn and Mike Cook succeeded Helen King as Co-Chairs of the Fellowships Committee. The effective transfer of SEDA's administration in the summer was testament to both the work of Jill Brookes and her team and that of Roz Grimmet and colleagues at ACU.
SEDA's autumn conference focuses on developing the developers. This year, John Peters wrote in the programme, 'Perhaps the 10th annual conference should provide an opportunity to pause and reflect on developments since this conference was established' and he noted how distant then were the issues of today - national frameworks for Professional Standards and Continuing Professional Development. It was one of the largest conferences SEDA has ever held, but was still successful in helping participants to build networks and contacts. To the delight of everyone at SEDA, Professor Lewis Elton was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Times Higher, and his keynote conference presentation helped us understand how far we had travelled, and what might still need to be done. This was reinforced by Mike Prosser's closing keynote, in which he deployed his recent research to analyse current teaching practice.
Ten years ago there were few organisations dedicated to development in higher education in the UK. Now there are a number, and a challenge for SEDA has been to build collaborative links with them for the benefit of improving student learning across the sector - a kind of constructive alignment. SEDA's relationship with the Higher Education Academy will be expressed through a Memorandum of Understanding; discussions have taken place with the Institute for Learning and Lifelong Learning UK, and SEDA meets regularly with the Heads of Educational Development Group, the Staff Development Forum and the Standing Conference for Academic Development.
Another challenge for SEDA is to market itself more effectively. In the New Year SEDA will be exploring how its services are perceived and experienced and how they can be further developed.
The establishment of the Professional Development Framework, the oversubscribed Summer School, two very positively evaluated residential conferences, provocative and enlightening journal articles, and a quarterly magazine which keeps us up to date with stimulating contributions can all be seen as successes for SEDA this year. SEDA operates through its committees and is very keen to recruit new members to them. Through the website you can contact committee chairs if you would like to join them. This is one way you can contribute to SEDA's work and the undoubted challenges and opportunities in the forthcoming year.
With best wishes for 2006.
Kristine Mason O'Connor
SEDA Vice-Chair
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