it's the opposite of the 'sink or swim' approach that Cambridge favours 
- perhaps it might be better to give people a flotation aid and then 
some swimming lessons rather than letting them drown!  It's not the 
dreaded "spoonfeeding" - it's giving more structured support at the 
beginning and then bit by bit taking the scaffolding away until students 
are standing by themselves. Expecting students to instantly become 
totally independent learners at a new stage of education is a bit 
unreasonable...

On 18/10/2012 11:19, Wilson, George wrote:
> Scaffolding - that's a new term for me!
> Can you tell me in a couple of lines what it's about? (Might be familiar with it under a different name)
>
> George Wilson
> Student Learning Adviser
> Centre for Learning and Study Support
> Edinburgh Napier University
> B5 Merchiston Campus
> [log in to unmask]
> 0131 455 3372 (Tuesday - Friday)
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: learning development in higher education network [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Dr Helen Webster
> Sent: 18 October 2012 11:03
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Researcher Development?
>
> Dear Learning Developers,
>
> I'm currently working on a project in Researcher Development, the kind of provision that was initiated under the Roberts agenda to PhD students. In previous institutions I've worked at, this provision was entirely separate from Learning Development, often a different team working in Staff Development rather than, for example, Student Services or Information Services. I'm realising that although to me the RD work is very similar (I used to advise PhD students frequently as a Learning Developer after all) I'm operating with a slightly different set of LD values and principles to my RD colleagues (embedding and scaffolding, for example, which are so central to what we do as LDers, seem to be new to this community).
>
> I wondered to what extent Learning Developers and Researcher Developers do in fact represent different communities. It's clear why that might be
> - the funding streams and therefore motivating factors and institutional structures for setting up these services are different, but if they are so separate, what a shame that there is less communication given the similarity of the work!
>
> Are there any Researcher Developers on LDHEN? How do you see your professional community? Or are they all over on the [log in to unmask] and SEDA lists? And if so, oughtn't we to try and foster some interprofessional conversations? Do you LDers work at all with your RD colleagues?
>
> best wishes,
>
> Helen
>
>
> --
> Research Associate (Digital Transferable Skills and Employability) Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities University of Cambridge http://www.crassh.cam.ac.uk/page/1137/dr-helen-webster.htmDr Helen Webster
>
>
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-- 
Research Associate (Digital Transferable Skills and Employability)
Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities
University of Cambridge
http://www.crassh.cam.ac.uk/page/1137/dr-helen-webster.htmDr Helen Webster