D1 – Associate Fellowship (AFHEA) Application Template

Personal details

Name, role, department, teaching qualifications/awards

Personal statement/introduction (200-300 words)

Short reflective statement that includes:

• a concise biography;
• the context in which you currently work;
• the reasons for your application.

Examples of your professional practice

• There are five activities that contribute to the account of professional practice. More detail about these activities can be found in Appendices 2 and 3 of the STAR handbook.
• At the D1 level you need to address TWO Areas of Activity (you can address more if you wish). You are most likely to meet A1, A2 and/or A4. Activity A5 is seldom addressed in a D1 application, but you are free to address any two areas that are relevant to you and your practice.
• Think about your practice and decide which two activities are most relevant to your role. More detail about the nature of these activities can be found in Appendix 2 of the STAR handbook.
• When choosing which activities you are going to address, these questions should guide your reflection:
  • What did you do?

Concise description of engagement including own role

• How did you do it?

Explanation of approach/methodology employed

• Why did you do it that way?

Evidence and rationale for choices made:  Knowledge (K) & professional Values (V)

• What difference did it make?

Impact on learners/teachers/self/institution

Self-assessment list for submitting an application

Use the table below to help you think of examples of your practice and how they map onto the different dimensions.

Account of professional practice

TWO selected activities, 700 words each

A1: Design and plan learning activities and/or programmes of study

This Area of Activity refers to all your professional educational activities where you are preparing for engagement with learners. For example, you might:

• plan individual/one to one or small group sessions
• contribute to the creation of learning resource packs and computer-based or open learning materials or the development of virtual learning environments

A2: Teach and/or support learning

This Area of Activity is about your direct engagement with learners whether in groups or individually. These encounters may be in a wide range of environments, such as classrooms, seminar rooms, lecture theatres, labs, learning support centres, offices, etc. For example, you might:

• use a range of teaching approaches appropriate to the environment;
• select activities that are informed by educational research, attendance at a workshop or through observing a colleague.

A3: Assess and give feedback to learners

This Area of Activity is about how you use assessment and feedback to foster and encourage learning, assess progress and make judgments about your students’ learning during and on completion of their study with you.  The assessment you undertake may be formative or summative, formal or informal.  Feedback can be face to face, written through annotating students work, or through using technologies such as online quizzes. For example, you might:

• make judgments about student work in tutorials, lab-based settings and supervision sessions;
• give formative feedback in face-to-face and online settings (through a discussion forum or via automated feedback you created within an quiz);
• use assessments that support the learning outcomes;
• select appropriate assessments for the student profile.

A4: Develop effective learning environments and approaches to student support and guidance

This Area of Activity is about how you make effective use of both the formal and informal learning environment to facilitate learning, and how you seek to meet the needs of your learners for educational support and guidance. For example you might:

• use different media and technologies, both in the physical and online space
• engage with different kinds of learners e.g. international, culturally diverse, full-time, part-time;
• support learners through one-to-one advice;
• develop your practice to support learners with disabilities;
• work in different modes of learning e.g. distance-based, blended, clinical work/practice-based etc.

A5: Engage in continuing professional development in subjects/disciplines and their pedagogy, incorporating research, scholarship and the evaluation of professional practices
This Area of Activity is about how you maintain and develop your capability to perform your teaching and learning support roles. It includes:

• How you incorporate subject and pedagogic research and/or scholarship within your role as a teacher/supporter of learning
• How you gather and utilise information from your own activities

Group and team activities are valued. You don’t have to be directly involved in research and if this is the case, please indicate how you support your teaching and support of learning through other types of scholarly and/or professional activity. Relevant professional activities may include those you engage in outside the higher education context.

For example, you might:

• participate in activities to extend professional development e.g. workshops run by the EDU, Graduate School, your faculty or department;
• be involved in/have completed a relevant teaching pathway e.g. the Supporting Learning and Teaching Programme run by the EDU;
• attend, or present at, teaching and learning conferences.

Part of your application should include a commentary from two referees. The function of the references is to provide a review of your experience that supports and supplements the information in your Account of Professional Practice. The commentary should be based on a face-to-face meeting in which you and your referee discuss your application.

The references should refer primarily to your experience and achievements in teaching and learning and should refer to your research record only if this directly informs your teaching.

If the referee is your manager, supervisor, mentor or Head of Department/Unit you should discuss the ways in which you have contributed to the department’s or unit’s teaching and learning objectives and identify your future professional development needs (for example progression to the next Descriptor category) and how you might be supported to achieve these needs.

If the referee is your peer (e.g. fellow STAR participant or senior GTA)  they should provide practical examples of your professional practice in teaching and supporting learning. This could include a peer observation of your teaching.

It is the applicant’s responsibility to collect the reference from your referee.  We recognise that this is a different kind of reference from one that is normally required for promotion or job appointment, as we are looking for evidence of commitment to and effectiveness of teaching and/or supporting learning rather than general academic achievement. If you require any further information regarding the referee process, or the accreditation of teaching at Imperial, please contact staradmin

There is guidance for referees at each level which can be accessed at:

Associate Fellow (AFHEA)