Academic Professional Review
Professional Standards for Lecturers in Scotland’s Colleges
The Standards are designed to support and encourage lecturers to develop a clear understanding of their role and how they contribute to wider student outcomes.
Professional lecturers contribute to making Scotland a great place to live, learn and work by transforming lives through high quality learning. In taking forward this vision, lecturers play a key role in enabling people from all sections of the community to be included in education, achieving their potential as successful learners, citizens, and contributors to sustainable economic growth. Lecturers create supportive environments by working collaboratively with stakeholders, including employers, across all learning communities.
Find out more about the Professional Standards For Lecturers In Scotland's Colleges.
Purpose
The Professional Standards support the achievement of this vision by providing a clear description of the professional practice, knowledge, behaviours, qualities and capabilities that lecturers in colleges are expected to develop, maintain and enhance throughout their careers.
These Standards will be used for a range of purposes including:
- Underpinning professional teaching qualifications for lecturers in Scotland’s colleges.
- Developing critically reflective and evaluative practitioners.
- Supporting professional dialogue and collegiate working.
- Supporting professional development.
- Contributing to ongoing developments across the sector.
Context
Lecturers work within a diverse, complex, and dynamic environment. The Standards are designed to support and encourage lecturers to develop a clear understanding of their role and how they contribute to wider student outcomes. Underpinning the Standards is the expectation that individual lecturers are expected to commit to and be responsible for their own continuous professional development, ensuring the quality of the student experience
Values
Values are core to the Standards and underpin the professional identity and aspirations of a lecturer. They shape everyday practice and engagement. Professional values explicitly reinforce the professional commitment of a lecturer by putting students at the centre ensuring that respect, integrity, inclusion, and equality are integral to that everyday practice. Through the commitment to being a professional leader of learning, these values are affirmed and will empower students to engage, take responsibility for their own learning and maximise their potential. These values and commitments to students, colleagues and others is reinforced and evidenced through the engagement in continuous professional learning and development, which enables lecturers to embrace collaboration, critical evaluation and to support development of new and emerging practices. Embedding these values ensures that the professional lecturer builds and supports resilience in themselves and their students in a complex and ever-changing education and work environment.
