What does it take to win a learning and teaching award? In this series of Teche posts we showcase our award-winning educators and uncover the methods and approaches behind their award-winning practice.
Jo Paparo is an Associate Professor in the School of Psychological Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Health and Human Sciences and has dedicated her career to developing the next generation of psychologists. In this post we showcase the many ways Jo has demonstrated educational leadership – from reshaping psychology training practices nationally, delivering successful course redesign, boosting graduate employability and leading professional development of colleagues.
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Jo won the Educational Leader Award in the 2023 Vice Chancellor’s Learning and Teaching Awards.
Inspirational educational leadership
What does educational leadership look like in practice? As an academic in the Teaching and Leadership job family, Jo has applied her leadership skills across various contexts.
1. Leadership with national impact
In the face of the disruptive COVID-19 pandemic, universities across Australia encountered formidable obstacles in meeting the practicum requirements mandated by the Australian Psychology Accreditation Council (APAC). Jo led a large-scale cross-institutional initiative to find a solution.
This resulted in her founding the Australian Postgraduate Psychology Education Simulation Working Group (APPESWG), a diverse group of 19 senior academics from 15 tertiary institutions. Working together over a 2-year period, Jo steered this group to develop unified national best practice guidelines for simulation-based education in psychology. Part of the mission was to enhance the quality and uptake of simulated learning in professional psychology training.
APAC acknowledged the significance of this work with the potential to revolutionise education, training and clinical skill development for future psychologists. In particular, they noted the potential for the guidelines to afford rural and remote students studying online the opportunity to access quality simulated learning. Psychology educators across Australia have embedded these guidelines in their curricula.
The profession of psychology is highly politicised and divided. Through resolute educational leadership that transcended these challenges of working together for the discipline, I steered APPESWG toward a remarkable achievement—the creation of a unified and comprehensive compilation of best-practice guidelines for simulated learning activities in psychology.
2. Leading curriculum design
As Course Director, Jo led the successful redesign of the Master of Professional Psychology (MPP) and implemented a new course structure firmly grounded in the principles of constructive alignment and authentic assessment, placing student-centred education at the forefront. Quality Indicators for Learning and Teaching (QILT) survey data showed the MPP course to be the top performer in FMHHS in 2022.
Jo’s leadership expertise is widely recognised with invitations to contribute to curriculum innovation at external institutions.
3. Leading change to boost graduate employability
Jo led curricula improvements across psychology courses to better prepare students for successful professional integration and enhance graduate outcomes and employability. This included:
- Implementing strategy through partnership with the NSW Department of Education to increase employment opportunities for aspiring School Psychologists.
- Leading initiatives to address gaps in career-related skills across postgraduate professional psychology training at MQ.
- Influencing the development of a new core first-year psychology unit that could better scaffold career-related skills from the outset of training and support retention of undergraduate students in postgraduate psychology courses.
4. Leading professional development of colleagues
Jo is committed to fostering the professional growth of colleagues through mentoring and sharing practice. Here’s some examples:
- As the convenor of a large undergraduate unit (PSYU2235/PSYX2235) with over 1300 students, she mentors and leads a teaching team of over 25 sessional academics in effective teaching and assessment practice.
- Actively supporting new Course Directors and academics within the School of Psychological Sciences.
- Sharing her experience and strategies for managing a large teaching team in a presentation to the MQ Teaching and Leadership Community of Practice and in this professional development resource on Teche.
- Mentoring colleagues across the university through participation in MQ’s Open for Observation program, opening up her classroom to allow other teachers to observe and learn.
- Participating in the School of Psychological Sciences Peer Observation program.
- Nurturing the growth of future scholars through supervision of Honours student projects.
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5. Leading through scholarship
Jo is strongly committed to the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) and has an impressive track record of conducting and sharing impactful research that elevates psychology education.
Her research interests focus on evaluating simulation-based education in psychology, investigating problems of professional competency and impact on professional psychology training, and benchmarking aspects of postgraduate psychology training for the purposes of program enhancement, such as student placement logbooks.
What Jo’s colleagues say about her leadership
“[Dr Paparo] has impressed me with her capacity to bring together a large team of 19 academics across Australia to define the quality standards for simulation learning activities in postgraduate psychology training. It is no small feat to lead and coordinate such a large and diverse group of educators with varying levels of experience and seniority…”
“Dr Paparo has demonstrated excellent leadership as Course Director for the Master of Professional Psychology (MPP) program. This year the national Quality Indicators for Learning and Teaching (QILT) feedback showed the MPP course as the highest performing course in our Faculty. This is testament to Dr Paparo’s commitment to improving course design to enhance the student experience.”
Evidencing educational leadership
How do you evidence educational leadership? Here are some examples of forms of evidence Jo used to support her educational leadership award application:
- Testimonials and feedback from colleagues/peers, collaborators, accrediting bodies and colleagues from other institutions
- Student feedback – unsolicited emails, LEU and LET results and student comments
- Quality Indicators of Learning and Teaching (QILT) data
- Email confirmation of a presentation to the Teaching & Leadership Community of Practice
- Links to articles on published on Teche (MQ’s learning and teaching blog) and in This Week
- A link to the Open for Observation program showing participation in 2023
- Certificates of recognition and participation
- Research publications – including readership data
- Other awards e.g. Faculty Award
- Evidence of participation in relevant events or conferences– e.g. as an organiser or conference presenter
Are you considering applying for an award in the future?
Start gathering your evidence now so you will be ready to apply for a Vice Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in the future.
Here are 15 ways to evidence your teaching achievements at university.
Read these Teche posts on leadership in learning and teaching:
- Claiming and evidencing educational leadership
- We can all be leaders of learning and teaching
- Leadership for learning and teaching
Explore other approaches to collecting feedback from students and peers – check out these resources for informal evaluation of teaching
Set a reminder to order an LET survey this session and gather student feedback on your teaching.
Read about our other award winning teachers
Visit the Awards for Excellence in Education Intranet site for details of awards and guidance on writing an award application.
Banner image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
Post compiled by Kylie Coaldrake
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