Context statement - ANU Learning and Teaching

What is the context statement?

A context statement is a text that briefly introduces yourself and outlines your role/s and responsibilities in teaching and/or supporting learning in higher education.

You are asked to submit a draft context statement upon enrolment in one of our EFS Reflection on Experience (REx) pathway groups, to help us match you to an EFS mentor. Your mentor will be sent this text so that they can better support you in drawing out and mapping out content for your application.

You can rework your draft context statement throughout your time in the REx pathway, and the final version will become the first text in your application for Advance HE Fellowship. At this point, it will help the assessors understand the nature of your work and the context in which you practice, before they look at the evidence you provide in the remainder of your application.

Note that the context statement provides the background to your practice, and is not assessed against the Professional Standards Framework (PSF). Therefore, you do not need to link the information in your context statement to the PSF. This also means that the context statement cannot be used to provide supplementary information that would add evidence of effective practice to your application for Fellowship; in other words, it cannot be used to extend the word limit of the other application components.

How do I write a context statement?

In no more than 400 words, your ‘context statement’ should:

provide a brief summary of your teaching and/or support of learning experience, including the context in which you currently work, and your current role and responsibilities in teaching and/or supporting learning. Please identify the type and location of institution/s you have worked for, but keep it brief and relevant to your role. Do not include information about the history and prestige of the institution/s, as your application is about you and your practice;
identify the learners that you have worked with: for example, the level of study (e.g. year of study, undergraduate, postgraduate, etc.), programs/units of study, discipline/specialist area of work, number and types of learners (note that learners can be colleagues as well), etc. For Senior Fellowship, your work with students may be more indirect, as you may work more closely with colleagues/ teams/ external organisations/ professional bodies/ etc.; in which case you identify these aspects of your work.
identify any relevant work with colleagues/ external groups/ other organisations that you plan to include and discuss in your application. For Senior Fellows, this should highlight coordination, supervision, management and/or mentoring of others relating to learning and teaching;
focus on your current or recent practice, i.e. within the last five years (adjusting for career interruptions).

Please remember that your application for Fellowship is based on your higher education practice; if you have worked in other teacher or learning roles outside of higher education, you should not include this in your context statement or your EFS application.

How do I submit my draft context statement?

Using the template, attach your draft context statement to the ‘EFS program enrolment form’ by the deadline. If you have any questions, please email us at clt@anu.edu.au

Context statement examples

Here are some examples of what a paragraph in the context statement might look like. Note that for a Senior Fellowship application, your context statement should highlight coordination, supervision, management and/or mentoring of others relating to learning and teaching.

As part of an AFHEA application: example 1 – Tutor

I am a PhD student in my third year at ANU. I have been involved in various teaching and support of learning activities over the last two years.

I lead seminars for groups of between 10-15 undergraduate students studying Spanish in years 1 and 2. Seminar topics cover Spanish culture, history and politics. These normally last between one and two hours and provide the opportunity to discuss topics in detail. Although the seminar schedule and topics are set, I develop my own seminar materials with support from the academic team. I use the University’s Learning Management System (LMS) to host resources and activities.

As part of an AFHEA application: example 2 – Librarian

I am an experienced, professionally qualified librarian at ANU with specific responsibilities for supporting students in humanities disciplines, whilst also helping to deliver the library’s academic skills agenda. I have worked at the University for three years and am part of a small team of four library staff within our Library.

My main teaching is face-to-face in-class timetabled sessions with groups of 20-30 first-year undergraduate students in their first semester. I work closely with academic staff and design my sessions to fit alongside their programme objectives. My sessions are usually up to 1.5 hours in length.

I also design and deliver face to face self-sign-up sessions with small groups of undergraduate and postgraduate students at our main site and students in our two overseas campuses via video link.

As part of an FHEA application: example 1 – Lecturer

I am a Lecturer in Geography at ANU. I first taught part-time while a Research Fellow at the University of Y for a year and then joined ANU three years ago as a full-time lecturer. I teach at both undergraduate and postgraduate level across all year groups.

At the start of this academic year I became the Course Leader for the Global Environmental Change course, having previously been co-Course Leader for the Research Skills in Physical Geography course. Both courses run in the second year of the undergraduate programme.

My current teaching consists of: Postgraduate: (2 courses listed) and Undergraduate: (5 courses listed) teaching. I lecture to groups of around 80 undergraduate and 30 postgraduate students weekly. I also undertake weekly seminars with groups of 10-15 students and act as a personal tutor to 8 undergraduate students. In addition, I am currently supervising 2 PhD students. We are currently in the process of redesigning our undergraduate curriculum and I am leading on the development and validation of two new second year courses.

As part of an FHEA application: example 2

I am a Clinical Nurse Educator, with a specialist background in Accident and Emergency (A and E) medicine. I remain a Registered Nurse, practicing in my clinical setting, but also am a member of the Clinical Faculty at the University of X as part of my role.

For the last three years I have been teaching undergraduate (UG) nursing students from all three year groups at the University across a variety of courses.

My teaching currently includes theory based lectures to groups of around 90 students and small group teaching to between 10-20 students. The small group teaching involves practical sessions in a purpose-built simulation suite; this emulates real situations, as well as the routine procedures, that students will face working in the hospital. I have also been involved in creating video-based learning materials and e-learning resources.

In my faculty role I am involved in all aspects of teaching and learning, including curriculum design and development. Within my work at the teaching hospital I oversee nursing students’ clinical practice and act as a mentor. I also support the professional development of my fellow nurses.

As part of an SFHEA application: example 1 – Learning Skills Manager

I am a Learning Skills Manager at ANU. I have worked in learning skills development for 8 years and now manage a team of six other Learning Skills Advisers. Our team supports undergraduate and postgraduate students with the development of a range of skills to support their study on academic programmes. One big area of our work is with students studying in their second language.

I developed and now manage a student peer-mentoring system, currently in its fifth year of operation. This is designed to support new international students to settle into university life, promoting first-year transition and progression. I work closely in partnership with the Student Association to select and train mentors.

I also work with Heads of School to provide professional development for academic staff related to teaching international students and designing inclusive curricula. In addition to leading staff development sessions, I have developed a range of online resources to support colleagues.

I teach group workshops of 25-30 students and hold small group tutorials. I am an active researcher and regularly publish my work.

External to the University, I am on the Professional Development Committee of the Library Association and take a role in planning the annual cycle of Continuing Professional Development (CPD) activities, organising the annual Symposium and delivering face-to-face and online CPD sessions to members.

As part of an SFHEA application: example 2 – Principal Lecturer

I am a Principal Lecturer at the ANU College of Arts and Subject Leader of the postgraduate Graphic Design and Visual Communication Masters programmes. I teach six courses on the Masters programmes and I still carry out some undergraduate teaching (2-3 courses a year).

I have been teaching in HE for 10 years, and previously worked as a graphic designer. I still freelance, which enriches my teaching.

I hold a PhD in Visual Communication, having entered HE as a mature learner via a Foundation Program and studied part-time as an undergraduate.

I have no formal line management responsibility for staff in my School but, in my Subject Leader role for the Masters programmes, I co-ordinate the teaching of the four full-time teaching staff, three sessional lecturers and two technicians that support the programmes. I lead on curriculum development. I am also a member of the College’s Learning and Teaching Committee and have worked on several cross-institution teaching and learning initiatives.

I am an active researcher and have published in several journals in relation to teaching in my discipline. I am a member of a national subject network involving 20 HE institutions and have led a collaborative teaching project, which I discuss in Case Study 1.

I completed my PG Certificate in Learning and Teaching in HE five years ago and since then have acted as a mentor to three members of staff undertaking that programme each year. I focus on my mentoring role in Case Study 2.

I normally supervise 2 or 3 PhD students and up to four undergraduate students undertaking final year projects.