Our Approach To Education1
Background
At the Northern College of Acupuncture we are passionate about the potential of acupuncture, Chinese medicine and nutrition for healing and transformation at all levels.
The context within which the College operates is one of service to our communities by providing highly educated professional practitioners, by increasing the availability of treatment, by disseminating the ideas of Chinese medicine and nutritional therapy, and by promoting the use of acupuncture, Chinese medicine and nutritional therapy as part of the UK’s health care system.
Scope
Our approach to education applies to all College courses.
Responsibilities
The Academic Board is responsible for ensuring that the College’s activities are in accordance with our approach to education.
Aims
We aim to base our work on our shared values. Our values inform our vision of the qualities we seek to foster in practitioners, and that vision informs the design of our curricula.
We aim for excellence in both the professional and the academic aspects of our educational provision. We provide both pre-registration practitioner education and post-registration professional development.
We see the education of professional practitioners as a holistic activity, involving values, spirit, mind, and body.
We seek to bring out the best of each person's qualities, and both students and staff are encouraged to develop their own unique and personal style. We believe that by empowering students, they will in turn empower their patients.
As appropriate to each course, we aim to provide a solid grounding in the traditions of theory and practice, the philosophical context, and the research evidence base, with opportunities to explore the diversity of the whole subject area.
We aim to provide an inspirational learning environment of high quality, with a wide range of motivated and well qualified staff, leading to widely recognised professional qualifications. We aim to generate an atmosphere of energy and enthusiasm which motivates and inspires students and staff alike.
We aim to enable our graduates and alumni to achieve rewarding and successful careers as practitioners.
We aim to encourage an open-minded spirit of enquiry that promotes fresh and insightful contributions to the understanding and development of Chinese medicine and nutrition. We aim to provide an opportunity to pursue interests in research and, for those suitably qualified, an option to undertake a Masters research project. We are keen to promote research that respects the nature of our traditions of practice and theory.
We aim to combine intellectual rigour and critical thinking with compassion and human touch. Support and regular formative feedback enable continuing development and the confidence to practise in an effective and reflective way. We aim to foster personal growth and change in a supportive environment, enabling everyone to realise their full potential.
We emphasise the importance both of the development of reflective practitioners and of standards of ethics and practice, including limits to competence, for the safety and protection of members of the public.
The Educational Values of the College
Excellence
Our central core educational value is our commitment to excellence in academic and professional education and in the care of our patients.
We see four areas as essential to achieving excellence:
- potential for wholeness and growth
- integrity and reliability
- co-operation and team working
- professionalism
Potential for wholeness and growth
We believe that every individual has the potential to grow, change, and to move towards increasing wholeness within their being. We believe that growth is nourished in the presence of the following values:
Passion
As teachers, if we have a passionate enthusiasm for our subject and for education, we can help our students to find inspiration and motivation.
Creativity
We recognise that there is artistry to our work in education. When we bring our creativity into our teaching by using our capacity for imagination, intuition, and spontaneity, we can provide dynamic and effective learning opportunities.
Enabling
We are committed to working in ways that enable others to learn. We recognise that growth is enabled by including our students in dialogue and by sharing the process, not by imposing it. Students are encouraged to own their own learning and to manage the process for themselves. Our approach is to facilitate each person’s own learning in a supportive environment, not to dictate or indoctrinate.
Learning
We believe that deep learning is closely linked to growing towards our inner potential. We recognise that deep learning evolves as the person integrates new information and experiences with their past experiences and their values, assumptions and personal understandings. It follows that deep learning requires students’ active involvement in the process, and involves doing and reflecting more than passive receiving. We encourage this process by enabling students to relate theory to practice and practice to theory throughout their learning, by working with cases and problem-solving exercises, and by encouraging critical thinking, research mindedness and a commitment to in-depth reflection. We believe that learning happens naturally when the context is right.
Compassion
We believe that love elicits change and we attempt as teachers to work with our hearts as well as our minds and bodies. We hope, in our imperfect ways, to model compassion and awareness of suffering as key qualities for practitioners as well as teachers. We also see the value for each of us having compassion for ourselves, and we believe this can liberate us to learn and to grow.
Uniqueness
We recognise that each person is unique. Each person learns in their own individual way and we aim to provide a context and a range of experiences to support this individual process. We strive to work with people from where they are, in a spirit of openness and acceptance, and to support them in understanding and developing their own learning. We encourage each person to develop their own unique style and repertoire of skill and knowledge. We strive to honour our own uniqueness and to be fully present in mind, body and spirit.
Diversity
We believe that truth is manifold and that there are many paths towards it. We value the diversity of our traditions of medicine as one of their strengths, and we aim as teachers to enable our students to access this rich diversity.
Creating environment for change
We recognise the process of change encountered by all on their path of continuous development and encourage the sharing of experiences.
Welcoming change
When change is necessary, desirable or appropriate for either the individual or the institution we welcome it as part of the natural process of development, confirming the value of reflection, discussion or maintaining connectedness to the outside world.
Support through changes
We recognise that change is not always an easy or a pleasant experience and strive to provide pastoral care when it is sought and to recognise signs of discomfort or distress when it is not, with appropriate support being offered.
Integrity and reliability
We believe that the values of integrity and reliability form a firm foundation of order which supports learning. We see these values manifesting in a number of ways:
Clarity
We strive to communicate with clarity at all times, both in our teaching and in discussion and decision making in the College.
Honouring Tradition
We know and value the traditions of our approaches to medicine and we believe this provides the framework within which practitioners learn and grow.
Duty
We believe that staff and students have duties to do their best and to serve and support others.
Conscience and Right Action
We believe our work in education and as practitioners must be rooted in values and ethics. Our behaviour is governed by agreed ethical codes, and we value and encourage continual reflection on the individual values underpinning each person’s practice.
Value for Money
We are committed to providing value for money to students and patients and we see this as part of the integrity we aim to bring to our work.
Co-operation and team working
We believe that learning happens best for us all in an atmosphere of co-operation. We strongly encourage co-operation and teamwork in both students and staff. Key values which enable this approach include:
Relationship
We place a high value on our relationships with other staff, students and patients. We value inclusion, connectedness and mutual support, and we recognise the key importance of good rapport. We aim for responsiveness and meaningful relationships with carefully maintained professional boundaries. We recognise that teacher-student and practitioner-patient relationships are power relationships and we aim to mediate these by providing information freely, behaving respectfully and working with clearly understood expectations and boundaries.
Respect
We believe it is crucial to treat our students and our patients with genuine respect. This flows from our recognition of the uniqueness and potential of every individual. We believe that respect nurtures learning and healing. We aim to give balanced feedback to students, to recognise their achievements and to support their self-esteem. We recognise that each of our students brings prior experience and expertise with them and that we and their peers can learn from them.
Impartiality
We are committed to behaving impartially with all those we work with, without regard to age, sexual orientation, gender, gender reassignment, race, creed, marital status or disability.
Flexibility
We believe that an ability to negotiate flexibly and to give and take is an important support to co-operative working. Also, a flexible and creative approach to our teaching enables us to work with the Qi of the group.
Patience and tolerance
We recognise that other peoples’ patterns of behaviour do not always coincide with our own and that allowing this to create an emotional response within us will prevent the rapport, which is being sought, from being established.
Professionalism
We believe in the highest values of professionalism, which we see as an integration of technical competence and artistry, and of considered judgement and knowledge. We believe that the values underpinning professionalism include:
Service
We believe that service to humanity and to our communities is the fundamental reason for our professions’ existence.
Connection
We value the importance of good mutual connections with our local and national communities, with other healthcare professions, and with other educational institutions. We value the mutual learning and opportunities for collaboration which can arise from these connections.
Informing and Educating
We believe in the importance of informing and educating other professionals and the general public about Chinese medicine and nutrition, and about our professions. We believe we can play an important role in raising the profile of our professions locally and nationally.
Innovation
We recognise that Chinese medicine and nutritional therapy are living traditions which are continually evolving. We value innovation resulting from research and creative thinking, and reflection leading to new theory developing out of practice.
1Reviewed 11/05/2023 by Academic Board. Next review May 2027.
