Academic development identity and positionality (original) (raw)

Approaches in Academic Development

2016

Using poetry, role play, readers ’ theatre, and creative manipulations of space through yarn and paper weaving, a workshop in 2008 challenged one of educational development’s more pervasive and least questioned notions (“constructive alignment ” associated most often with the work of John Biggs). This paper describes the reasoning behind using humanities approaches specifically in this case and more generally in the Challenging Academic Development Collective’s work, as well as problematising the notions of “experiment” and “results ” by unarchiving and re-archiving such a nonce-event. The critical stakes in using an anti-empirical method are broached, and readers are encouraged to experience their own version of the emergent truths of such approaches by drawing their own conclusions. En 2008, par le biais de la poésie, du jeu de rôles, du théâtre lu et de manipulations créatrices de l’espace avec de la laine et des tissages en papier, un atelier a mis au défi une des notions les pl...

Educational development - a view from outside: national trends and institutional issues at Imperial College London

El propósito central del presente artículo es informar y reflexionar acerca del estado y del estatus del desarrollo educativo en la Educación Superior en el Reino Unido, especialmente en el caso de Inglaterra, tomando el caso de la Universidad Imperial College of London como ejemplo de los temas y de los rasgos de lo que actualmente preocupa en esta temática. A la vez que describe los rasgos básicos del proceso de desarrollo educativo, el texto trata de refle jar de un modo crítico diferentes aspectos implicados en él: la necesidad de estrategias institucionales para el mismo; el dilema entre un desarrollo basado en disciplinas o bien en un enfoque transversal de la docencia, el estatus de "servicio", comúnmente atribuido a los centros de desarrollo educativo y sus implicaciones; así como la necesidad de asegurar una carrera profesional para los encargados de promover y dar apoyo al desarrollo mencionado. En los tiempos de cambio que se dan en el contexto español, el lecto...

The Scholarship of Academic Development

2003

Academic development is not one thing, but many things. It is constituted by large variety of processes and activities which may be described in different ways. In a recent article Wright and Miller (IJAD, 2001, 5:1) show that the range of verbs used to describe these the activities and processes of academic development include to support, promote, enhance, ,,,,teaching and learning, or sometimes, more specifically, innovations in teaching and learning.

Representing Academic Development

Journal of Perspectives in Applied Academic Practice, 2014

This article outlines strategies designed to meet the challenge of reporting on the influence of academic development work to different stakeholders. The broad scope of the work is illustrated by examples of initiatives at sector, institution, programme and practice levels. The examples demonstrate how the aims and approaches of academic development have evolved in recent years and why evaluating the expanded range of activities is challenging. This ‘evaluation challenge’ delays growth of a body of knowledge and gives rise to an ever-present risk of removal or restructure facing academic development centres in a rapidly changing higher education sector. The challenge should, therefore, be addressed as a matter of the highest priority.

8. Strategic Approaches to Academic Development: Relationship to Learning and Teaching

Collected Essays on Learning and Teaching, 2011

Most universities in Australia have established at least one organizational unit with a responsibility for academic development. While ‘academic’ could embrace all aspects of the role of academics, including research, innovation, and contributions to community and professional bodies, the expectation is that the focus will be on learning and teaching. In this paper, I address the extent to which – and the sense in which – this is true. I use the results of several surveys conducted in Australia in 2007 and information emerging from a forum of Australian university personnel associated with the development of academics. These sources show that academic development units often perform a range of functions that go beyond the development of learning and teaching. Reviewing the available data, I conclude that the current role of academic developers is very much influenced by strategic pursuits of universities. In this climate, the potential for academic development to operate with the in...