Perceptions, Tensions and Expectations of Programmes for Academic and Professional Development (original) (raw)

Journeys of growth towards the professional learning of academics: understanding the role of educational development

International Journal for Academic Development, 2012

This article foregrounds the iterative journey of a group of educational development (ED) practitioners at a research-led university towards an enhanced understanding of the ED opportunities we offer. Reflecting on the intention of our interventions to facilitate academics’ professional learning, we developed a framework within which the range of growth opportunities we provide might be meaningfully situated. Our objective was to extend our insight into both the journeys that academics follow towards adopting a more scholarly approach to their teaching and our own journeys of growth in ED as well as professionally.

Reconceptualising academic work as professional practice: implications for academic development

International Journal for Academic Development, 2013

Despite increasing research and scholarship in the area of academic development in recent years, it remains an under-theorised field of endeavour. The paper proposes that academic developers take a view on what constitutes academic work and see it as a form of professional practice. It discusses the features of practice theory that illuminate professional practice and identities three foci for the application of these ideas within academic development: practice development, fostering learningconducive work and deliberately locating activity within practice. It also suggests that academic development be viewed as a practice and points to features within its own traditions on which to build.

Implications for Professional Development

Mathematics Education with Digital Technology, 2011

This study sought to investigate the working knowledge of academics in a 'new' university in Australia. Working knowledge, or knowledge 'put to use' in day-today work, describes what academics actually do. What knowledge academics use day to day is vital for those concerned in the development of academic staff. Academic development has of late focused on supporting academics to respond to the changing demands of new forms of work, and has been accused of lacking an epistemological base or a clearly articulated position. The findings of this study make suggestions concerning a philosophical and practical way forward for the development of academic staff. This study adopts and develops phenomenographic method. It explores interviews with 20 academics to identify differences concerning what is necessary and valuable to know in order to work day-today as a practising academic. From the perspective of academics, this analysis identified three domains of working knowledge within daily academic practice. Unsurprisingly two of these domains are the relatively wellexplored fields of teaching and research. The third, previously unidentified as a specific field, was institutional administration. Understanding of and practice in this third new field was not only pivotal to the constitution of academic practice, but it appeared to mediate the ways in which the other two domains of teaching and research were brought together. Of further significance, working knowledge of institutional administration was implicated in academic identity and also signalled academics' more fundamental understandings of what constituted knowledge. The findings suggest the object of academic development is supporting the attainment of ontological and epistemological certainties and its subject is working knowledge. This repositions academic development practice away from fragmentation towards holistic, whole-of-work approaches.

The professional development of faculty in the UK

A personal view of the current status of the professional development of faculty in the UK – current practices and attitudes – and how we got there over the past twenty years. Plus the practical illustration of how professional development is provided in one UK institution, namely Oxford Brookes University.

Academic development: Leading by example with an authentic and practical approach to curriculum design

Journal of University Teaching and Learning Practice

Academic developers work with colleagues from every discipline to facilitate learning about teaching, learning and assessment. Boud and Brew (2013) called for academic development to be significantly ‘closer to everyday practice’ while also recognising development involves extending notions of what ‘practice’ is. Moreover, Loads and Campbell (2015) called for greater authenticity of academic development: questioning and challenging custom and practice within disciplines in higher education. So how do academic developers, tasked with redeveloping their mandatory Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice (PGCAP), create an authentic and practical programme? Especially one that extends the scope of teaching practice, transforms curricula and assessment and meets strategic objectives around developing student literacies, graduate attributes and strengthening engagement in continuing professional development (University of Glasgow, 2015, 2021). This good practice example showcases th...

Measuring the effectiveness of academic professional development: Identification and implementation of indicators and measures of effectiveness of teaching preparation programs for academics in higher education

Professional development programs and activities to enhance teaching and learning have been undertaken for more than 50 years in some higher education institutions. Notwithstanding that, whether these programs, and less formal development activities, have had an impact on enhancing teaching understanding or practice, student satisfaction or learning, and/or the institutional climate that rewards and recognises teaching, remains difficult to ascertain. With greater attention being paid to the quality of teaching in recent years, it is not surprising that greater attention also has been focused on the quality and impact of teaching preparation programs for academics in Australian universities. This project responded to the challenges of determining the effectiveness of teaching preparation programs for academics in higher education by developing the Academic Professional Development Effectiveness Framework designed to assist academic developers in evidencing the achievement of the int...

Symposium ECER2014 - Let’s Do Something New! Current Research and Practice on Aspects of Professionalization in Academic Development

Academic development (AD, also named ‘educational development’, ‘faculty development’ or ‘instructional development’, respectively, cf. Gosling, 2009) is an umbrella term to describe actions and activities undertaken at institutions of higher education in order to enhance teaching (cf. for example Amundsen & Wilson, 2012). AD initiatives and programs for a long time were located wherever they were suitable within institutions of higher education. This reflects in both the multiple underlying assumptions about the nature of teaching and learning prevalent in AD as well as in resulting practices of what is considered adequate or helpful in order to facilitate teaching. As a result AD shares a highly fragmented paradigm, which incorporates multiple disciplinary approaches (Shay, 2012). As for the present, AD is rapidly evolving in universities across Europe, especially in countries where there is not a thick historical tradition, such as Germany, The Netherlands, and Flanders. This certainly can be attributed to new funding and organizational initiatives, which react to the 2 notion that excellent teaching besides research is an important part of a university’s profile to attract further students(Lomas, 2006; D’andrea & Gosling, 2001). In a recent publication Gibbs (2013) argues for some ‘trends’ of what is changing in AD, which he describes as shifts in focus such as “from the classroom to the learning environment”, “from individual teachers on course teams, departments and leadership of teaching”, “from teaching to learning” or “from quality assurance to quality enhancement”, to name only a few. But how can these recent developments in AD be brought together and interpreted under a coherent framework? One possible approach to solve this question is the discussion of current practices and developments in the area of AD under the aspect of professionalization. Is what we are doing in AD bound to professionalize higher education teachers’ teaching? And are we adequately responding to the professional demands of university staff in the way we administer AD courses or programs? What do professional trajectories of university teachers tell us about the way they see themselves as professional teaching staff? And, is there new evidence with respect to the previously disputed question whether AD in itself can be seen as an emergent ‘field’ or ‘profession’ (Macfarlane & Hughes, 2009)? This symposium aims at gaining new answers to those questions by following three objectives: First, it aims to show two examples for current practices in AD and discuss how these add to the professionalization of higher education teachers; second, it will reflect these ‘trends’ in the light of research done on the aspect of professionalization in AD, both on the teachers’ side as well as with a perspective on AD as a profession itself. The third objective, on a meta-level, is to infuse research on AD as a topic into EERA/ECER and Network 22 in order to make this dynamically evolving sphere more visible to both educational researchers, and academics in general.

Book Review: Advancing Practice in Academic Development (Baume, D. & Popovic, C. (Eds) (2016)

2016

This welcome text, edited by David Baume and Celia Popovic, is the most recent in an impressive 20-year programme of publications in Routledge's Staff and Educational Development Series, aligned with the work of the UK's Staff and Educational Development Association (SEDA, www.seda.ac.uk). Series Editor James Wisdom notes in the Foreword the continuity from previous volumes in 2003 and 2004 to this new publication in mapping the territory of academic development.

Changing curriculum and teaching practice A practical theory for academic staff development

Many studies show that students' learning is strongly supported when the academics who teach them are pedagogically competent to do so. However, less is known about how academics respond to changing their curricular and teaching practice. This chapter illustrates how a theorised way of talking about teaching and learning (using LCT) creates exciting and productive conversations with academic lecturers. Using short vignettes, the chapter explores interactions between a researcher and groups of lecturers, focusing on the ways in which lecturers have responded to LCT concepts in relation to their teaching, as well as where misunderstandings have emerged. The chapter reveals how LCT offers lecturers an accessible, theorised way of seeing that can help them adapt their teaching to better enable successful student learning.