Challenging accepted wisdom about conceptions of teaching in academic development (original) (raw)
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Teaching development units have been provided at most Australasian and British universities over the last thirty years. Typically, units have provided workshops, courses and individual consultations in a variety of formats. These units have always attracted enthusiasts, but have often struggled to bring about a fundamental shift in organisational thinking about teaching. At the same time, external pressures such as Performance Based Research Funding (PBRF) draw academics away from teaching concerns and create additional challenges for staff developers. The Teaching Development Unit (TDU) at the University of Waikato (UoW) is reconceptualising its approach with a view to building a culture in which advocates for teaching can help to build capability and capacity in teaching across the organisation. The goal is to promote and develop "solidarity networks" of people who value teaching across the academic community and to reinforce this with teaching advocacy at the strategic ...
Let them see it: A project to build capacity by raising awareness of teaching-development pathways
Journal of University Teaching and Learning Practice, 2016
In an ideal world, university teaching and research would be valued equally; however, this is not currently the case. Research continues to be better rewarded and valued in most universities (Bexley, James & Arkoudis 2011; Gill 2016; Probert 2013). The notion that university reputation should be judged predominantly by research metrics has been challenged by a global trend towards a demand-driven system that encourages widening participation, student choice and social mobility. Consequently we have seen an increased number of teaching-focused roles (BIS 2016). Paradoxically, the drive to increase university reputation based on research has also contributed to the increased numbers of teaching-focused roles (Probert 2013). The introduction of these roles has been welcomed due to the perceived increased professionalism of the workforce and recognition of teaching quality, and criticised because of its potential to undermine the teaching-research nexus and erode academic identities (Pr...
Teaching in Higher Education
Higher education calls for reform, but deeper knowledge about the prerequisites for teaching development and pedagogical change is missing. In this study, 51 university teachers' experiences of supportive or constraining factors in teaching development were investigated in the context of Finland's multidisciplinary network. The findings reveal that the supportive factors in teaching development arise from the nature of the development itself, i.e., from the teachers' opportunities to act as active agents in an authentic development process. Furthermore, the circumstances of the development also play essential roles (both constraining and supportive) in teaching development. Such support, at its best, will come when teachers and others view teaching development in the university context as being valuable and rewarding, and when teachers are encouraged by management and are supplemented with the necessary equipment, tools, and networks they need to do their job. Increasing interaction between the institutional levels can make educational development successful.
Impact of teaching development programmes in higher education HEA research series
A review of this nature draws on very wide experience and not only from the over 130 authors and co-authors whose published research has been the focus of this research. On behalf of the research team at HOST, I would like to thank those authors for their contributions to this growing field of inquiry, and also the individuals and agencies -in the UK and elsewhere -who have contributed their experiences and suggestions for source material.
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.
The Impact of Academic Staff Development on Their Approach to Teaching and Learning
2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition Proceedings
The Approaches to Teaching Inventory (ATI) has been used to benchmark the impact of academic staff development programs in a range of different contexts over the last fifteen years. This paper analyses, discusses and compares two large ATI data sets collected at a Swedish research university, the first data set was collected in 2009 and the second in 2012. This paper provides the results of open factor analysis of both data sets and a discussion of the differences in the nature of the two data sets through a comparison of the 2012 and 2009 analyses. The open factor analysis of our second data set reveals a new conception of the teacher role which complements the existing transmission and conceptual change orientations. This new instructor orientation focuses on challenging student conceptions to achieve intellectual growth. We also explore shifts in conceptions of teachers, exploring the impact of the inservice pedagogy courses we have been delivering together with the other initiatives within the Faculty of Science and Technology which aim to equip academics with a richer pedagogical palette as they pursue their teaching and learning activities. We demonstrate a statistically significant shift in staff approach towards conceptual development among staff who have completed our engineering and science education research courses.
Controversy and Consensus on the Scholarship of Teaching
Studies in Higher Education, 2002
Once downplayed as an amorphous and elusive term devoid of any clear meaning, the scholarship of teaching has gained much clearer contours over the past few years. Programmes that support and foster the scholarship of teaching now exist on many campuses and the implications for staff development have been recognised. Yet, to what extent do scholars in the eld agree upon present conceptualisations of the term and the potential problems associated with it? Following the Delphi survey method, this study identi ed the extent to which a panel of 11 'experts' in teaching and learning in higher education agree on the features and unresolved issues associated with the scholarship of teaching, and how these compare to perspectives discussed in the relevant higher education literature.
Faculty Conceptions of Teaching: Implications for teacher professional development
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In this paper, the need to assist university teachers in thinking carefully about what they are teaching, and how this relates to and coheres with their own professional development, is outlined. The underlying argument being made is that any efforts designed to extend and encourage scholarly teaching require us to consider the faculty experiences of understanding their subject matter, and in doing so, to help them to see how their understanding relates to what and how they teach. In other words exploring lecturers’ conceptions and epistemological beliefs about teaching may assist in the improvement of teacher education, professional development programs and teaching centres at the university.