Showing papers in "International Journal for Academic Development in 2006"

"We Really Felt Part of Something": Participatory Learning among Peers within a University Teaching-Development Community of Practice.

Abstract: This paper examines the pedagogic learning of a group of new lecturers at an international research intensive university who were participants on a formal teaching development programme. The lens of situated learning theory is utilised to gain new insights into the learning arising from the development programme but also to reveal certain limitations to pedagogic learning in academic workplaces. Initially, it is shown that academic practice can be construed as socially situated and distributed in specific contexts and that learning thus requires participation in communities of practice. While examining the functioning of teaching development cohort groups as communities of practice, further components of situated learning theory are utilised to more fully understand new lecturers’ social learning than has hitherto been the case. The lecturers’ experiences of learning as social meaning‐making and as legitimate peripheral participation are therefore examined. Furthermore, experiences of learning as a proces...

Doing Educational Development Ambivalently: Applying post‐colonial metaphors to educational development?

Abstract: Post‐colonial theories about liminality, hybridity, unhomeliness, and identity form a novel lens through which to re‐theorise educational development work. Applying these conceptual frameworks allows practitioners and the academics they work with the opportunity to problematise some of educational development’s colonial underpinnings and assumptions. They also enable an exploration of the states of betweenness that form educational developers’ identities and impact implicitly and explicitly upon the nature of their changing practices. This paper seeks to read educational development and research supervisor development in particular “against the grain”. It also seeks to illustrate these concepts through some vignettes of my academic development practice. Les theories postcoloniales portant sur les notions de “liminality”, “hybridity”, “unhomeliness”, ainsi que sur la notion d’identite constituent un nouvel angle sous lequel nous pouvons reenvisager les travaux dans le domaine du developpement pedagogique. ...

Quality Management of Academic Development Work: Implementation issues and challenges

Abstract: This paper summarises current ideas about the place of academic development in the twenty‐first century university. It focuses on aligning the leadership and management of academic development work with the ‘ownership’ of such work by its key stakeholders—teaching academics, university management and the wider academic development community—and with an institutional quality agenda. It offers insights taken from the authors’ experiences in one AD unit over a five‐year period, and from the diverse perspectives on its work held by various stakeholders, into critical issues that underlie efforts to improve the management of academic development. It outlines the challenges in trying to elucidate the work of academic development within a quality management framework and argues for advancing its work through clearer articulation of its principles, standards, performance tracking and intended impact. Cet article dresse un bilan des idees courantes en ce qui a trait au role du developpement pedagogique au sein de ...

Shaping the University Curriculum through Partnerships and Critical Conversations

Abstract: “Quality teaching”, “curriculum change” and “innovative practice” are just a few of the common phrases used by university academics as a basis for defining and justifying their actions as educators and policy‐makers Yet our analysis of 25 interviews with academics revealed differences in their conceptions of these terms While the impact of such disparity upon the clarity of discussions across campus is not known, it is likely to be significant We suggest there is a real need for academics and developers to work together to identify the meanings behind the language of higher education By working collaboratively and contributing individual expertise, academics and developers can develop converging understandings and better shape the university curriculum This paper explores ways in which we can work together to achieve this goal “Enseignement de qualite”, “changement de programme” et “pratique innovatrice” ne sont que quelques‐unes des expressions communement employees par les universitaires pour defi

Coming of Age in a Time of Super‐complexity (with Apologies to both Mead and Barnett)

Abstract: As you may gather from the title of this piece, I am making two assumptions—one, about where we are today as a field (there are a number of signs of our becoming more established), and two—our work is filled with tensions, inconsistencies, dilemmas because of dramatic changes in the academy, for instance, entrepreneurialism in research, increasing demands for accountability, managerialism of senior administration. As a result, I have been asking myself: “How far have we actually come as a field?” and “Where can we—where do we want to—go in the future?” The talk and paper 1 on which this piece is based explores a number of ideas; what I do here is pull out just two—one related to research, the other to practice. What I want to do is to share with you some of the questions, issues, and challenges 2 that are percolating not yet fully developed in my mind—and hopefully stimulate your thinking. First though, I want to give you, from my perspective, a brief history of where we have come from. The field emerged in the 1960s and 1970s as a result of student concern and unrest about poor teaching. This led to the creation of the first development units and a focus on course ratings which contributed to a thirty-plus year history of research emerging from a psychological perspective. It is from these early times that the deficit or remedial model of teaching—that teachers need fixing—was born and in some places still exists. In the 1970s and 1980s, the number of units grew and there was increasing research on generic teaching. In the 1990s, new ideas began emerging from research. Three strike me as key and I will return to them later: a focus on learning not teaching, how discipline affects teaching and learning, and the notion that it is student experience as a totality that influences learning. In the twenty-first century, as major changes have been occurring in the academy, we have seen the number of units continuing to increase. As well, for probably the first time, we are seeing

Towards the End of the Last Non‐Professions?

Abstract: All students are entitled to be taught well, and to be given the support they need to learn effectively (DfES, 2003, Section 41) Teaching in higher education may be one of the last non‐profession

Self‐development in Support of Innovative Pedagogies: Peer support using email

Abstract: Staff involved in pedagogic innovations are often presented with challenges that take them outside their customary spheres of expertise and disciplinary identities. This paper presents an analysis of data collected from staff involved in a ‘bottom up’ pedagogic innovation introducing inquiry‐based learning to a cohort of first year social science students. Data were collected in the form of transcripts of emails shared by staff weekly during the development, research interviews conducted after the module had finished, and a follow up email questionnaire a year later asking them to reflect on the value of the original email exchanges. The email exchanges were descriptive close‐to‐action summaries of events in the classroom and provided a way of creating teaching as community property. The follow‐up interviews revealed states of uncertainty and liminality (in‐betweeness). The paper argues that the characteristics of email, as both informal and intimate and at the same time a public mode of exchange, allowed...

Enhancing Educational Research and Development Activity through Small Grant Schemes: A case study

Abstract: There are many funding schemes in existence for small projects in educational development, but fewer equivalent research schemes. Data from an evaluation of two schemes at one institution are used as the catalyst for considering such schemes in wider contextual and theoretical perspectives. The evaluation analysed success rate data, project reports, and feedback data collected from grant‐holders. This case study addresses four questions: the areas of focus of grant‐holder activity, the extent to which the schemes achieved desired objectives, the ways in which grant‐holders value the schemes, and the factors contributing to success. It provides some supporting evidence for conclusions drawn in broader survey studies, considers the role of educational development units in such schemes and the place of educational development and research in an institution with a science‐based culture and paradigm. Two theoretical lenses help illuminate the data, namely “communities of practice” and Boyer’s classification of...

Solution‐focused Work in Individual Academic Development

Abstract: There is one account in the literature of the application of a solution‐focused approach to individual teaching development at university level (Devlin, 2003). The solution‐focused approach is based on solution‐focused brief therapy (SFBT). The current paper elaborates on the existing account, further outlining and illustrating the techniques that make up the solution‐focused approach to academic development. The central tenets of SFBT‐based academic development and the core components of solution‐focused work are articulated. Current research in this area is outlined. Il existe, au sein de la documentation, un exemple de l’approche centree sur la solution appliquee au domaine du developpement pedagogique individuel a l’universite (Devlin). L’approche centree sur la solution se base sur la notion de solution‐focused brief therapy (SFBT) (therapie breve orientee vers la solution). Le present article decrit, explique et illustre les techniques qui font partie de l’approche centree sur la solution appliquee ...

The Impact of Context on Readings of Teaching Portfolios.

Abstract: This study explored the experiences of readers of portfolios created in either formative or summative micro‐contexts. Interviews were conducted with three readers in the formative context (mentors on a graduate certificate in higher education programme), and three readers in the summative context (senior staff committee members reading portfolios created for promotion or confirmation). As expected, thematic analysis of the interview transcripts showed discernible differences in the ways developmental and summative portfolios were read. However, the parallels in the issues raised suggested the strong influence of the macro‐context—an institution with a policy providing for the summative use of teaching portfolios—on the way portfolios in both micro‐contexts are read. Cette etude explore les experiences de lecteurs de portfolios produits dans des micro‐contextes soit formatifs, soit certificatifs. Des entretiens ont ete effectues aupres de trois lecteurs dans un contexte formatif (tous mentors dans le cadre...