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Professional development for university academics in a changing context

Professional development for university academics in a changing context. Geoffrey Crisp HERDSA President ALTC National Fellow. Adelaide Australia. Adelaide, Australia. University of Adelaide. Higher Education context.

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Professional development for university academics in a changing context

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  1. Professional development for university academics in a changing context Geoffrey Crisp HERDSA President ALTC National Fellow

  2. Adelaide Australia

  3. Adelaide, Australia

  4. University of Adelaide

  5. Higher Education context • David Gosling article in SEDA’s (Staff and Educational Development Association) Educational Development on Post Graduate Certificates in Higher Education (PgCerts) become mandatory for many new university academics in the UK • UK particularly proactive in having policies requiring completion of a PgCert for tenure • Australian universities would have a mandatory professional development requirement for new academics but only a small number have made completion of the PgCert a requirement for tenure

  6. Higher Education context • Australian universities usually provide free or subsidised access to PgCerts to a limited number of their own academics • Mandatory professional development for new academics, in the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Japan and Sri Lanka; whereas other countries, such as the USA, have been reluctant to move down this path • In the USA, more significant emphasis is placed on the professional development of Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTAs) rather than newly appointed faculty

  7. Higher Education context • Move towards embedding mandatory professional development for faculty probably more to do with government regulatory requirements, rather than a recognition of the inherent merits of PgCert programs • Nature of PgCert programs can vary between countries and between institutions • In UK SEDA plays a key role in maintaining standards around these programs through a formal recognition process • Professional Development Framework provides recognition for the programs of UK universities

  8. Higher Education context • Move to mandating professional training in educational practice through PgCerts is a recognition that completing a PhD in a core discipline and undertaking discipline-based research is not necessarily the most appropriate training for teaching • The issue of standards and the quality of teaching in universities is a controversial topic • How is teaching quality measured in universities and what would an acceptable standard of educational practice look like in each discipline?

  9. Higher Education context • In Australia, the Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC) has project to define academic standards in the disciplines in preparation for the work of the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency • ALTC has already sponsored a major project on Teaching Quality Indicators and the project proposed a set of indicators for recognising and rewarding quality teaching

  10. Higher Education context • Student feedback used as a proxy measure of teaching quality • Some institutions have reworded their policy on student feedback to emphasise they measure students’ perceptions or experiences rather than evaluation • What improves the student experience?

  11. What type of pedagogical learning space? Laurentius de Voltolina 14th century lecture The Yorck Project: 10.000 Meisterwerke der Malerei. DVD-ROM, 2002. ISBN 3936122202

  12. Learning spaces

  13. Queen’s University, Kingston CA Beamish-Munro Hall, Queen's University Integrated Learning Centre http://livebuilding.queensu.ca

  14. Classroom techniques for feedback

  15. http://www.tltgroup.org/Facilities/Activities-TOC.htm • enable ready use of computing/connectivity • enable learner or teacher to discover, import and display information easily, including the ability for a student in a large class to interact with the presentation • enable participants to interact with each other

  16. http://www.tltgroup.org/Facilities/Activities-TOC.htm • enable teacher to record patterns in student thinking in order to adjust instruction • enable participants toreview previous classroom communication • enable the use of outside experts • enable students to use one another as learning resources

  17. Authentic learning and assessment http://www.nasaimages.org/luna/servlet/detail/nasaNAS~9~9~58363~162207:

  18. Peer Review of teaching • Peer evaluation has become more popular, but mostly for formative purposes • The main issues still preventing use of summative peer review include training for peer reviewers and the workload issues for both reviewer and reviewed http://www.adelaide.edu.au/clpd/peerreview

  19. Peer review and promotion Internal Peer Review

  20. Peer review and promotion External Peer Review

  21. Peer observation form 21

  22. Purpose of higher education institutions • Williams and Filippakou (2010) have posited that mass higher education has moved away from the historical role of fostering the “symbolic capital associated with elite membership” towards a more pluralistic view where institutional missions are varied • newer universities embraced the diversity agenda from their inception http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_hBiBaUg_1rA/SJTQE0ymK7I/AAAAAAAABxI/OIKhMiaaQ2E/s400/confusing_signs2.jpg

  23. Purpose of higher education institutions Academics have played both active and passive parts in this evolutionary journey, depending on their discipline and particular institutional history http://media.economist.com/images/20050910/3705SU1.jpgTitle

  24. Purpose of higher education institutions • In UK recently the trend has been for more diversification with the wider Russell Group of institutions dominating the Who’s Who list • one occupation group that significantly broadened its educational base was politicians • this will likely have a significant impact on university priorities and student recruitment practices over time as political representatives from diverse backgrounds begin to influence government policy and funding for higher education http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/current/archive/2008/04/20/catfighting-from-on-high.aspx

  25. Are conceptions about the purpose of universities different in different countries? • Cheung and Chan (2010) have used Hofstede’s cultural dimensions to examine whether there were any quantitative differences between geographic regions in their use of education as a response to the demands of an increasingly competitive global economy • Power Distance Index (PDI, related to human inequality), Individualism (IDV, relationship between the individual and the collective), Masculinity (MAS) and the Uncertainty Avoidance Index (UAI, level of tolerance for uncertainty, ambiguity and unstructured situations within a society)

  26. Endorsement of Executive Recommendation Table Hofstede correlations from Cheung and Chan (2010)

  27. Are conceptions about the purpose of universities different in different countries? • Cheung and Chan (2010) concluded that dimensions such as university education and knowledge transfer could be significantly explained by a combination of Hofstede’s PDI and UAI dimensions • Power Distance Index (PDI, related to human inequality) • Avoidance Index (UAI, level of tolerance for uncertainty ambiguity and unstructured situations within a society)

  28. Are conceptions about the purpose of universities different in different countries? • there was an overall negative relationship between PDI and university education and knowledge transfer in relation to impact on national competitiveness • regions where there was less inequality and more tolerance for ambiguity (as defined by Hofstede) had higher impact factors for university education and knowledge transfer in relation to national competiveness http://ddeubel.edublogs.org/2008/12/10/top-5-warning-signs-the-teacher-isnt-yet-a-teacher/

  29. Academic practice • in Australia, the recent Bradley review of higher education indicated that universities should be engaging in activities that promote a “civil and just society” • proposed that increasing the overall participation rate in higher education would be in the public good, as well as assisting in economic development

  30. Academic practice • individual academics have little control over who is allowed to come to their university • individual faculty can have a profound effect on the success rate of students once they are enrolled in universities • issue for faculty development programs is how will it assist faculty to achieve productive outcomes for students when participation is on a wider scale?

  31. Role for Faculty development? • should academic practice, as reified in the discipline context, be aligned with national agendas and priorities? • do the scholarly activities we undertake as faculty members reflect the role of universities being for the public good or do they reflect a privileging of that role being for the enhancement of the individual?

  32. Professional Organisations in Australia • Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australasia (HERDSA) http://www.herdsa.org.au/ • Council of Australian Directors of Academic Development (CADAD) http://www.cadad.edu.au/ • Australasian Council on Open, Distance and E-Learning (ACODE) http://www.acode.edu.au/ • Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC) http://www.altc.edu.au/

  33. Role for HERDSA HERDSA is a scholarly society for people committed to the advancement of higher and tertiary education. It promotes the development of higher education policy, practice and the study of teaching and learning.

  34. Benchmarking Faculty Development Centres CADAD project – adopted for University of Adelaide Engagement with our Centre Staff Modifying for local context Self-audit External partners Practical purposes 34

  35. Engagement with our Centre Staff Preliminary meeting to discuss why we should be involved Half-day workshop session to discuss concerns and come to common understanding Areas start filling in their sections Documenting concerns, confusions Change document in response to feedback Another half-day workshop session to finalise document Areas complete their sections 25/09/2014 35

  36. KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS FOR ACADEMIC DEVELOPMENT UNITS UNIVERSITY OF ADELAIDE CLPD VERSION 2007-2009 INTRODUCTION 25/09/2014 36

  37. KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS FOR ACADEMIC DEVELOPMENT UNITS UNIVERSITY OF ADELAIDE CLPD VERSION 2007-2009 INTRODUCTION 25/09/2014

  38. Self-audit Good opportunity for internal review of practices Identify gaps in services or engagement 38

  39. DOMAINS, SUB-DOMAINS, KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS AND BENCHMARKS FOR CLPD UNIVERSITY OF ADELAIDE FOR PERIOD 2007-2009 DOMAIN 1: STRATEGY, POLICY AND GOVERNANCE Sub-domain 1.1: Strategic Advice KPI: Advice to senior staff about the operating environment for learning and teaching

  40. DOMAINS, SUB-DOMAINS, KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS AND BENCHMARKS FOR CLPD UNIVERSITY OF ADELAIDE FOR PERIOD 2007-2009 DOMAIN 1: STRATEGY, POLICY AND GOVERNANCE Sub-domain 1.1: Strategic Advice KPI: Advice to senior staff about the operating environment for learning and teaching

  41. Practical purposes Your own staff need to see a point in the activity It should lead to internal improvements 41

  42. どうも有難う御座いました

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