Search

The article announces that the periodical "Teaching in Higher Education" welcomes contributions concerning knowledge, identities, and teaching in relation to higher education purposes for its special issue on "Purposes, knowledge and identities." Information on the suggested questions and topics to be discussed which include economic, political, and social contexts of teaching, and others are included. Information on the abstract and article length, email address to whom the contribution will be submitted, and submission date are also included.

At a time when the context of teaching in higher education is difficult for many number of factors such as: reduced funding, changing demographics of students and demands to teach in flexible times and spaces, there are also higher levels of quality control, transparency and accountability over teaching which are exerted by institutions. This paper reframes these demands and difficulties to reclaim the disciplinary expertise of the academic as teacher and following Palmer sees teaching as an entanglement of ‘beings’: the teachers, the learners and the subject and explores what it means to be a teacher within these relationships. We argue for a relational pedagogy in which embodied teaching is guided by listening for and to the subject. Wishing to be consistent in the paper with its theme, we adopt a subject-centred approach. And since our core subject in this paper is teaching, we necessarily include reflections on teaching experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

With China's rising role in the global economic market, both local and international employers seek graduates with well-developed communication skills in at least one additional language to complement their specific knowledge and abilities. University graduates are taught English for Specific Purposes (ESP) within their particular disciplines. This article reflects on the first author's action research, using student presentations as a pedagogical practice with first year postgraduate students not majoring in English in a Chinese university. The authors propose that ESP pedagogy needs to progress beyond the monological Chinese Confucian model of education to a dialogic, inclusive, and hospitable model of the classroom as an imagined third space where creative, critical thinking is encouraged. This research aims to contribute to Chinese ESP pedagogy, to inform international educators of developments in the education of graduates for internationalized business practice, and to contribute to the global discourse on ESP pedagogy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While diversity and commonality are not necessarily contradictory aspirations in relation to contemporary teaching in higher education, they exist potentially in a state of dynamic tension, fostered by market-based and government-induced policies that strive to have the largest and widest possible client- or customer-base, while reducing costs by standardising delivery and assessment. This paper explores this dynamic tension between diversity and commonality through three empirical cases of different types of students at Central Queensland University in Australia: Indigenous, pre-undergraduate and international students. The paper presents an analytical synthesis of the particular teaching strategies developed by academic staff working with students in each case: experiential learning, transformative learning and culturally-situated pedagogy. The authors argue that these strategies constitute a potentially effective means of helping to resolve the dynamic tension between, and of unravelling the Gordian knot linking, diversity and commonality in Australian contemporary higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we shed light on the dynamic nature of 'diversity' in higher education from the perspectives of four Japanese women graduate students seeking possibilities through different ways of knowing. Using an autoethnographical methodology embedded in a dialogue format of zadankai, we examine the stereotypes of Japanese women that are activated both inside and outside of academic institutions. Stereotyping propagates racist, patriarchal and heterosexist norms. The examination of the mechanisms in which stereotyping silences Japanese women reveals the micro and macro politics of identity. Our collective dialogue demonstrates the processes in which silenced Japanese women graduate students reclaim their holistic agencies to peel the layers of superficial notions of diversity and address the creative and flexible nature of 'difference' and 'diversity' in knowledge production. We hope this paper will encourage minority groups amongst students, educators, and administrators to engage in various ways of knowing and address the issues of 'diversity' in higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an analysis of the ways in which UK higher education (HE) has become increasingly commercialised and commodified in the post-1980s. It critiques the strategies adopted by successive UK governments to reinvigorate the relationship between educational and economic life, and to facilitate a more corporate and entrepreneurial spirit within the academy in line with the pressures of a 'knowledge-based economy'. Arguing for a more critical exploration of teaching and learning within HE, the paper presents evidence from work carried out by the Reinvention Centre for Undergraduate Research, a Centre for Excellence in Teaching in Learning (CETL) which adopts a research-based learning approach to teaching and learning at undergraduate level.1 Within the context of ongoing debates surrounding the relationship between teaching, learning and research in UK HE, the paper advocates a reinvention of curriculum design through an engagement with the broader principles of critical pedagogy, and in so doing, presents a critical engagement with the commercialisation of HE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is inspired by, and constructed around, a number of fundamental questions that are relevant to teacher educators working within the context of the government policy initiatives and implementations that are influencing Higher Education in the UK at the present time. Using teacher education practices as sites of inquiry, and a number of figures from the work of Deleuze, the paper investigates approaches to teaching and learning that are described as having an aesthetic and ethically sensitive character. Mindful of such approaches and of the pervasiveness of policy influences, the paper also encourages a careful and thorough re-thinking of the theory and practice of teacher education as a terrain of complexity, multiplicity and interconnectedness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines aspects of the relationship between teaching and research in higher education in social science research methods, with particular reference to the subject area of Education. There are three main themes: reflections on how social science research methods should be (or are) taught; a review of current debates about the relationship between teaching and research, both in higher education and for school teachers; and finally, reporting how a group of educational practitioners (mainly school teachers) studying at Masters level experience learned about research methods. The paper is illustrated by qualitative data from a case study of student experiences of research methods teaching on a Masters degree in Education in a research-intensive UK university. It is suggested that studying the journey embarked upon by taught postgraduate students inexperienced in research is helpful in understanding how learning about research methods takes place, which in turn can assist future research methods teaching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on the publication of this special double issue, which focuses on issues relating to the diversity and commonality in higher education. This issue was produced in response to a call for papers prepared by the editor and the executive editors. The refereeing of the papers submitted, which was completely anonymous, was done by the editor and the executive editors. The papers considered were those that engage with and explores values and suggest new forms of syntheses.

In the context of increasing international mobility in higher education, educators experience multiple challenges in the classroom. In the UK, policy discourses often frame international students as desirable resources. However, international students are frequently problematised as in academic deficit. Cultural reasons are posited for different patterns of participation in seminar discussions and critical engagement. This deficit narrative is neo-imperialist. A critical and ethical pedagogy should position international students as equals and as co-contributors. This article suggests that by changing pedagogical structures of traditional higher education classroom in the UK, subverting norms for epistemological interactions, international students can be empowered to engage actively and critically. This approach draws on the principles of Active Blended Learning to develop an ethical pedagogy, with equitable epistemic access for internationally mobile students. This paper explores how a module designed in keeping with ethical pedagogy [Madge, Clare, Parvati Raghuram, and Patricia Noxolo. 2009. "Engaged Pedagogy and Responsibility: A Postcolonial Analysis of International Students." Geoforum 40 (1): 34–45] succeeded in critically engaging students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper describes a collaborative curriculum development project implemented over 3 years at 2 universities in the Western Cape Province of South Africa. The project involved a short module in which students in their fourth year of study interacted and learnt collaboratively across the boundaries of institution, discipline, race and social class, about the concepts of community, self and identity. The pedagogic approach adopted is described, as well as the responses of the students, and a brief reflection on some of the learning outcomes attained. The paper considers the learning processes which the curriculum development team experienced, and suggests that in order to facilitate learning for an 'uncertain world', the curriculum designers, too, need to engage in learning processes in which they make themselves vulnerable, mirroring some of the learning processes they expect the students to undergo. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Phenomenography is best known as an empirical research approach for investigating variation in conceptions of different educational phenomena - including learning, teaching and particular disciplinary concepts such as price in economics and motion in physics. It is less well-known for its theoretical basis, in terms of its epistemological and ontological claims (Marton and Booth 1997), and the variation theory of learning that has developed out of phenomenographic research and theory (Marton and Tsui 2004). This paper discusses what 'conception' and 'conceptual development' mean from a phenomenographic perspective and how phenomenography and variation theory can be combined with empirical research on academics' conceptions of teaching to inform the design of a postgraduate course for academics, aimed at the development of academics' understanding of the nature of teaching and learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The external evaluation of a university's learning and teaching by, for example, professional bodies and (in the UK) by the Quality Assurance Agency, might fulfil several functions but of particular importance must be the use the university can make of it in improving the quality of its provision. This paper argues that sometimes, however, aspects seen to be in need of improvement might arise not directly from the learning and teaching itself but from the administrative context in which it takes place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the number of disabled students in higher education has increased in recent years, teaching them in compliance with public policy while maintaining academic standards has become a crucial issue. The access of disabled students to programs and to the curriculum are two separate but inter-linked features of such policies. This paper reviews the key features of the major four anti-discrimination laws and outlines the key adjustments to the curriculum for these students that are needed in response. It then outlines and discusses the current research on these adjustments. Four curriculum adjustments are explored: presentation format, response format, timing, and setting. The policy and practice of the curriculum adjustments have implications for academic staff. Research priorities are set out in relation to the attitudes of disabled students, academic staff, managerial or support staff, and non-disabled students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is an account of my search for professional identity as a new university lecturer through the use of the peer observation of teaching (POT) techniques. Through a synthesis of selected theoretical literature, associated critical reflection, and my own experiences of professional development through POT, the paper presents a conceptual framework for POT that accommodates both technical development, critical know-how in the classroom, and personal growth and change. The paper argues that an instrumental interpretation of POT is not sufficient to enhance teacher performance in the classroom. Rather, learning about teaching, and heightening a sense of professionalism stems from a continuous process of transforming personal meaning. This demands an active engagement with pedagogical theory, purposeful critical reflection on classroom practice, and a challenging of assumptions through shared critical reflection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper demonstrates how the introduction of the word scholarship in respect to teaching has become confused and misplaced and used to sustain and enhance a particular type of credibility to activities related to the enhancement of learning and teaching in higher education. Bourdieu's concept of symbolic culture is used to construct the argument and show how the use of the term 'Scholarship of Teaching' needs to be re-examined and conceptualized. Twenty-five academics from a variety of disciplines were interviewed to give their perceptions on the notion of scholarship, the scholarship of teaching, and the scholarship in teaching. These data were used to develop a framework for understanding and possibly reconsidering the role of the scholarship of teaching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the results of a long-term project which compared primary school student-teachers' theories on teaching with their actual teaching, investigated the factors underlying the revealed discrepancy and tried to explain it. The results indicated that although student-teachers' educational views shifted in their final year of study towards a child-centred and constructivist view of teaching, this was not implemented in their actual teaching. Analysis of videotaped lessons and interviews with student-teachers revealed some grave misconceptions about teaching and learning. The paper argues that these misconceptions were the principal factor underlying the mismatch that was identified between student-teachers' theories on teaching and their actual teaching. The hypothesis is also put forth that these misconceptions are likely the result of deeply embedded cultural values through which student-teachers' understanding of the new pedagogical approaches is mediated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The real and imagined racial differences and similarities between groups of students and staff have consequences in everyday experiences in South Africa. One aspect of engaging with the challenges facing higher education transformation post-Apartheid is through understanding how the racialized context interacts with the experience of teaching. This paper reports on what the narratives of four white academics reveal about their experience of teaching at the University of Cape Town (UCT). It analyses indicators of their identity as white academics and how they are both positioned and actively position themselves in relation to students and other academics at UCT. Their narratives reveal how academics simultaneously grapple with the privileges and limitations that accompany identifying as white. These tensions are explored through issues of black student development amid an alienating institutional culture and opposition to the behaviour of their white colleagues. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Recent and current changes in higher education have been both top-down and bottom-up, i.e. regulation and control measures from authorities on one hand and increasing numbers of international students on the other. This has led to a dilemma between unification and diversification. There is a marked pressure towards more testing, more streamlining and less autonomy. This development is caused by both top-down regulation and increasing diversity in the student body. This paper will examine the consequent impact on pedagogy and assessment, current practices and educational philosophies. We aim to ask questions pertinent to the substantial values and goals of our higher education institutions and to begin a discussion of the what, why and how of the renewal process. In particular, it discusses the effects in relation to teacher and learner autonomy in an intercultural classroom with multiple languages, expectation and traditions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The paper argues for situating today's students as ‘global citizens’, emphasisingself-in-the-worldidentity overact-in-the-worldagency. It draws upon a three-year investigation into the lived-experience of sojourning UK undergraduate students, which surfaced examples of significant learning among new communities of practice. Their experiences of crossing learning thresholds is presented as change to the lifeworld, and argued to have enhanced their sense ofself-in-the-world. Because primary sites of learning identified within the narratives were within inter-subjective encounters outside the host culture and beyond what was planned within their mobility programmes, I suggest that similar learning might be enabled among diverse campus communities at home. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Universal design of built environments is an area of professional interest for both architects and occupational therapists, yet is not always specifically included in undergraduate curricula. This paper reports on the student experience of introducing universal design education into architecture and occupational therapy curricula. Online and face-to-face teaching methods were employed, including virtual and real-life simulation activities designed to provide students with a personal experience of impairment. Virtual simulation activities used the medium of Second Life™. Results showed improvement in self-reported learning outcomes related to universal design and, overall, students found the learning activities and resources useful. Real-life simulations were reported to be more useful than virtual simulations. Project outcomes support the introduction of universal design education into architecture and occupational therapy curricula, and offer insight into student perceptions and future directions for related teaching and learning resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I argue that the teacher educators who deliberately create and nurture caring teacher-student relationships, despite the many challenges, benefit both themselves and their students in several ways. Although the notion that teachers should care for their students is not new, it may well be that professors too seldom communicate their caring clearly to students. First, I outline the literature on caring in education and provide examples of how professors show they care - and why students find this so important. Building on my belief that all (good) teaching involves humans in relation, I then describe how I use beginning-of-the-semester, one-to-one meetings with new students as one example of how caring can be operationalized. In an era when content-matter dissemination and accountability are increasingly reified, it is crucially important to see and treat our students as whole people rather than consumer-critics so that the dominant reductionist and consumerist traditions can be challenged and ultimately transformed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the dynamics surrounding the formation of academic identities in a context where the nature of academic work is contested both as a result of tensions within the discipline and in response to pressure from both the institution and the field of higher education. It is based on a case study which investigated the process of academic identity formation at the micro level of a department at a South African university. The study revealed a complex relationship between identity construction and participation within the particular configuration of teaching, professional and research communities of practice that defined the academic field in the department. Multiple identity trajectories were evident, indicating the role of individual agency, despite the dominance of a professional community of practice within the department. The arrival of new academics in the department without professional practice experience was found to have created the possibility of a changed notion of the academic within the discipline. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws on the experiences of 20 academic developers as they examine the proposition that the organisation and work of academic development in higher education is fragmented. Academic development was seen to have neither the status of a field nor a profession, and there was recognised tension between an institutionally focused service model that could be everything to everyone and one that could be distinguished as more conventionally 'academic' with theoretical knowledge as the basis for practice. Against the proposition, there was evidence of shared values and acceptance of diversity of purpose. We conclude that academic development has been fragmented since its inception and it remains resistant to cohesive change. Data suggest that to develop a unified community, academic development could seek field-status by encouraging all staff to provide their services by way of research-led teaching with each developer using their research knowledge and experiences of academic life to underpin practice. Only then will it have the necessary credibility and foundation from which it can work out its broader purposes and provide a quality service. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past few decades assessment has been heralded for its key role in the improvement of teaching and learning. However, more recently there have been expressions of uncertainty about whether assessment is in fact delivering on its promised potential. Against this backdrop of uncertainty and circumspection this paper offers a critical reflection on higher education assessment discourses with a particular focus on the discourse of criterion referenced assessment. The central argument is that while the social constructivist perspective has significantly illuminated our understanding of assessment, inadvertently the very object of assessment - knowledge - has been eclipsed. I propose that a fruitful way forward for our assessment practices is the centring of disciplinary forms of knowledge as an explicit component of the object of our assessment. Drawing on sociologists of education - Basil Bernstein and Karl Maton - I stake out some of the theoretical ground for reconceptualising the relationship between knowledge and assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a reprint of the paper "Is Personal Tutoring Sustainable? Comparing the Trajectory of the Personal Tutor With That of the Residential Warden." It analyzes the varying roles being played by academics in terms of giving aid to students. It specifically presents a comparison of the functions performed by residential wardens and personal tutors in higher education in Great Britain.

The growth in the student population within higher education against a background of government policy promoting the concept of 'widening participation' has led to much debate about the nature of university teaching. Academic engagement of all students within increasingly large and diverse classrooms has proved difficult to achieve. The research that we report here is part of a two-year ESRC/TLRP-funded project, whose key aim is to develop strategies for encouraging academic engagement and participation of all students by creating inclusive learning environments. In this paper, we report on the first stage of this project by exploring some of the sociological, epistemological and pedagogical reasons why learning environments may impact differently on first year students. We do this by asking over 200 'pre-entry students' what conceptions they have about higher education, university teachers, their subject and themselves as learners prior to enrolment at university. We consider how these conceptions might influence how they engage in, and benefit from, learning at university. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper begins by reviewing some of the different models of third-party observation of university teaching that can be found in the literature. Having analysed these, it argues that - if 'peer' is taken to indicate equality of status - only one is genuinely a model of peer-observation. It proposes an alternative categorisation of third-party observations of teaching dependant on who controls the information generated by the process. A preferred six-dimensional model based on control by the person being observed of the data-flow, and other procedural aspects, is presented and explored. Evaluative comments, by university teachers who have undertaken the process, are presented to illustrate the benefits of adopting this model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines university teachers’ conceptions of effective teaching. It reports a small illuminatory study of eight teachers. Their narratives identify rich insights. Conceptions of ‘learning through dialogue’, ‘community of learners’ and ‘meta-learning’ emerge as crucial in supporting students’ learning. These conceptions extend understanding of effective teaching in higher education and illuminate how teachers transform their teaching to transform learning. Insights emerge about the importance of social contexts. Theoretical dimensions informing pedagogy, knowledge construction, relationships between teaching and research, and professional learning are congruent: dialogue and collegiality are key. What inhibits teachers’ effectiveness is the ‘performativity’ culture especially setting aside preferred ways of operating as colleagues. A model is constructed to explain opposing standpoints. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on a study that took place in a faculty of humanities and social sciences at a UK university. The institution had recently undergone a radical restructure and the vision for the future presented by the new senior management team highlighted internationalization as one of four major areas for growth. The internationalization agenda was largely focused on increasing recruitment, but provided an opportunity to engage the academic community in a discourse about what internationalization meant for them and the challenges and opportunities it presented. Emerging themes relate to experiences and understandings of internationalization, with implications for learning and teaching, and student induction and support. The value of discourse about pedagogical development and practical innovations and the sharing of best practice are suggested as means to achieve conceptual change and a broader vision of internationalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Currently most academic literacy (AL) courses in South Africa are decontextualized and generic, suggesting an autonomous view of literacy. This view is challenged by the new literacy studies, which see literacy as social practices embedded in context. Recent developments in AL research emphasize the need to focus on discipline-specific strategies that embed ALs in disciplines of study, rather than approaches which decontextualize AL. At a tertiary institution in SA, a literacy-as-social-practice approach to ALs was implemented through an institution-wide project focusing on integrating language and content in an attempt to transgress the narrow disciplinary boundaries that characterize the tertiary curriculum. This paper explores how 20 AL practitioners and disciplinary specialists integrated AL teaching into various disciplines. The findings suggest that higher education needs to create discursive spaces for the collaboration of AL practitioners and disciplinary specialists, to facilitate the embedding of AL teaching into disciplines of study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Learning Styles school and the Approaches to Learning school represent two rather different perspectives on the interaction of students with a learning situation. This paper outlines the basic positions of the two schools, and then considers the extent to which it is possible to reconcile them. A possible framework for such a task by Riding ( 1997 ) is discussed and areas of commonality are highlighted. Neither school is free from criticism, and a summary of the criticisms of the constructs and the data collection instruments is provided in each case. Finally, research into the impact of the two schools on student learning is considered. Overall it is concluded that investigation of students' Learning Styles or Approaches to Learning are probably of more benefit to the teacher than to the individual student. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports an analysis of qualitatively different ways in which teachers experience change in their understanding of subject matter they have recently taught. In this exploratory study, interviews with 31 'typical' teachers from a range of first and second-year university subjects revealed that 20 reported no experience of change in their understanding. The reports of the 11 teachers who did experience change were used in a phenomenographic study from which five qualitatively different categories of description of change were constituted. These range from the experience of change as the adding of unproblematic knowledge to what is already known, to questioning the theoretical framework of the subject matter. The relation between the experience of change in understanding and the experience of teaching and learning for the 31 teachers was also explored. It was found that the teachers who did not experience change in their understanding were more likely to experience teaching as the transmission of knowledge, and the teachers who experienced change in their understanding, and who experienced that change as the re-interpretation or questioning of knowledge, were more likely to experience teaching as changing or developing students' conceptions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that learning outcomes need to be reclaimed from their current use as devices for monitoring and audit, and returned to their proper use in aiding good teaching and learning. We require a broader, flexible and more realistic understanding of learning outcomes, better suited to the realities of the classroom and of practical use to those teachers who wish to respond to the enthusiasm of their students. To this end, a new model is produced that starts from the idea of an articulated curriculum, and embraces both intended and emergent learning outcomes. The model employs the distinction between predicted and unpredicted learning outcomes, together with the distinction between those that are desirable and those that are undesirable. The resulting account is intended to aid understanding of the nature and proper use of learning outcomes in teaching and learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article contributes to contemporary debates about the significance of emotions within Higher Education. Using a psychoanalytic lens we analyse the ways in which experiences of anxiety and tension are essential for learning. The anxiety associated with learning can stimulate meaningful and reflexive outcomes but ‘learning inaction’ [Vince, R. 2014. ‘What Do HRD Scholars and Practitioners Need to Know About Power, Emotion, and HRD?’Human Resource Development Quarterly25: 409–420] is also possible. In adopting a psychoanalytical lens we assert the agency of both learners and teachers in scholarly relationships and we draw attention to the emotions of educators as well as students. This has important implications for teacher education and academic formation activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses special issues in relation to teaching in higher education in difficult times.

Many higher education courses, across the whole range of disciplines, include subjects that are somewhat problematic because they appear to be unrelated to other components of the curriculum. Students frequently perceive them as irrelevant and boring. This makes it extremely difficult for lecturers to stimulate interest and results in an unrewarding experience for all concerned. Instead of seeing these 'problem subjects' as a challenge for experienced lecturers, they often serve as a 'rite of passage' with responsibility for teaching them being given to new lecturers. Arguably, such a response simply compounds the problem and results in lost opportunities for developing creative and imaginative approaches to addressing the disaffection of students. If the challenge is to be met, particular attention needs to be given to ways of establishing and demonstrating the relevance of 'problem subjects', with this being seen more as a collective than an individual responsibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Teaching approaches in higher education are at the general level well researched and have identified not only the two broad categories of content-focused and learning-focused approaches to teaching but also consonance and dissonance between the aspects of teaching. Consonance means that theoretically coherent teaching practices are employed, but dissonance occurs when two broad approaches are combined. Previous studies researched teaching approaches at the general level, whereas the present study, researched approaches to teaching at the course level. Three university teachers were interviewed in depth about their teaching approach to one particular course. Data were analyzed using qualitative content analysis. While previous studies have found that dissonance occurs between different aspects of teaching, this multi-case study revealed that dissonance can also be found within a single aspect. The present study suggests that neither content- nor learning-focused approaches to teaching are mutually exclusive and therefore may co-exist in individual teachers’ practices. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The integration of highly religious minority students into institutions of higher education poses significant pedagogical and value challenges for students and teachers alike. We offer a framework for analyzing such challenges, distinguishing between practical concerns, identity issues and value conflicts. By contrasting a deficit perspective to ‘Diversity as resource’, we argue that the latter enables teachers to utilize a collaborative knowledge model in class, surmounting some of the value challenges involved. We present the case of ultra-orthodox students in Israel who have recently entered the gates of higher education for the first time in this society's history. We analyze the narratives of 30 lecturers who teach this population. Most of them adopt a deficit perspective and see their role as academic gatekeepers, minimally adjusting content and pedagogy. A smaller group fosters cross-cultural dialog via a ‘Diversity as resource’ perspective. These findings lead to recommendations for successfully teaching highly religious students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent literature in higher and adult education has identified 'authenticity' in teaching as a significant yet under-researched phenomenon lacking a straight-forward definition. By exploring how academic teachers and their students, next to educational theorists and philosophers, understand the notion of authenticity in teaching we offer this empirical study as a contribution towards a deeper understanding of this complex and multi-dimensional construct. In order to identify teachers' and students' implicit conceptions we asked the former to participate in semi-structured interviews and the latter to take part in focus-group sessions, both of which we analysed for emerging themes. The results contribute to greater conceptual clarity of the concept, which is a crucial prerequisite for future studies exploring relationships between authenticity in teaching and its effects on students. Suggestions for future research are offered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses team supervision within postgraduate research education. The research focuses on emphasizing roles and relationships within the team and the issue of conflicting views and expectations amongst supervisors. It further states the challenges and benefits of the practice of team supervision within postgraduate research education. It discusses the composition of supervisors that includes intellect, methodology and pastoral elements. It focuses on the issue of power represented in relationships between supervisors and students as part of postgraduate pedagogies.

Higher education institutions are introducing standardised electronic course profiles (ECPs) to advance quality outcomes. Involving both 'message' and 'medium', they alter traditional practice and interpretations. Critical examination is required of the values, presuppositions and operation of the nascent system. Lacking much theory, analysis relies on emerging empirical evidence. Having considered the ECP's context and composition, its message is then scrutinised, attention focussing on the intent of the document and complicated elements it contains. Next, the medium is examined, with concern expressed over technical aspects, and equity effects implicit in this new form of delivery. From these investigations, a logical exegesis details how an ECP can maximise pedagogic dividend. Conclusions suggest developmental avenues for the best practice ECP and support its eventual inclusion in competitive e-learning suites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Staff and students grumble about how research allegedly obscures the merits of exemplary teaching at universities. Modern efforts to move teaching from the periphery to the centre of the university were marked by books on the scholarship of teaching (SoT). Starting in the 1990s it became possible for academic staff to cite their SoT in claims for promotion. After being criticised, advocates of SoT hurriedly added 'learning' and now speak of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL). Unfortunately, within the house of SoTL, teaching lives upstairs and learning in the basement. For SoTL to flourish there must be a more willing embrace of learning. The concept could gain traction by embracing work on adult education, lifelong education, self-directed learning, farm-gate intellectuals, communities of practice and learning communities. With SoTL struggling, it is time to launch the Scholarship of Learning and Teaching (SoLT). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this critically reflective piece, I describe the design of a foundations of education course and my first year teaching experience. I discuss thematic statements of issues that emerged as I came to construct the meaning of my experience and evolving ideas about teaching for public service professions. These included that: Questioning is not 'normal' for everyone; The experience of classroom safety may be different for student participants than for teacher participants; Reflection is a situated responsibility; and Assessment and authority interact within the context of learning in a formal classroom. Discussing these issues helped me in framing teaching for public service as itself a transcendent public act, one that crosses boundaries of time and space and that requires embodied, rather than idealistic, understandings of qualifying to teach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this essay, we address emerging tensions that are increasingly facing persons, such as ourselves, who choose to reside in borderlands both inside and outside pedagogical settings. Such tensions include matters of location and dislocation, rootedness and uprootedness, diversity and commonality, space and place, time and distance, and so on. The first author enacts her own negotiations of these tensions and offers possible pathways of envisioning human diversity in more heuristic ways. In dialogue, personal narrative, personal history, and classroom re-enactments, we offer a different framework for envisioning difference. Ultimately, our goal is to show one way that we can create the possibility of new imaginations of difference, commonality, diversity, and culture in the college classroom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research literature on student retention is voluminous and longstanding. However, a unified theory of retention remains elusive; instead a variety of explanations and approaches have been developed. This article uses two discourses, integration and adaptation, to make sense of the findings from a survey of teachers who taught students enrolled for the first time in seven tertiary institutions in New Zealand. While the article reports results from the survey, it focuses particularly on how tertiary teachers understand diversity; whether and how they accommodate diversity in their teaching. It offers some critical reflections on these teachers' views about diversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the beneficial and sometimes unpredictable implications of a daily reflective writing exercise for introductory literature courses: the learning log. Pseudonymous samples of student writing, coupled with instructor commentary, gesture toward ways in which the learning log's continual implementation and modification foster a learning and teaching environment in which students and teachers can experience a greater degree of equality and engagement. The article draws upon in-class experiences, and student data collected between 2001 and 2006, in order to illustrate the learning log's potential to instill introductory literature courses with a sense of participatory innovation and creative democriticization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article attempts to establish the scope of critical management education in a formal educational setting. It is based on an empirical study of 24 academic staffs' experience of engaging critical management education in four UK University Business Schools. The study seems to show that there are significant barriers to and potential pitfalls in introducing critical management education in a formal higher educational setting. The problems seem to be attributable to the institutionalised assessment rules and regulations, marketisation of higher education, power embedded in the professional roles of university teachers, learning styles and cultural diversity of students, and classroom practices required to support critical teaching and learning. Critical management education requires labour intensive pedagogy, and the approach is not to be recommended to Business Schools that are constrained by resources and experiencing low staff morale, otherwise it may generates individual self-doubt and cynicism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study which explores the teaching practices of teacher educators belonging to the same department of a university-level institute of education in Hong Kong. The study focuses on what a teacher educator does in practice and not what they think is effective or good teaching in higher education. Some of the themes discussed, include eclectic teaching and learning strategies, sensitivity towards student needs, theory-based instruction, feedback as a pedagogical instrument and showing professional commitment and passion. Teachers included in the study were found out to be generally motivated by progressivist conceptions of teaching, progressivism that was directed to help students understand their own future role as teachers in a changing school system.

There has been, and remains, much criticism of the external monitoring of the quality of universities’ learning and teaching by bodies such as the QAA largely on the grounds that it is essentially a bureaucratic collection of data that does little, if anything, to help in improving or enhancing the learning and teaching. In this article, while recognizing the force of much of this criticism, we argue that external monitoring of quality can be related to enhancement if incorporated into the university's own well-developed procedures for monitoring and enhancement and if the university has specialist staff who are not distinct from but closely involved in the development of its academic work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]