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In this paper we philosophically explore the notion of darkness within higher education teaching and learning. Within the present-day discourse of how to make visible and to explicate teaching and learning strategies through alignment procedures and evidence-based intellectual leadership, we argue that dark spots and blind angles grow too. As we struggle to make visible and to evaluate, assess, manage and organise higher education, the darkness of the institution actually expands. We use the term 'dark' to comprehend challenges, situations, reactions, aims and goals, which cannot easily be understood and solved by agendas of quality assurance and professionalisation of higher education. We need to understand better why gender issues or ethnic conflicts emerge, and why students take up arms, within an institution which is thought to be inclusive, inviting and open to all kinds of people and cultures. And we need to study the educational potential of days of boredom or isolation, caught up in daily routines of teaching or studying which do not lead anywhere or give way to any productive work. These matters have not been sufficiently researched and conceptualised as meaningful in themselves. We aim here to open a space for insights through the concept of darkness presented in this paper. In order to make educational darkness palpable we draw on the philosophies of darkness found in the work of Friedrich Nietzsche and Emmanuel Levinas. Through those philosophies we argue that the growing darkness within higher education is not a symptom we should fear and avoid. Having the ability and courage to face these darker educational aspects of everyday higher education practice will enable students and teachers to find renewed hope in the university as an institution for personal as well as professional imagination and growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Why does anyone become a teacher, and why a student? Education in its contemporary form has evolved into a subsystem of society in which professional 'teachers/ educators' are confronted with an ever‐changing group of people called 'pupils/students'; and the individuals in both groups now have to deal with this institutionalised confrontation. Neither one nor the other decision—to become a teacher or to become a student—seems to have much to do with a specific other person, and it certainly does not have much to do with the actual person(s) that one is related to by becoming a teacher or by becoming a student in a specific institution. However, if pedagogical relations were as depersonalised as suggested, why is it that teachers as well as students hold very different relations to different students and teachers—relations that are more or less 'deep', 'affectionate', 'successful'? And how are we to perceive education outside of formally institutionalised contexts (or those special relations that occur even within formalised contexts but transcend them)? Is there another type of pedagogical relationship? And what would be the reasons for entering into a pedagogical relationship other than becoming and being made a part of a subsystem of society? Why do two people gravitate towards each other, freely recognising each other as teacher and student? Attempting to answer those questions, the following paper revisits some historic positions, being conscious that those answers are also part of the answer to a much greater question: What is education? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents abstracts from papers related to teaching and career development that were published in the February 2005 issue of the "Journal of Animal Science." The paper "Workshops Used to Provide Animal Science Teaching Materials to High School Educators," by K. Kephart, provides ready-to-use teaching materials to agricultural and science high school educators. The paper "Using Online Tools As Supplements in Large Lecture Classes," by D.W. Moser, indicated that course Web pages and other online tools can enhance learning in large lecture classes. Such tools provide an additional mode of communication between instructor and student. While online tools cannot and should not, replace other forms of student/faculty interaction, they can be a useful addition that can make more effective use of students and faculty members time. The paper "Encouraging Reading Beyond the Curriculum," by W. Lamberson and M. Smith, aimed to reinforce basic class concepts by forming ties to everyday life and to expose students to a genre that can provide information to prepare them as citizens to engage in the debate over current issues.

We surveyed faculty in the biology departments of US institutions of higher education to compare the experience and training valued by faculty at hiring institutions with the experience and training most graduate students receive. Our data show that associate, baccalaureate, and master's institutions value teaching experience and skills more highly than research skills. In contrast, doctoral institutions place a higher value on the ability to publish research and obtain outside funding. These findings provide quantitative and qualitative insight into discrepancies between the values of those who train graduate students in biology and the expectations of the institutions likely to hire these individuals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]