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This special issue is both about and a product of conversations. Academic developers from across the globe submitted more than 120 proposals and papers in response to our call for research and refl...

This study explores how trusting relationships between PhD students and their significant others contribute to the success of academic development programs and how these programs affect trust in significant others. It introduces the definition of trust and distrust in academic development as synthesized from trust research in other disciplines. The study finds that lack of trust hinders conversations in general and about certain topics in particular. Academic development programs can improve participants’ trustworthiness by making them expert conversation partners; but they may also diminish participants’ trust in significant others if PhD student’s new role conception differs from their significant other’s.

In this study we examine the factors that lead educational programs to achieve their outcomes, in this case helping participants to improve their teaching through becoming more learning-centered and reflective practitioners. In comparing the results from programs with similar aims with evidence from our program we find teachers’ pedagogic environment to play a critical role in influencing transfer of program knowledge into participants’ teaching. A synthesis of results from our and other programs suggests that engaging participants in action research can be an effective way to help participants to overcome barriers in their pedagogic context. Systematic support of participants through coaching appears as another element important for participants’ success. These tools can help to enhance both participants’ thinking about teaching and their daily pedagogic practice.

Purpose – Mentoring has been increasingly used in educational development to facilitate transfer of knowledge from programs for higher education teachers to their pedagogic practice. However, studies are missing which would critically assess the outcomes of mentoring in programs for university teachers. The purpose of this paper is to systematically review existing research on mentoring in the context of educational development in higher education. Design/methodology/approach – Using a careful search strategy, 17 relevant scholarly sources were selected and analyzed to document the results of mentoring at individual, departmental and institutional levels. Findings – Among the striking findings was the lack of clarity or definition surrounding mentoring and similar terms, coaching and tutoring and the lack of methodological rigour in many studies. However, those methodologically more advanced studies suggest that mentoring can become a valuable component of educational development programs. As reported by previous research, mentoring can: enhance university teachers’ cognitive abilities, beliefs and attitudes; improve the effectiveness of teaching; increase teachers’ capability to research teaching and learning; enhance mentoring skills; and improve the overall teaching climate at universities. Practical implications – Categorization of different types of outcomes of mentoring in educational development can help the practitioners engaged in introducing or re-designing educational development programs with a mentoring element. Originality/value – This is the first systematic review of the studies discussing the process, value and outcomes of teacher mentoring to improve pedagogical practice at the university level.

In this paper we examine the state of teacher training for political science PhD candidates in the European Union and make a comparison with the situation in the United States. We investigate the determinants of supply and demand of teacher training. On the supply side, we suggest that research orientation and quality assurance are factors that might enhance institutional willingness to provide training. On the demand side, we examine the influence of gender, career plans, year of study, and career status on student motivation to undergo teacher training. We find that about half of EU institutions offering PhD programs also provide some form of teacher training; this closely follows American trends. We also uncover that while research orientation has a significant positive effect on the willingness of universities to provide training in pedagogy, quality assurance does not. Of the four factors we put forward as potential influences on student demand for teacher training, only future plans have a significant effect. We argue that similarities in the situation of teacher training in the United States and the European Union make transatlantic dialogue in graduate education worthwhile. Moreover, the positive impact of teacher training on the quality of teaching and learning as well as the positive valuation of training by more than two-thirds of PhD students in our sample makes us conclude that teacher training should be more widely available.

Teaching Theory and Academic Writing guides beginner teachers for their role in helping students to master two foremost competences in the discipline of political science: the application of politi...