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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.

This study investigates whether reflective journals can stimulate students to reflect on their learning and ultimately to make a conceptual change in understanding international relations concepts and problems. The article reports on the experience of using journaling in two courses by triangulating data from analysis of student journals, assignments, feedback forms and a teacher’s journal. It details the documented benefits and drawbacks of journal-keeping for student learning, setting it into the framework of the existing literature on reflective learning and conceptual change. The article concludes with recommendations for how to make journals an effective learning tool.

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.

The Chinese view of hard and soft power in foreign policy differs from the Western understanding of these terms. The authorities’ hard-power practice of mobilizing expatriates to back up Chinese diplomacy and suppress critics overseas undermines China’s soft-power efforts in the West. The street clash that occurred during President Hu Jintao’s visit to Slovakia in 2009 is a case in point.

The purpose of this article is to discuss the need of the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR) to provide services for its members to assist them in the provision of teaching and learning supports for their students. Moreover, this article outlines what the newly established ECPR standing group, Teaching and Learning Politics, can do to support ECPR members in their teaching role. It begins by discussing the perceived need for advancing political science education in Europe. The article continues by describing previous activities of the ECPR and of the European Political Science Network in promoting the teaching and learning of politics. It provides a comparison of the ‘teaching and learning’ support activities in Europe and the United States. Finally, the article introduces the newly established standing group of the ECPR, Teaching and Learning Politics, and outlines its activities and plans to support political science teachers, in particular beginner teachers, in Europe.

This study examines the prospects for new European Union (EU) member countries in pursuing their foreign policy objectives in relations with China. Both the Czech Republic and Slovakia cherished an idea of making China an alternative economic partner. However, after 1989, China perceived these states as minor, almost unimportant partners, regardless of their efforts. Their profile was raised by EU accession but there was little change in their strength in terms of bilateral relations with China. The article investigates the failures and partial successes of the Czech and Slovak relationships with China, comparing their different approaches to the balance between focusing on political and human rights issues and the pursuit of economic and business interests.

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.

1. What We Know and Fail to Know About the Impact of Teacher Development Gabriela Pleschova and Eszter Simon Part One: Training for What? Instructional Development for Graduate Students 2. Preparing Doctoral Students for a Teaching Career: The Case of an International University with a History of Regional Engagement Joanna Renc-Roe and Tatiana Yarkova 3. Graduate Student Teacher Training Courses, Job Placement, and Teaching Awards in the United States John Ishiyama, Alexandra Cole, Angela D. Nichols, Kerstin Hamann and Kimberly Mealy 4. The Impact of Training on Teacher Effectiveness: Canadian Practices and Policies Christopher Knapper Part Two: Using Program Assessments to Improve Program Design 5. Mentorship in Teacher Training: A Preliminary Review of a Professional Development Programme for Tertiary Teachers in Singapore Huang Hoon Chng and Alan Soong Swee Kit 6. Combining International Experience with the Local Context: Designing and Improving Instructional Development in a Post-Soviet Setting Mari Karm, Marvi Remmik and Anu Haamer 7. Institutional Factors in Re-Designing an Accredited Continuing Professional Development Course in Northern Ireland Vicky Davies and Sarah Maguire Part Three: Top-Down Determinants of Success in Instructional Development Programs 8. The Emerging European Higher Education Area: Implications for Instructional Development Kathleen M. Quinlan and Erkki Berndtson 9. Teacher Development Programmes: National Policies Enabling Local Impact in Ireland Jennifer Murphy 10. The Influence of the Research Philosophy and Pedagogical Management Decisions of the University of Helsinki on University Teaching: A Longitudinal Study Anne Nevgi 11. The Impact of UK University Teaching Programmes on Lecturers' Assessment Practice: A Case for Pedagogical Action Research Lin S. Norton, Bill Norton and Lee Shannon Part Four: Theorizing About Instructional Development 12. How Effects from Teacher Training of Academic Teachers Propagate into the Meso Level and Beyond Torgny Roxa and Katarina Martensson 13. Instructional Development for University Teachers: Causes of Impact and Practical Implications Ann Stes and Peter Van Petegem 14. Evaluating the Impact of University Teaching Development Programmes: Methodologies That Ask Why There Is an Impact Keith Trigwell 15. Creating Successful Teacher Development Programmes Eszter Simon and Gabriela Pleschova

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...

With a focus on providing concrete teaching strategies for scholars, the Handbook on Teaching and Learning in Political Science and International Relations blends both theory and practice in an accessible and clear manner. In an effort to help faculty excel as classroom teachers, the expert contributors offer representation from various types of institutions located throughout the world. Split into three distinct parts, this book discusses curriculum and course design, teaching subject areas and in class teaching techniques.