TDU Talk
ISSUE 2 ▪ APRIL 2009
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Using Teaching Evaluations to Inform
Your Professional Development
Trudy Harris
Staff Reflections on Professional
Development
Myra Williamson
Nicola Daly
Jonathan Banks
Trisha Koslow
Colin McLeay
Rowland Weston
Anne Hume
Mary Fitzpatrick
Professional Development for Academic
Teachers—why and how?
Dorothy Spiller
Kia ora koutou
“
ISSUE 2: APRIL 2009
Teaching Development Unit
Wāhanga Whakapakari Ako
Office of Deputy ViceChancellor
Private Bag 3105
Hamilton 3240
New Zealand
Phone: +64 7 838 4839
Fax: +64 7 838 4573
[email protected]
www.waikato.ac.nz/tdu
APRIL 2009 • TDU TALK
Welcome to the April edition of TDU Talk. This month
we focus on the theme of professional development for
academic teachers. The teaching aspect of our work has
traditionally been the Cinderella of university life with most of
the glamour and acclaim given to research. However, in more
recent times there has been a growing expectation that
academics should be proficient teachers. In the United Kingdom
all new appointees to universities are expected to complete a
teaching certificate unless they have had prior teaching experience and many
universities in Australia require appointees to engage in teaching development.
In New Zealand there is a considerable pressure from government bodies and
other stakeholders for evidence of quality teaching at the university level. In
spite of this changing climate, the notion of teaching as a domain with its own
body of scholarship, and teaching practice as an endeavour that requires
systematic and rigorous investigation remains foreign to many academics. In
this magazine, I outline some of my own views on the importance of
professional development, acknowledge the tensions and challenges associated
with investing time in teaching, and argue for the need for systemic and
cultural change around the status of teaching.
This edition also features reflections from a number of academics at different
career stages who have engaged in professional development. I invited them to
offer a glimpse of how professional development has impacted on their teacher
thinking and practices.
We hope that you enjoy this edition of the magazine.
Dorothy, Trudy and Preetha
.”
•2•
Using your Teaching Evaluations to
inform your professional development
“
Hello everybody! As the focus of this TDU talk is
on Professional Development, this is an
opportune time for me to talk to you about the
role that evaluations can play in your professional
development.
Let us start with the standard University appraisal. In its
most basic form this appraisal uses a summative
mechanism for the collection of data. This data provides
a very quick snapshot of what the students think about
the paper and your teaching, and while this appraisal can signal certain
areas of the paper or the teaching are problematic, it does not provide a
mechanism for the students to explain what these issues are.
To capture this information, the use of formative evaluation is also
suggested. This information can be used to identify any areas that might
need support, but also identify areas where professional development
would be beneficial. To provide staff with guidance and support in using
evaluations for their professional development the Teaching Quality
Committee produced the Policy on the Evaluation of Teaching and
Papers. The policy advocates the use of formative evaluation alongside
the standard University appraisal to enable professional development.
This can occur in a number of ways:
1. In the standard University Appraisal. As well as the summative
questions, open questions can be added. These open questions can be
tailored to specific aspects of the course content or the teaching or
even to asking student to explain their summative responses.
However the drawback with using this method is that it will normally
only occur at the end of semester when a paper has been concluded.
While this will allow development of a paper from one semester to
the next it does not allow for ongoing development of the paper or
your teaching.
2. To provide continuous development there are a number of
instantaneous formative evaluation methods that can be used to
capture this information. This has the advantage of allowing the
teacher to react to comments from the students in an ongoing fashion,
thus enabling the students to benefit from immediate changes to the
paper content or delivery.
While large numbers of teachers already use methods like these in class,
the policy requires that evidence of the evaluation be kept for use in the
PGS process. The Policy on the Evaluation of Teaching and Papers will
be fully implemented by 2010. Alongside this the PGS and promotions
processes will be revisited to allow for other methods of teaching
evidence to be submitted.
If you have any questions regarding this process please
contact Dorothy Spiller or Trudy Harris at
[email protected].
Regards
•3•
Trudy
.”
APRIL 2009 • TDU TALK
Staff Reflections on Professional Development
Myra Williamson, new staff member School of Law
“
I am a lecturer in the School of Law and I decided to
attend some TDU workshops this year; in all, I attended eight
workshops throughout the month of February. As a lecturer who has
primarily been focused on research whilst completing my LLM
(Hons) and PhD, I felt that the time was right for me to focus on
teaching and to help ensure that I give it an equal amount of my
attention. Before I began the TDU workshops, I regarded myself as a
pretty good lecturer, and my teaching appraisals have thus far been
very positive. I thought that the workshops would allow me to brush
up on what I was already doing and give me a few ideas about things
I could ‗add into the mix‘. The reality was that I had some sort of an
epiphany, that is, I realised that the way I was
The reality was that I had some sort of an epiphany, that teaching was probably adequate but I can do a lot of
things differently and probably achieve better learning
is, I realised that the way I was teaching was probably outcomes for my students.
adequate but I can do a lot of things differently and
probably achieve better learning outcomes for my students.
During the workshops, I came to see my role as a
teacher in a new light: I came to realise that I would
need to be continually reflecting on what I was doing
and why. I started to question the rationale for the way I structure my
lectures and assessment. I began to reflect on how I can make the
learning experience more valuable for the students. I also came to
understand that there is a great body of research behind every aspect
of teaching which we, as lecturers/teachers can and should draw upon
to improve every aspect of our teaching, from course design, to
delivery of lectures right through to assessment, marking and
feedback.
Participation in the workshops has been a positive experience for me.
The workshops have motivated me to ensure that I give as much
attention to being an effective teacher as I do to being an effective
researcher; they have provided me with a wealth of ideas and
examples to explore in my teaching; they have provided me with
insight into what other lecturers within the University of Waikato are
doing and, finally, they have given me the impetus to broaden my
research interests into the research behind teaching. I would
recommend that every lecturer makes the effort to attend some of the
workshops, whether you are starting out in this career as I am, or
whether you are an ‗old hand‘. At the very least, the
workshop will cause you to reflect on what you are doing
and why you are doing it.
APRIL 2009 • TDU TALK
Myra
.”
•4•
Nicola Daly, lecturer, School of Education since 2005
“
My experiences of teaching development began when
I
gained a lectureship in late 2005. In February 2006 I attended
two workshops, one on teaching beliefs and one on assessments.
Both of these workshops were wonderful opportunities to start
guided considerations of my tertiary teaching practice. I felt it was
very satisfying to have the opportunity to reflect on my teaching,
something I had never done in a formal way before. Having a chance
to do this with colleagues from around the University gave me a
perspective on my own discipline and teaching approaches too.
From this initial acquaintance with the teaching development
support available, I then approached the teaching developer, Dorothy
Spiller, to see if we could work intensively on a new paper I had
developed and recently taught for the first time. We started with a 90
minute meeting to discuss the assessments I had used in the paper,
and from this meeting we decided to meet every week until we had
finished working through the paper together. Although we started
with the assessments we soon moved to learning outcomes, weekly
tasks, how to present lecture material in an online forum and much
more. As we moved through our discussions we uncovered some of
my deeply held beliefs about being a lecturer and teaching in a
tertiary setting. These beliefs included a notion that I needed to
know the answer to every potential question, and that assessments
needed to be complex and always refer exclusively to external
research-based literature. I believe that letting go of some of these
has allowed me the freedom to be a more effective teacher.
...letting go of some of these has allowed me
the freedom to be a more effective teacher...
As well as developing my paper, I experienced real growth as a
tertiary teacher, and gained many insights into my own
practice. Dorothy and I decided to keep journals as we
progressed through our work together, and we used these journals to
give several Higher Education conference presentations and to write
several journal articles. In so many ways this time spent was
enriching and productive, an opportunity which I am so glad I was
able to take advantage of. My experiences and new
perspectives continue to influence the way I go about my
work as a tertiary teacher.
Nicola
•5•
.”
APRIL 2009 • TDU TALK
Jonathan Banks, post doctoral student with teaching responsibilities department of Biology
“
...now I quite enjoy
I returned to New Zealand to start my second post doc (a
three year fixed term contract) after working for two years at
the University of Illinois in the United States of America. One of the
obvious differences between the American and New Zealand PhD
programmes was that American students have far more
teaching. opportunities to gain teaching experience than their new
Zealand counterparts. I was therefore happy to accept an
invitation to do some lecturing at Waikato after I had settled in here.
I could see that teaching experience would make me more
competitive when I came to apply for a permanent academic
position. However, I found my first efforts at lecturing quite difficult
and somewhat unsatisfying. Consequently, I enrolled in the
Postgraduate Certificate in Tertiary Teaching as I hoped that this
would improve my teaching and compensate for the lack of teaching
opportunities during my doctoral studies.
The Certificate Course uses current teaching as a foundation for
enhancing your teaching abilities. As a post doc, my primary role is
research, but I was invited to give five lectures a year
to a third year class. I was a bit concerned that my
paltry five lectures would not give me enough material
to work with, but in many ways my light teaching load
was a bonus as I could focus my energies on
enhancing the teaching and learning and not be
overwhelmed by the large amounts of material.
From my perspective, there were a number of aspects
of the Certificate that were particular strengths. An
important attribute of the course for me was the
individualized mentoring that I received; there were no
classes to attend so I could fit the associated research and writing
around my post doctoral project. The course introduced me to the
literature on education, an area I had not looked at previously, and
helped me to improve my teaching skills. As I worked through the
course, I realized that one of the reasons that I was unhappy with my
topics is that students saw my topic as five discrete lectures rather
than the integrated whole that I perceived. This recognition
prompted me to revisit my approach and through guided
conversations and readings, I decided to introduce concept maps, a
graphical method to organise and represent knowledge, to my
APRIL 2009 • TDU TALK
•6•
students. Many of the students‘ answers to the exam questions showed that
they had linked the five lectures into an integrated topic and consequently
demonstrated a much better understanding than previously. Another
specific skill that I learnt from the course was writing learning outcomes
for the series of lectures as well as for each lecture. This helped me to
sharpen my focus and made writing the assessment a lot easier.
Additionally, a less specific, but important part of the Programme is the
invitation to identify your teaching philosophy. While this may sound a bit
esoteric, it is interesting to note that many of the academic jobs I applied
for asked for a statement of one‘s teaching philosophy. It was easy to adapt
my work from the course for job applications. Similarly, we had to develop
a teaching portfolio, which I imagine is easier to do early in your career,
and is also very useful for job applications.
I found the course to be really useful in developing both my teaching skills
and my confidence, and I now quite enjoy teaching. A bonus for me was
that the Course helped me to improve the look of my CV, especially for
overseas job applications, and helped me to compete with job
applicants with greater teaching experience.
Jonathan
.”
Technical Moodle Workshops
05/05/2009 1.00-3.00
Workshop 1: Getting started with resources
12/05/2009 1.00-3.00
Workshop 2: Paper Settings & Communication
19/05/2009 1.00-3.00
Workshop 3: Assessment tools in Moodle
26/05/2009 1.00-3.00
Workshop 4: Groups and Groupings
Contact Teresa Gibbison ([email protected]) or book through iWaikato (My Work > Staff Development > Coming Events)
•7•
APRIL 2009 • TDU TALK
Trisha Koslow’s reflection about TDU workshops and PGCert(TertTchg)
“
Only a small percentage of readers over a certain unmentionable age
will remember the popular book in the 1970‘s called, ―I‘m OK,
You‘re OK‖. When I was asked to submit my thoughts about how my
involvement in TDU workshops and the Postgraduate Certificate in
Tertiary Teaching had impacted on my teaching, I was reminded of this
pop psychology book. Why? Because after attending several TDU
workshops, I realize that I‘m an OK teacher and the people sitting next to
me, behind me and in front of me are all OK teachers as well. I realized that
I am not alone in my thoughts, feelings and what I do as a teacher.
But we aren‘t just OK teachers. We are teachers on a quest to learn
...I rediscovered why I became a teacher how to teach differently and better. I have over 15+ years of
and developed my teaching philosophy. teaching in a variety of sectors: university, high school and corporate
training, a Masters‘ degree in Education and last year completed the
Postgraduate Certificate in Tertiary Teaching. I have attended heaps of
TDU workshops over the years and guess what, I still get nervous walking
into each workshop. What if nobody has the same
concerns or problems as me? The workshops though go
beyond just learning about the ‗topic of the day‘. For
me, they are a venue for sharing. Somewhat like a group
counselling session where I can share what works, what
doesn‘t and no one criticises me or each other. Everyone
is there to support and encourage each other - share
success and failures (in the hope of learning from them).
Although I have lots of supportive colleagues, there are
only a few of us who teach 1st and 2nd year students.
Attending a TDU workshop gives me the chance to
meet others in the university community who teach
similar classes, have similar challenges and who
supervise sessional assistants.
Enrolling in the Postgraduate Certificate in Tertiary
Teaching forced me to think more deeply about the
whys and hows of my teaching and to actually record
my insights on paper. I procrastinated about enrolling
and it took me longer to complete it than some of my
colleagues. Life, specifically children and husband,
have an uncanny ability to get in the way of some goals.
On the journey, I rediscovered why I became a teacher and developed my
teaching philosophy. Now, I stand back, reflect and look at how teaching
connects with other facets of my life. Life influences teaching and vice
APRIL 2009 • TDU TALK
•8•
versa. The process of working on the PGCert(TertTchg) reminded me of a
kaleidoscope. With each turn of a kaleidoscope, one sees a different picture
or view. Sometimes some of the same colours or shapes carry over from the
previous view but other views are completely different. Each task of the
PGCert(TertTchg) allowed me a different view or perspective of my
teaching. At times, the view was completely different with new insights
and connections coming to the surface. Other times, the view had familiar
sparks or reminders of past teaching innovations - some that worked and
some that didn‘t. I don‘t have to give the kaleidoscope a jolt, just a small
turn gives me a new view. My teaching is similar. Sometimes, just a small
tweak to an assignment or lecture gives both me and the students
different insights.
.”
Trisha
Upcoming Professional Development Opportunities
15 April
9.00—12.00 Mentor Partnership Training
23 April
9.00—12.00 KompoZer for Web Maintenance
24 April
7 May
3.30-4.30 Research Conversations: From the mountains to the sea
9.00-12.00 Effectively Managing Change
Book through iWaikato (My Work > Staff Development > Coming Events)
•9•
APRIL 2009 • TDU TALK
Colin McLeay, Department of Geography (since mid-1990s)
“
I have been attending TDU professional development courses since
the mid-1990s and my first teaching contract at the University of
Waikato. In the last decade, I have delivered many lectures across
numerous courses in a range of aspects of contemporary human geography.
Indeed, I can confidently argue that I have a wealth of experience in terms
of planning courses, writing lectures, preparing assessment tasks, and
presenting material to undergraduate and graduate classes. I can also
confidently argue that I continue to benefit from the insights and advice
provided through the development courses offered by TDU.
I am not able to provide specifics as to how the TDU
courses have contributed to my teaching. Perhaps as a social
scientist, I am more attuned to the qualitative aspects of
what I have gained than seeking to describe quantitative
outcomes. I struggle to give details on individual points
about teaching or precise models that apply directly to my
teaching. My inability to ‗measure‘ professional
development benefits does not detract from my awareness of the positives
of TDU programmes.
....ideas and examples… emerge over
time, slowly showing their influence
as I come to refresh course outlines
or lecture notes...
The positives of learning from TDU emerge from a number of experiences,
for example, I gain from watching the way TDU staff teach teachers—I
learn from observing how TDU staff run their professional development
sessions, how they organise participants to undertake activities, how they
engage attendees in the topic at hand, how they respond to questions from
the floor. I gain from meeting colleagues from tertiary institutions, whether
staff from the University of Waikato in Hamilton, the University of
Waikato at Tauranga or WINTEC. I gain from the roundtable discussions
of participants; such discussion generates ideas and suggestions that are
unlikely to emerge from individual conversations. I gain from the insights
provided by TDU facilitators, with benefits accruing from specific
examples of what (and what not) to do and from suggestions as to how to
resolve teaching difficulties.
The benefits expressed above are not expressed in a single moment of
‗teaching clarity‘. Rather, the ideas and examples provided via TDU
professional development emerge over time, slowly showing their
influence as I come to refresh course outlines or lecture notes. As I review
my teaching materials, I am able to refer to the excellent guidebooks
provided to workshop participants and thus have the resources to reflect
APRIL 2009 • TDU TALK
• 10 •
aims and learning outcomes, and to reflect on how my assessment items
link with course aims (critically) on what I teach, how I teach it, and on the
assessments items I employ. I am in a position to evaluate course aims and
learning outcomes, to assess the relevance of my lecture material, and to
reflect on how my assessment items link with course aims and learning
outcomes.
I thank the TDU for enabling me to look at familiar courses in a
new light and to develop new ways of exciting myself and my
students.
Colin
.”
Upcoming Key Dates for New Staff
08 April
8.45—12.20
Introductory Session for New Staff
09 April
9.30—11.30
Starter Strategies for New Teachers
28 April
8.45—4.30
Kanohi ki te Kanohi
29 April
10.00—12.00
Building a University
06 May
10.00—12.00
ICT Induction for New Staff
22 May
10.00—11.30
New Staff Morning Tea
Book through iWaikato (My Work > Staff Development > Coming Events)
• 11 •
APRIL 2009 • TDU TALK
Rowland Weston, Lecturer in the Department of History, since 2001
“
While I was working on the various tasks for the PGCert(TertTchg)
(Postgraduate Certificate in Tertiary Teaching), I came across a
surprising number of journals (surprising to me) devoted to the theory and
practice of tertiary teaching. I even came across two devoted exclusively to
my subject — History. I found much of the information in these journals
extremely helpful for my studies and for my teaching practice. It also
occurred to me that some of my own teaching experiences and reflection on
these might be of interest and use to others in the profession. On a number
of occasions in the course of the PGCert(TertTchg) I was required to
reflect closely on individual classes I had taught in several papers over the
years— reflect on my methods, student activities and on my underlying
assumptions about teaching, about History and about teaching History.
Upon completion of the PGCert(TertTchg) I had enough knowledge of the
relevant literature to realize that my experiences were part of a larger body
of experiences and my reflections and speculations connected meaningfully
to a sophisticated body of scholarship. There were conversations going on
about the teaching of History at a tertiary level to which I thought I could
helpfully contribute. I took one element of my teaching portfolio—an
examination of a class I taught to level one students—and expanded parts
of it into an article I submitted to Teaching History: a Journal of Methods,
published in the U.S.A. It was accepted. I had four reviewers and their
comments were very favourable. Well, three of them were. One was
scathing and, I thought, unnecessarily rude. I have kept this as an example
of how not to give feedback on student essays. We learn all the time.
If we can exhibit to our
students ‘best practice’ in
learning, model for them
skills of discovery and
exploration, and above all
convey to them how much fun
it is, I think we are engaged
in research-led teaching.
APRIL 2009 • TDU TALK
Many of us who teach at the University of Waikato are also required to
conduct research and publish from it. A key element of the University‘s
vision statement is the provision of research-led teaching. It seems to be
that we can contribute to this in three ways. Firstly, by ensuring that we
teach subjects/papers that are closely allied to our research topics.
Secondly, we can have our teaching practice engaged with and informed by
the best scholarship on teaching and learning. Thirdly, I think we need to
remind ourselves that both teaching and research are ‗learning‘ activities.
What is research after all, but learning about or discovering new
knowledge, new ways of doing, new ways of being? As good researchers
we ought to be model learners. If we can exhibit to our students ‗best
practice‘ in learning, model for them skills of discovery and exploration,
and above all convey to them how much fun it is, I think we are engaged in
research-led teaching. And in the most responsible useful way. I
plan to spend more time figuring out how to do this.
Rowland
.”
• 12 •
Anne Hume, Maths Science and Technology Department, School of Education
Anne has had extensive experience in educational settings (primarily in the high school
setting) and with the educational scholarship, although she is relatively new to the
university context. Her participation in the workshops and in the Postgraduate Certificate
continued an ongoing commitment to professional development and underpinning her
pedagogical practice with scholarship. Here are some of the main ways that her
professional development and the scholarship inform her teaching practice:
“
As a participant in the Teacher Development Unit (TDU) workshops
and the Postgraduate Certificate in Tertiary Teaching PGCert
(TertTchg), I was frequently prompted to articulate my own personal
beliefs and values about teaching and learning and examine how they might
influence my teaching practice.
From the involvement in the scholarship of education, three theories of
learning have emerged as strong influences on my view of the nature of
learning and hence my pedagogy. These three theories— the constructivist,
sociocultural and linguistic perspectives of learning are actually very
closely inter-related and have a synergy that encapsulates much of
classroom life. Nuthall (1997) predicted the potential for much improved
classroom practice if these perspectives were amalgamated into teaching
and learning programmes and I believe he is right. By integrating these
theories I have come to view learning as an active process of enculturation
that the learner undergoes into a community of practice like science,
surfing, accounting or English literature. In this process the learner makes
sense of experiences by making links with their own existing ideas and coconstructing new concepts through interaction and communication with
others in this community, including the teacher. Ramsden (1992) elegantly
encapsulates the essence of this integration of ideas when he talks about
learning in educational institutes being about ‗changing the way in which
learners understand, or experience, or conceptualise the world‖ (p.4).
Teaching becomes the process of ‗making learning possible‖ (p.5).
Ramsden‘s insistence that teaching be concerned with learning for
understanding and ―the way in which students apprehend and discern
phenomena related to the subject, rather than what they know about them
or how they manipulate them‖ (p. 4) has strong appeal for me and resonates
well with my underpinning philosophy of teaching and learning. Thus I
strive in my teaching to develop and utilize pedagogical approaches that are
learner-centred and focused on learning as understanding.
My assessment practice is centred on the provision of clear learning goals
and assessment criteria for those goals. All formal assessment tasks are
accompanied by assessment schedules that contain the criteria for
measuring students‘ learning professional tasks are assessed using a rubric
system. Wherever possible, I direct all feedback comments and
feedforward about next learning steps to the assessment criteria.
• 13 •
APRIL 2009 • TDU TALK
Since I view learning as an active process where the learner makes links
between their existing ideas and new information, an explicit feature of
my pedagogy is ascertaining the existing ideas students may have about
particular science phenomena or science education situations and issues.
Strategies I use that reveal prior knowledge include brainstorming,
concept mapping and the post-box technique. For example, I use the post
-box strategy in both primary and secondary programmes to probe
students‘ understanding of the nature of science by eliciting their
comments on statements about aspects of scientific practice such as
―scientists work in teams‖, ―scientific knowledge is tentative‖ and
―science requires creativity and intuition‖.
Through subsequent
discussion I am able to identify the type and range of existing views in
the class and challenge and extend their thinking. In the secondary
programme I supplement this strategy with targeted academic readings on
the nature of science. A final concept mapping exercise enables me to
both assess the understanding each secondary student teacher has about
the nature of science and gauge the extent to which class members‘
thinking had changed from their post-box comments.
Mentoring is also a strategy I utilise. For example, understanding the
nature of science and how scientists think is key to achieving the
curricular goal of scientific literacy. To heighten awareness and further
enculturate my secondary student teachers into the science community of
practice, I often invite scientists to speak to the class about the nature of
work they did and how they operated within their community. My
students comment
(verbally and in reflective journals)
how
the points raised by scientists in these
conversations
provide
valuable
insights into the nature of authentic
scientific inquiry.
I use an action research approach
to investigate, develop and refine
my teaching approaches. For
example, when I first got my
students to write reflective
journals, I was disappointed to
see that the students‘
comments tended to be
descriptive and lacked depth
of thought. I was heartened
to read authors like Bain et al (2002)
who suggest that reflective learning can be taught
APRIL 2009 • TDU TALK
• 14 •
and learned despite early difficulties. So in the second year of my course,
I introduced measures to strengthen students‘ reflective skills and the
quality of their reflections. This project and other TDU involvement have
opened up ways of looking at and thinking about teaching that now drive
my personal research agenda.
The spin-offs from this engagement with the scholarship of teaching have
been extensive. They include:

four published papers (one in a international journal);

an overseas conference presentation and two SOE colloquia;

approval for a six-month overseas study leave project on student
reflective journals and PCK in collaboration with researchers from
Australia and the UK;

another qualification – the PGCert(TertTchg)!
.”
Anne
References
Bain, J.D., Mills, C., Ballantyne, R., & Packer, J. (2002). Developing reflection on
practice through journal writing: impacts of variations in the focus and level
of feedback. Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice, 8(2), 171-196.
Nuthall, G. (1997). Understanding student thinking and learning in the
classroom. In B. Biddle, T. Good, & I. Goodson (Eds.), The International
Handbook of Teachers and Teaching (pp. 1-90). Dortrecht: Kluwer.
Ramsden, P. (1992). Learning to teach in higher education. New York:
Routledge.
• 15 •
APRIL 2009 • TDU TALK
Mary Fitzpatrick, WMS Marketing
“
The PGCert(TertTchg) has been a critical event in my professional
development as a higher education teacher. The actual tasks of the
PGCert(TertTchg) gave me the opportunity to reflect more deeply, with
support, on the huge gap between my teaching ideals and my lived
experiences as a new lecturer. Working through the PGCert(TertTchg)
tasks I was able to reflect on some of the horror stories I had quietly stuffed
in the back of my office closet, understand what had gone wrong, and
finally, to recognise what I could do differently in the future. I was able to
be honest because I knew that I was being guided by a knowledgeable,
supportive facilitator who heard without judging, then helped if needed.
Past disasters were transformed into positive learning experiences and in
the process my self-confidence returned – along with my enthusiasm and
the courage to try out new ideas. I also learned much from working
...Past disasters were transformed with the other teachers completing the qualification. There were
regular workshops which brought us together to discuss both
into positive learning experiences and teaching/learning scholarship and more practical classroom issues.
in the process my self-confidence These workshops were also the time when we shared our own
returned – along with my enthusiasm insights— some of our best-practice stories were presented there
and individual teachers were celebrated by their peers. The
and the courage to try out new ideas. University of Waikato‘s PGCert(TertTchg) offers teachers a
powerful, institutionally-endorsed space in which we can explore
and practise alternative ways of being a better teacher. I am very grateful
for the opportunity to complete the PGCert(TertTchg) and look
forward to continuing the learning and professional development
that it established for me.
Mary
.”
Make a space at your place for teaching
Some of the best learning happens through conversation and most of the working life of
academics is focused around the department. So why not make the occasional space for
conversation about teaching in your department?
APRIL 2009 • TDU TALK
• 16 •
Professional Development for academic
teachers—why and how?
Dorothy Spiller, Teaching Development Unit
When people outside the institution ask me what I do, I often try to get
away with a brief, mumbled ―work at the University‖. If that doesn‘t
immediately end the conversation and they want to know in what area I
often just say education, for fear that I might have to enter the murky
terrain of professional development for academic teachers or teaching
development or some other unhelpful descriptor. If we ever get beyond
this stage, people express surprise that learning to teach is not a compulsory
component of being a university educator. And indeed it is surprising,
given that teaching students is a core part of our daily work requirements.
Furthermore, there is an enormous irony in the fact that we are trying to
equip our students to be critical, thoughtful and competent participants in
society and in their future work endeavours and yet many of us still
undertake our teaching commitments without any deliberate attempts to
examine and develop this part of our professional lives. And while are
unhappy if our students do not support their decision-making with
reference to the appropriate research, we do not always recognise the
benefits of using the available research to advance our teaching.
...we are trying to equip
our students to be
critical, thoughtful and
competent participants
in society and in their
future work
endeavours and yet
many of us still
undertake our teaching
commitments without
any deliberate attempts
to examine and
develop this part of our
professional lives.
• 17 •
It is easy to decry this situation, but also important to recognise that there
are many factors that make it difficult for university teachers to give due
attention to teaching and to base their teaching on sound pedagogy and
research evidence. Some of the contrary forces are simply historical.
Universities have traditionally given primary focus to research and
previously universities in western society served a small relatively
homogenous and academically elite group of students. In this context,
academics were under less pressure to mediate their discipline for their
students, and the term ―lecturer‖ with its connotation of stylized
performance was probably unhelpful in prompting academics to see
themselves as teachers. While there have been dramatic changes in
universities and society over the last thirty years which have led to a
radical reviewing of the role of universities and a much stronger focus on
teaching and student learning, university teachers still have to contend with
what is still often a more prestigious and pressing focus, the demand to
produce research. The battle cry to produce research has been accentuated
by the PBRF process and by the increasing demand for income-generating
research. Furthermore, as many academics tell me, the rewards system
appears to favour research over teaching. In this respect, the University of
Waikato will be trying to redress this imbalance by ensuring that teaching
is given due recognition in recruitment and promotion decisions, once the
proposed Teaching and Learning Plan is in place.
APRIL 2009 • TDU TALK
It is my experience that academics may also shy away from teaching
development because they conceptualise it as skills acquisition which may
seem tedious and unchallenging in comparison with the sophisticated level
of engagement required by their research. Certainly in the early days of
teaching development there was a heavy concentration on skills
development and there are still basic strategies that can help teachers to
enhance their teaching. However, tertiary teaching is now an academic
discipline underpinned by an extensive body of scholarship and academics
can engage with this research to inform their practice if they wish.
Academics are also encouraged to explore the beliefs and values that guide
their practice and the implications of these conceptions for their teaching as
well as develop the capacity to interrogate their own practice in an ongoing
way.
Certainly there are pressing needs to investigate and refine the way we go
about our practice. The student body is no longer homogenous but diverse
in every conceivable way, including prior learning, culture, age, learning
orientations and goals for study. In this climate it seems peculiar to
continue to focus on content independently of the kinds of learners in our
classrooms. With greater student numbers and less resources, we need to
think about more effective ways of engaging students in the learning
process. Research on student learning provides us with invaluable
knowledge to inform our teaching practices and technological tools offer an
ideal opportunity to revisit our teacher thinking and approaches and trial a
range of methods. Governments and employers are clamouring for
universities to be accountable, so we need to be able to argue with
conviction for what we do and how we go about it. Can we simply rely on
the strength of our content and the notion that we simply have to ―deliver‖
it in the face of all this change?
...tertiary teaching is
now an academic
discipline underpinned
by an extensive body of
scholarship
For those staff thinking about professional development, it is important to
note that there are many ways of going about this. The path you choose will
be shaped by many things such as your career stage, the area of your
teaching that you may want to develop, your available time and your
motivation for undertaking some professional development. One of the
most powerful motivators that I have seen is the sense that an academic has
that he or she is not enjoying their teaching. Another common motivation is
a sense that something is not working well or that the teacher is interested
in trying something different.
If you find yourself in the place where you want to engage in some
teaching development here are some options that you may like to consider:
APRIL 2009 • TDU TALK
• 18 •
Workshops
This is one of the traditional staff development options. Workshops are
generic although an effort is made to provide exemplars from a variety of
disciplines. We also try to invite academics from a range of areas to share
examples from their practice. There are core workshops based on the major
facets of teaching and assessment as well as others with a more specialist
focus. Do let us know if you identify topics that you consider could be the
subject of a workshop, so that we can make those sessions more responsive
to your needs. The TDU offers two main workshop series in February and
June. In these workshops, we try to introduce staff to practices that enhance
student learning and wherever possible introduce teachers to the relevant
research. For people wanting to enroll in the Postgraduate Certificate in
Tertiary Teaching, attendance at 8 designated workshops constitutes
module one of the first paper. I like to remind staff that the workshops only
provide a starter framework for them to continue investigating and
developing their practice. One aspect of the workshops that people really
seem to enjoy is the social pleasure of meeting and networking with people
from outside their own discipline and the ensuing sense of community.
From this year, beginning on April 9, we will be offering a number of short
starter workshops for brand new teachers where the focus will be on
―survival‖ strategies for new teachers.
Workshops are not everyone‘s cup of tea, so there are plenty of other
professional development options for academic teachers.
Conversations about teaching in your department
Make a space at your place for conversations about teaching
Many thanks for your interest in, support
of and positive feedback about Professor
Ray Land’s visit. His presentation on
Strengthening Research-Teaching Linkages
to create Graduates for the 21st century
will be available online shortly.
• 19 •
Much of our working life as academics is focused on the department. The
department is the home base in the institution, each with its unique culture.
If teacher thinking and practice is to be revitalized, the departmental culture
is central to this process. Think about setting up teaching conversation slots
that focus on particular aspects of your programmes, teaching and
assessment. Plan seminars at which individuals share practice. TDU staff
members are also very happy to join your conversations or work
collaboratively with departmental teams or tutors. Department-based
teaching conversations help to create community and to bring together
broader pedagogical imperatives with the distinctive teaching and learning
approaches associated with each academic discipline.
APRIL 2009 • TDU TALK
Observing other teachers at work
Our workshop evaluations indicate that participants enjoy watching other
academics modelling their practices or talking about their teaching
approaches. Participants often come away enthused and excited to see how
they can implement new approaches in their own context. Consider asking
colleagues if they are happy for you to sit in on their classes and think
inviting colleagues to your classes. You can always follow-up these
observations with discussions.
Individual or small group consultations
TDU staff members are always available to work with individual staff
members or a small departmental team. Some academic staff set up
individual appointments to explore and develop ideas from the workshops
in their papers. Others consult us with a specific request or
problem or with an idea about their teaching that they may
want to sound out with us. We can talk through possibilities
and also suggest resources and articles that may help inform
teaching decisions. In some instances, individuals may work
with us for a sustained period, especially if they are thinking
of designing or redesigning a whole course.
Key Dates for Teaching Development
09 April
MSB4.02
Starter Strategies for New Teachers
15 April
TBA
Mentoring training
8-19 June
TBA
Teaching development workshops
26 August
TBA
Starter Strategies for New Teachers
3 December
TBA
Celebrating Teaching Day
Contact Preetha Pratapsingh ([email protected]) or book through iWaikato (My Work > Staff Development > Coming Events)
APRIL 2009 • TDU TALK
• 20 •
Teaching observations and feedback
Over the years, many colleagues have invited me into the classes to
observe their teaching and then provide feedback for future
development. This is a purely formative learning opportunity and is
a way of generating reflection on practice through the subsequent
conversation. Often, my role is simply to ask questions or prompt
deeper consideration of particular areas, or to provide a space for the
lecturer to articulate their sense of their strengths and aspects that
they would like to enhance.
Reading resource materials or research articles
Our long term goal is to enable staff to interrogate their own practice
and to draw on available research to inform their teacher thinking
and decision-making. Initially, we can help you to locate resources
and research that may be appropriate to your own teaching. These
can include discipline-based journals with a teaching focus. You may
also choose to borrow materials from our library or access resources
on our website to enhance your understanding of teaching and
learning. The professional development opportunities provided by
consulting the literature can be enhanced if you initiate departmentbased discussions on articles or ideas that you find engaging.
Building research and teaching linkages
The pressure to produce research will never go away; not only are
there organizational and external pressures to produce research but
research is also foundational to the nature of learning in universities.
At the same time, we owe it to our learners to provide them with the
best possible learning opportunities. We need to explore ways in
which teaching and research can work can be brought together into a
productive relationship which optimizes both elements. Typically,
the intersection between teaching and research has been thought of
terms of informing teaching content with relevant and current
research. However, as outlined in an earlier magazine, we can coach
students in the development of research disposition, attributes and
orientations in the context of our day to day teaching at all levels.
Furthermore, (as described by Rowland Weston in this edition) we
can conduct research investigations into aspects of our teaching, use
the findings to inform our own practice and publish on our research
in higher education journals or discipline journals with a teaching
emphasise. TDU staff are happy to work alongside you in this
• 21 •
APRIL 2009 • TDU TALK
process, helping you with resources, pointing you to the literature and
helping you in the design of your research. If conducting research on
your teaching is not a choice for you, you can at least draw on the
extensive available research literature to inform your practice.
Listening to award-winning teachers
In the last edition of the magazine, we described the stimulating event
at the end of 2008 when some of our award-winning teachers shared
their teaching beliefs and practices. We plan to make this an annual
event and hope that it will be an exciting professional development
opportunity for the University community and offer prompts to revisit
aspects of your own thinking and practice.
Compiling a teaching portfolio
The TDU can offer you guidance and support with the development of
a teaching portfolio which can be a tool to take stock of and evaluate
current teaching beliefs and practice, envision new possibilities and
determine future goals. The portfolio can be reviewed and updated
and provide a basis for ongoing reflection on your teaching.
Developing the habit of reflective practice
In the long term, the hope is that academic teachers will engage in
ongoing and rigorous inquiry into their own practice. Our own
teaching beliefs, findings documented in the higher education
research, student feedback and peer feedback can all offer frames
through which we can evaluate our teaching. It is also good to jot
down our own (often intuitive) responses to teaching and learning
experiences, because often some sort of dissonance or problem can be
the spur to subsequent re-evaluation. Likewise, if we probe moments
of great satisfaction in the classroom we can find the foundation for
further building and development in our practice.
APRIL 2009 • TDU TALK
• 22 •
Responding to feedback from students
Some academics are cynical about evaluative feedback from our students
and perhaps we have lost sight of the formative opportunities provided by
student feedback. In this edition, Trudy Harris explained how you can use
student feedback to inform your professional development.
Attending higher education conferences or attending sessions in the
teaching strand of discipline conferences
These conferences can be an important source of professional development
because they give you access to an extended community of academics who
give scholarly attention to their teaching as well as provide many ideas
about practice.
Enrolling in the Postgraduate Certificate for Tertiary Teaching
Participation in the Certificate provides an integrated framework for an
engagement in professional development and a formal qualification. The
programme is flexible and tailored to individual needs, context and
timetables. (For programme details, see the 2009 handbook on the TDU
website at: http://www.waikato.ac.nz/tdu/holdings.shtml).
• 23 •
APRIL 2009 • TDU TALK
Postgraduate Certificate in
Tertiary Teaching
Designed for tertiary teachers who wish to develop their own
teaching and gain a formal teaching qualification.
Details: http://www.waikato.ac.nz/tdu/PGCERT.shtml
Contact [email protected] for an appointment to discuss
details.
“
PGCert(TertTchg)
has
been a critical event in
my professional development
as a higher education
teacher. The actual tasks of
the PGCert(TertTchg) gave
me the opportunity to reflect
more deeply, with support,
on the huge gap between my
teaching ideals and my
lived experiences as a
new lecturer.
Mary Fitzpatrick
”
Produced by:
TEACHING DEVELOPMENT UNIT | W ĀHANGA W HAKAPAKARI AKO | OFFICE OF DEPUTY VICE-CHANCELLOR | UNIVERSITY OF W AIKATO
Private Bag 3105 | Hamilton | New Zealand
Phone: +64 7 838 4839 | Fax: +64 7 838 4573 | [email protected] | www.waikato.ac.nz/tdu