Gender,teaching and academic promotions in higher education

Teaching is increasingly being considered for inclusion in academic promotions in a number of universities. This raises questions about how teaching is appraised in relation to research; and which teaching criteria contribute to promotions outcomes. This article investigates these questions from a gender perspective by statistically analysing the actual promotions outcomes by rank levels at a South African university where teaching and research have been equally evaluated in academic promotions. The findings show that, overall, there was no statistically significant difference in promotions success rates between males and females and that more females achieved excellence in teaching with higher scores than males. Two of the 10 teaching criteria analysed – ‘ongoing study of tertiary education’ and ‘special recognition of teaching’ showed statistically significantly higher scores for females with high effect sizes, pointing to the importance of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in academic promotions for women. This study has implications for closing the gender gap in the senior ranks of universities.     

Early predictors of first-year academic success at university: pre-university effort,pre-university self-efficacy,and pre-university reasons for attending university

Given the large number of dropouts in the 1st year at university, it is important to identify early predictors of 1st-year academic success. The present study (n = 453 first-year students) contributes to literature on the transition from secondary to higher education by investigating how the non-cognitive factors pre-university effort and pre-university academic self-efficacy influence 1st-year retention at university. In addition, we examined pre-university reasons for attending university and whether these reasons were related to 1st-year retention. Multinomial logistic regression analyses showed that pre-university effort positively predicted 1st-year retention, whereas pre-university academic self-efficacy did not. With exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis, we identified six pre-university reasons for attending university: career perspective, personal development, compliance with the social environment, attractiveness of the institution, recommended by others, and location. None of the pre-university reasons appeared to significantly predict 1st-year retention. Implications for research and practice are discussed.     

指导本科生撰写学术论文,提升大学教育质量

为提高我国的大学教育质量,应该在大学教育中安排指导本科生撰写学术论文的固定教学环节。在指导学生探索真理的过程中,激励学生独立研究和独立动手能力,进而能有效地培养学生的人文精神和科学精神。指导本科生撰写学术论文正是一项针对本科生的必要学术训练,也是一项值得提倡的学术规范教育,将有利于学生树立正确的学术道德观,坚持实事求是、科学严谨的治学态度,恪守公认的标准学术规范。     

Supporting and constraining factors in the development of university teaching experienced by teachers

Higher education calls for reform, but deeper knowledge about the prerequisites for teaching development and pedagogical change is missing. In this study, 51 university teachers’ experiences of supportive or constraining factors in teaching development were investigated in the context of Finland’s multidisciplinary network. The findings reveal that the supportive factors in teaching development arise from the nature of the development itself, i.e. from the teachers’ opportunities to act as active agents in an authentic development process. Furthermore, the circumstances of the development also play essential roles (both constraining and supportive) in teaching development. Such support, at its best, will come when teachers and others view teaching development in the university context as being valuable and rewarding, and when teachers are encouraged by management and are supplemented with the necessary equipment, tools, and networks they need to do their job. Increasing interaction between the institutional levels can make educational development successful.     

论大学组织学术权力生成的逻辑

作为学术组织的大学,学术权力在其内部管理权力结构中占有重要地位。无论考察大学组织的历史渊源、社会功能、大学基层学科组织的规训,还是审视大学组织内学科评价标准等学术活动,都可以发现无法离开学术权力。学术自由、教授治校、大学自主是学术权力的基本特征。     

The imagined and the real: identifying the tensions for academic identity

Changes within the higher education sector have had significant effects on the identity of the individual academic. As institutions transform in response to government‐driven policy and funding directives, there is a subsequent impact upon the roles and responsibilities of those employed as educational professionals. Academic practices are changing as multiple roles emerge from the reshaping of academic work. Institutional pressures to produce specific research outputs at the same time as teaching and undertaking managerial/administrative responsibilities are creating tension between what academics perceive as their professional identity and that prescribed by their employing organisation. Reconciling this disconnect is part of the challenge for academics, who are now seeking to understand and manage their changing identity. Narratives obtained from research in a university with a polytechnic background and an institute of technology (aspiring to be a university), provide some subjective reflections for examining this issue.     

我国大学教学之弹性研究

近20多年来我国大学对以往长期实行的刚性教学模式进行了多方面的改革，试图以此增加教学之弹性。本文通过对有代表性的四所大学教学计划中课内学时和课程结构变化情况的调查分析，发现大学教学之弹性的发展曾经出现阶段性反复，但总的趋势是弹性在增大；教学之弹性在各大学课程结构上表现各异，显示出强烈的大学自主性；大学教学之弹性在实践中还存在诸多障碍，有限的弹性并没有能够完全发挥作用。要增加大学教育教学的弹性，必须进一步转变教育观念，改革一些陈旧的做法，调整政府相关教育政策，营造充满弹性和无穷发展可能的大学教育教学模式。     

法国高等教育管理体制变革中的教师学术职业

法国作为中央集权管理体制的典型代表,正经历着高等教育分权的变革。大学自治对教师职业存在的重要影响,在学术责任、聘任与晋升制度、质量评估等方面,表现为教师流动性低、教学与研究结合困难、评估缺乏激励性、学术职业前景黯淡等。增强大学的自主性、改革僵化的管理体制是解决学术职业发展中的矛盾的重要前提。     

Some prerequisites for access programmes that contribute to academic success in higher education

Abstract

The balance between the cost and value of access programmes is a concern in higher education. The function of access programmes is to provide support and additional time for under-prepared students to cope with the academic workload during the first year. This article aims to indicate the value students place on participation in an access programme. In this qualitative study, group interviews were conducted and the findings indicate that Engineering students attribute their success in the mainstream to the way in which participation in an access programme had integrated them academically into the university and exposed them to discipline related experiences in a non-threatening environment. The findings of this study indicate what aspects of the access programme students considered helpful for perseverance in mainstream studies. It is recommended that institutions that offer access programmes should not only be aware of the reciprocal influence of the cognitive and non-cognitive factors that affect students' success, but also purposefully combine these factors in the design of their access programmes.     

教学研究型高校实施研究性教学的理性思考

培养数以千万计的专门人才和一大批拔尖创新人才是当今高等教育的重要任务之一,提高教育教学质量是实现这一目标的基本保障,而目前高校的教学工作中尚存在诸多与这一使命不相符合的问题。因此,有必要针对这些问题,加大高等教育教学改革的力度,通过实施研究性教学等手段,提高人才培养质量,从而促进高等教育目标的实现。     

教学反思与提高高校教师教学水平

进行教学反思是实施素质教育、深化教学改革、提高高校教学质量、促进高校教师成长的客观要求.当前高校中存在忽视对教学方法的总结,对教学质量的分析偏重学生方面,教学管理重课中、轻课后,劳务分配看课时不问效果等问题.必须把教学反思作为提高高校教师教学水平的重要工作来抓,把教学反思纳入教研活动的总体计划,从教与学两方面对教学质量进行全面分析,改革高校内部管理体制,建立正确的教学质量导向.     

我国高校学术自主权变迁的实证研究

近20年来我国高校学术自主权的下放总体上呈先快后慢的上升趋势,但高校学术事务的管理权还远远不能达到自主的程度,政府仍然掌握着大部分的学术事务管理权。具体来说,涉及教学的学术事务决策权大部分下放了,而涉及学科发展的自主权基本没有下放。在高校内部,存在行政力量对学术力量综合影响程度减弱的趋势,但关系高校重大发展的资源配置决策权,仍由行政力量主导。对于不涉及重大资源配置的学术事务,学术力量已经在起主导作用。     

Adjustment to university and academic performance: brief report of a follow‐up study

This study presents data that extend an earlier analysis of predictors of academic performance from one to three years. None of the adjustment and other psychosocial variables (help‐seeking, academic motivation, self‐esteem, perceived stress and perceived academic overload) could predict success at university at the end of three years of study. The only significant predictor was academic performance at the end of the first year of study.     

The Bulgarian academic profession in transition

In this essay I analyze the current status of the academicprofession in Bulgaria at a time of difficult socio-economictransition. After providing a brief overview of the historicaldevelopment of Bulgarian academia, I discuss faculty workingconditions, the career path within the profession and the legalframework for the professoriate. Numerous problems with respectto finances, institutional infrastructure and legal environmentchallenge the status quo of the Bulgarian faculty. The essaycloses by highlighting the future key issues for theacademic profession that focus around its finanacial viability,difficulties in recruiting a new generation of scholars, the qualityof teaching and learning, and faculty entrepreneurship.     

Entangled in academic capitalism? A case-study on changing ideals and practices of university research

During recent years universities have engagedincreasingly in academic capitalism as aresponse to the decrease in budget funding andthe external push towards entrepreneurialactivities. This paper explores on the microlevel what impacts the changing fundingpatterns have on university research, how thechanges are responded to in different researchunits, and how researchers experience them.Based on focused interviews with seniorresearchers in three different types ofresearch settings in Finland, the paper arguesthat engaging in academic capitalism iseveryday reality in all units but takes adiversity of forms depending on how close ordistant the field is from the market. Inaddition the disciplinary and institutionalcultures shape the process of adaptation to thechanging environmental conditions. It isconcluded that increasing market-orientationdoes not displace traditional academicpractices, values and ideals as researchers tryto accommodate them to entrepreneurialactivities. However, especially due to thegrowth and intensification of project work onshort-term contracts, achieving a balancebetween the two value-sets is at present feltto be increasingly difficult, thus generating avariety of tensions in the daily work of theresearchers and even endangering the quality ofresearch.     

改革实践教学方法培养学生动手能力

高职教育是高等教育的重要组成部分,其目标是培养具有一定理论知识和较强实践能力的应用型人才。通过对研究性学习分析,开展研究性学习、校内仿真教育等手段,加强教学的实践性和针对性,提高学生的动手能力,从而全面提升高职教育的水平。     

高校多媒体教学评价模型及其应用

多媒体教学及其评价是当前教学质量评估中的重要一环.根据当前我国高校多媒体教学特点,利用灰色系统多层次评价理论建立高校多媒体教学评价模型,并以应用案例加以说明.     

How to build a regional university: a case study that addresses policy settings,academic excellence,innovation system impact and regional relevance

A public university was established in 2014 as a cornerstone of Ecuador’s sweeping higher education reforms. Four years later, Universidad Regional Amazónica Ikiam had developed internationally benchmarked teaching, research and community service missions within the Ecuadorian Amazon. The creation of Ikiam occurred during a period of broad international discourse on the importance to universities of academic excellence, innovation system impact, and regional relevance. This case study tests whether a top-down state-driven development model can establish a university on principles of excellence, impact and relevance. The creation of Ikiam is analysed qualitatively and the results are discussed in context with national and international policy settings for higher education and innovation. This study provides insights for low and middle-income countries to strengthen higher education and innovation systems through university creation. Internationally it provides practical insights for university master planning taskforces to build organisational strength and distinctiveness through excellence, impact and relevance.     

高校教学档案建设与教务信息管理

高校教学档案是衡量高校教育质量和教务管理水平的重要标志之一。而真实、完备的教学档案源于规范、系统的教务信息管理。本文阐述了高校教学档案的重要作用,并从教务信息管理的角度,探讨了加强高校教学档案建设的举措。     

高校教学与科研互动:问题、归因及对策

教学与科研是高等学校不可或缺的两大职能。当前的高等教育实践中,高校的教学与科研存在失衡、相互脱节和评价失准的突出问题。这一方面归因社会观念影响,另一方面来自高校及教师对教学与科研的认知与评价。应通过完善国家相关政策和制度建设,明确高校自身定位,引导教师多元发展等措施加以改进。