The role of transnational networking for higher education academics

Amidst rapid socio-economic change, higher education (HE) academics across the world face major challenges to its organisation, finance and management. This paper discusses the role of transnational networking in higher education. Data from 40 interviews with geographically distributed academics engaged in learning and teaching transnational networks (TNNs) were analysed. The findings show that in an increasingly globalised higher education system, transnational networking goes beyond conference attendance to entail multiple combinations of offline and online activities. We do not think that current concepts of communities of practice or networks of practice accurately describe these phenomena. Instead, we suggest that these activities entail different and varying levels of tangibility, more accurately defined by us as TNNs. Moreover, we argue that the term ‘network’ in this context facilitates the individualistic pursuit of a career increasingly essential in a pressurised higher education environment.     

Teaching in the current higher education environment: perceptions of IT academics

This paper builds on previous research into teachers' conceptions of learning and teaching with an investigation of information technology academics. Using a phenomenographic approach to build a model of IT academics experiences and practice of teaching we aimed to identify any specific issues that academics in the IT discipline face and to assess the impact of the changing higher education environment on their teaching experiences. While there were few discipline-specific issues we did find that the current higher education environment appears to be negatively affecting the quality of teaching and learning within the IT discipline and indications are that these environmental factors are affecting academics within other disciplines. We concluded that current institutional policies, including teaching and learning quality measures and lack of resources, are compromising the way subjects are delivered. In some cases academics are discouraged from improving their teaching practice.     

Spectrum Approach to Mentoring: an evidence-based approach to mentoring for academics working in higher education

Anecdotal and empirical evidence indicates that mentoring can be a successful strategy for supporting professional learning, yet limited literature exists on approaches to mentoring designed specifically for academics working in higher education. The aim of this study was to create an approach to mentoring tailored to the needs of academics and underpinned by evidence from the literature. Participatory action research was chosen as the methodology for the project as this enabled a process of inquiry to be embedded within academic practice. The outcome was the development of the Spectrum Approach to Mentoring (SAM). This three-step approach is goal orientated, and encompasses mentoring relationships that may be ongoing and sustained over time through to those that are short-term and aligned with a particular task or focus. SAM provides a suite of resources that can be used by academics to promote valuable opportunities for professional learning through the initiation of mentoring relationships.     

Writing for professional recognition in higher education: understanding genre and expertise

ABSTRACT

This study draws on the theoretical frameworks of genre theory and writing expertise to explore how educators manage and excel in writing for professional recognition. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with four educators from different disciplines in which participants discussed their experiences of preparing and writing for Senior Fellow. Despite the fact that writing for professional recognition can be a contentious genre to manage with its reflective features favouring those from certain disciplinary backgrounds, the participants described positive and affirming experiences. The findings also suggest that educators are strategic in their approach, and that the writing process can have unexpected affordances including a developed knowledge of writing, professional confidence and a sense of empowerment. The findings have implications for developing systems and resources to support educators preparing for fellowship.     

功能性言语在高职英语教学中的研究

本文针对性地分析高职英语课堂教学的现状和学生现有的英文水平,在高职英语写作课堂上和口语课堂上,教师通过向学生讲授功能性言语理论知识,从而帮助学生运用功能性言语知识提高口语和写作水平。     

加强高等职业技术教育中的质量意识

加强高等职业技术教育中的质量意识教育要做到:学校要抓好教育教学质量,突出质量意识;要加强对学生进行质量意识的教育.     

Approaches to career development and support for sessional academics in higher education

Levels of career support for sessional academics vary widely. This paper surveyed 109 sessional academics and demonstrates that a lack of career development for them is a widespread issue. The study finds that some sessional academics receive career support opportunities, while others receive nothing. As the number of sessional academics continues to grow and they become an ever larger part of the higher education workforce, while at the same time tenured positions are still the objective of many in academia, this paper contributes to current scholarship by identifying a clear stratification in the sessional workforce that has implications for the academics who hope to secure tenured positions.     

关于高等工程教育改革与发展的咨询建议

一、层次和规格　　　　 *高等工程教育有研究生 (硕士、博士 )、本科 (学士 )、大专等层次。大专是技术性的 ,不是本科的压缩型。每个层次有不同规格 ,以适应国家和地方的需要。如本科可有研究型、非研究型、社会型等。二、培养目标研究生将来主要是工程师 ,少数是工程科学家 ;本科培养工程师 ;大专培养技术师。三、高等工程教育与工业企业的结合和合作高等工程教育必须与工业企业密切结合和合作 ,在培养分工、教育计划制定、课程内容、生产实习、人员交流、科技交流等方面 ,各国国情和传统不同 ,结合与合作的方式也不同。美国工业企业研究…     

New academics,new higher education contexts: a critical perspective on professional development

New academics entering higher education are especially vulnerable if teaching in a post-colonial classroom is not foregrounded as an explicit part of their professional induction. Drawing on a study of a professional development programme for induction to teaching, this paper explicates how six new academics confront specific challenges of exclusion, marginalisation, and alienation at institutional, faculty, departmental and classroom levels. Framed by critical and social realist theory, the study uses photo voice methodology to elicit new academics' critical insights in the ‘learning to teach’ frame. The paper asserts new academics must engage in ways that make explicit the racial, gendered and class-based constraints experienced in various university spaces. While the relevance and legitimacy of current professional development programmes depends on their ability to be responsive and socially just, the study also questions whether programmes alone can challenge deep systemic constraints that are reproduced through current university structures and culture.     

提高广州市属高等教育发展水平的几点建议——关于广州市属高等教育改革与发展访谈录(之二)

记:在前面的访谈中,您谈到当前广州市属高等教育发展的主要任务是做大做强,在这方面有些什么具体建议?陈:我们在课题研究过程中,力图将有关高等教育发展的最新研究成果与广州市具体实际相结合,提出一些具有前瞻性、科学性和可操作性的对策建议,这里谈的主要有以下四点:一、借“     

Understanding change in higher education as bricolage: how academics engage in curriculum change

The engagement of academics in organizational change in higher education institutions is generally understood as involving a wide range of behaviors, and previous studies have situated academics’ actions at various points along a continuum between passivity and pro-activity. This article complements this approach by asking how—rather than in which contexts—academics act as central agents for change in higher education. Rather than trying to assess their global level of proactivity in a given change situation, we aim at identifying the actions which show them behaving more or less strategically. We argue that the notion of ‘bricolage’—widely used in organization theory—can be useful in this respect. Based on a qualitative study of the creation of 20 post-graduate nanotechnology programs on French university campuses, the article shows that academics participating in curriculum change engage in three distinct forms of bricolage. We suggest that the bricolage lens can identify two types of actions via which academics implement more or less pro-active strategies—identifying a repertoire of resources, and assembling those resources—and so allows us to reflect more deeply on how these actions may demonstrate several forms of agency, as well as several different relationships with norms, in each organizational change situation.     

大学英语写作现状分析与教学对策

大学英语教学中,写作教学是一个薄弱环节。本文从分析大学生写作能力的现状入手,进而分析了造成大学生写作能力差的原因,提出了改进大学英语写作教学,提高大学生写作能力的有效途径。     

Facilitating reflective learning in higher education

Although writing groups have a long history in higher education, they have only recently been recognized as a support strategy for doctoral students, particularly those at the dissertation stage. From the perspective of student participants, we investigate motivations for participation in and perceived outcomes of voluntary semi-structured writing groups used to facilitate doctoral degree completion. Group participation resulted in the development of a vibrant intellectual community among students, recent doctoral recipients, and faculty. Commitment to degree completion and student and faculty scholarly productivity soared through the use of this simple but innovative pedagogical strategy.     

推动高校后勤改革构建和谐校园

教育和谐是社会主义和谐社会的重要组成部分,构建社会主义和谐社会落实到教育,就必然要求构建和谐大学校园。高等学校应积极推进后勤社会化改革,为建设和谐校园提供强有力的保证。本文从后勤改革的角度,为建设和谐校园提出了对策。     

Visualising expertise: towards an authentic pedagogy for higher education

The development of expertise is seen as a crucial element in higher education, but the nature of expertise has been clouded by assumptions of the centrality of intuition and tacit knowledge. In this paper the authors contend that much knowledge that has been described as tacit can be surfaced for examination through the application of concept mapping techniques. This approach allows experts to articulate their practice in a way that is transparent, making it available for scrutiny by students. Expertise is described here as connecting the chains of practice that denote competence with the underlying networks of understanding that are required to support academic development. This occurs across the academic disciplines with various degrees of subtlety. It is described in the context of clinical teaching as it is in this context that the separation of chains of practice from underlying networks of understanding is most pronounced.     

网络环境对高职应用文教与学的影响及对策思考

现实工作中,应用文写作能力很重要。但在高职院校,应用文写作教与学却面临窘境。笔者结合切身经历,分析了网络环境对高职应用文教与学的影响,并思考提出了相应对策。     

Author-field interaction following publication in “higher education” journals

This paper examines the interactions that authors of articles appearing in the core higher education journals have with members of the field subsequent to the publication of their work. Interactions were examined by the epistemological structure of the articles and data suggest that papers with different structures exact different types of reader-initiated reactions, though there are similarities regardless of type. It appears that published scholarship leads to further activities in research, scholarly, and professional sectors as a consequence of readers' initiatives and the resulting responses by authors. It is argued that examinations of knowledge use should go beyond traditional conceptions and examine the development of new communities of interest as professional actors attempt to fulfill varied agendas on the basis of published scholarship.     

The quest for an entrepreneurial university in East Asia: impact on academics and administrators in higher education

In the last decade, universities in East Asia have taken knowledge transfer more seriously, especially when the state funding for higher education was reduced while other private funding sources were diversified. Universities in East Asia collaborate with the industrial and business sectors on projects related to research, development, and knowledge transfer to enhance their global competitiveness. This article examines how the quest for an entrepreneurial university in East Asia has affected academics and administrators in higher education, with particular reference to the perceived impact of an entrepreneurial university on academic life.     

Quality criteria of research perceived by academics in social sciences at higher education

The purpose of this study is to examine the problem of research quality in social sciences at higher education. Quality of research produced at higher education started to be questioned more often as research became the major factor determining academics＇ promotion and fund allocation to universities. In the study, we aimed to reveal how academics perceive research quality and what they identify as the main problems that make it difficult to achieve quality in research. Data were collected through interviews with 25 academics from 7 disciplines （educational sciences, sociology, communicational sciences, law, history, management and political science） in 7 universities. Six of the academics interviewed were professors, 7 were associate professors, 10 were assistant professors and 2 were doctors. Interviews were carried out in 2006-2007 and 2007-2008 academic years, and each lasted about one hour on average. Data collected were analyzed through content analysis. Study findings revealed that academics referred most often to methodological issues as the most important quality criterion of research, followed by issues of theoretical background and originality. Academics definitions of sub-criteria related to these were tackled in more detail in the study. As the most important hindrances that make it difficult to achieve quality in research academics mentioned lack of a long-established research culture, problems of research resources and the pressure caused by academic promotion criteria. Some recommendations related to the problems were made to develop research quality in the light of the study findings.