Professional development for sessional staff in higher education: a review of current evidence

The aim of this study was to provide an integrated review of evidence published in the past decade around professional development for sessional staff in higher education. Using the Integrating Theory, Evidence and Action method, the review analysed recent evidence using the three principles of the Benchmarking Leadership and Advancement of Standards for Sessional Teaching project – Quality Learning and Teaching, Sessional Staff Support and Sustainability. Quality Learning and Teaching refers to issues affecting the quality of sessional staff teaching and learning, while Sessional Staff Support refers to the provision of consistent support and inclusive infrastructure for sessional staff. The Sustainability principle refers to practices that encourage the retention of good sessional staff and the pursuit of quality teaching. Clear themes emerge from the evidence that suggest long-standing structural issues that are yet to be effectively addressed. However, several examples of effective strategies were also identified, particularly around peer observation and mentorship.     

Three pathways to support the professional and career development of casual academics

Almost half of current academic staff will need to be replaced within three years in the Australian academic workforce. Literature suggests that casual academics are a potential solution, yet they are frequently excluded from the career development opportunities that would allow them to fulfil an ongoing academic role. Most academic development programmes designed for and delivered to casual academics are constructed by academic developers with little or no input from casual academics themselves. This paper documents what casual academics determine to be their academic development needs and how they could be addressed using three pathways of professional and career development.     

高等教育大众化与高校就业教育

根据人才市场的需求及其变化,以提高学生适应就业需要的素质和能力为目标,开展全程性、全方位的就业教育,体现了大众化背景下高等教育市场化的特征。地方高等学校要以强化就业教育为契机,积极应对高等教育大众化的挑战,开展自身教育理念、教育机制和内涵的变革与创新。     

高等教育大众化背景下的大学生职业生涯教育影响因素解析

大学生职业生涯教育是我国快速实现高等教育大众化过程中应运而生的教育新理念,也是借鉴西方发达国家经验积极化解大学生就业困难以及提高人才培养质量所主动进行的实践探索。在我国高等教育大众化的发展进程中,大学生职业生涯教育的影响因素主要有：社会经济发展方面的动力因素、政府推动方面的主导因素、高校自身发展方面的关键因素和学生成才就业方面的主体因素。     

Early career academics learning the game in Whackademia

The initial years as an early career academic (ECA) are challenging times as those new to the academy attempt to balance the three aspects of their role: teaching, research and service, while also coming to terms with both overt and hidden expectations. Formal mentoring arrangements for ECAs are threatened by competing demands on time. Additionally, they may not fully support the needs of ECAs as they can be more closely aligned to university needs than those of the ECA. The purpose of this paper is to open conversations about ECAs finding ways to develop agency. We use a reflective inquiry approach to identify and respond to the ideological and hegemonic influences on the experiences of ECAs. We also promote self-sustaining peer support and informal mentoring from more senior staff as complementary forms of professional learning.     

Outsourcing academic development in higher education: staff perceptions of an international program

Increasingly, higher education support services are being outsourced. Our case study was of a program from a global, USA-based, non-profit organisation. From in-depth interviews, we investigated staff perceptions of academic development workshops and the efficacy of outsourcing to a transnational tertiary-support program. We found that interviewees valued the academic development. They believed greater consideration should be given to cultural differences between exporting and importing countries; to evidence-based assessment of, and institutional leadership support for, the program; and to discipline-based and tertiary-level skills. Our preliminary findings may inform university management about improved approaches to outsourcing academic development to international commercial providers.     

Using quality enhancement processes to achieve sustainable development and support for sessional staff

Abstract

Consistent with quality enhancement, we report on how we used a continuous improvement cycle to formalise and embed an academic development and support programme for our School’s sessional staff. Key factors in establishing and maintaining the programme included: local change agents supported initially by institutional project funding; School support for key academic and administrative roles; timely access to reports and tools from nationally-funded projects and sessional staff input. Reviewing our approach against national standards highlighted ongoing actions while collaboration with academic developers is critical for advancing our understanding and reviewing our approaches in our continuously changing context.     

高职教育的可持续发展浅论

影响高职教育可持续发展的主要因素是:高职院校设置过多、过滥,招生成本高,经费投入体制不顺,贫困生问题突出,“双师型”教师队伍建设滞后,未真正建立“立交桥”等。只有解决了这些问题,才能做到高职教育的可持续发展。     

浅谈本科生职业生涯规划创新教育

随着我国高等教育迅速发展并进入大众化阶段,并且随着人们对学历及自我提高越来越重视,大学生的数量日渐升高,考生数目居高不下。数以万计的考生在大学求学阶段完善和丰富自身,在高等教育中成就自我。但全球经济危机的爆发和蔓延,使得我国很多大学生的就业形势愈发严峻,社会各方都已充分认识到这一问题若得不到妥善处理将引发的严重后果,这不仅会给我国社会和教育事业发展带来巨大冲击,并且严重影响大学生个人今后的发展道路及人生规划。高等教育既是高校专业知识体系教育的延伸和发展,也是连接高等教育与市场化就业的纽带,因此,大学生职业生涯规划与指导体系需要被社会各界关注并加以重视。根据从各知名高校的学生就业指导服务中心统计到的信息,并且对部分高校的大学生就业指导与服务工作的现状作了较为翔实的归纳与分析,一方面,各高校在学生就业指导方面有不少可取之处,比如将学生的生涯发展观念与高等教育资源的利用加以结合;另一方面也发现了高等教育在学生就业方面未涉及到的不足之处,比如,在高校开展职业规划与指导工作的过程中,院校专业化程度不高和资源供给不足给学生带来了不利的影响,需要积极改进和完善。因此,在归纳总结了多元化构建大学生职业规划与指导体系的经验内容时,并结合统计分析本科生对大学生职业规划与就业指导的现状与期望的数据,在本科生职业生涯规划与指导方面,以大众化高等教育需确立质量与效率的基础上,从大学生职业生涯规划的可行性、必要性、创新性入手,旨在探讨出更加符合当今高等教育中学生普遍存在的职业规划问题的有效解决方案。在高等教育迅速发展和变革并被普遍接受的时代,大学生职业规划与指导工作的意义显得更加复杂而深刻,并彰显着新时代的价值和特征以及对学生未来的美好期望,最大可能地满足大学生职业规划与发展个性化多元化的需求,以及提高高等教育的质量是目前高等教育院校最为关注的问题。本文从本科生职业生涯规划创新教育方面加以分析探讨。     

试论职业教育课程与教学观的新发展

当今职业教育课程与教学观发生了很大的变化，分析和研究这些变化和发展非常必要，从一个层面上说也就是研究职业教育的发展方向。本文从职业教育课程目标观、课程模式观、课程结构观、教学价值观和教学方法观等方面着重进行了探讨。     

The ‘double-edged sword’ of a sessional academic career

ABSTRACT

There have been widespread changes to working arrangements and employment relationships, including significant decreases in continuing/full-time employment contracts. This trend is particularly notable in academia, with more universities relying on the expertise of sessional, teaching-focused academics. This qualitative study extends understanding of this important group of professionals, identifying sessional work as a ‘double-edged sword’ and suggesting a typology of sessional academic careers to be tested in future research. It reports on the diversity among sessional academics, some enjoying the autonomy and flexibility of this working arrangement, others seeking more job security and greater alignment with continuing employment. It also identifies synergies and contradictions between sessional academic careers and key themes in the contemporary careers literature.     

关于高校校本课程开发的几点思考

高校校本课程开发是一种与国家课程开发相对应的课程开发策略。高校校本课程开发的主要特征表现为课程开发是民主开放的过程，能尊重学校师生的独特性和差异性，是教育制度内权利与资源的重新分配，也是课程理论与课程实践不断丰富和完善以及国家课程开发的重要补充。高校校本课程开发面临着国家政治、经济、文化改革和高校自身改革的良好机遇，同时也遇到高校内部管理体制、教育观念、师资队伍和课程开发能力等现状的严峻挑战。高校校本课程开发的基本条件为明确教育哲学、办学宗旨、改善学校组织、强化教师培训、调动学生积极性、增加投入以及加强课程开发的评价等。     

新自由主义、全球化与高等教育发展

高等教育的存在与发展具有两种特性:理智特性和社会特性。这两种特性的演变在不同的历史阶段都受到不同思潮的影响。新自由主义和全球化是影响当今高等教育发展的两大主要思潮。新自由主义通过强调高等教育所传授知识的可交易性、效率性、个体性、竞争性和自由化来重塑高等教育发展的理智特性,全球化则从时空、制度和组织三个维度影响高等教育的社会特性。应对新自由主义和全球化的挑战,需要扭转通过拥抱市场、放弃公共利益来推进高等教育的做法,但也必须抓住机遇使本国高等教育融入全球知识经济。     

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.     

科学发展观与高等教育和谐发展

高等教育和谐发展包括目标性和谐、结构性和谐、功能性和谐与机制性和谐。我国高等教育还存在着重物轻人、目标偏颇,盲目攀比、结构失衡,使命模糊、功能失调,体制制约、机制缺失等问题,影响了高等教育的和谐发展。落实科学发展观,促进高等教育和谐发展,就是要落实以人为本、全面兼顾的发展观,整合高等教育发展目标;树立合理分工、整体优化的发展观,调整高等教育系统结构;树立扬正抑负、主动适应的发展观,完善高等教育的适应功能;树立统筹协调、持续有序的发展观,健全高等教育运行机制。     

发展高等职业教育是调整高等教育结构的手段

我国单一的高等教育结构，虽然培养了大量的人才，但其规格与类型却不能满足社会对高层次实用型人才的需要，致使高等教育与经济的发展不相适应。对部分高等院校实行改革、改组和改制来发展高等职业教育，是调整我国高等教育结构的重要手段。     

高等职业教育发展存在的问题及解决途径

目前我国高等职业教育存在社会公认度不高、教学内容陈旧、学生就业简单化和缺乏发展后劲等问题,需要通过构建完整的高等职业教育体系、优化课程设置、施行专业导师辅导制和增强学生实践操作技能等途径加以解决。     

对当前发展高等职业教育的思考

中国入世后的前几年乃至二十年，大力发展高等职业教育，是中国社会进入新的发展时期的客观要求，从近几年高职教育的发展来看，总的情况是好的，但也存在一些问题，如果不进行适当的解决，势必影响今后高职教育的健康发展。对当前和今后一段时期来说，发展高等职业教育，必须进行全新的运作。     

高等教育发展代价论

代价问题是高等教育发展过程中无法回避的现实问题,高等教育发展的历史本质上就是一部以代价为前提的进步史。文化价值目标之间的冲突,制度的不合理安排,以及物质资源的非均衡投入,是高等教育发展代价产生的外部根源。高等教育系统内部的时空结构、要素结构以及秩序结构的不断解构与重构,是高等教育发展代价生成的内部根源。只有通过事前规避和事后补偿,才能最大限度地减少高等教育发展的代价支出,实现高等教育的健康持续发展。