Beginning to Lecture at University: A Complex Web of Socialisation Patterns

This article reports on a longitudinal study which investigated the process of becoming and being a first-year junior lecturer in a South African linguistics department. The lecturer arrived as a recent doctoral graduate from England at the beginning of the academic year. Qualitative data collection and analysis revealed that there were a number of areas in which the lecturer experienced conflicts between his own expectations of the job and what he actually encountered: for example, teaching practice, departmental politics, linguistic paradigms, affirmative action. In this article, the lecturer's experiences of learning to lecture are examined in terms of how he found himself conforming, coping, generating and resisting. These socialisation patterns provide a framework for considering the early experiences of all beginning lecturers and are used, in this article, as the basis for an approach to induction for academic staff in universities. After eighteen months he left the department to lecture linguistics and then teach English as a foreign language in Japan.     

Promoting Reflection in Tertiary Teaching through Collaboration

Recent years have seen the emergence of international concern about the quality of teaching and learning in universities, and consequently also interest in the investigation of models of staff development for improving teaching and learning at university level. This study monitored the reflective deliberations of a tertiary chemistry lecturer engaged in peer collaboration with other university lecturers for the purpose of improving teaching and learning in his classroom. The research method was based on an adaptation of the clinical supervision model. The lecturer's practice was found to be influenced strongly by his images of and beliefs about his lecturing role. Reflection occurred on a number of themes, both within and across different reflective cycles, and was facilitated by collaboration with his peers and by video replay feedback. Further, personal observation of and reflection on his classroom experience were found to precede changes in the images and beliefs influencing his classroom behaviour.     

Teacher immediacy: reflections on a peer review of teaching scheme

Using a qualitative approach drawing on the experiences of four HE lecturers, this study provides an exploration of and insights into a peer review of teaching (PRT) scheme, which focused on teacher immediacy and communication skills. Within the United Kingdom, limited research has been undertaken in relation to teacher immediacy even though international research, particularly in the United States, suggests it enhances lecturer–student interaction.

The study identified three key factors that can enhance teaching through the development of immediacy skills. These were: voice and verbal qualities; body language; and location in the teaching space and environmental factors. This article suggests that, based on the evidence from the four lecturers, any PRT scheme that wishes to focus upon enhancing teacher effectiveness should consider addressing these themes in order to facilitate enhanced lecturer–student interaction.     

Walking the Talk in Initial Teacher Education: Making Teacher Educator Modeling Effective

This self-study investigated student teachers' perceptions of teacher educators modeling practices within a large lecture class in an initial teacher education program. It also studied factors that affected student teachers' developing ideas and practice. Phase 1 collected data from student teachers through focus group interviews and course and teaching evaluations, as well as data from lecturers. Phase 2 collected further qualitative data from teacher educators to inform questions arising from Phase 1 findings. While student teachers' perceptions of critically reflective processes and teaching models modeled by lecturers were varied, they affirmed the positive value of lecturer modeling. Data highlighted gaps between lecturers' intentions and the student teachers' perceptions. Data confirm that effective modeling is difficult to achieve, particularly in large lectures. Student teachers were challenged by the demands of engaging critically with new content while also being attentive to modeling. Recommendations include explicitly unpacking our teaching practices, using training strategies to support student teachers in developing the ability to reflect critically, and increasing opportunities for student teachers to practice various teaching models and strategies.     

'Scholarship is the word that dare not speak its name' Lecturers' Experiences of Teaching on a Higher Education Programme in a Further Education College

The article examines provision of higher education within further education institutions from the point of the view of lecturers working on an HE programme. It is based on a small-scale research project carried out by a full-time practitioner/part-time researcher. Focusing on a Combined Studies degree programme, a series of interviews explored the experiences and perceptions of lecturers teaching on a non-vocational higher education programme within a predominantly further education environment. In the context of low morale within colleges of further education, the staff interviewed demonstrated a remarkable level of enthusiasm and personal commitment to HE teaching. There was a strong sense of pride in the value of higher education in an FE college. The research indicates there are key differences between the lecturers in this study and their colleagues in pure HEIs in terms of professional identity. A number of difficulties in managing the FE/HE divide were referred to by the respondents. These focused on difficulties in relation to swapping between levels, the degree of commitment the lecturers felt the college management gave to HE provision, and isolation from colleagues internally and externally. Inevitably, more general resource issues arose. Whilst acknowledging the reality of the cumulative underfunding of FE, the recommendations are in terms of practicable actions to address some of the other issues raised by the research.     

Higher education in further education: delivering higher education in a further education context—a study of five South West colleges

This paper comprises a summary of research into the teaching of higher education (HE) courses in further education (FE) learning environments. A comprehensive study of college management and teaching staff attitudes together with teaching practices, pedagogy and research was carried out with six partner colleges of the University of Plymouth where a substantial amount of HE teaching was delivered. A questionnaire was developed, piloted and distributed to all staff teaching HE in the colleges, with a similar but separate questionnaire being used for management. Five colleges responded. We present data relating to the differences in teaching practice and pedagogy between FE and HE teaching and the problems of realizing these in FE learning environments. We also look at the ways in which independent study and critical reflection among learners are developed. The questions of research and scholarly activity and their relevance to HE teaching are addressed. Considerable challenges are faced by staff teaching mainly FE courses, on standard FE teaching contracts, being expected to deliver HE courses effectively. We also consider the challenges of delivering ‘a real HE experience’ in FE environments and those involved with going on to university afterwards.     

Was Hochschuldozierende aus Lehrevaluations-Rückmeldungen lernen k?nnen

The extent to which students profit from a university course depends on the lecturers?? approach to teaching, with a student-focused approach being more supportive for student gains in competences than a teacher-focused approach. Little is known, however, about how to foster a student-focused approach to teaching. In this paper, we want to investigate how to frame the feedback lecturers obtain from students?? course evaluations in such a manner that a student-focused approach to teaching is encouraged. In two studies using either a qualitative or a quantitative methodology it can be shown that providing lecturers with a feedback on students?? subjective gain in competences (output-focused teaching evaluation) is more effective in promoting a student-focused approach to teaching than a feedback on how satisfied students were with the lecturer (process-focused teaching evaluation). Results are discussed in the context of the Bologna reforms which demand a continuous evaluation of all university courses.     

Evaluating the effect of a lecturer’s language background on a student rating of teaching form

This study, using student ratings of lecturers, examines the perceived effect of the lecturer’s ability to communicate effectively. The relationship between the standard question—’The lecturer was able to communicate ideas and information clearly’—and the global rating question—’Overall, the lecturer is an effective teacher’—was investigated in 7072 undergraduate standard teaching surveys from one university, using the lecturer’s language background as a factor. The results show that overall student ratings of English as a second language (ESL) lecturers are, on average, 0.4 points lower on a five‐point scale than student ratings of native English speaking lecturers. There is a strong interaction between this average difference and the lecturer’s faculty, with little difference in arts (humanities and social sciences) through to 0.6 points difference in science. The study also found that, of the four categorical questions used in the university’s standard teaching survey, the ‘communication’ question had the highest correlation with the ‘overall’ question. The correlation (R?=?0.96) suggests that the standard teaching survey is overly influenced by the students’ perception of this one aspect of teaching—reflecting a transmission model. The rating difference between ESL and native English speaking lecturers is briefly explored. In addition, the paper briefly considers the implications of the above findings for teacher development and for student expectations against a background of a growing ESL student population.     

On the labor market for full-time non-tenure-track lecturers in economics

We examine AY2013 annual salaries, annual teaching assignments, and career publishing histories for more than 700 full-time lecturers and tenure-track faculty at 37 public Ph.D.-granting departments of economics. The roughly 15% of teaching faculty who were full-time lecturers were younger, more likely to be female and to teach at the program from which they received their Ph.D., and were assigned to teach both more courses and many more students. While lower than those for tenure-track faculty, the annual salaries paid to full-time lecturers compare favorably to those of tenure-track economics faculty at Master's- and Bachelor's-granting institutions. Regression results suggest that full-time lecturer salaries are determined by teaching assignments rather than research productivity while tenure-track salaries are determined by research productivity rather than teaching assignments.     

Supporting students’ assignment writing: what lecturers do in a Master of Education programme

Teachers’ instructional practices surrounding written assignments have been little researched, despite writing remaining the primary means of assessment in higher education, including postgraduate professional development programmes. In this paper, we report a study that explored what a sample of lecturers in a Master of Education programme at an English-medium university in Hong Kong did to support students’ assignment writing. We integrate perspectives provided by the relevant higher education literature, the academic literacies approach and North American rhetorical genre studies to shed light on the findings derived from our analyses of interview and documentary data. We showed that our lecturer participants both engaged in direct instruction on assignment writing and provided indirect support. Our study contributed to the existing literature and raised questions for future research.     

Visiting Teaching Lecturers—an experiment in collaboration between university and schools

This paper reports on an evaluation of the visiting teacher lecturer programme at the University of Western Sydney Macarthur in Sydney, Australia. Between 1992 and 1996, ten practising school teachers taught full‐time within the Faculty of Education for a period of 12 months each. The teachers were known as visiting teaching lecturers and worked in the Faculty's Secondary, Primary and Early Childhood Teacher Education Programmes. The visiting teaching lecturer programme was instigated in order to ensure that recent and relevant experience was available to preservice teacher education students within the Faculty's programmes. Also, the Department of School Education was enthusiastic about the programme as it enabled teachers to gain significant professional development both for themselves and for the Department. The extent to which the programme met these goals, in spite of numerous policy barriers introduced at both State and Federal level, is explored.     

Perceptions of male and female academics within a teaching context

One hundred and sixty male and female undergraduates were exposed to one of four videotaped lectures that differed on two dimensions: sex of lecturer (male or female), and style of presentation (affiliative or instrumental). Analyses revealed that students' perceptions of lecturers are dependent largely on lecturing style. In general, all students preferred an affiliative style of lecturing. Affiliative lecturers were seen as more effective lecturers as well as more confident, professional, and approachable. Students also indicated that they would be more likely to approach lecturers presenting affiliatively to discuss content issues. Although the findings do not distinguish between male and female lecturers except as gender relates to lecturing style, they do support earlier research and indicate a highly responsive environment for male and female lecturers conducive to the development of high self-efficacy within a teaching context. Implications for female lecturers, for whom it is argued that an equally responsive research environment does not exist, are discussed in terms of differential career paths.     

Variations in students' evaluations of teachers' lecturing in different courses on which they lecture: a study at the London School of Economics and Political Science

The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) organizes institution-wide surveys of all its undergraduate and postgraduate taught-course offerings. Students taking each course are requested to assess various teaching modes (lecturing, small-group teaching, and seminar teaching), as relevant to the particular teachers involved in the respective course. One finding of these studies is that certain individual teachers, even within the same teaching mode (say, lecturing), are evaluated more highly in some courses than in others. The article uses LSE's data-base on student course-evaluation to examine reasons for this. The data analysis focuses on two principal issues: Do those teachers assessed differently for the same teaching mode across different courses have distinctive personal characteristics to distinguish them from other teachers not differently assessed? Do courses that are assessed especially discrepantly for a particular teacher have certain distinguishingfeatures? The findings on the first question are generally negative. On the other hand, such course-level characteristics as the number of student enrolments, the number of other lecturers involved in the course and students' general feelings of satisfaction with various aspects of the course do affect how a lecturer is assessed on that course in relation to his or her overall level of assessed lecturing competence.     

Using PowerPoint as a lens to focus on linearity in teaching

As university lecturers select and sequence materials for their teaching, a linear structure emerges by default. Such a structure is made explicit within PowerPoint presentations and may even be amplified as PowerPoint invites the lecturer to reduce content to a bulleted format. Such linear sequences have been related to passive, surface approaches to learning. The application of concept‐mapping techniques can support the lecturer in making explicit the underlying expert structure of the information being presented to help the student to make the necessary transformations of knowledge structures that are required for meaningful learning. The authors suggest that PowerPoint provides a concrete arena in which lecturers can reflect upon the structure of knowledge that is being constructed within their classrooms.     

Oh to be a scholar – an HE in FE perspective

This paper considers conceptions of the term ‘scholarship’ amongst lecturers delivering business higher education programmes (BHEPs) in further education colleges (FECs). A condensed overview of leading authors’ work on the subject of scholarship is first considered; then, at the end of the paper, an alternative definition is offered in the hopes of stimulating discussion. The data was drawn from a doctoral study by the author (2009) looking at this subject area, and is based on findings from primary data collected in 2006–7. Due to the lack of published work in and on higher education (HE) in further education (FE) at that time, the study drew heavily on literature from HE. This paper highlights potential issues and anxieties of the lecturers who took part in the study, and identifies that the term ‘scholarship’ is not one familiar to, or easily defined by, those delivering BHEPs in FECs.     

Students with disabilities in higher education: a biographical-narrative approach to the role of lecturers

This article presents an analysis of how lecturers respond to students with disabilities, the initial question being: do lecturers aid or hinder students? Findings pertain to a broader research project being developed by a multidisciplinary team employing a non-usual research methodology in higher education (HE) research and students with disabilities: biographical-narrative methodology. The general aim is to analyse – by listening to the students themselves – barriers and support identified as affecting access, academic performance and overall perception of the HE experience. The present paper analyses lecturer-centred data to focus specifically on one of the objectives of our research project: the role that lecturers play in the inclusive education of students with disabilities. Unlike other international research, this article explores the barriers and support differentiating between five fields of knowledge: health sciences, experimental sciences, social sciences (law and education), engineering and technology and humanities. Findings are organized in four topic areas: lecturer attitudes, practices in the classroom, curricular adaptations and faculty training. Key findings are discussed in the conclusions section, together with a discussion of contributions made by earlier studies.     

Doctoral students writing: where's the pedagogy?

Writing occupies a key role in doctoral research, because it is the principal channel students use to communicate their ideas, and the basis on which their degree is awarded. Doctoral writing can, therefore, be a source of considerable anxiety. Most doctoral candidates require support and encouragement if they are to develop confidence as writers. Drawing on interviews with two international doctoral students at an Australian university, this paper examines the writing practices the students have encountered and discusses them in the light of recent research on doctoral writing pedagogy. Analysis of the students' experiences in terms of Wenger's ‘communities of practice’ framework suggests that this perspective fails to account adequately for the power relations that impact on the students' learning opportunities. Examining the students' experiences also highlights the importance of good pedagogy in supporting the development of scholarly writing in the doctorate.