A collegial quality development process for identifying and addressing barriers to improving teaching

ABSTRACT

Challenges to ensuring teaching quality in higher education give ongoing impetus to invest in teaching quality improvement. While a significant body of literature has recognised challenges faced by academics seeking to improve teaching practices, processes for developing constructive responses to identified barriers have attracted less attention. A synthesis of literature on barriers to improvement of teaching is presented and used as a framework to assist an identification of barriers. This article reports on a national Australian trial of a collegial quality development process aimed at supporting academics to both identify and surmount barriers to improving teaching quality. Evidence of the nature and extent of barriers to improving teaching was collated from data provided by 28 academics across five Australian universities. Adopting a thematic analysis approach, a broad range of perceived barriers were identified, largely consistent with barrier categories defined in the extant literature internationally. Findings reveal that, with the support of peers, participants were able to implement effective solutions to their identified barriers to improving teaching quality. This article provides a synthesis of current barriers to improve teaching and offers a collegial quality development process as a strategy to overcome these barriers.     

Technocracy,educational structures and libraries: historical notes from the United States

This paper discusses the application and effects of technocratic ideology in schooling and educational policy in the United States, and traces it up through present planning for ‘virtual libraries’ and rethinking of educational structures. This is done by reviewing the development of educational structures and policies and by looking at selected developmental/historical periods in American life when technocratic ideology was particularly influential in schooling and educational policy. Through this process the authors establish ideological connections between technocracy, education and the new educational processes that virtual libraries represent. In this analysis virtual libraries are the newest site of the extension, deepening and possible totalizing of the values of technocratic educational policy and processes.

The paper begins with a brief definition of the concept of technocracy which is placed in its historical context. An overview of the historical periods of dominant technocratic ideology in American education is then presented. The overview covers particular eras from the early nineteenth century through the 1980s, tracing the manifestations of technocracy in educational practice and policy (the early industrial era, the era of Scientific Management and social efficiency, the Sputnik era and the push for computers in education). The paper then turns to an analysis of current technocratic education reforms and the connections to the “virtual library”. The virtual library is representative of this historical technocratic pattern, and‐‐at least as currently envisioned‐‐is the next technocratic extension into education. The paper concludes with a summary analysis of this trend.     

Scaling laws and forecasting in athletic world records.

In this study, we analysed running world records and found that the mean speed of the race, mu, as a function of the record time, tau, can be described asymptotically by two well-defined scaling laws of the form mu approximately tau(-beta). There is a break in the scaling laws (approximately 1000 m) between the shorter and the longer races at a characteristic time of around 150-170 s, after which a new scaling regime emerges. This is the first occasion that this characteristic time has been clearly found in physical terms; we interpreted it as the transition time between the anaerobic and the aerobic energy expenditure of athletes. This phenomenon is independent of the athletes' sex and is also found in swimming races with similar values of the characteristic time. We also investigated the forecasting of world records using historical data. Using an approach based on the identification of non-Poissonian events for a sequence of temporal point processes, we found that the sequence of improvements in all athletic records from 1900 to the present day cannot be considered as a sequence of completely random events.     

Course evaluation matters: improving students’ learning experiences with a peer-assisted teaching programme

In the rapidly changing global higher education sector, greater attention is being paid to the quality of university teaching. However, academics have traditionally not received formal teacher training. The peer-assisted teaching programme reported on in this paper provides a structured yet flexible approach for peers to assist each other in reinvigorating and refining their teaching practice. Academics participated in this national, multi-institutional trial for varied reasons: the majority voluntarily, others to increase low student evaluation of course scores and some as part of a graduate certificate teaching qualification. Here we report on how academics used the scheme, and the teaching areas they focused on. Student evaluation of course scores increased in the majority of courses, suggesting the changes made had a positive effect on students’ learning experiences. The experiences of the multi-institutional trial reported here may benefit others considering such a scheme to reinvigorate and refine teaching practice and improve course evaluation scores.     

Gene-environment contributions to the development of infant vagal reactivity: the interaction of dopamine and maternal sensitivity

This study investigated dopamine receptor genes (DRD2 and DRD4) and maternal sensitivity as predictors of infant respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) and RSA reactivity, purported indices of vagal tone and vagal regulation, in a challenge task at 3, 6, and 12 months in 173 infant-mother dyads. Hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) revealed that at 3 and 6 months, RSA withdrawal in response to maternal separation was greater (suggesting expected physiological regulation) in infants without the DRD2 risk allele than those with the risk allele. At 12 months, infants with the risk allele who were also exposed to maternal sensitivity showed levels of RSA withdrawal comparable to infants who were not at genetic risk. Findings demonstrate the importance of developmental analysis of gene-environment interaction.     

Developing educational goals: insights from a Peer Assisted Teaching Scheme

The rapid changes facing higher education are placing increased focus on the quality of the student experience, achieving learning outcomes, and employability expectations. As a result, academics in teaching roles are increasingly measured on performance via student evaluations amplifying attention on professional development initiatives for academics. One such initiative is the Peer Assisted Teaching Scheme currently in practice across many Australian universities. The critical component of the scheme is the establishment of teaching goals that provide focus and direction for the peer partnership. This study addresses two questions: (1) Around which aspects do academics set their goals for teaching improvement? and (2) How do academics’ goals align with the SMART goal-setting framework that is prescribed in the scheme? Findings from five Australian universities showed that goals align with a variety of educational areas yet many were underdeveloped, or misaligned with the proposed strategy. The implications of this are discussed and a framework for setting education goals for teaching improvement is developed.     

How academics manage individual differences to team teach in higher education: a sociocultural activity theory perspective

Higher Education - In the higher education (HE) landscape worldwide, team teaching has become increasingly common. The growing prevalence of team teaching in HE has mainly been driven by the...