Introduction

Professional Development in HE
In this section:

What Shapes our Perception of Lecturer Training Courses (PGCHE)?

A Dentist's Professional Development for Teaching and Learning

Introduction

Lee Andresen

External links

Professional development: comments archive

Preparing university teachers

Introduction

In recent years a great deal more attention has been given to the quality of teaching and learning in higher education institutions in many parts of the world. This is reflected in the range of programmes, mainly in-house, which these institutions provide for the training and development of staff in the skills of teaching and learning. The programmes include those for continuing professional development (CPD) as well as for initial training of teachers in HE.

What consitutes an acceptable programme of initial training for higher education teachers? Is there a need for a nationally accredited programme? What constitues CPD and how best can this be organised? These are some of the issues which are currently hotly debated. The information and links provided in this section should provide you with some understanding of a few of the programmes which are available and of the issues involved. If you wish to comment on any of these issues please send us your thoughts.

In the UK an Institute for Learning and Teaching was established (1999), now incorporated into the Higher Education Academy, as a national professional body for teachers in higher education. For similar moves elsewhere, see for example recommendation 24 of the Australian West Report, 1998.

Resource Materials

On preparing teachers in HE

Background materials on preparing university teachers
These background materials were prepared by Graham Gibbs of the Open University when he initially hosted the Deliberations section on preparing university teachers in 1996.
Skill, Stance, Sensibility: Three Foci in Graduate Education Studies for Academics (Lee W. Andresen)
A paper which discusses the 'broad thrust' of what a typical programme of training for teachers in higher education should be like. First presented at the ICED Conference on Preparing University Teachers, 1996.
A Dentist's Professional Development for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education: The SEDA Programme
(Kevin Hak-Kong Yip)
What Shapes our Perception of Lecturer Training Courses (PGCHE)?
(Neil Shirtcliffe)

Programmes for Preparing Teachers and for Continuing Professional Development in HE
Details about these programmes can be found by searching appropriate links in the Educational and Staff Development Centres section of Deliberations. Many of these centres also publish online resources likely to be useful to both the new and experienced teacher in HE.

External Links

Readers' Comments: A lively and continuous process of debate on learning and teaching in higher education is a key aim of Deliberations. We invite you to share your thoughts on this topic with other readers. Comments are posted in a comments archive.

Preparing University Teachers - The Challenge
Some challenging questions from Prof. Graham Gibbs to those responsible for designing and implementing programmes to prepare teachers in higher education. You are invited to send in your comments on some of the issues raised.

There are a number of challenging questions facing those who are responsible for designing and implementing programmes to prepare teachers:

What are appropriate goals for such programmes? Some emphasise micro-level teaching skills, others understanding of student learning, the development of reflective practitioners or induction into professional roles.
What is an appropriate size for a course? The largest programmes are currently fifty times the size of the smallest.
Who should run such programmes? In the UK personnel departments, educational development units, isolated part time staff development officers and even ad hoc teaching committees all run programmes.
Are all categories of teachers equally well served? 'Learning from Audit' identified the almost universal lack of adequate support for the increasing proportion of part time teachers in the UK.
Does the current emphasis on programmes for new full time lecturers acknowledge that the route into teaching today is increasingly via teaching assistantships and similar posts, as it is in the USA?
Do programmes emphasise generic teaching and learning issues at the expense of the unique nature of teaching within teachers' disciplines?
Should successful completion of programmes be linked to personnel decisions such as probation?
Are the costs of such programmes justified by their impact? How are alternative programmes being evaluated for their cost-effectiveness?


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Page last updated 25 July 2005	ISSN 1363-6715	© 2010 London Metropolitan University