3. Course goals

• Orientation to academic University life
• Development of basic teaching competence
• Development of related non-teaching competencies
• Development of reflective practitioners

Orientation to academic University life

Teaching in higher education is one of the only professions with no professional training. Most other professions (such as medicine and law) address issues of professional responsibility and ethics as part of professional preparation. The lack of clarity of a lecturers teaching role and responsibility towards students, for example, is perhaps not surprising. Some GTA programmes in the USA spend time on wider ethical and professional concerns.

Some programmes also show concern for the nature of a university and its role in society. In Sweden it is common for preparation of teachers to include philosophical debate about this and its implications for professional roles.

In the USA only a small proportion of higher education institutions offer PhD programmes and yet almost all academic posts require a PhD. This means that a small number of research oriented institutions do most of the preparation of teachers for the majority of teaching-oriented institutions. They do it rather inappropriately, grossly mis-orienting people towards the kinds of institutions they will eventually work and teach in. In the UK there is clearly a bias in appointments towards those with research degrees from research institutions, and from Oxford and Cambridge in particular, and most preparation for teaching still takes place after appointment as a lecturer, not before, so this is less of an issue.

Academic life also involves membership of professional societies, consultancy to the world outside the university and service to the community. In the USA and Australia more emphasis is paid to this than in the UK. Some programmes also attempt to prepare teachers for this wider role or at least to orient new teachers to the demands and expectations which lie ahead.

Development of basic teaching competence

In higher education there has often been a reluctance to specify even basic competencies which teachers ought to have - and this of course shows up in experienced teachers' use of the overhead projector, for example. In contrast Certificate courses for Further Education lecturers in the UK, and similar courses for new lecturers in Polytechnics in New Zealand, frequently aim to achieve an extended list of teaching competencies which are specified in some detail and are not negotiable. If you cannot demonstrate these competencies then you cannot pass the course and this can have serious consequences for your employability.

It is relatively common for programmes for new teachers in higher education to attempt to provide a basic 'toolkit' of techniques for lecturing, discussion groups and marking, especially in a brief initial course. Programmes for GTAs may consist of little else. It is less common to attempt to specify what these techniques are or to assess their competent use.

The SEDA Accreditation Scheme specifies learning outcomes which must be demonstrated by the submission of evidence. Teachers have to demonstrate that they have, for example 'designed a teaching programme from a course outline or syllabus' and 'used a wide and appropriate range of teaching and learning methods effectively and efficiently, to work with large groups, small groups and one-to-one'. The standards associated with these outcomes are specified through 'values' such as 'recognising individual differences between students'. The model of competence involved here is very different to that involving micro-specification of skills but still retains a notion of threshold levels of competence below which a teacher should not pass the course.

Development of non-teaching competencies

Where the preparation of university teachers is managed by personnel departments rather than educational development units there is often an emphasis on non-teaching aspects of teachers' duties such as committee work, managing time, using information technology or pastoral care of students. This is partly a consequence of personnel departments not having the competence to teach academics about teaching. However it is equally the case that educational development units often lack the competence, or inclination, to teach about non-teaching aspects of teachers' duties. New teachers soon find themselves selecting students, managing examinations committees and managing course teams, with no preparation for these tasks. Both personnel departments and educational development units tend to lack the competence to teach about applying for research grants, reviewing academic papers or supervising research projects and research students, and in the UK these aspects of teachers' duties are probably least well prepared for.

Development of reflective practitioners

Most programmes for new teachers are over within a year and most teachers will never again be involved in an intensive or extended programme about teaching. To set a teacher up for the rest of their teaching career it may be more important to develop an approach towards self-improvement and a habit of experimentation and reflection than to develop specific teaching competencies. Many programmes do not specify competencies or even pay much attention to teaching skills but instead concentrate on developing teachers as reflective practitioners. This is part of a much wider revolution in professional training (see Schon, 1987, in Literature).