In higher education, despite the emphasis on student-centred pedagogical approaches, undergraduate research methods pedagogy remains surprisingly teacher-directed. Consequently, it may lead to research methods students assuming that becoming a researcher involves gathering information rather than it being a continuous developmental process. To combat this idea, a reflective student-centred pedagogical approach is evaluated for encouraging students’ development as researchers. In this study, undergraduate research methods students piloted a research method and produced a reflective essay of their research experience. Qualitative analysis of the students’ reflective essay demonstrated that students showed an awareness of both their research skills such as choosing an appropriate research instrument and their researcher identity such as the metacognition of their research competence. Pedagogical approaches that encourage ‘reflection on action’ in the research curriculum can, therefore, help students to articulate their researcher identity and build their research skills confidence and should be actively promoted

Abstract

Neoliberalisation of academia has led to an increasing recruitment of doctoral students in teaching roles. Whilst there is evidence of doctoral students being engaged in teaching roles and the reasons for doing so, there is a pressing need to understand their experiences and to develop effective support practices to help them in their roles as teachers. Using borderlands theory as a lens, the thematic analysis of case study data from doctoral students in two English universities indicates that although they were navigating similar borderlands, the structural inequalities posed by their institutions led to differential support for their teaching roles and teacher identity development. The paper highlights the need for aligning doctoral roles to academic roles. It concludes by challenging the precarious support available for doctoral students, and proposes recommendations for the holistic development of doctoral students as competent and successful teachers (and researchers) in an increasingly precarious academia.

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In the current higher education (HE) environment, indicators of 'teaching excellence' (TE) are increasingly under the spotlight. The literature offers a wide range of models and perspectives, but also highlights the need for greater (comparative) scrutiny of the perceptions of those at the centre -staff teaching across the disciplines in different countries. This article aims to contribute to ongoing debates by investigating and comparing the views of 120 academic staff teaching in one of two countries -England and Australia -in an attempt to deepen our appreciation of their definitions and understandings. The findings from this two-stage enquiry using online questionnaires and interviews indicate broad commonalities in the ways academics define TE, centred on facilitative, interactive pedagogy related to individual professional aspirations; they also reveal widely shared reservations about the term's legitimacy and institutional/marketized (ab)use. As such, the findings offer policy-makers and institutions useful insights at a time where TE definitions and metrics are growing global pre-occupations. Literature reviewPerhaps the first thing to note from the literature is a widely reported lack of consensus on a commonly agreed definition of TE (Greatbatch and Holland 2016;Gunn and Fisk 2013).This fluidity of definition is matched by a degree of terminological flux in how the construct is also expressed, with competing coinages such as 'teaching excellence,' 'teacher excellence' and 'excellent teaching.' Again, the nuanced differences implied by these terms are not universally consistent, reinforcing the 'ambiguity and ambivalence across the sector as to what constitutes excellence ' (Gunn and Fisk 2013,19). Despite the contested nature of the concept, educationists have of course long been concerned with definitions of TE, and a number of these will now be examined.Ramsden (2003) has devoted considerable research attention to the topic, and has identified a number of central features in relation to TE in HE. These include a wide range of qualities, skills and dispositions, such as expert subject knowledge, communication and information technology skills, having a good sense of humour, being reflective, approachable, passionate and supportive, and providing timely feedback, among others. Fried (2001) singles out the important role of passion in this respect, while Handy (1990) identifies six personal 'efactors' -energy, excitement, enthusiasm, effort, effervescence and enterprise. Sherman et al.'s study from 1987 suggests five characteristics of excellence -enthusiasm, clarity, organization, stimulation and a love of knowledge, qualities largely echoed more recently in Bradley et al.'s (2015) UK study of student perceptions of excellence. Parker (2015) offers a tri-partite model, based on personal attributes (enthusiasm, creativity); role performance (providing authentic engagement and relevance); and positive student-teacher relationships.Su and Wood (2012) acknowledge the large number of models revealed in the...