A proposed 'ladder of learning' for academics' professional development in teaching

Abstract

In higher education institutions globally, academic development practitioners whose work is to professionally develop academic staff in the area of teaching, have historically come into the profession without specific formal training. Their ideas and practice stem from the context of their work and life experience, and their knowledge grows with experience on the job. As a result, there is a great variety of knowledge and expertise that shapes professional development activities in higher education institutions. The aim of this article is to report on the findings of an investigation which drew on the collective wisdom of academic development practitioners who participated in a workshop on the topic of professional development. Activity Theory was used as an interpretive lens to identify key aspects from the data and align these onto a 'Ladder of Learning' -a hierarchically structured framework to inform appropriate professional development activities for academics. The insights gained from the findings may be used to strengthen academic professional development practice in support of ongoing improvement of the quality of teaching.

Determination of Factors Affecting Academician's Happiness Level: Scale Development Research

“…For their professional development, academics are required to use resources and materials (such as computers) to reflect and further develop their disciplinary knowledge, learning, and teaching theories (conceptually), and to reflect on what they have learned. In this respect, academicians need to balance their workloads that include teaching, research, and academic citizenship in their career progression (Cameron & Woods, 2016). This shows that for professional development, the individual must be able to use their existing resources effectively and efficiently in the academic activity environment.…”

Factors influencing intention to leave of younger employees in an academic institution

“…However, this is not the only factor that influences young academics' intention to leave the academic profession. Challenges such as large classes, variety of needs of the diverse student population, underprepared student cohorts, growing regulation of quality assurance adding to the administrative load as well as a publish or perish culture increase the burden academics experience (Cameron & Woods, 2016). Some of the factors seen to be influencing younger academic employees to leave are discussed below: Factors such as expectation could influence employees' intention to leave.…”

“…Therefore, it is imperative that methods are developed to train and retain these employees (Simons & Buitendach, 2013). Professional development in higher education requires a variety of knowledge and expertise (Cameron & Woods, 2016).…”

“…They experience pressure to complete post-graduate studies at different levels of their careers to gain promotion. The burden of administrative processes on academics, in general, is seen as a factor that causes a loss of autonomy in their roles (Cameron & Woods, 2016;Kogan & Teichler, 2007). Factors such as external funding and integrating online learning are nowadays considered part of the academic profile (Clarke, Hyde, & Drennan, 2013).…”

Exploring faculty learning needs towards their teaching development in two Greek universities

“…Academia consists of a highly demanding profession, due to fulfill multiple roles, such as researching, teaching and administrative roles. Nowadays they owe to respond to multiple challenges on higher education landscape, such as massification of higher education, increasingly diverse student body, students' mobility (European Commission, 2019), knowledge society, marketization of higher education (King & Bunce, 2020), preparation for life as active citizens in a democratic society and personal development (Bergan, 2006), calls for holistic development of students (Quinlan, 2011), Information and Communication Technology (ICT) (Cameron & Woods, 2016) and recently the extended use of online teaching and distance learning due to COVID-19 pandemic (UNESCO, 2020). Therefore, faculty teaching development is a priority in individual and institutional level.…”