Developing New Lecturers

Abstract

An educational development issue common to all disciplines and countries is how to combine generic development of staff as teachers with appropriate engagement with the specificities of teaching individual subjects. This article explores the nature of the relationship between the generic and the discipline specific, defines the role of the disciplines in educational development, and describes a residential workshop used by geographers, environmental and earth scientists in the UK to deal with their disciplines’ needs in the context of newly appointed lecturers.The workshop was marked by a high level of interaction and the sharing of ideas among the facilitators and participants. The article describes how the lecturers developed the discipline-specific element, reports on the workshop’s evaluation and suggests ways in which other disciplines and staff in other countries might adapt the ideas here.

The measurement and impact of university teacher development programs

“…The government in Australia, in common with other countries, has been focusing on an agenda of quality, value for money and enhanced participa tion for higher education, resulting in persistent attention on quality assur ance of higher education for over two decades (Chalmers, 2007(Chalmers, , 2008Ramsden, 2003;Bradley et al, 2008). This attention has not only focused on policy and practice at the sector and institutional level, but also on teach ing practices, the gulf between research and teaching quality in universities and the changing background and expectations of students (Clark et al, 2002;. In response, many Australian universities now require academic staff new to teaching to undertake an initial teacher prep aration program in the first years of their appointment and encourage their staff to regularly participate in professional development related to teaching through offering an extensive range of programs.…”

Researching and Acting: Exploring and Improving the Provision of Academic Support for Newly Appointed Staff in a Higher Education Institution in Ireland

“…Prior to this research study being initiated, a review of similar academic support centres revealed that an educational development issue common to all disciplines and countries is how to combine generic development of staff as teachers with appropriate engagement with the specificities of teaching individual subjects (Clark et al, 2002). Within the confines of a development programme for new academic staff, the issues were even broader: these new staff have a wish to be a good teacher, but quickly, and to have the breadth of vision as teachers to be able to cope with new types of students and different ways of teaching.…”

Teaching Induction Program: Framework, Design and Delivery

“… stimulate exchange of teaching ideas born from both theory and personal experience (Trowler & Knight, 2000;Simpson, Cockburn-Wootten & Spiller, 2005);  advocate induction within a disciplinary context (Clark, Healey, Jenkins, Wareham, Chalkley, Blumhof, Gravestock, Honeybone, King & Thomas, 2002);  foster a student-centred approach to learning and teaching (Biggs, 2003);…”