The Impact Of Training Of University Teachers on their Teaching Skills, their Approach to Teaching and the Approach to Learning of their Students

Abstract

This article reports a study on the effectiveness of university teachers’ training involving 22 universities in 8 countries. A training group of teachers and their students were studied at the start of their training and one year later. A control group of new teachers received no training and both they and their students were studied in the same way. Evidence is reported of changes over time relating to three measures: (i) student ratings of their teachers using six scales from the Student Evaluation of Educational Quality questionnaire (SEEQ) and the ‘Good Teaching’ scale of the Module Experience Questionnaire (MEQ); (ii) the extent to which teachers described themselves as teacher-focused and student-focused in their approach to teaching, using two scales from the Approaches to Teaching Inventory (ATI); and (iii) the extent to which these teachers’ students take a surface approach and a deep approach to learning, using two scales from the MEQ. The article reports evidence of a range of positive changes in teachers in the training group, and in their students, and a contrasting lack of change, or negative changes, in untrained teachers from the control group.

University students’ conceptions of learning across multiple domains

“…Our findings could inform teachers about the features of their students' conceptions of learning in order to promote awareness concerning the impact of conceptions of learning on academic success in relation to gender differences. Actual literature shows how teaching approaches of teachers affect students' learning approaches and thus students' academic performance (Gibbs & Coffey, 2004;Kember & Kwan, 2000). Then, more specific in recommendations for teaching could be considered in the perspective to contribute to the success of males.…”

The ability to learn from feedback and its impact on the perception of learning

“…El nuevo conocimiento está integrado en el mundo del estudiante. Gibbs y Simpson (2004) proporcionan claves para ser un mejor receptor de la información de retorno en su estudio: La cantidad y la distribución de esfuerzo de los estudiantes, calidad y nivel de esfuerzo de los estudiantes, cantidad y el momento de la retroalimentación y calidad de la retroalimentación Contreras-Pérez y Zúñiga-González (2017) afirman que el sistema educativo debe contar con criterios estandarizados de evaluación, diseño e implementación de un sistema adecuado para recoger información y establecer estrategias de comunicación de la información para que los estudiantes aprendan de mejor forma. Por lo tanto, se considerarán en el modelo propuesto.…”

The National Effective Teaching Institute: Assessment of Impact and Implications for Faculty Development

“…The only Level 3 evaluations we found in the literature were indirect measurements in which Ho, Watkins, and Kelly (2001) and Gibbs and Coffey (2004) assessed students' approaches to studying (surface vs. deep) before and after the students' instructors had received instructional training. While such an assessment falls short of a direct evaluation of learning it still has merit, since students who take a deep approach have been shown to display a wide range of superior learning outcomes relative to students who take a surface approach (relying heavily on rote memorization of facts rather than conceptual understanding) (Meyer, Parsons, and Dunne, 1990;Ramsden, 2005).…”