scholarly journals Fostering the Quality of Teaching and Learning by Developing the “Neglected Half ” of University Teachers’ Competencies

2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 73-93
Author(s):  
Barica Marentič Požarnik ◽  
Andreja Lavrič

For too long, the quality of teaching and learning in universities has been undervalued in comparison to research. Current social, economic, ecological and other challenges require that more attention be given to measures to improve the situation. Academic staff should receive incentives, policy support and high-quality pedagogical training to develop key competencies for excellence in teaching. Examples of key competencies in this area in different countries are presented as well as some schemes of policy support and pedagogical training. The casestudy from the University of Ljubljana is based on experiences gathered from four groups of participants during a course on Improving University Teaching in 2013 and 2014. They gave their opinion on the relative importance of different competencies in teaching, to what extent have they developed them during the course and, finally, which activities and methods used have most contributed to their development. At the end, some measures to foster excellence in teaching at the level of policy are proposed, as well as areas for further research.

2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 14-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paulina Mihailova

The article investigates how university lecturers taking part in the compulsory teacher training at Stockholm University (SU) conceive of the effects of standardised and formalised training on their teaching. The study explores the emotions and responses evoked among academics when everyone is required to embrace the same pedagogic philosophy of constructive alignment (Biggs 2003), adopt the language of learning outcomes and assign the same standards to diverse academic practices. The article attempts to shed light on different conceptions of the quality of teaching and learning in higher education and the interplay between the lecturers' values of academic freedom, collegiality and disciplinary expertise and the university leadership's values of efficiency, accountability and measurability of performance. The article considers how these conceptions coexist and are negotiated within the university as an organisation.


2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (7) ◽  
pp. 109
Author(s):  
Chemsi Ghizlane ◽  
Sadiq Mounir ◽  
Radid Mohamed ◽  
Talbi Mohammed

Students‘ assassment of the quality of teaching and educationis a valuable tool through which lecturers can find out what the participants think of their educational task. This is a kind of assessment which is embeded right in the centre of the pedagogical act and which brings together the principal agents pertaining to the university teaching system (students, lecturers, and the staff in charge). However, this form of assessment is disputed as it encounters significant obstacles, namely difficulties in terms of the management of this assessment as well as in terms of reliability and validity of its measuring tools. This paper aims at providing the necessary steps for an elaboration and a foundation of an online measure of evaluating teaching and education. Such a computerised evaluation is to be administeredby students who are studying at the Faculty of Science, Ben M’Sik - Casablanca, Morocco. To begin with, in this online tool of evaluatin we shall describe the stages of this elaboration, includingcertain chosen criteria. Secondly, we will show the way in which the functionalities and possibilities of an online tool of assessment can effectively be handledby students within an institute of Higher Education. In concludion,we end this study by providing a factor analysis of this computerised instrument: this is to be carried out through the most important measures, namely, validity and authenticity.


2011 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan Staley ◽  
Diana Eastcott

In recent years the University of Central England in Birmingham has made considerable investments in developing computer networks. Developments have been technology-led, and the major use of the network has been for administration. The Computer-Supported Experiential Learning Project has been designed to refocus upon the curriculum, and to encourage academic staff to use the network technologies for teaching and learning. The broad aim of the project is to investigate and systematically evaluate the appropriate use of technology to improve the quality of learning.DOI:10.1080/0968776990070107


2020 ◽  
pp. 419-432

Resumen La formación de profesores constituye un determinante estructural del progreso de los países y de las oportunidades de las personas. A su vez, la calidad del cuerpo académico universitario es un elemento fundamental que explica los procesos formativos. En este contexto, el objetivo de la investigación consiste en analizar la relevancia del profesorado universitario, específicamente, en los procesos de formación inicial docente. La investigación es de naturaleza cualitativa descriptiva que a través de una entrevista a 20 actores clave, emplea la teoría fundamentada y el análisis axial para un estudio en profundidad de las relaciones subyacentes entre las dimensiones en evaluación. Los resultados muestran que la calidad de los profesores universitarios es de la mayor importancia, en tanto los estudiantes tienen desventajas en su preparación de origen y, más aún, cuando los educadores tienen la responsabilidad de la preparación integral de sus alumnos y son el modelo sobre el que se proyecta el desempeño de los futuros docentes. Se concluye, que la calidad del cuerpo académico constituye un elemento esencial en la preparación intelectual, profesional y valórica de quienes ejercerán como futuros profesores, por cuanto los primeros son la principal referencia que los estudiantes tienen en su proceso formativo. Abstract Teacher training constitutes a structural determinant of the progress of countries and of people's opportunities. In turn, the quality of the university academic body is a fundamental element that explains the training processes. In this context, the objective of the research is to analyze the relevance of university teaching staff, specifically, in the processes of initial teacher training. The research is qualitative and descriptive in nature that, through an interview with 20 key actors, uses grounded theory and axial analysis for an in-depth study of the underlying relationships between the dimensions under evaluation. The results show that the quality of university professors is of the utmost importance, as students have disadvantages in their preparation of origin and, even more so, when educators have the responsibility of the integral preparation of their students and are the model on which is projected the performance of future teachers. It is concluded that the quality of the academic body constitutes an essential element in the intellectual, professional and value preparation of those who will act as future teachers, since the former are the main reference that students have in their training process.


2020 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 167-184
Author(s):  
Mohamed Hamadikinane Maiga

اعتبار مقاصد الشريعة في المؤسّسات التعليميّة الإسلاميّة العليا له أثر كبير في تطوير البرامج التعليميّة، الذي يؤدّي إلى جودة التعليم والتعلّم، وتحقيق المصالح الدنيوية والدينيّة. وهذا البحث يأتي لتحقيق أهداف ساميّة وهي: إبراز دور مقاصد الشّريعة وأثرها في تطوير برامج المؤسّسات التعليميّة الإسلاميّة العليا، وبيان أهمّيّة مقاصد الشريعة للعالم والمتعلّم، ودور مقاصد الشّريعة وأثرها في تكوين المواطن الصالح. والمنهج المتبع في هذا البحث هو المنهج الوصفي التحليلي المبني على الاستقراء وتحليل البيانات. وقد خلص البحث إلى أنّ مراعاة مقاصد الشريعة عند وضع البرامج التعليميّة، تستلزم الاهتمام بواقع المجتمع الديني، والاجتماعي، والاقتصادي، والثقافي، وأنّ التطوير الإداري هو ركيزة أساسيّة لأيّ تطوير تعليمي وتربوي في المؤسّسات الجامعيّة، ويتمّ ذلك  من خلال التخطيط، والتنظيم، والقيادة، والرقابة، وتقويم الأداء. Consideration of Maqāsid al-Shariah (Purposes of Shariah) in Higher Islamic Educational Institutions has a major impact on the development of educational programs that leads to the quality of teaching and learning, and the achievement of worldly and religious interests.  This paper has some great aims that are highlighting the role of Maqāsid al-Shariah and its impact on developing the programs of Islamic Higher Educational Institutions, explaining the importance of Maqāsid al-Shariah to the Scholar and the learner and the role of the purposes of Shariah and its impact on the formation of a good citizen. The methodology used in this research is the descriptive analytical approach based on the induction and data analysis. The research concluded that observing the purposes of Shariah at developing educational programs requires the attention to the reality of religious, social, economic and cultural society, and that the administrative development is a basic pillar for any educational development in the university institutions. This can be done through the planning, organizing, leading, controlling and evaluating the performance.


SinkrOn ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 164-169
Author(s):  
Hendri Noviyanto ◽  
Bayu Mukti

The study period is quite influential in the assessment of a university. The imbalance in the ratio of students to lecturers causes the quality of teaching and learning to decline, this is because one lecturer has to manage many students. Acquisition of accreditation scores and society's assumptions about higher education are also strongly influenced by the number of student graduations on time. Therefore, the prediction of the accuracy of the study period is needed as consideration for related parties to solve the problem of student learning delay. Sources of data in this study were taken from a database stored at the University of Surakarta, namely the Temporary Achievement Index with data of 209 instances and 5 attributes. The proposed method in this study is the Sequential Minimal Optimization algorithm. The validation method uses k-fold Cross-Validation with a value of K = 10. This method is compared with other methods such as naive Bayes, KNN, and Decision Tree. The results of this study, the proposed method can predict the accuracy of the study period quite well with the acquisition of accuracy of 88.52%. However, several other methods such as NaiveBayes obtained better accuracy of 90.91%, KNN of 91.86%, and Decision Tree of 96.65%. From the results of the comparison of these methods, the Decision Tree obtained the highest accuracy value. In future studies, researchers aim to enrich features in the prediction process. These features are related to student activities, such as student backgrounds, social activities, additional activities on campus and off-campus, and other aspects.


Author(s):  
Maria Giulia Cantiani

The paper illustrates a set of teaching practices applied by the author in the course of Ecology, addressed to third year students of the First Cycle Degree (BSc) in Environmental and Land Engineering, at the University of Trento (Italy). The features of the university context and the main characteristics of these students are described, also referring to changes which have occurred over time. On the basis of a twenty-five-year teaching experience, the author highlights the challenges and opportunities of an approach aimed at involving students in the learning process, raising interest and curiosity towards ecological issues, stimulating students’ emotional competencies and  their capacity to critically reflect on their own educational experience. In conclusion some comments are made regarding the need for a greater engagement by the academic staff towards non-conventional teaching and learning experiences. In particular, a more integrated method of evaluation of the quality of teaching is sought, effective in taking into account different approaches and techiniques and comparing learning outcomes.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-85
Author(s):  
Jana Marie Safrankova ◽  
Jana Marie Safrankova

The evaluation of the quality of teaching and the evaluation of education at universities, methods of evaluating teaching and assessment are one of the key criteria for university evaluation. At present, a project of the ESF project of the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen was realized and one of its activities is focused on "Improving Educational Activities and Modern Educational Trends" and on the subsequent implementation and reflection of student education with new teaching methods. The questionary survey was conducted in 2019 with 616 respondents from the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen, who is the only one public higher education institution in the Pilsen Region. The results analyze in detail the views of the students - taking into account the extension of pedagogical competencies within the framework of the career order. The aim of the project is a comprehensive system of interconnection of the education of academic staff in the area of increasing pedagogical competencies with introduction of new teaching methods into practice and taking into account the extension of pedagogical competencies within the framework of the career order. The results of a survey focused on evaluating the quality of teaching methods confirmed a number of mostly known means of activating teaching, interactive teaching, communication, discussion, the role of the personality of the lecturer and the instructor. These activation approaches need to be continued.


2021 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gwen D. Erlam ◽  
Nick Garrett ◽  
Norina Gasteiger ◽  
Kelvin Lau ◽  
Kath Hoare ◽  
...  

The COVID-19 pandemic and related lock downs have accelerated the need for online and remote teaching within university settings. However, due to the abrupt nature of the pandemic, many academic staff were not prepared for this forced transition. This study aimed to understand how the pandemic affected academics at a New Zealand university, with regards to their transition to emergency remote teaching. Specifically, it explores the challenges as well as benefits academics experienced during this transition. Recommendations for future online learning are also made. Academic staff (N = 67) at a New Zealand University completed an anonymous online survey. Quantitative data were analyzed statistically using descriptive and inferential statistics, while qualitative data were analyzed thematically. Major challenges experienced included miscommunication from the university, concerns about student access to technology, finding a quiet space to work, lack of digital competence skills, too much screen-time, managing work hours, and work/life balance. Benefits included enhanced flexibility, enhanced teacher creativity, increasing autonomy of learners, and reduced commute time. Looking forward, academic staff desired future teaching to include blended learning and virtual immersion. New strategies of working remotely are being explored to facilitate teaching and learning while catering to the preferences and skills of both educators and students. Our findings honor the considerable agility of academic staff who sought to sustain and enhance excellence in remote education. At an institutional level our findings point to the need for staff to be supported by their institutions as they further refine their work within new-found spaces.


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