scholarly journals Supporting high-quality teaching in higher education through the HowUTeach self-reflection tool

2022 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 61-67
Author(s):  
Anna Parpala ◽  
Liisa Postareff

This article introduces the development of the self-reflection tool HowUTeach for higher education teachers. HowUTeach is a research-based self-assessment tool created primarily for teachers in both science universities and universities of applied sciences. The purpose of HowUTeach is to increase teachers’ awareness of their teaching and thereby enhance individual self-reflection relating to work and well-being. HowUTeach uses responses to a questionnaire as a base to generate feedback that includes descriptions of different teaching dimensions as well as ideas on how to develop and improve teaching practices. This article defines these dimensions and presents the idea of counter feedback. The results from the pilot tests of HowUTeach were promising, and teachers identified that the instrument advanced their teaching practices. The tool is now being developed further.

2020 ◽  
pp. 289-298
Author(s):  
Ulf-Daniel Ehlers ◽  
Patricia Bonaudo

Digitalisation is an issue of growing importance at all higher education institutions (HEIs). It is often developed and driven bottom-up. In this regard, the intended self-assessment tool that the present paper aims to present “DIGI-HE” will support higher education institutions in developing their individual approaches to foster digitisation, methodological and conceptual approach. The present paper will outline the methodological procedure of design and subsequent validation of the tool. In a time when experimentation with, and mainstreaming of digital technology use is progressing to develop holistic strategies that encompass learning and teaching, research and innovation, as well as cooperation and outreach DIGI-HE will represent a self-reflection tool adapted to higher education to support the institutional efforts, to develop and implement strategies, which purposeful and holistic in comprising both missions, education and research. It will also furthermore attach particular importance to the need for dialogue among all actors and stakeholders in digitalisation, and address areas of activities relation to cooperation and outreach, including internationalisation strategies and practices.


2010 ◽  
Vol 18 ◽  
pp. 20
Author(s):  
María Muradás López ◽  
Pilar Mendoza

The purpose of this study is to analyze the socialization to teaching experience of faculty who participated in the project Visibilidad. The main objective of this project was to obtain knowledge related to teaching from faculty who are considered good teachers in Spanish universities. This knowledge could enlighten how the socialization to teaching occurs as well as insights on how to improve the process. Based on the international literature on socialization to teaching in higher education and using a methodology of generating themes inductively, the experiences of faculty at the beginning of their careers were analyzed. The data was collected using semi-structured interviews. We found that role models of socialization, self-reflection and formal socialization are the most common experiences reported by participants. This suggests that reinforcing these elements deliberately at an institutional level, it is possible to improve the socialization process of new faculty in higher education as well as their teaching practices.


2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 231-247
Author(s):  
Julie A. Mooney

In this reflective paper, I interweave autoethnographic personal narrative and critical self-reflection with theoretical literature in order to engage and wrestle with decolonizing and Indigenizing my teaching and curricular practices in Canadian higher education. Acknowledging that walking this path is challenging, I seek multiple trailheads in an effort to access my hidden curriculum, my complicit knowledge, and unsettling moments that have the potential to transform me. My objective is to critically interrogate myself to prepare for respectfully and appropriately moving toward reconciliation in my relationships with Indigenous colleagues, students, and communities, and in my work as a curriculum maker.


2016 ◽  
Vol 35 (6) ◽  
pp. 1284-1297 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aija Töytäri ◽  
Arja Piirainen ◽  
Päivi Tynjälä ◽  
Liisa Vanhanen-Nuutinen ◽  
Kimmo Mäki ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Monika Dannerer ◽  
Martina Gaisch ◽  
Ute Smit

Based on statistical information and policy texts, this chapter provides an overview and evaluation of the use and roles of English in traditional research universities and universities of applied sciences in Austria. While internationalization is interpreted and realized in different ways by different institutions, English functions as a central element. A factor supporting the widely unquestioned use of English might be found in the socio-economically strong position that German still enjoys in business, work-life, and higher education in Europe. This predominance is also noticeable in the utilitarian relevance awarded to both German and English in Austrian higher education, thereby failing to recognize the multi-layered relevance multilingualism could have in implementing internationalization policies that would go beyond Englishization practices.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia M. Schütte ◽  
Gert Van der Sypt ◽  
Alexander Gabriel ◽  
Saskia Kretschmer

The COVID 19 pandemic is a worldwide phenomenon: On the one hand, it poses challenges to all social subsystems, on the other, it tests the extent to which they can cope with such situations. This is also the case in higher education. In this context, digitization, which has been driven forward in the field for years, provides approaches and instruments for adapting to such situations by converting the system as far as possible to operation in virtual space. This has been done in many places in universities and universities of applied sciences. It remains to be seen how this is perceived by those involved. Therefore, the following article addresses the question: To what extent has the conversion of teaching and learning as a result of the restrictions on teaching caused by COVID 19 worked from the point of view of the teachers? To answer it, this paper presents empirical results of an online survey among teachers of the Cooperation Network for Risk, Safety & Security Studies (CONRIS). The results indicate a broad use of various digital tools for teaching and communication with students, but also deficits in the area of crisis structures as well as in social regards.


Author(s):  
Tannis Morgan ◽  
Elizabeth Childs ◽  
Christina Hendricks ◽  
Michelle Harrison ◽  
Irwin DeVries ◽  
...  

This collaborative self-study examines how five higher education institutions in British Columbia (BC), Canada, have achieved momentum with openness and are implementing and sustaining their efforts. A goal of this research was to see whether an institutional self-assessment tool—adapted from blended learning and institutional transformation research—can help to assess how an institution has progressed with its open education initiatives. By adopting both an appreciative and a critical approach, the researchers at these five BC institutions compared the similarities and differences between their institutional approaches and the evolution of their initiatives. The paper includes discussion of how a self-assessment tool for institutional open education practices (OEP) can be applied to OEP initiatives at an institutional level and shares promising practices and insights that emerge from this research.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (10) ◽  
pp. 3660
Author(s):  
Aliyu Aliyu ◽  
Leandros Maglaras ◽  
Ying He ◽  
Iryna Yevseyeva ◽  
Eerke Boiten ◽  
...  

As organisations are vulnerable to cyberattacks, their protection becomes a significant issue. Capability Maturity Models can enable organisations to benchmark current maturity levels against best practices. Although many maturity models have been already proposed in the literature, a need for models that integrate several regulations exists. This article presents a light, web-based model that can be used as a cybersecurity assessment tool for Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) of the United Kingdom. The novel Holistic Cybersecurity Maturity Assessment Framework incorporates all security regulations, privacy regulations, and best practices that HEIs must be compliant to, and can be used as a self assessment or a cybersecurity audit tool.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Susana Fonseca ◽  
Joana Lobo Fernandes

Purpose Providing higher education institutions (HEIs) with a tool for self-assessing their social responsibility (SR) that generates the information and knowledge necessary to a strategic approach to adopting the Green Paper recommendations about the SR of HEIs. Setting out the collaborative policy development process to construct the tool “Indicators of SR of HEIs” (ISRHEI).[AQ1] Design/methodology/approach After a literature review, including self-assessment (SA) tools and leading guidelines, a working group of 24 Portuguese HEIs was created to co-construct the ISRHEI tool, which was then subject to validation in a pilot study. Findings There are 34 indicators in the ISRHEI tool, structured by sequential levels according to the HEI alignment with SR (policies, procedures, practices and monitoring along a strategic continuum) hoping to achieve impacts on the organisational, educational, cognitive and social level. Originality/value This is an innovative and national policy development process for SR in Portugal. It gives insights into guiding documents, SA indicators for SR and the process of developing consensus on this topic amongst 24 HEIs in Portugal. The ISRHEI tool is tailored to the specific characteristics and level of development of HEIs.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document