Strategies for enhancing teaching and learning: Reflections from Australia

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Strategies for enhancing teaching and
learningReflections from Australia

• Merrilyn Goos
• Director
• Teaching and Educational Development Institute

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EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENT

• Learning and Teaching Performance Fund (LTPF)
  used a small set of performance indicators to
  allocate funding
• Australian Universities Quality Agency
  (AUQA)conducts quality audits of higher
  education institutions
• Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency
  (TEQSA)new national body for accreditation,
  regulation, quality assurance

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EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENT

• Promote and support strategic change in higher
  education institutions for the enhancement of
  learning and teaching, including curriculum
  development and assessment

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EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENT

• Raise the profile and encourage recognition of
  the fundamental importance of teaching in higher
  education institutions and in the general
  community

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EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENT

• Foster and acknowledge excellence in teaching in
  higher education

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EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENT

• Develop effective mechanisms for the
  identification, development, dissemination and
  embedding of good individual and institutional
  practice

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EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENT

• Develop and support reciprocal national and
  international arrangements for the purpose of
  sharing and benchmarking learning and teaching
  processes

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EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENT

• Identify learning and teaching issues that impact
  on the Australian higher education system and
  facilitate national approaches to address these
  and other emerging issues

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HYPOTHETICAL

• Enhancing teaching and learning at the University
  of Utopia

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ENHANCING TEACHING AND LEARNING AT THE UNIVERSITY
OF QUEENSLAND
http//www.uq.edu.au/teaching-learning/
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UQ TEACHING AND LEARNING PROFILE
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UQ TEACHING AND LEARNING ENHANCEMENT PLAN

• GOAL 2
• Support and reward teaching excellence, and raise
  the professionalism, visibility, and status of
  teaching and learning at UQ.

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Enhance T L
Policies informed by principles(research
scholarship)
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Enhance T L
Policies informed by principles(research
scholarship)
Organisational infrastructure (committees, role
relationships)
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Incentives and rewards(career progression)
Enhance T L
Policies informed by principles(research
scholarship)
Organisational infrastructure (committees, role
relationships)
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Incentives and rewards(career progression)
Support (resources,professional learning)
Enhance T L
Policies informed by principles(research
scholarship)
Organisational infrastructure (committees, role
relationships)
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Evaluation for quality assuranceand enhancement
Incentives and rewards(career progression)
Support (resources,professional learning)
Enhance T L
Policies informed by principles(research
scholarship)
Organisational infrastructure (committees, role
relationships)
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GOAL 2 Enhance TL
Build institutional commitmentto teaching
scholarship
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GOAL 2 Enhance TL
Build institutional commitmentto teaching
scholarship
Ensure optimal arrangements for management of
TL issues
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Recognise reward teaching excellence,recruit
promote high quality teachers
GOAL 2 Enhance TL
Build institutional commitmentto teaching
scholarship
Ensure optimal arrangements for management of
TL issues
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Recognise reward teaching excellence,recruit
promote high quality teachers
Enhance staff development opportunities ensure
fit with TL priorities
GOAL 2 Enhance TL
Build institutional commitmentto teaching
scholarship
Ensure optimal arrangements for management of
TL issues
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Improve TL quality assurance enhancement
processes
Recognise reward teaching excellence,recruit
promote high quality teachers
Enhance staff development opportunities ensure
fit with TL priorities
GOAL 2 Enhance TL
Build institutional commitmentto teaching
scholarship
Ensure optimal arrangements for management of
TL issues
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INTRODUCTION OF TEACHING FOCUSED POSITIONS
Academic role Role description
Teaching and research (T R) staff The T R academic will contribute principally to teaching and research. 
Research only (RO) staff The RO academic will focus effort on research, including supervision of RHD students.
Teaching focused (TF) staff The TF academic will contribute principally to teaching and to the scholarship of teaching.
http//www.uq.edu.au/hupp/?page69611pid25173
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• Build an institutional understanding of and
  commitment to teaching scholarship.
• Educational research enhances theoretical
  understanding of teaching and learning
• Scholarly teaching evaluation of and reflection
  on ones own teaching to enhance ones
  understanding of a local problem or issue
• Teaching scholarship evidence based critical
  reflection on practice that is communicated
  within the discipline and aimed at improving
  practice

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SCHOLARSHIP OF TEACHING IS CHARACTERISED BY

• Concern for students and their learning
• Deliberate, research led design for teaching and
  learning
• Systematic implementation, analysis and
  evaluation of the design (evidence based
  inquiry) Is it improving student learning?
• Communicating the findings within the discipline
  so as to improve teaching practice

http//www.uq.edu.au/teaching-learning/index.html?
page65733
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• Recruit and promote high quality teachers.
• Promotion outcomes 2008 for Teaching Focused
  staff (n88 across all academic levels and
  Faculties)

Promotion to Successful Unsuccessful
Level B (Lecturer) 4 1
Level D (Associate Professor) 1 2
http//www.uq.edu.au/hupp/index.html?page68324pi
d0
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• Enhance staff development opportunities.
• TEDI supports Teaching Focused academics and
  promotes research and scholarship in teaching and
  learning via the CESoTL initiative (Creating
  Excellence in Scholarship of Teaching and
  Learning).
• CESoTL comprises the following activities

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CESoTL ACTIVITIES

• 1. Build staff capability within SoTL methods and
  practice
• University Staff Development Program designated
  courses on SoTL SoTL embedded within existing
  teaching and learning courses on assessment,
  eLearning and mobile technologies, RHD
  supervision, lecturing, curriculum design and
  renewal, leadership, evaluation
• Situated workshops tailored for school/faculty
  staff or curriculum teams
• Graduate Certificate in Higher Education -
  Embedding of SoTL orientation, methods, practice
  within courses.

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CESoTL ACTIVITIES

• 2. Engage and support staff in SoTL activities
• Information sessions, mentoring and support for
  staff engagement in local, institutional, and
  national funded teaching and learning grant
  schemes (Faculty TL Grants UQ TL Strategic
  Grants ALTC Schemes see http//www.uq.edu.au/te
  aching-learning/index.html?page56478)
• Readership and feedback for teaching excellence
  award submissions.

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CESoTL ACTIVITIES

• 3. Create and facilitate SoTL communities of
  practice
• UQ Teaching Learning Network facilitated by
  TEDI academics
• Support for disciplinary networks and communities
  of practice.

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CESoTL ACTIVITIES

• 4. Advocate for SoTL policies and practices
• Support Faculty Associate Deans (Academic) to
  identify local SoTL priorities and practices
• Attend and contribute to School and Faculty
  Teaching and Learning Committees, advocate for
  development of policies, initiatives and
  practices to support teaching focused staff.

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CESoTL ACTIVITIES

• 5. Develop a national and international profile
  for UQ as SoTL institution
• Conduct institutional research on UQ SoTL
  initiatives and activities
• Contribute to UQ Teaching Learning Week (e.g.,
  http//www.uq.edu.au/teaching-learning/week/2008/i
  ndex.html)
• Potential host of 2012 International Scholarship
  of Teaching and Learning Conference.

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• Improve TL quality assurance and enhancement.
• In January 2009 TEDI conducted on online survey
  of Teaching Focused academics (108 responses) and
  interviewed a sample of respondents.
• Demographics
• 57 female
• 62 full-time
• 48 Lecturers (Level B)
• 43 in Health Sciences Faculty
• 62 on fixed term contract

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KEY FINDINGS

• Participants were aware of the intrinsic rewards
  of appointment to a Teaching Focused position
  (satisfaction from teaching support from TEDI
  validation of role within the School extend
  conceptual understanding of teaching and
  learning).
• Prospects of extrinsic rewards (promotion) are
  unknown and ambiguous.
• There are diverse perceptions of the role of
  Teaching Focused academics.

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KEY FINDINGS

• The majority of Teaching Focused academics
  perceived that their workload had increased.
• There is a need to promote better understanding
  of the scholarship of teaching and learning
  amongst Teaching Focused academics.
• Teaching Focused academics have diverse support
  needs in terms of learning about and improving
  their teaching.

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WHAT CAN WE LEARN FROM YOU?

• What challenges does your university face in
  enhancing teaching and learning?
• What support does your university offer academic
  staff for enhancing teaching and learning?