Learning Our Lesson Review Of Quality Teaching In Higher Education

This book explores the interplay between actors within educational institutions, organisational structure, commitment of senior leadership, involvement of faculty and students, and evaluation instruments in order to find ways of improving the quality of teaching.

Although educators continue to face the issue of maintaining quality teaching practices, academic managers and educational developers face significant challenges when changing in higher education teaching strategies. Cases on Quality Teaching Practices in Higher Education presents international case studies of individual approaches and institutional examples to benefit teachers at the individual level as well as institutional leaders involved in change. This publication is suitable for both undergraduate and graduate level courses in education related best practices in pedagogy, innovation in the use of technology, and the future direction of universities in the advancement of teaching practices.

This book examines the power relationships that organize and facilitate quality assurance in higher education. It investigates power in terms of macro systems of accountability, surveillance and regulation, and uncovers the ways in which quality is experienced by academics and managers in higher education. Louise Morley reveals some of the hidden transcripts behind quality assurance and poses significant questions: * What signs of quality in higher education are being performed and valued? * What losses, gains, fears and anxieties are activated by the procedures? * Is the culture of excellence resulting in mediocrity? Quality and Power in Higher Education covers a wide range of issues including: the policy contexts, new managerialism, the costs of quality assurance, collegiality, peer review, gender and equity implications, occupational stress, commodification and consumer values in higher education, performance, league tables, benchmarking, increasing workloads and the long-term effects on the academy. It draws upon Morley's empirical work in the UK on international studies and on literature from sociology, higher education studies, organization studies and feminist theory. It is important reading for students and scholars of higher education policy and practice, and for university managers and policy-makers.

Drawing on material presented at a one day conference, this collection addresses the need to recognize academics' contributions to higher education, as well as the ways in which academics' efforts in the teaching and learning process can be acknowledged and suitably rewarded.

Incorporating both theoretical and practical perspectives, this volume of papers explores varied aspects of peer review of teaching in higher education. The section on theory features contributions from academics based in Europe, North America and Australia. It provides a number of models demonstrating ways in which collegial peer commentary can enhance the quality of learning and teaching. The chapters examine in detail the importance of communication and leadership, and deploy evidence from one-on-one interviews that evince the value of considering collegiality, emotions, attitudes, and spaces in peer review. The analysis shows how these factors are central to the ways in which lecturers and teachers communicate with each other to create constructive opportunities for learning. The chapters on practical considerations detail the peer review process and include case studies from institutions in Africa, Europe, North America and Australia, which focus on different areas of the topic, including peer review as a quality assurance mechanism, peer review in distance education, peer review in foundation courses, and peer review embedded within a department and across a university. The book ends with an international perspective on the role of peer review in ensuring a holistic approach to quality enhancement in learning and teaching.

Universities are increasingly being required to pay greater attention to improving teaching and enhancing student learning. This text will assist universities and colleges to achieve these goals by establishing an approach to institutional change which is well-founded on both research and practical experience.

"This book is a sophisticated and insightful conceptualization of outcomes-based learning developed from the concept of constructive alignment. The first author has already made a significant contribution to the scholarship and practice of teaching and learning in universities…Together with the second author, there is now added richness through the practical implementation and practices. The ideas in this book are all tried and shown to contribute to more successful learning experience and outcome for students." Denise Chalmers, Carrick Institute of Education, Australia Teaching for Quality Learning at University focuses on implementing a constructively aligned outcomes-based model at both classroom and institutional level. The theory, which is now used worldwide as a framework for good teaching and assessment, is shown to: Assist university teachers who wish to improve the quality of their own teaching, their students' learning and their assessment of learning outcomes Aid staff developers in providing support for teachers Provide a framework for administrators interested in quality assurance and enhancement of teaching across the whole university The book's "how to" approach addresses several important issues: designing high level outcomes, the learning activities most likely to achieve them in small and large classes, and appropriate assessment and grading procedures. It is an accessible, jargon-free guide to all university teachers interested in enhancing their teaching and their students' learning, and for administrators and teaching developers who are involved in teaching-related decisions on an institution-wide basis. The authors have also included useful web links to further material.

Teaching for Learning and Learning for Teaching focuses on the emerging global governmental and institutional agenda about higher education teaching quality and the role that peer review can play in supporting improvements in teaching and student outcomes. This agenda is a pervasive element of the further development of higher education internationally through activities of governments, global agencies, institutions of higher education, discrete disciplines, and individual teachers. Many universities have adopted student evaluations as a mechanism to appraise the quality of teaching. These evaluations can be understood as providing a "customer-centric" portrait of quality; and, when used as the sole arbiter of teaching performance they do not instil confidence in the system of evaluation by academic teaching staff. Providing peer perspectives as counterpoint, whether in a developmental or summative form, goes some way to alleviating this imbalance and is the impetus for the resurgence of interest in peer review and observation of teaching. This book seeks to recognise cases of peer review of teaching in Higher Education to affirm best practices and identify areas that require improvement in establishing local, national and international benchmarks of teaching quality.