ABSTRACT
In this Editorial, we take the opportunity to expand on the second Journal of University Teaching and Learning theme, Developing Teaching Practice. Building on Editorial 18(4), which articulated changes to higher education in the period roughly between 1980 and 2021, we believe it is pertinent to explore the changing conceptions of academic as 'teacher'. We use Engestrom's cultural-historical activity theory as a lens to consider how higher education teachers are situated in the current context of rapid changes arising from the COVID-19 pandemic. We explore possible future purposes of higher education to consider flow-on impacts on the purpose of its teachers and how their roles might change to accommodate future expectations. We assert the need to challenge the notion of the academic as a person who is recruited into higher education largely because of their subject matter expertise while maintaining strong commitment to teaching expertise that is grounded in scholarship, critical self-reflection, and agency. In our various teaching and leadership roles, and consistent with the literature, we have observed paradoxical outcomes from the nexus between risk, innovation and development, driving risk aversity and risk management, with significant (contradictory) impacts on teaching, teachers and student learning. The barriers to implementing innovative curricula include questions of do students get a standardised and 'safe' educational experience or are they challenged and afforded the opportunity to transform and grow? Are they allowed to fail? Related, do teachers have genuine agency, as an educator, or are they positioned as agents of a higher education system? We explore these questions and invite our readers to engage in serious reflexivity and identify strategies that help them question their attitudes, thought processes, and assumptions about teaching and student learning. We welcome papers that contribute values-based conversations and explore ways of dealing with and adapting to change in our teaching practices, case studies of learning through failure, change and adaptation and the development of the field. Practitioner Notes 1. It is useful and important to explore changing conceptions of higher education teachers and teaching practice in the context of rapid changes and emergent (sometimes perverse) outcomes and impacts. 2. Engtrom's Cultural Historical Activity Theory is a useful lens for identifying issues and reflecting on the positioning of teachers and students within higher education. 3. JUTLP welcomes papers that contribute to values-based conversations and scholarly exploration of both the notion and practices of teachers.
ABSTRACT
Our Curriculum Evaluation and Research-STEM Teaching Fellowship embeds leadership for active engagement in scholarship within teaching teams. It is a response to Higher Education Standards Framework (HESF) minimum requirements for continuous evaluation informing ongoing curriculum transformation, specifically the TEQSA Guidance Note: Scholarship (2018). The Fellowship contextualised the existing ‘Curriculum Evaluation Research (CER) framework' (Kelder & Carr, 2017) for the specific characteristics of STEM degrees and teaching teams. The framework supports team-based planning and doing activities that are aligned with institutional structures, processes and governance instruments, so that scholarship can be made visible, monitored, measured, met and reported at the level of degree curriculum. Here we describe fellowship outcomes in the context of responses to COVID-19 using a case study at the University of Tasmania. © 2021. All Rights Reserved.
ABSTRACT
COVID-19 has significantly impacted teaching and learning in higher education, leading institutions to embrace Emergency Remote Teaching (ERT) in response to school and university closure. A systematic review research methodology was used to identify, analyse and synthesise literature on professional development in higher education published between 2010 and 2020. Following an inductive thematic analysis, the authors identified four themes that represent the literature: learning approaches, delivery modes, design features and institutional support. Based on the emerging themes and the analysis of the selection of studies, a framework for professional development is proposed to prepare teachers in higher education for ERT. The use of the framework is recommended to guide higher education institutions in best assisting their academic staff during an ERT context.
ABSTRACT
The year 2020 will unlikely be one that any member of the higher education community will forget. It has posed challenges and opportunities to rethink aspects of tertiary learning and teaching, and also confirmation of some of the better practices we have engaged in. For some, the novel coronavirus pandemic has forced bad practice – such as simple and rapid digitalisation of existing curriculum – often bundled into the pedagogically-ambiguous ‘emergency remote teaching’ or ERT (Toquero, 2020). The intense pressure for academics to deliver curriculum online, typically to the exception of time for comprehensive academic development and upskilling. The practice for an overnight transition to online learning, while deemed by many to have been essential at the time, has created a myriad of future decisions to be actioned across the sector. These range from deploying future academic development workshops to transform the workforce for continued online learning to employment of educational technologists, learning designers, or similar to enable purposeful decisions of pedagogy within online learning environments. Financial constraints have tempered the deployment of additional resources, with institutions suffering from financial modelling unexpected in late-2019 budget forecasting meetings. A reduction in student enrolments from international markets offers complexity for higher education exporter nations like Australia (Marshman & Larkins, 2020). Nonetheless, there has been a resilience from the sector to ensure continuity of education under all circumstances. The role of journals like the Journal of University Teaching and Learning Practice during the pandemic has been to support timely publication of evidence-based practices for responses to COVID-19. This has included a need to balance the acceptance of manuscripts with pre-COVID-19 data and implications, and those authors contributing to the exponentially expanding knowledge base for teaching and learning during COVID-19. For the former, we have encouraged authors during final acceptance to reflect on their work’s role in enabling a positive response to the pandemic. For those in the latter, we have ensured that writers have considered the broader implications of their work beyond the pandemic. These decisions support manuscripts publishing in JUTLP to contribute to the contemporary landscape, and also beyond the pandemic. © 2020, University of Wollongong. All rights reserved.