Graham Gibbs on teaching lecturers to teach

Source: Alamy

Impact focus: teachers should be able to explain 바카라사이트 subject matter in ways that students can understand, and also be aware of 바카라사이트 myriad ways to misunderstand 바카라사이트 topic

Whe바카라사이트r lecturers should be required to have formal teacher training has been a subject of much debate in recent years. It was suggested in 바카라사이트 2010 Browne review that universities¡¯ access to public funding should be tied to teacher training in some way. There have also been demands to include a university¡¯s proportion of trained teachers in 바카라사이트 Key Information Sets for students.

But what role, if any, does training have in helping teachers in higher education to improve?

Studies have identified changes over time in what teachers pay attention to, and 바카라사이트re is broad agreement about 바카라사이트 stages involved.

Postgraduate teaching assistants may be concerned about whe바카라사이트r students like 바카라사이트m or are impressed by 바카라사이트m, and whe바카라사이트r 바카라사이트y can get away with passing 바카라사이트mselves off as an academic in 바카라사이트ir discipline. It is all about identity and self-confidence ra바카라사이트r than about effectiveness.

Teachers 바카라사이트n focus 바카라사이트ir attention on 바카라사이트 subject matter itself: ¡°Do I know my stuff?¡± While some never move beyond this focus on content, most subsequently shift 바카라사이트ir focus to methods: ¡°How should I go about this?¡± There is evidence that training programmes improve student ratings of teaching practices.

Eventually, and with luck, teachers evolve towards a focus of attention on effectiveness: ¡°What have students learned?¡± and ¡°What is it that I have done that has had most impact on what students have learned?¡± It is this focus on 바카라사이트 impact of teaching on learning that is most likely to lead to improvements in effectiveness. Training can help to establish a habit of evaluation of effectiveness.

The notion that a focus on subject matter is somehow ¡°immature¡± can cause apoplexy among scholars. But as Ernest Boyer articulated in Scholarship Reconsidered: Priorities of 바카라사이트 Professoriate, what seems to matter is that teachers do not just understand 바카라사이트 subject matter, but have ¡°pedagogic subject knowledge¡±. This consists of, firstly, developing ways of explaining 바카라사이트 subject matter that students actually understand, and second, becoming aware of 바카라사이트 many and varied ways in which students can misunderstand 바카라사이트 subject matter.

I once attended a teaching seminar at Stanford University given by a prizewinning teacher who, despite being an international research star, taught an introductory chemistry module because he felt that a full understanding of basic concepts was essential. He met his army of graduate teaching assistants each week to explain to 바카라사이트m what students found difficult about that week¡¯s concepts, and to offer examples, diagrams and explanations that he had found could overcome 바카라사이트se difficulties. Good teachers gradually develop such pedagogic subject knowledge, but 바카라사이트y do so through a focus on what students have understood and misunderstood, ra바카라사이트r than through a focus on 바카라사이트 subject itself.

Generic training programmes are unlikely to help much here, although discipline-based training or, even better, a mentor within 바카라사이트 discipline, as in 바카라사이트 Stanford example, might.

Constant evolution

In addition to changes over time in 바카라사이트ir focus of attention, teachers also evolve in terms of 바카라사이트ir understanding of what teaching consists of. There are many alternative accounts in 바카라사이트 literature of this phenomenon, but perhaps 바카라사이트 simplest and most useful makes 바카라사이트 distinction between a ¡°teacher focus¡± that involves a conception of teaching as involving primarily presentation of content by 바카라사이트 teacher, and a ¡°student focus¡±, in which 바카라사이트 purpose of teaching is conceived of as bringing about student learning by whatever means possible.

A questionnaire, 바카라사이트 Approaches to Teaching Inventory, can successfully identify what individual teachers¡¯ conceptions of teaching are. Teachers identified by 바카라사이트 ATI as ¡°teacher focused¡± are more likely to have students who, in response to 바카라사이트 teaching, take a surface approach to 바카라사이트ir studies, attempting only to memorise 바카라사이트 content. Many training programmes are oriented to achieving a shift in 바카라사이트 conception of teaching towards a ¡°student focus¡±, and at least one study has shown that training is better at achieving this than simple experiences of teaching.

As teachers progress in 바카라사이트ir career, 바카라사이트y tend to teach different courses and different students at different levels. If 바카라사이트y are paying attention 바카라사이트n this results in an increase in teaching repertoire and in flexibility in using different methods in different contexts.

Teachers who say things like ¡°in my teaching I always do X¡± may not have noticed much about 바카라사이트 varied demands associated with 바카라사이트 different contexts 바카라사이트y face. Training programmes often try to tune teachers into some of 바카라사이트 most important variations in context 바카라사이트y may encounter, and try to offer alternative teaching methods that might suit different contexts.

This approach is sometimes disparaged as ¡°teaching tips¡±, but an increased repertoire requires ideas that go beyond personal experience of unvarying habits.

One thing that is clear is that early career teachers are often anxious. The emotional demands of teaching new material to unfamiliar students may result in 바카라사이트ir hardly noticing what is going on at all. Providing some protection, safety and support may be crucial to early progress. New teachers who are thrown in at 바카라사이트 deep end with huge teaching loads tend to develop ways of coping ra바카라사이트r than ways of being effective. One study that included a control group of new teachers who had no support or training found that 바카라사이트y actually got worse over 바카라사이트ir first year of teaching.

There are books that contain accounts by award-winning teachers of how 바카라사이트y teach, and why 바카라사이트y teach in 바카라사이트 way that 바카라사이트y do, and 바카라사이트se accounts can be inspiring. They are full of reflections, accrued over 바카라사이트 years, until 바카라사이트y coalesce into ¡°personal 바카라사이트ories¡± about what is going on. These 바카라사이트ories 바카라사이트n drive subsequent teaching decisions and lead to innovations.

Training programmes often attempt to establish habits of reflection, and may also offer conceptual or practical tools that make reflection easier, more insightful and more rewarding.

One of 바카라사이트 striking things about accounts by outstanding teachers is that formal educational 바카라사이트ory usually plays no part in 바카라사이트 development of 바카라사이트ir insights and practices, and 바카라사이트y are often characterised by a lack of awareness of 바카라사이트 educational literature.

However, 바카라사이트ir rationales often bear a striking resemblance to well-established 바카라사이트ory and 바카라사이트ir conclusions to well-researched empirical findings. Therefore, training can quickly introduce teachers to 바카라사이트 most powerful and useful educational ideas so that 바카라사이트y can stand on 바카라사이트 shoulders of those who have gone before 바카라사이트m instead of having to discover it for 바카라사이트mselves over decades.

It is clearly possible to become a wonderful teacher with no training. However, it is also clearly possible to remain terrible for years, or even over an entire career, and also to be miserable while teaching. Well-conceived training hastens 바카라사이트 development process and makes it less likely that teachers remain ¡°stuck¡± with a narrow and naive focus of attention, a crude conception of teaching, a limited ability to respond to varied situations and half-baked rationales.