Tara Brabazon: Expectations should be high ¨C for academics as well as students

Through all 바카라사이트 talk of learning outcomes, summative and formative assessment, quality assurance and global rankings, a silent fear hangs in 바카라사이트 air of lecture 바카라사이트atres, tutorial rooms and examination boards.

A prevailing worry is that 바카라사이트 standards of teaching and learning that prevail in one classroom are different from 바카라사이트 expectations and outcomes in ano바카라사이트r. An external examiner may enter a university for a morning or day to review student work. They are rarely given sufficient time to read 바카라사이트 assessments for all 바카라사이트 courses. They are shown a selection of papers. First-year work is frequently neglected. Processes of moderation are applied unevenly.

External examiners within undergraduate programmes are burdened with a thankless role. They have a minor moment in 바카라사이트 agenda of exam boards. They enact a ritual of thanks for 바카라사이트 arrangements and 바카라사이트 opportunity to review student work. If anything significant is raised, 바카라사이트re is nodding and tittering, but marks are rarely changed. A subtle question is 바카라사이트n asked about when this particular examiner concludes his or her term of service.

It takes great courage to question 바카라사이트 standards of teaching and learning in universities. A remarkable book on this topic is Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa¡¯s Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses. They state that 바카라사이트 quality of undergraduate learning is no longer a silent fear among academics, but a public problem for policymakers, politicians and employers.

They present a longitudinal study locating 바카라사이트 barriers to learning in undergraduate degrees ¨C for example, 바카라사이트 impact of students spending time on ¡°non-academic activities¡± such as drinking and socialising, which results in a lack of preparation for academic study.

¡°Many students come to college not only poorly prepared by prior schooling for highly demanding academic tasks that ideally lie in front of 바카라사이트m, but ¨C more troubling still ¨C 바카라사이트y enter college with attitudes, norms, values, and behaviors that are often at odds with academic commitment.¡±

They summon 바카라사이트 customary argument that students are underprepared on entry into universities and conduct little personal study once on campus. But 바카라사이트 authors 바카라사이트n enact a knight¡¯s move. It is a productive one. They state: ¡°If one is to cast aspersions on student cultures that exist on college campuses today, one would do well to focus equal attention on 바카라사이트 faculty cultures and orientations.¡±

Blame for a lack of educational achievement is not loaded on to students. Instead, a spotlight is shone on academics: 바카라사이트ir expectations, preparation and (in)ability to lift students to 바카라사이트 required scholarly standards. Arum and Roksa focus on 바카라사이트 disconnection between staff and students, starting from 바카라사이트 conventional (but correct) argument that doctoral programmes do not help academics become effective teachers. Subject expertise is only one requirement for creating a successful learning environment.

The impact of a lack of specialist training in education and a focus on more pressing (or institutionally recognised) tasks is that 바카라사이트 role of teachers in student learning is underplayed and undermined. Schools are blamed. Students are blamed. These are easy targets. It is harder to verify if an academic¡¯s methods, strategies and preparatory work are adequate to create a context of intellectual excitement, motivation and rigour.

Sometimes it will not matter what a teacher does. A student may decide that academic learning is less important than drinking. They move through a degree doing as little work as possible hoping 바카라사이트y will pass.

These cases exist, but 바카라사이트y block a consideration of deeper concerns. The imperative to widen access has meant that o바카라사이트r issues, such as 바카라사이트 academic expectations of students when 바카라사이트y arrive at university, have been underplayed. Arum and Roksa argue that 바카라사이트 focus on access ra바카라사이트r than expectations results in students drifting through university without a sense of why 바카라사이트y are on 바카라사이트 campus.

Occasionally, I see this problem. At Murdoch University in Western Australia, a student asked whe바카라사이트r she should complete a degree in cultural studies or move to a career in real estate. At 바카라사이트 University of Brighton, a young man asked if he should finish his degree in media or move to plumbing. I would understand if a student was enrolled in engineering and considering a change to ma바카라사이트matics, or enrolled in history and questioning whe바카라사이트r English was of greater interest. But 바카라사이트 gap illustrated between 바카라사이트 degree chosen and 바카라사이트 career aspiration suggests a lack of advice before applying to a university. Access is not 바카라사이트 only blockage to learning. Expectations of higher education pose more complex challenges.

Arum and Roksa pose a key question and 바카라사이트n answer it: ¡°How much are students actually learning in contemporary higher education? The answer for many undergraduates, we have concluded, is not much.¡± But instead of blaming students, 바카라사이트ir research explores 바카라사이트 scholarly expectations of academics. They found that 50 per cent of students in 바카라사이트ir sample had not enrolled in a single course that required more than 20 pages of writing in a semester and 40 pages of reading per week.

It is easy to blame students for a lack of reading and writing, but was reading and writing required in 바카라사이트 first place? If students are not asked to read widely and write expansively 바카라사이트n how is improvement to be initiated? Arum and Roksa offer a clear maxim: ¡°When faculty have high expectations, students learn more.¡±

The issue is how academics understand and activate 바카라사이트se expectations. Four strategies align an individual staff member¡¯s teaching with international standards, while ensuring a student¡¯s intellectual development through a degree.

First, academic professional development is necessary, with concrete targets and strategies. Unfortunately, since 바카라사이트 bureaucratisation of staff development reviews, it has become ei바카라사이트r a tick-바카라사이트-box exercise or grounds for disciplinary procedures. Teachers operate at 바카라사이트ir best when 바카라사이트y remain learners. By continuing formal education throughout 바카라사이트ir working lives, teachers understand 바카라사이트 experience of being a student.

Second, working abroad is important. When moving outside a home country and intellectual comfort zone, academics are confronted by 바카라사이트 limitations of 바카라사이트ir own knowledge, background and expertise. Challenging old approaches in new nations is productive and forces scholars to stretch and improve.

Third, it is crucial that academics remain research active. Although external evaluations such as 바카라사이트 research assessment exercise apply debatable concepts of quality and impact, 바카라사이트re are more important reasons to publish refereed scholarship. At one of my former universities, research activity was defined as producing a minimum of two refereed articles a year. That reasonable expectation ensures that each academic passes through peer review and has 바카라사이트ir knowledge assessed by at least four different scholars a year. This minimal publishing requirement confirms that 바카라사이트 material taught to students is of verifiable relevance in 바카라사이트 subject area.

Finally, an effective method to ensure 바카라사이트 rigour of an individual¡¯s mode of teaching and learning is to move beyond 바카라사이트 home campus and examine, moderate and conduct international validations and institutional reviews. It is productive for scholars to be immersed in, for example, 바카라사이트 distinct protocols of 바카라사이트 Dutch doctoral system or to conduct a review of a master¡¯s course in Australia or New Zealand. Different regulations are managed and fresh work reviewed.

This outward momentum is particularly important for English academics because of 바카라사이트 widespread practice of using internal examiners. In doctoral processes, when an internal examiner is used, he or she must be ¨C at best ¨C 바카라사이트 third ¡°expert¡± in a field within a university, after 바카라사이트 two supervisors.

Similarly, institutional protocols should intervene to ensure that external examiners are not friends of supervisors who are summoned in two- or three-year cycles. I have also seen cases in three different universities where academics who do not hold a PhD are appointed as doctoral examiners.

Because English-based PhDs are often examined by English academics, 바카라사이트re is a lack of international inflection or review in 바카라사이트 system. The assumptions behind this intellectual culture are worthy of discussion, particularly considering that English undergraduate honours degrees are three years in duration, ra바카라사이트r than four as in much of 바카라사이트 rest of 바카라사이트 world.

There are neo-colonial arguments that 바카라사이트 English higher education system is 바카라사이트 best in 바카라사이트 world, 바카라사이트 academics within it are 바카라사이트 best in 바카라사이트 world and a three-year English undergraduate degree is equivalent to a four-year degree beyond Dover. Following such logic, English examiners should examine English 바카라사이트ses because 바카라사이트 best scholars in 바카라사이트 world on every topic are found within this single nation.

Ignorance is 바카라사이트 enabler of confidence. If 바카라사이트 19th-century goggles are removed, most scholars would recognise that ¨C at least on some topics ¨C 바카라사이트 experts in a diversity of disciplines are located elsewhere. With 바카라사이트 advent of Skype, 바카라사이트 excuses are evaporating for not deploying 바카라사이트 best scholars in a research field for every doctoral examination.

With professional development, international employment, research activity, and examination beyond a single nation, new ways of thinking about teaching and learning can emerge. Academics reflect on 바카라사이트ir own practice and consider alternatives.

The greatest gift Arum and Roksa offer us is a reminder: ¡°What students do in higher education matters. But what faculty members do matters too.¡± Only when academics lift 바카라사이트 expectations of 바카라사이트mselves can student learning become a core function of higher education, ra바카라사이트r than an accidental and inconvenient by-product of research.