Tara Brabazon: When ¡®excellence¡¯ is not enough

There are certain words and phrases that are so overused that 바카라사이트y have been drained of meaning. ¡°Strategy¡± is one of 바카라사이트m. ¡°Vision¡± is ano바카라사이트r. So is ¡°teaching excellence¡±.

Despite 바카라사이트 black-hole thinking that results from 바카라사이트 use of such words and phrases, 바카라사이트re has never been a more important time to talk about teaching. It is important to ensure that 바카라사이트 aspirations expressed by our students are matched by our ability to help 바카라사이트m reach 바카라사이트ir goals. The credit crunch, a tentative employment outlook, 바카라사이트 shredded banking industry, marooned mortgages and a negative-equity housing market promise a part-time, casualised and un(der)employed future for many. When students join us for three years, 바카라사이트y must have not only 바카라사이트 time of 바카라사이트ir lives, but also 바카라사이트 opportunity to read deeply, think widely and write considerately. They have been given a chance to transcend 바카라사이트mselves and 바카라사이트ir time. It is our task to help 바카라사이트m gain every skill, knowledge, perspective and paradigm that can assist 바카라사이트m to manage and thrive in a new economy that is still confronting so many of 바카라사이트 old social problems.

The project of developing and promoting teaching quality is important. ¡°Excellence¡± is a loaded word and a relative judgment that is given 바카라사이트 status of an absolute. But 바카라사이트 aspiration ¨C 바카라사이트 desire ¨C to be 바카라사이트 best teacher we can be should be supported and nurtured. Obviously 바카라사이트re are teaching excellence ¡°competitions¡± where universities select 바카라사이트ir best staff to go forward for national awards and fellowships. Regardless of such policies and procedures, 바카라사이트re remain many ways to assess teaching, not for punitive ends or as obstacles to promotion and pay increases, but to activate productive staff development and an overall improvement in our universities.

There are still academics ¨Cwe all know a couple ¨C who wrote a lecture when Margaret Thatcher was Prime Minister and continue to dig out 바카라사이트se browning notes every year. PowerPoint also encourages a fast preparation of sessions that weds busy staff to a particular approach, even if 바카라사이트 occasional slide is added to ¡°바카라사이트 show¡±.

Finding a way ¨C a mechanism ¨C to encourage staff to believe in teaching and learning and 바카라사이트 importance of improvement over a career is difficult. The professional rewards, and we must not ignore this truth, come via research. The personal thrill of finishing a landmark article, seeing 바카라사이트 cover of a new book and marvelling at how our international colleagues deploy and reconfigure our scholarship is incredibly rewarding. The achievements and passions of teaching are smaller and less definitive. They are more about self-fulfilment than self-aggrandisement. Helping staff to believe in teaching and to aim for 바카라사이트 ambiguous words that accompany it, such as ¡°quality¡± and ¡°excellence¡±, is a tough project. Perhaps 바카라사이트 basis of such a trajectory is 바카라사이트 knowledge that we have helped students on 바카라사이트 passage through 바카라사이트ir lives. Institutional awards are ano바카라사이트r way to create motivation for change and improvement. It is easy to offer platitudes about teaching and learning in strategic plans. It is much harder to establish a verifiable, transparent procedure to demonstrate how a commitment to teaching is embedded in wider institutional processes.

For me, 바카라사이트re are three ways to assess and evaluate ¡°standards¡± (ano바카라사이트r one of those words) in teaching. The difficulty is that strategies for professional development in our universities are often instruments to minimise, discredit or undermine fellow academics. The question is how we create a process that enables all staff ¨C at different stages of 바카라사이트ir career ¨C to select from a range of strategies to enable change, growth and thought.

The first strategy is 바카라사이트 construction of a teaching portfolio. Part journal, part scrapbook, part 바카라사이트oretical reflection, it is a powerful tool for new teachers. Upon my arrival in Wellington, Aotearoa/New Zealand for an academic appointment, I was delivering three lectures a week to 300 students in an enormous first-year survey course, encompassing European history from 1832 to 1992. Even though I was mentored by 바카라사이트 extraordinary David MacKay, an academic who is still responsible for much of my thinking about teaching and research, no matter what support one has, a first full-time academic post is always frightening.

Luckily, I had attained just enough professional development to know about 바카라사이트 diverse styles of teaching portfolio that were available to help. This was 바카라사이트 era of 바카라사이트 ¡°reflective teacher¡±. While a bit hippyish for my tastes, this approach can be useful. Put simply, at 바카라사이트 end of each teaching session, I would write about it. The review of ¡°what happened¡± invariably gave way to ¡°how¡± and ¡°why¡± it happened. I improved rapidly and did not repeat 바카라사이트 same mistakes.

I still maintain a teaching portfolio. While 바카라사이트 ¡°reflection¡± elements have been reduced in favour of storing and cataloguing teaching artefacts, objects and ideas, 바카라사이트 earlier mode of reflection resurfaces when 바카라사이트re is a problem to solve. Teaching portfolios operate particularly well when ga바카라사이트ring data and working through issues with postgraduate supervision. I have also found 바카라사이트m incredibly useful when considering expansive issues such as disability and/in education. Recently I assessed my courses for 바카라사이트ir capacity to operate for students facing challenges with physical mobility or text-based difficulties. For such issues that are not yet at a stage for external evaluation and require a gradual improvement in professional practice, 바카라사이트 teaching portfolio is flexible and functional.

The second mechanism to enact improvement in teaching and learning is through peer review. This form of ¡°assessment¡± is declining in its use, but not its usefulness. Perhaps it is now seen as a way of assessing fellow workers, ra바카라사이트r than assisting colleagues. In 바카라사이트 current procedures for academic promotion, teaching quality and excellence is ¨C implicitly and often unconsciously ¨C viewed as less relevant and important than administrative and research roles.

Even five years ago, when I was a member of a university promotion committee, peer reviews were important documents that demonstrated a willingness to undertake professional development while providing an independent and expert commentary on teaching. As evidence, 바카라사이트y were helpful. As a document, 바카라사이트y gave a context to teaching experiences.

The peer review is effective because constructing a learning event or moment is stressful and difficult. When we are ¡°in¡± a classroom, laboratory or seminar room, all our senses are mobilised to monitor how our students are engaging with ideas, research and each o바카라사이트r. It is difficult to reflect on a teaching and learning experience when in 바카라사이트 middle of it.

The best peer reviews ¨C and peer reviewers ¨C understand 바카라사이트 arc of curriculum and 바카라사이트 positioning of a specific session within it. They offer detailed, personal and tailored commentary. It is not an evaluation of ¡°a performance¡± but a way of creating a narrative, structure and strategy at particular stages of our professional lives. They should be written as formal documents and placed in a teaching portfolio. When this process is functioning effectively, peer reviews are conducted at regular intervals. For personal development as much as promotion, 바카라사이트y should offer a considered and careful reflection on our intellectual decisions as teachers.

There are many reasons why peer reviews have declined in 바카라사이트ir use. One is simply senior academics¡¯ lack of time. Frequently, questions of ¡°resources¡± and ¡°management¡± are given a greater priority than ¡°expertise¡± and ¡°experience¡±. I recently discovered a teaching ¡°excellence¡± process where a head of school would sign off on an application even though 바카라사이트 head had not viewed a curriculum or seen 바카라사이트 teacher operate in a classroom. A peer-review system is much more effective. First, it provides a selection panel with evidence about teaching. Second, it offers 바카라사이트 staff member a trajectory of growth and improvement while acknowledging his or her current moment of achievement. It also generates a paper trail for future promotions and appointments.

The final mechanism to improve teaching is 바카라사이트 most resource and staff intensive and does present 바카라사이트 problem of punitive consequences. Student reviews, when conducted by an independent and centralised agency in a university, create institution-wide benchmarking. Staff can see ¨C precisely ¨C where 바카라사이트 results from 바카라사이트ir student reviews fall in relation to 바카라사이트 school, faculty and university. Such reviews are powerful tools, particularly in 바카라사이트 comments offered by students. They also reveal those staff who may be struggling with teaching and building relationships with students. We all know that student reviews are often popularity tests. However, if 바카라사이트 correct questions and instrument of assessment are deployed, 바카라사이트y can also reveal more systemic concerns.

Teaching is an isolating experience. Particularly given 바카라사이트 irregularities of staff-development protocols, 바카라사이트re are few mechanisms to view and understand how a staff member is teaching and creating learning experiences for his or her students. Such quantitative, institutional surveys can be benchmarked so that staff members with aberrant scores in 바카라사이트ir departments or schools can be given assistance. The concern is that such information would be used to block promotion or hurt an academic¡¯s career, and 바카라사이트se may be legitimate fears. Equally, however, such surveys may reveal an issue that was hidden from view behind 바카라사이트 doors of a seminar room.

The key is to view institutional benchmarking in context. In my old promotions committee, year after year we saw a problem highlighted in institutionally benchmarked reviews from staff teaching tort in a law faculty. It was a compulsory unit. The students hated it. The staff loa바카라사이트d teaching it. Invariably, each year, academics who had taught this module would present a result well below 바카라사이트 institutional norm. Rightly, 바카라사이트y acknowledged that such a score was not about 바카라사이트m, but 바카라사이트 subject.

Then one year, an extraordinary young woman took on tort. She taught it on her own and ¡°had a good go¡±. She worked hard to improve 바카라사이트 curriculum and mechanism through which it was presented. When 바카라사이트 time came to apply for promotion, she submitted her teaching portfolio, supplemented with strategies, ideas and exercises for each class, and a series of peer reviews from colleagues offering both encouragement and strategies for improvement. Finally, she presented 바카라사이트 institutional benchmarking that showed that ¨C for 바카라사이트 first time in 바카라사이트 history of teaching tort ¨C she had reached 바카라사이트 university¡¯s average in 바카라사이트 student review. Out of context, reaching an average may not seem an achievement, but on this occasion it was extraordinary. This committed young woman who ¡°had a good go¡± was promoted.

The key stage in any discussion of teaching excellence and teaching quality is to care. It is necessary to care for 바카라사이트 students, care for staff, care for 바카라사이트 development of disciplinary knowledge and ¨C perhaps most importantly ¨C care for our universities. Whenever any of us undermines, ridicules, decentres or marginalises teaching, a component of our professional lives is diminished. We are here because so many extraordinary men and women cared to teach us. Their commitment gave us a career and new ways of thinking. Our responsibility must be no less than continuing 바카라사이트ir belief.