See on Scoop.it – The Future of Education – Where do we go now?
The move to ‘professionalize’ teaching
One of the issues that came up at last week’s conference for university Boards of Governors was the growing need for faculty to be trained in teaching methods, if students are to be fully prepared for life after university. The argument goes something like this:
1. There is increasing pressure from employers, the business community and also from educators for faculty to set clear learning outcomes, and to develop in a deliberate and conscious manner high-level intellectual and personal skills in students, which requires moving away from a model of information transmission to greater student engagement, more learner-centered teaching, and new methods of assessment that measure competencies as well as mastery of content.
2. The move to online learning and a greater use of learning technologies offers more options and choice for faculty. In order to use these technologies well, faculty require not only to know the strengths and weaknesses of different kinds of technology, but also need to have a good grasp of how students learn best. This requires a combination of knowing about the research into learning, different theories of learning related to different concepts of knowledge (epistemology), and instructional design skills. Without this basic foundation, it is difficult for faculty to move away from the only model that they are familiar with, namely the lecture and discussion model, which is limited in terms of developing what are often called 21st century skills.
3. Faculty are trained, through the doctoral route, to do research, but there is no requirement to be trained in teaching methods. At best faculty development is voluntary for faculty once appointed, and although post-doctoral students may be offered short courses or in some instances even a certificate in preparation for classroom teaching, this is again voluntary and minimal. Nevertheless teaching will take up a minimum of 40% of a faculty member’s time, and much more for many college instructors.
In effect, this is a productivity issue. The argument is that faculty will get better results, particularly in terms of learning outcomes, if they are professionally trained. Since professional training is exactly what faculty try to do for others, such as scientists, business students, pilots, doctors, health workers, teachers, and engineers, why is it not appropriate for faculty themselves?
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Educación, TIC y Opinión 