All Ireland Society for Higher Education
| Name: | Donnelly , Roisin |
|---|---|
| Email: | roisin.donnelly@dit.ie |
| Institution: | Dublin Institute of Technology |
Fitzmaurice, Marian, marian.fitzmaurice@dit.ie
During the past fifty years third level education has expanded and diversified and the demands and expectations being placed on Higher Education Institutions are now formidable, with changes in the student body and increased pressure from government on costs, procedures and results. For academic staff, there are increased pressures through increased teaching loads and growing reporting and administrative requirements. Staff are also under great pressure to develop and strengthen their research profile while also achieving excellence in teaching and fulfilling the expectations of their learners and other stakeholders. There is no professional training requirement for higher education teachers in the Republic of Ireland as far as their teaching is concerned. However, there is growing recognition within the sector for the need for training for lecturers and other academic staff who have a teaching component to their work. The Learning and Teaching Centre was set up in 1999 in the Dublin Institute of Technology and provides workshops for academic staff on aspects of learning and teaching in higher education. It also runs a very successful Postgraduate Programme (Certificate, Diploma and Masters) in Third Level Learning and Teaching. To support academic staff in the area of new and improved ways of teaching and to deepen their understanding of how students learn is a challenge for educational developers. Walker (2001) describes the dominant paradigm in academic staff development in Britain as too often emphasizing `the practice and perfection only of methods and techniques'. As educational developers, we were coming from a position where we wanted to support professional development in the context of academic staff reflecting on their practice. The extended workshop seeks to investigate the needs of academic staff in relation to professional development, and the extent to which there is engagement with and support for such development. In addition, it is important to establish what type of academic support would staff most desire and appreciate in the context of third level learning and teaching. For the first phase of the study, a large scale survey approach is being used to gather data at a particular point in time with the intention of determining the relationships that exist between specific events. This extended workshop will involve participants in an advancement of knowledge about professional development currently taking place within Irish higher education.
(Abstract ref: #1.)