tag:theconversation.com,2011:/fr/topics/quality-teaching-8298/articlesQuality teaching – The Conversation2018-10-03T14:10:36Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1040712018-10-03T14:10:36Z2018-10-03T14:10:36ZRethinking university rankings: we need to talk about quality (and inequality) of teaching<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/238897/original/file-20181002-85617-rznkve.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Do universities reproduce inequality or can they disrupt it? </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Each year the release of the Times Higher Education World University Rankings generates a great deal of interest, excitement – and debate.
This year all eyes are on <a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/world-university-rankings-2019-results-announced">China</a> which, according to the 2018 rankings, “steps up its ascent” as “East closes in on West”. China’s Tsinghua University in 22nd place has overtaken all of its other Asian competitors. </p>
<p>Only one African institution, the <a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/world-university-rankings/2019/world-ranking#!/page/0/length/25/sort_by/rank/sort_order/asc/cols/stats">University of Cape Town</a>, made it to the top 200. Other good performers include University of Witwatersrand and University of Stellenbosch, which are both in the top 350. </p>
<p>But what does this mean? Parents, guardians and potential students may want to know what, if any, relationship is there between the rankings and an institution’s quality of teaching? Can we assume that highly ranked universities also have high quality teaching? And conversely, do we assume that low-ranked universities have poor quality teaching?</p>
<p>Ranking and quality of teaching has been subject of much <a href="http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20180814184535721">controversy</a>. The Times Higher Education rankings and similar ones are heavily weighted for research. Teaching, which “assesses the learning environment”, accounts for only 30% of a university’s overall ranking.</p>
<p>This is then broken down into the following key performance indicators: reputation survey; staff-to-student ratio; doctorate-to-bachelor’s ratio; the ratio of doctorates awarded to academic staff and institutional income. All of these are related to input factors – what is required to teach, like academics and money. None of the indicators have anything to do with outputs – the results of teaching, for example, course success rates, time to completion and graduate employment. </p>
<p>Essentially, the rankings heavily favour research-intensive, well-resourced universities. They say nothing about the actual quality of teaching as experienced by students or academics.</p>
<p>So, is there a relationship between rankings and quality of teaching? It depends what is meant by quality of teaching. </p>
<h2>Quality of teaching as access to powerful knowledge</h2>
<p>A recent book by three British academics, <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/quality-in-undergraduate-education-9781474214490/">Quality in Undergraduate Education</a>, explores the relationship between the quality of education and institutional status. </p>
<p>At stake is the role of higher education in relation to inequality: do universities simply reproduce inequality or can they disrupt it? The authors investigated this vexed and complex issue through a three-year longitudinal study of four higher education institutions in the UK.</p>
<p>Two were “high status” institutions and two were “low status”. High status institutions were the older, research-intensive, typically wealthier universities and the low status were more vocationally-oriented universities established from 1992. The trio analysed interviews with academics and students, observations of classrooms and curriculum documentation, including assessment.</p>
<p>In contrast to the Times Higher Education rankings which focus on inputs and reputation, their definition of quality focused on outputs or products. Quality being the extent to which teaching gives students’ access to “<a href="https://eddieplayfair.com/2015/08/19/what-is-powerful-knowledge/">powerful knowledge</a>”.</p>
<p>Powerful knowledge, they argue, is when theory and everyday common sense knowledge align. Quality teaching enables students to meaningfully traverse the gap between theory and <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-class-and-social-capital-affect-university-students-92602">lived experience</a> – their own and others’.</p>
<p>The trio’s findings showed no clear relationship between university status and quality teaching. In fact, one of the low-status universities best showcased the powerful and life-changing nature of knowledge.</p>
<h2>Redefining quality and inequality</h2>
<p>The study should cause us to pause and challenge the assumptions we make about rankings, status and the quality of the student experience. Is there a relationship between the rankings and the actual quality of teaching? It depends on how quality of teaching is defined. </p>
<p>Assessing the quality of teaching in ways that can be standardised and compared isn’t simple. That’s why we often end up valuing what we can measure, instead of measuring what we value. Measuring the quality of teaching on the basis of input factors as the Times Higher Education rankings, is not enough. There are “output” indicators that can be used – for example, dropout and retention, student experience surveys and graduate employability. </p>
<p>The study also raises another question, what is the relationship between quality and addressing inequality? </p>
<p>In South Africa we know this kind of output data when separated out by race reveals persistent <a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/serious-social-inequality-persists-south-african-universities">inequalities</a> with racial differentiations in academic performance. Tackling these challenges to ensure <a href="https://cup.columbia.edu/book/scales-of-justice/9780231146807">parity of participation</a> is a hallmark of quality teaching. </p>
<p>As for the Times Higher Education rankings, there may be <a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/blog/were-pioneering-new-way-measure-teaching-quality-across-europe">changes</a> on the horizon. New ways of measuring teaching, such as student surveys, are being piloted. Duncan Ross, data analytics director for the Times Higher Education rankings, <a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/world-university-rankings/world-university-rankings-2019-pursuit-more-significant-figures">announced</a> a review of the rankings’ methodology for 2020. As an example, he raised the issue of whether universities’ gender balance should be assessed and asked:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Can a university that isn’t adequately serving half the population be said to be world-leading? </p>
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<p>The same question can be asked, how and to what extent are first generation university, black and minority students being served? With inequality as one of the greatest challenges of the 21st century, should this not also be a feature of world-leading universities?</p>
<p>It would be a significant advance if these increasingly influential rankings could showcase those institutions as “world-leading” who are making a contribution to social justice through the quality of their teaching.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/104071/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Suellen Shay does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>University rankings must include quality teaching and indicators that address inequality as measuring tools.Suellen Shay, Associate Professor, University of Cape TownLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/990222018-07-26T23:59:25Z2018-07-26T23:59:25ZHere’s how to support quality teaching, with the evidence to back it<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/229402/original/file-20180726-106502-ejcncf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=40%2C72%2C5315%2C3460&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">How can we build on the skills of our 300,000 teachers? Expensive courses aren't always the answer.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://photos.aap.com.au/search/classroom%20teacher?q=%7B%22pageSize%22:100,%22pageNumber%22:1%7D">Dan Peled/AAP Image</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Increasing the quality of teaching in Australia is a political hot issue. Popular solutions include restricting entry to teaching courses to the
“<a href="https://theconversation.com/atar-scores-only-part-of-the-picture-for-teaching-28445">best and brightest</a>” and <a href="https://theconversation.com/review-calls-for-teacher-education-overhaul-experts-respond-28096">reforming teacher education</a>.</p>
<p>The spotlight is rarely focused on the <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/4221.0">roughly 300,000 teachers</a> who are already working in our schools except, all too often, when they are <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-political-education-hijacking-the-quality-teaching-movement-9017">criticised</a> for results in the latest round of high-stakes testing.</p>
<p>Every year, <a href="https://read.oecd-ilibrary.org/education/talis-2013-results_9789264196261-en">millions of dollars</a> are invested in the professional development of teachers in schools in every state and territory, in addition to the professional development investments made by schools, local communities and teachers themselves.</p>
<p>The teacher professional development industry in Australia is thriving with an abundance of expensive courses, events and gurus offering advice or endorsing products, with little evidence (or <a href="http://www.k12.wa.us/Compensation/pubdocs/Guskey2009whatworks.pdf">evidence of limited quality</a>) that any of it improves teaching.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australian-teachers-get-fewer-training-days-than-in-other-countries-and-turn-to-online-courses-for-support-55510">Australian teachers get fewer training days than in other countries and turn to online courses for support</a>
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<p>But our <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0742051X17304225">research</a> shows that a low-cost approach that relies on teachers learning together, at school, shows significant, quantifiable improvements in the quality of teaching.</p>
<p>Some A$16.4 million funding, <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-07-27/millions-to-be-invested-in-improving-teacher-quality-nsw/10038048">announced today</a>, will mean more teachers will benefit from this evidence-based professional development.</p>
<h2>How does it work?</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13540602.2016.1206522">Quality Teaching Rounds</a> involves four or more teachers working in a professional learning community, in which they observe and analyse lessons in each teacher’s classroom.</p>
<p>This approach is distinct from professional development that asks teachers to focus on improving the teaching of a particular topic or a particular set of skills. Instead it focuses on enhancing teaching in general.</p>
<p>Teachers are guided by a <a href="http://www.theelements.education.nsw.gov.au/the-elements-manual/policy-reforms-and-focus-areas/quality-teaching-framework">model of teaching</a> (known as Quality Teaching) that focuses on the intellectual demands of the lesson, the quality of the learning environment and the extent to which learning is made meaningful for students. </p>
<p>The model is already familiar to teachers in <a href="http://educationstandards.nsw.edu.au/wps/portal/nesa/about/initiatives/great-teaching-inspired-learning">NSW</a> and <a href="https://www.education.act.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0005/854465/Great-Teachers-by-Design.pdf">ACT</a> government schools, and in a number of Catholic and independent schools across Australia.</p>
<p>Over one day, the teachers:</p>
<ol>
<li> discuss teaching based on a reading proposed by one of the group</li>
<li> sit in on a lesson taught by one member of the group to observe and analyse the quality of teaching</li>
<li> independently “code” the lesson in line with the <a href="http://www.theelements.education.nsw.gov.au/the-elements-manual/policy-reforms-and-focus-areas/quality-teaching-framework">Quality Teaching model</a></li>
<li> then regroup to discuss the lesson, and teaching in general.</li>
</ol>
<p>As teachers observe and discuss teaching in a non-confrontational environment, they become more aware of their strengths and what they can improve to help their students learn.</p>
<h2>How do we know it works?</h2>
<p>Over 18 months from 2014 to 2015, we observed 192 teachers in 24 NSW government schools (eight in each school).</p>
<p>We observed the teachers before Quality Teaching Rounds (baseline), six months later when the intervention groups in 16 of these schools had finished, and again six months after that. Teachers in the eight “control” schools participated in the rounds after the follow-up observations were completed.</p>
<p>The quality of teaching <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0742051X17304225">improved significantly</a> for the participating teachers, with no change in quality for the control group. Effects were still measurable six months later and in the following school year.</p>
<p>Teachers nurtured students’ intellectual depth while ensuring a positive learning environment, and helped students to see the value of their work beyond school. These effects were significant irrespective of sector (primary/secondary), location (urban/non-urban) and years of teaching experience.</p>
<p>Teachers were also better able to judge and refine the quality of their own and each others’ teaching. At the same time, there were significant positive effects on teacher morale and teachers’ feelings of being encouraged and recognised for good work. </p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-design-thinking-can-help-teachers-collaborate-95932">How design thinking can help teachers collaborate</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<p>We found gains in teaching quality from a single set of Quality Teaching Rounds involving teachers in as little as four half-days of professional development, typically conducted over the course of one school term. Such significant effects on the quality of teaching overall have rarely been reported in other studies.</p>
<p>Unlike many other teacher workshops or products, our approach can be used across subject areas and year level, with the potential to broaden teacher learning beyond a particular topic, subject or skill set, to teaching in general.</p>
<p>The main cost associated with the approach is releasing teachers from their classrooms to undertake rounds. Schools typically use their professional development budgets for this purpose or find other creative ways to arrange teachers’ off-class time so they can participate.</p>
<h2>What does the future hold?</h2>
<p>Our approach is used in around 250 Australian schools, but significant <a href="https://www.newcastle.edu.au/newsroom/featured-news/more-than-30,000-teachers-to-benefit-from-education-funding-boost">philanthropic investment</a> by the <a href="https://paulramsayfoundation.org.au/">Paul Ramsay Foundation</a> should see it expanded to more than 3,500 Australian schools by 2022.</p>
<p>This will be accompanied by a substantial program of research including testing the impact of the approach on student outcomes, using randomised controlled trials and other methods.</p>
<p>Digital technology will help more teachers to take part, including those in small and remote schools, with an aim of reaching 34,000 teachers and 1.3 million students over the next five years.</p>
<p>And we hope to create a Quality Teaching Academy to monitor effects and to support teachers, schools and others in implementing the approach. The aim throughout is to support teachers in strengthening their own capacity for ensuring quality teaching in Australian schools.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/99022/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jenny Gore receives funding from Australian Research Council, New South Wales Department of Education, and the Paul Ramsay Foundation.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrew Miller receives funding from the Australian Research Council, New South Wales Department of Education, and the Paul Ramsay Foundation.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jess Harris receives funding from Australian Research Council, New South Wales Department of Education, and the Paul Ramsay Foundation.</span></em></p>An alternative to costly teacher professional development courses is already improving teaching in our classrooms.Jenny Gore, Laureate Professor of Education, University of NewcastleAndrew Miller, Senior Lecturer in Education, University of NewcastleJess Harris, Senior Lecturer in Education, University of NewcastleLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/786602017-06-21T10:31:01Z2017-06-21T10:31:01ZChallenging the status quo in mathematics: Teaching for understanding<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/174303/original/file-20170618-28772-1vhqkpw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">How can we change math instruction to meet the needs of today's kids?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://flic.kr/p/97aGY8">World Bank Photo Collection / flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Despite decades of <a href="http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED372969.pdf">reform efforts</a>, mathematics teaching in the U.S. <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/20405948">has changed little</a> in the last century. As a result, it seems, American students have been left behind, now ranking <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2017/2017048.pdf#page=31">40th in the world</a> in math literacy. </p>
<p>Several state and national reform efforts have tried to improve things. The most recent <a href="http://www.corestandards.org/Math/">Common Core standards</a> had a great deal of promise with their focus on how to teach mathematics, but after several years, <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.3102/0013189X17711899">changes in teaching practices</a> have been minimal. </p>
<p><iframe id="Grc6N" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/Grc6N/1/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>As an education researcher, I’ve observed teachers trying to implement reforms – often with limited success. They sometimes make changes that are more cosmetic than substantive (e.g., more student discussion and group activity), while failing to get at the heart of the matter: What does it truly mean to teach and learn mathematics?</p>
<h2>Traditional mathematics teaching</h2>
<p>Traditional middle or high school mathematics teaching in the U.S. <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/20405948">typically follows this pattern</a>: The teacher demonstrates a set of procedures that can be used to solve a particular kind of problem. A similar problem is then introduced for the class to solve together. Then, the students get a number of exercises to practice on their own.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/174300/original/file-20170618-28759-1jyothn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/174300/original/file-20170618-28759-1jyothn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=686&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174300/original/file-20170618-28759-1jyothn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=686&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174300/original/file-20170618-28759-1jyothn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=686&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174300/original/file-20170618-28759-1jyothn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=862&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174300/original/file-20170618-28759-1jyothn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=862&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174300/original/file-20170618-28759-1jyothn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=862&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The basics of math instruction have changed little since George Eaton taught at Phillips Academy (1880-1930).</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://flic.kr/p/jKrzFZ">Phillips Academy Archives and Special Collections / flickr</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For example, when students learn about the area of shapes, they’re given a set of formulas. They put numbers into the correct formula and compute a solution. More complex questions might give the students the area and have them work backwards to find a missing dimension. Students will often learn a different set of formulas each day: perhaps squares and rectangles one day, triangles the next. </p>
<p>Students in these kinds of lessons are learning to follow a rote process to arrive at a solution. This kind of instruction is so common that it’s seldom even questioned. After all, within a particular lesson, it makes the math seem easier, and students who are successful at getting the right answers find this kind of teaching to be very satisfying.</p>
<p>But it turns out that teaching mathematics this way can actually <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/3696735">hinder learning</a>. Children can become dependent on <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5951/teacchilmath.21.1.0018">tricks and rules</a> that don’t hold true in all situations, making it harder to adapt their knowledge to new situations.</p>
<p>For example, in traditional teaching, children learn that they should distribute a number by multiplying across parentheses and will practice doing so with numerous examples. When they begin learning how to solve equations, they often have trouble realizing that it’s not always needed. To illustrate, take the equation 3(x + 5) = 30. Children are likely to multiply the 3 across the parentheses to make 3x + 15 = 30. They might just as easily have divided both sides by 3 to make x + 5 = 10, but a child who learned the distribution method might have great difficulty recognizing the alternate method – or even that both procedures are equally correct.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/174582/original/file-20170619-22075-1mmjc2g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/174582/original/file-20170619-22075-1mmjc2g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=320&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174582/original/file-20170619-22075-1mmjc2g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=320&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174582/original/file-20170619-22075-1mmjc2g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=320&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174582/original/file-20170619-22075-1mmjc2g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174582/original/file-20170619-22075-1mmjc2g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174582/original/file-20170619-22075-1mmjc2g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Students who learn by rote drilling often have trouble realizing that there are equally valid alternative methods for solving a problem.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Kaitlyn Chantry</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>More than a right answer</h2>
<p>A key missing ingredient in these traditional lessons is conceptual understanding. </p>
<p>Concepts are ideas, meaning and relationships. It’s not just about knowing the procedure (like how to compute the area of a triangle) but also the significance behind the procedure (like what area means). How concepts and procedures are related is important as well, such as how the area of a triangle can be considered half the area of a rectangle and how that relationship can be seen in their area formulas. </p>
<p>Teaching for conceptual understanding has <a href="http://math.coe.uga.edu/Olive/EMAT3500f08/instrumental-relational.pdf">several benefits</a>. Less information has to be memorized, and students can translate their knowledge to new situations more easily. For example, understanding what area means and how areas of different shapes are related can help students understand the concept of volume better. And learning the relationship between area and volume can help students understand how to interpret what the volume means once it’s been calculated.</p>
<p>In short, building relationships between <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-015-9302-x">how to solve a problem and why it’s solved that way</a> helps students <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037//0022-0663.91.1.175">use what they already know</a> to solve new problems that they face. Students with a truly conceptual understanding can see how methods emerged from <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0663.91.1.175">multiple interconnected ideas</a>; their relationship to the solution goes deeper than rote drilling.</p>
<p>Teaching this way is a critical first step if students are to begin recognizing mathematics as meaningful. Conceptual understanding is a key ingredient to helping people think mathematically and use mathematics outside of a classroom.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/174193/original/file-20170616-537-p8ad2j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/174193/original/file-20170616-537-p8ad2j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174193/original/file-20170616-537-p8ad2j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174193/original/file-20170616-537-p8ad2j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174193/original/file-20170616-537-p8ad2j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174193/original/file-20170616-537-p8ad2j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174193/original/file-20170616-537-p8ad2j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Procedural learning promotes memorization instead of critical thinking and problem solving.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/math-study-exam-set-book-pencil-250606378">m.jrn/shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The will to change</h2>
<p>Conceptual understanding in mathematics has been recognized as important for <a href="http://www.nctm.org/uploadedFiles/About/President,_Board_and_Committees/Board_Materials/MLarson-SF-NCTM-4-16.pdf">over a century</a> and widely discussed for decades. So why has it not been incorporated into the curriculum, and why does traditional teaching abound? </p>
<p>Learning conceptually can take longer and be more difficult than just presenting formulas. Teaching this way may require additional time commitments both in and outside the classroom. Students may have never been asked to think this way before.</p>
<p>There are systemic obstacles to face as well. A new teacher may face pressure from fellow teachers who teach in traditional ways. The <a href="https://www.thoughtco.com/high-stakes-testing-overtesting-in-americas-public-schools-3194591">culture of overtesting</a> in the last two decades means that students face more pressure than ever to get right answers on tests. </p>
<p>The results of these tests are also being <a href="https://tcta.org/node/13251-issues_with_test_based_value_added_models_of_teacher_assessment">tied to teacher evaluation systems</a>. Many teachers feel pressure to teach to the test, drilling students so that they can regurgitate information accurately.</p>
<p>If we really want to improve America’s mathematics education, we need to rethink both our education system and our teaching methods, and perhaps to <a href="http://www.nea.org/home/40991.htm">consider how other countries approach mathematics instruction</a>. Research has provided evidence that teaching conceptually has <a href="http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/feb04/vol61/num05/Improving-Mathematics-Teaching.aspx">benefits</a> not offered by traditional teaching. And students who learn conceptually typically do <a href="https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654310374880">as well or better</a> on achievement tests. </p>
<p>Renowned education expert <a href="https://pasisahlberg.com/">Pasi Sahlberg</a> is a former mathematics and physics teacher from Finland, which is renowned for its world-class education. He <a href="http://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/why-are-finlands-schools-successful-49859555/">sums it up</a> well:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We prepare children to learn how to learn, not how to take a test.</p>
</blockquote><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/78660/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christopher Rakes receives funding from the National Science Foundation. </span></em></p>Math instruction is stuck in the last century. How can we change teaching methods to move past rote memorization and help students develop a more meaningful understanding – and be better at math?Christopher Rakes, Assistant Professor of Mathematics Education, University of Maryland, Baltimore CountyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/759762017-05-17T00:06:46Z2017-05-17T00:06:46ZAre movies a good way to learn history?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169574/original/file-20170516-11966-7ci4ib.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Daniel Day-Lewis won the 2012 Academy Award for his portrayal of Abraham Lincoln. Is Spielberg's historical drama a good way to learn about the 16th U.S. president?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.fox.co.uk/lincoln">Touchstone Pictures</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Hollywood loves history. At <a href="http://oscar.go.com/news/winners/oscar-winners-2017-see-the-complete-list">this year’s Academy Awards</a>, three nominees for Best Picture (“<a href="http://www.fencesmovie.com/">Fences</a>,” “<a href="http://www.hacksawridge.movie/">Hacksaw Ridge</a>” and “<a href="http://www.hiddenfigures.com/">Hidden Figures</a>”) were “historical” to today’s teenagers – set in or about events that occurred before they were born.</p>
<p>History movies, like most movies, have a huge audience in the U.S. Even Disney’s notorious 2004 version of “<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0318974/">The Alamo</a>” – <a href="http://business.time.com/2012/03/21/the-top-ten-biggest-money-losing-movies-of-all-time/slide/the-alamo/">a box office “bomb”</a> – was seen by millions. That’s far more people than read most best-selling historians’ books.</p>
<p>A lot of these viewers are kids, watching the movies in theaters, at home and even at school. I’ve observed “The Alamo” used by teachers on more than one occasion.</p>
<p>But are motion pictures like these good for learning about history? As a scholar of social studies education and <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Teaching-History-with-Film-Strategies-for-Secondary-Social-Studies/Marcus-Metzger-Paxton-Stoddard/p/book/9780415999564">the use of film to teach history</a>, I offer the response that films can support learning – if used to meet specific goals and connected to the proper subject matter.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/RK8xHq6dfAo?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">2016’s ‘Hidden Figures’ was nominated for Best Picture. Will it be used in classrooms some day to teach about this moment in the 1960s?</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The allure of history movies</h2>
<p>Fact-based or fictional, realistic or fantastic, history movies shape the way people think about the past. In a study of how 15 families discussed historical understanding of the Vietnam War era, <a href="https://doi.org/10.3102/0002831206298677">kids and parents both spontaneously drew on memories of movies</a>. “<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0109830/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Forrest Gump</a>,” in particular, was referenced by both generations.</p>
<p>It’s not surprising that teachers want to draw on this cultural power, showing movies in class to get students more excited about history. In one study of <a href="http://www.mccc.edu/pdf/cmn107/the%20burden%20of%20historical%20representation%20race%20freedom%20and%20educational%20hollywood%20film.pdf">84 Wisconsin and Connecticut teachers</a>, nearly 93 percent reported that they use some portion of a film at least once a week. While not enough to draw clear conclusions, this study does suggest that history films are likely used quite often in the classroom.</p>
<p>So why do teachers choose to show movies with class time?</p>
<p>People often talk about the <a href="https://www.thoughtco.com/pros-and-cons-movies-in-class-7762">stereotype of the busy/lazy/overwhelmed teacher</a> who puts on a movie instead of doing “real” teaching. However, research indicates that teachers actually tend to have good motives when it comes to showing movies in class.</p>
<p>In that study of 84 teachers, most felt that students are more motivated and learn more when a film is used. Case studies also describe <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Teaching-History-with-Film-Strategies-for-Secondary-Social-Studies/Marcus-Metzger-Paxton-Stoddard/p/book/9780415999564">other academic goals teachers have for using movies in class</a>, which include understanding historical controversies, visualizing narratives of the past and studying movies as “primary sources” that reflect the time at which they were made.</p>
<p>In a recent study of <a href="https://www.history.org.uk/publications/categories/304/resource/7132/the-international-journal-volume-12-number-1">more than 200 Australian teachers</a>, many described how movies added audio and visual elements to learning and showcased a more personal, empathetic look at historical figures and events – both aspects that the teachers felt resonated with the learning styles and preferences of their pupils.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169557/original/file-20170516-11966-kob1uw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169557/original/file-20170516-11966-kob1uw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169557/original/file-20170516-11966-kob1uw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=254&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169557/original/file-20170516-11966-kob1uw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=254&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169557/original/file-20170516-11966-kob1uw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=254&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169557/original/file-20170516-11966-kob1uw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=320&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169557/original/file-20170516-11966-kob1uw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=320&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169557/original/file-20170516-11966-kob1uw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=320&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">1994’s ‘Forrest Gump’ is a popular cultural touchpoint for thinking about the Vietnam War.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.paramount.com/movies/forrest-gump">Paramount Pictures</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Do students trust movies?</h2>
<p>Most young people are savvy enough to know that movies and TV are fictionalized, but that doesn’t mean they know how to keep history and Hollywood separate. After all, movies and TV shows set in a historical period can be extensively researched and often <a href="http://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/catalog/57hsn7hf9780252076893.html">blend fact and fiction</a>.</p>
<p>In <a href="https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ760285">a study of two U.S. history classes,</a> high school students interviewed claimed that “Hollywood” films are less trustworthy sources of information. Yet in classroom activities, they treated them like any other legitimate source – perhaps because the teacher adds some unintentional legitimacy simply by choosing the film. The teacher “must see some good history in it,” explained one student. “I don’t think he’s going to show something random,” said another.</p>
<p>A case study by education professor <a href="http://education.uconn.edu/person/alan-marcus/">Alan Marcus</a> found that students believed most movies watched in class to be <a href="http://www.infoagepub.com/products/Celluloid-Blackboard-Teaching-History-with-Film">at least somewhat trustworthy</a> – a source of information to gather facts.</p>
<p>The level of trust students have may also depend on their prior knowledge or cultural viewpoints, as in a study of <a href="http://www.infoagepub.com/products/Celluloid-Blackboard-Teaching-History-with-Film">26 Wisconsin teenagers</a> – half of them white and half Native American. The Native American teens found the 1993 Kevin Costner film “<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0099348/">Dances with Wolves</a>” to be slightly more trustworthy than their white peers did. The white students, on the other hand, rated the school textbook as much more trustworthy than the Native American teens did.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169561/original/file-20170516-11956-1oo69a4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169561/original/file-20170516-11956-1oo69a4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169561/original/file-20170516-11956-1oo69a4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=254&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169561/original/file-20170516-11956-1oo69a4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=254&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169561/original/file-20170516-11956-1oo69a4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=254&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169561/original/file-20170516-11956-1oo69a4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=319&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169561/original/file-20170516-11956-1oo69a4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=319&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169561/original/file-20170516-11956-1oo69a4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=319&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The perceived trustworthiness of Kevin Costner’s ‘Dances with Wolves’ may depend on a student’s cultural background.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Orion Pictures</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Educational challenges</h2>
<p>The complicated relationship between fact and fiction is just one of the many challenges educators face when using history movies in their classrooms. It’s not as simple as pressing “play.”</p>
<p>Among the host of practical and academic challenges:</p>
<ul>
<li>Many history movies are R-rated, with material parents may not want shown in class.</li>
<li>Some administrators aren’t supportive of spending class time on popular media.</li>
<li>Pressure to cover content standards and prepare for testing can leave little time for intensive media projects.</li>
</ul>
<p>The very structure of the school day, in fact, <a href="http://www.iajiss.org/index.php/iajiss/article/viewArticle/116">makes it difficult to fit film viewing into the curriculum</a> – especially if discussion and reviewing strategies are included.</p>
<p>Perhaps the most daunting question is whether movies are actually good for learning history.</p>
<p>In one Australian study, most participating teachers believed film to be useful, but some took the position that <a href="http://www.iajiss.org/index.php/iajiss/article/viewArticle/116">film can confuse students with inaccurate portrayals</a>. “Hollywood distorts history, but kids remember what they‘ve seen more than the facts,” said one teacher.</p>
<p>A psychological research study found that viewing history films <a href="http://psych.wustl.edu/memory/Roddy%20article%20PDF%27s/Butler%20et%20al%20(2009)_PsychSci.pdf">considerably increased factual recall</a> when the film matched historical readings. However, students came away with considerable misinformation when the film conflicted with the readings – because the students remembered the film and not the text. This occurred even when students were generally warned that the history movies were fictional.</p>
<p>With specific warnings about false details, most students were able to remember the accurate information as well as the misinformation. Teachers must set the stage when a movie is introduced, helping students mentally tag which elements are inaccurate.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169567/original/file-20170516-11956-d5q30w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169567/original/file-20170516-11956-d5q30w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169567/original/file-20170516-11956-d5q30w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=316&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169567/original/file-20170516-11956-d5q30w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=316&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169567/original/file-20170516-11956-d5q30w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=316&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169567/original/file-20170516-11956-d5q30w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169567/original/file-20170516-11956-d5q30w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169567/original/file-20170516-11956-d5q30w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Zack Snyder’s 2006 epic ‘300’ has some big pieces of misinformation, but the bulk of the narrative elements is more accurate than many people think.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.warnerbros.com/300">Warner Bros.</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>How to learn history from Hollywood</h2>
<p>History movies have potential as learning tools, but that potential isn’t easy to realize.</p>
<p>Teachers need strong subject matter knowledge about the topics portrayed, so that they can frame the movie and its relationship to fact and fiction. Teachers also need to have sound learning goals and awareness of the diverse cultural viewpoints that students bring to the classroom. And they need the time and resources for meaningful discussion or assignments after viewing.</p>
<p>Simply put, history movies – and most other media – by themselves don’t teach.</p>
<p>If a teacher lines up proper film choice, lesson goals, subject matter and class activities using the film, it is possible to really learn about history by way of Hollywood.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/75976/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Scott Alan Metzger does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>History movies may have Oscar potential, but their educational potential is more complicated. Should teachers use Hollywood to teach?Scott Alan Metzger, Associate Professor of Education, Penn StateLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/751372017-03-27T14:21:17Z2017-03-27T14:21:17ZBorn into revolution: reflections on a radical teacher’s life<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/162632/original/image-20170327-3279-12135o2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Alie Fataar, photographed during his exile in Zambia, was a revolutionary teacher.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Courtesy of Alie Fataar</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Alie Fataar was a teacher. Perhaps that doesn’t seem glamorous and very important. But Fataar, who would have turned 100 this month, is one of the many South African unknowns whose life and work can point the country today in a direction it ought to follow.</p>
<p>Fataar and his comrades developed an unparalleled educational project during the darkest days of colonialism and apartheid. Their work from about the 1940s explicitly debunked the <a href="https://books.google.co.za/books?hl=en&lr=&id=C4m8Vc2rWyYC&oi=fnd&pg=PP8&dq=scientific+racism+apartheid&ots=x0tB0B-OZm&sig=GSuhdfq_Mbhzyx1Py8LAFWgNntk#v=onepage&q=scientific%20racism%20apartheid&f=false">pseudo-scientific racist notion</a> that intelligence and human worth were unequal by virtue of physical characteristics such as skin colour and the texture of one’s hair. </p>
<p>In the 27 years between starting his career as a teacher and fleeing into exile from the apartheid government, Fataar profoundly influenced five generations of oppressed pupils. He instilled in them the virtues of critical citizenship and a profound, articulated anti-racism. His mantra, and that of the progressives he worked alongside, was: “There is only one race – the human race.”</p>
<p>Fataar was the subject of my <a href="https://open.uct.ac.za/bitstream/item/19505/thesis_hum_2015_omar_yunus.pdf?sequence=1">PhD thesis</a>. Why does he interest me so much and why am I now writing this reflection on a life that has been relegated to the margins of South Africa’s education resistance history? Quite simply, because he exemplifies the type of teacher South Africa sorely requires today if its classrooms are to be used to develop a new generation of critical, engaged students.</p>
<p>Fataar and his comrades showed that South Africa needs teachers who know that teaching is, by definition, an acutely political act. It requires a critical outlook that is independent, fearless and sustained.</p>
<h2>Who was Alie Fataar?</h2>
<p>Alie Fataar was born on March 26 1917 in Claremont, a working class suburb in Cape Town. 1917 was a significant year: in Russia, <a href="https://global.britannica.com/event/Russian-Revolution-of-1917">the revolution</a> was to shape the world in significant ways. <a href="http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-i/world-war-i-history">World War 1</a>, the “Great War”, continued to maim and kill millions. South Africa was a colony of Great Britain, which introduced apartheid-style legislation that oppressed the country’s not-white citizens. In 1918, Nelson Mandela was born. </p>
<p>Fataar was the youngest of 12 children. His father, Salamudien Fataar, was a tailor at Garlicks, a fine goods retailer and his mother, Janap Moosa, was a washerwoman. </p>
<p>Fataar’s father was not literate, but the young man was obsessive about reading and progressing through education. When he enrolled at Claremont’s Livingstone High School in 1929 he continued a pattern established during his primary school years, placing him at the top of the class.</p>
<p>Livingstone shaped Alie Fataar. There he encountered soaring intellects in teachers like Hassan Abrahams and E.C. Roberts. They were members of the <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/article/teachers%E2%80%99-league-south-africa-tlsa-conference-1925">Teachers’ League of South Africa</a> (TLSA) and declared unequivocally that their students were anybody’s equal – simply by virtue of being human. This thinking was revolutionary at a time when South Africans who were not white were considered and treated as inferior. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/162634/original/image-20170327-3283-dp95bi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/162634/original/image-20170327-3283-dp95bi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/162634/original/image-20170327-3283-dp95bi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=366&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/162634/original/image-20170327-3283-dp95bi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=366&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/162634/original/image-20170327-3283-dp95bi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=366&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/162634/original/image-20170327-3283-dp95bi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=460&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/162634/original/image-20170327-3283-dp95bi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=460&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/162634/original/image-20170327-3283-dp95bi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=460&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The combined Livingstone High School Standards 9 and 10 (Grades 11 and 12) classes in 1934.
(Standing) Left to right: A. Solomon, C. Wade, Alie Fataar, P. Francis, N. Thomas, W. Ludolph, D. Hendricks.
(Sitting) Left to right: J. Slinger, C. Parker, J. Henry, M. Dennis, T. Basson, W. Williams.
(Front: mascot) J. Rhoda.
Absent: I. Salie.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Courtesy of Alie Fataar</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>After school, in 1935, Fataar enrolled at Cape Town’s Zonnebloem College of Education. In 1937, he landed a post at his <em>alma mater</em>, Livingstone High School. As a senior English teacher he revelled in the responsibility of moulding his students into people who rejected an imposed inferior status, and who aspired to actualise their full human potential. Fataar was banned in 1961 under the <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/dated-event/suppression-communism-act-no-44-1950-approved-parliament">Suppression of Communism Act</a> and was no longer allowed to play any role in organisations like the TLSA, African Peoples’ Democratic Union of Southern Africa and the Non-European Unity Movement. </p>
<p>He kept teaching while under surveillance by the notorious special branch. He was accused of breaching his banning order several times and fled into exile in 1965.</p>
<p>Between then and his return to South Africa in 1993, Fataar lived in three newly decolonised African states: Botswana, Zambia and Zimbabwe. He initially struggled to find work but then began a “second life” in education. He taught in all three countries and worked for both the Zambian and Zimbabwean governments as an education specialist. He eventually retired when he was 71, having served education in Africa for an astounding 51 years.</p>
<p>He was 76 when he returned to South Africa in 1993. He engaged robustly with public education, globalisation and the militarisation of public life through newspaper articles, letters to the editor and community radio forums that had been established in the post-apartheid era. His appetite for political debate and engagement was not dulled by age. </p>
<h2>Radicalising teaching</h2>
<p>Fataar was not the only radical thinker and educator influenced by the Teachers’ League of South Africa. </p>
<p>The organisation emerged in the first decades of the 20th century as an assimilationist “coloured” political entity. The concept “coloured”, like most racial tags, is shrouded in controversy even today. Here, for analytical purposes, it indicates the politically-inscribed community that emerged from the colonial sexual encounter with the enslaved, indigenous population at the Cape. This “community” was labelled “coloured” by the colonial and later apartheid regimes. </p>
<p>In the late 1930s literature from the Russian revolution was finding its way into Cape Town’s progressive intellectual circles. The league was captured by young radicals. The radicalised league and its teachers became explicitly and organisationally committed to the creation of a new world. Through their teaching, they aimed to undo the violence of the colonial and later the formal apartheid education dispensations.</p>
<p>It was a revolutionary moment in South Africa’s making. These intellectuals created the vision of a new, just society through writing, publishing, debate, and a fierce contestation of ideas both against the enemy, and within their own ranks.</p>
<p>Historians and public intellectuals such as Ciraj Rassool have written about this project that aimed at nothing less than “<a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/sites/default/files/The%20Individual,%20Auto-biography%20and%20History%20by%20Ciraj%20Rasool.pdf">taking a nation to school</a>”. </p>
<p>This was arguably the most contested and creative political space and period in South Africa’s history. But its details are not included in post-apartheid’s struggle narratives – and so these radical teachers are not known. Yet it’s they who created a fierce counter-educational narrative to the dehumanising tenets of colonial and apartheid education.</p>
<p>And their work remains relevant today.</p>
<p>The ideals of a teacher born 100 years ago need to be inserted into the country’s official narratives. Fataar, who died on June 9 2005, left a legacy of teaching as an act of defiance in the face of intellectual dishonesty. Quality teaching, he taught us, is teaching with a social justice orientation, geared towards the creation of a radically new society.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/75137/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Yunus Omar does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Alie Fataar exemplifies the type of teacher South Africa sorely requires today if its classrooms are to be used to develop a new generation of critical, engaged students.Yunus Omar, Post-doctoral researcher, Cape Peninsula University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/667712016-10-18T01:13:33Z2016-10-18T01:13:33ZTeaching in higher education – there isn’t enough evidence to tell us what works and why<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/141919/original/image-20161017-30252-1bosd7l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">There isn't enough robust data around what teaching style are effective in higher education. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">from www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><blockquote>
<p>Do I deliver this unit online or face to face? How should I arrange my lesson? Do I incorporate pre-class and post-class activities? What methods should I use to engage my students: problem-based learning, active learning strategies, small group work? Should I ask students to come to class or connect remotely? If they come to class, should I ask students to bring and use their own devices?
How should I arrange the classroom furniture for my lesson? Does it matter what I do or how I do it?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The current higher education environment presents multiple challenges for academics. </p>
<p>The above queries provide a few questions university educators ask themselves before they plan their classes. </p>
<h2>Challenges</h2>
<p>In their teaching, academics face larger classes, an ever-changing student cohort, and for many, institutional pressure for blended and online teaching. </p>
<p>As such, university teachers are confronted with many choices, with even our most confident and effective educators expressing concern about the best way to deliver their programs or lessons. </p>
<p>This raises the question of whether one teaching or learning design approach is better than another, and whether the investment in time and effort to transform curriculum is really worth the effort.</p>
<p>In the higher education context, researchers rely on well-formed studies and strong, reliable evidence to inform their decisions. </p>
<p>Similarly, teachers need the same rigour and evidence to support them in their decision making processes around teaching practices. </p>
<h2>Teachers need to know what works</h2>
<p>Teachers are looking for studies that indicate whether there will be an improvement in student success. This might be measured by an improvement in students’ learning experience (students are more motivated and inspired), their learning approach (better study approaches) or learning outcome (grades or employability).</p>
<p>There is an extraordinary number of <a href="http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/prin/csj/2015/00000049/00000003/art00013">individual studies</a> that focus on evaluating a change to teaching practice. </p>
<p>For every study that says a change is better - for example, <a href="https://www.learntechlib.org/p/108655">introducing social media into the classroom</a> - there will be another that <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00131946.2013.866954?journalCode=heds20">argues the opposite</a>. </p>
<p>We have seen recent articles from The Conversation in which authors argue to <a href="https://theconversation.com/will-the-university-of-adelaides-lecture-phase-out-be-a-flop-44074">phase out passive lectures</a> followed by counter arguments to <a href="https://theconversation.com/lets-not-abandon-the-humble-lecture-quite-yet-44501">not abandon the humble lecture theatre</a>. </p>
<p>Many of these studies are usually undertaken in one subject, in a particular year level, and using a particular approach. As such the results might be influenced by the particular context and culture of the discipline.</p>
<p>These limitations make it unclear whether similar results would be achieved if that same study was applied elsewhere. This in turn makes the evidence unreliable. </p>
<h2>Unreliable evidence</h2>
<p>When considering changes to curriculum and teaching practices, many research studies lack the research rigour required to measure the affect of the changes. </p>
<p>Most studies report on anecdotal evidence, they may not be peer reviewed or published in a reputable journal. </p>
<p>Many disciplines are embedded in their own research paradigms – physical sciences often use positivist approaches in which the researcher focuses on facts, formulates a hypothesis, collects data from large samples and runs statistical tests to determine whether X causes Y.</p>
<p>In contrast, social sciences often use anti-positivist (interpretivist) approaches whereby the researcher focuses on gaining a better understanding of the situation. They collect data usually through interviews or case studies, using a small number of cases or over a long period of time. </p>
<p>In education there is no common approach to systematically obtain, collate and interpret the data, so often a combination of approaches are used. </p>
<p>The strongest evidence usually comes from meta studies, sometimes called meta analyses. These are studies that examine all the individual studies addressing a particular research question. </p>
<p>Usually a meta study involves a systematic review of published research in which the approach (data collection and analysis methods) is considered in terms of its academic rigour. </p>
<p>Those that pass the criteria for methodological rigour have their results synthesised, and conclusions are drawn about the collective meaning. </p>
<p>Studies included in the meta analysis may come from different disciplines and be undertaken in different contexts, but conclusions can be more confidently and broadly applied. </p>
<p>Systematic reviews take a lot of time and money because they involve a number of steps and usually a team of people.</p>
<p>Many have generated over tens of thousands of studies that might attempt to address a particular research question, but are usually filtered to a small select few that pass the rigour markers. </p>
<p>Meta studies that use systematic reviews are likely to provide educators with the practices that have the biggest impact on their students and can bust educational myths. </p>
<p>Systematic reviews are common in the medical field, but not as common in higher education. </p>
<p>In the secondary school context, John Hattie in his book on <a href="http://visible-learning.org/category/books/">Visible Learning</a> has completed over 800 meta studies for secondary school practices that improve achievement. </p>
<p>Robert Mazzaro from Colorado has explored <a href="https://katiedevine.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/classroom-instruction-that-works_pdf.pdf">classroom instruction</a> that works and provides a list of top ten methods for teachers to use in their classroom.</p>
<p>And Geoff Petty is leading an <a href="http://unuvotwic.ru/vovisecipit.pdf">evidence-based teaching network</a> in the UK.</p>
<h2>Few studies on effective teaching in higher education</h2>
<p>In higher education, <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/07294360.2012.702735">very few meta studies</a> that adopt a systematic review have been completed. </p>
<p>The Australian Government’s Office for Learning and Teaching (OLT) once provided funds for these types of large-scale, multi-institutional studies, but <a href="https://theconversation.com/innovation-in-learning-and-teaching-is-too-important-to-cut-58629">funding has since ceased</a>.</p>
<p>There a few meta studies that have attempted to undertake a systematic review in learning and teaching in higher education:</p>
<ul>
<li><p><a href="http://hdl.handle.net/10536/DRO/DU:30070540">One investigated</a> the effectiveness of supplemental instruction, a term used to describe models of extra support provided for students to help them develop strategies to succeed. It found that supplemental instruction correlates with better grades and lower failure rates. </p></li>
<li><p><a href="http://aisel.aisnet.org/ecis2016_rp/150/">Another explored</a> the appropriate mix of online and face to face components to develop the best learning course. The study found that an effective blend is based on a number of criteria. </p></li>
</ul>
<p>These included: the teacher’s willingness to try new teaching approaches, their experience in using technology and their workload, the students’ access to campus, their access to technology and their outside commitments, the type of course (theoretical, practical or a combination) being taught, and enrolment types (on campus vs off-campus vs both), and the support available from the institution such as technical support and professional development. </p>
<p>– Researchers have also <a href="http://www.olt.gov.au/Resource-development-instruments-assess-teaching-quality">undertaken a systematic review</a> to explore what teaching quality is. In doing so they reviewed the instruments that measured teaching quality in higher education, and found that teaching quality was comprised of a common set of dimensions. </p>
<p>These include but not limited to: it is personable, motivates students, creates interactions, uses effective assessment processes, is performative, places realistic demands on students, helps students make meaning, develops students’ autonomy and has an international perspective.</p>
<p>Teachers in higher education need objective evidence to inform and guide how they should modify their teaching practices or programs so that <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-urban-myths-about-education-are-so-persistent-and-how-to-tackle-them-60680">urban educational myths</a> do not persist.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/66771/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Angela Carbone receives funding from Australian Government's Office for Learning and Teaching. </span></em></p>Research looking at evidence-based teaching in higher education tends to be based more on anecdotes than on large, robust and peer-reviewed data.Angela Carbone, Director Education Excellence, Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/557172016-03-08T04:39:08Z2016-03-08T04:39:08ZTeaching in troubled times: South African academics try a new approach<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/113864/original/image-20160304-17723-wpahzb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Lecturing is an important, intimidating job and the academic's role is changing all the time.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Academics in South Africa have perhaps more responsibility than ever before. The country’s universities are <a href="https://theconversation.com/africa/topics/student-protests">in flux</a>. Enrolment rates have <a href="http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20140425131554856">more than doubled</a> since formal apartheid ended in 1994. </p>
<p>Institutions no longer cater for a narrow racial and economic demographic. More black South Africans than ever before are attending university, many from working-class or very poor families. A struggling basic education system has left its mark on universities – dropout rates <a href="http://www.dhet.gov.za/DHET%20Statistics%20Publication/Statistics%20on%20Post-School%20Education%20and%20Training%20in%20South%20Africa%202013.pdf">are high</a>.</p>
<p>All of this challenges academics to rethink much that has been taken for granted until now – like the curriculum, ways of teaching and methods of assessment. How can they best develop the tools to guide their teaching in a changing environment? </p>
<p>Staff development is obviously crucial. But one of the difficulties with traditional staff development programs is that they often bring staff from one university together instead of encouraging collaboration between institutions. This sort of relationship would allow academics to pool their expertise and support each other.</p>
<p>Institutional staff development programs are extremely important, but there needs to be a wider system of acknowledging the valuable role played by committed, creative and innovative teachers. Globally, good teaching <a href="http://interplayofstructure.blogspot.co.za/">tends to be</a> less valued and acknowledged than research by universities, particularly as international ranking systems give more weight to research.</p>
<p>Now 22 South African universities, supported by the country’s Department of Higher Education and Training, and the Higher Education Learning and Teaching Association of Southern Africa, have come together to test a possible new approach that’s been successful elsewhere in the world. </p>
<h2>A new way of thinking</h2>
<p>The Teaching Advancement at Universities (TAU) Fellowship <a href="http://heltasa.org.za/teaching-fellowships/">program</a> has three major aims.</p>
<p>The first involves contributing towards the enhancement of teaching and learning in South African higher education. The program is working to develop a cadre of academics across institutions and disciplines as scholars, leaders and mentors in their institutions or disciplinary fields.</p>
<p>Second, it hopes to contribute towards the definition of what “teaching excellence” means in a variety of institutional settings. </p>
<p>Its third aim is to extend senior academics’ knowledge and experience of educational development. These are individuals who have been acknowledged for their teaching excellence.</p>
<p>But what makes this program different? How can its developers and champions be so sure that it will deliver on its aims? </p>
<h2>International precedent</h2>
<p>Importantly, the program does not exist in a vacuum. Similar projects exist in <a href="http://www.stlhe.ca/awards/3m-national-teaching-fellowships/">Canada</a> and the <a href="https://www.wisconsin.edu/opid/wisconsin-teaching-fellows-scholars-program/">US</a>, and TAU’s management team visited these before the South African equivalent kicked off formally in July 2015.</p>
<p>Another similar program is the <a href="http://www.faimer.org/education/ifme/index.html">International Fellowship</a> in Medical Education. It has been running for 16 years and takes in fellows from around the world who are interested in setting up regional networks that focus on scholarship of teaching and learning in the health sciences. Such networks exist in places like India, Brazil and South Africa.</p>
<p>All three programs have been <a href="http://heltasa.org.za/news-from-the-teaching-advancement-at-universities-tau-programme/">evaluated at least once</a>. Recognising the value of feedback, TAU’s organisers have set up an intensive evaluation project to run alongside the program. </p>
<p>An expert from the University of Wisconsin-Madison – the director of its Office of Professional Instruction and Development, La Vonne Cornell-Swanson – is participating in the evaluation. TAU will also be benchmarked against the Wisconsin Teaching Fellows and Scholars Program.</p>
<h2>Deep engagement</h2>
<p>Another important element of the program is that it requires a long-term commitment. Participants sign up for 13 months during which they continuously engage with core issues related to teaching and learning.</p>
<p>There are three residential units when academics come together for five days at a time – a sort of retreat during which they can really focus. The idea is that participants develop a broader understanding of the South African higher education context while building a network of people they can draw upon for advice, support and collaboration in the future. </p>
<p>Most of the participants in this cohort are senior staff who have institutional experience and clout. Hopefully this will allow them to drive real changes in teaching and learning at their universities.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/113865/original/image-20160304-23874-4qzklv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/113865/original/image-20160304-23874-4qzklv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/113865/original/image-20160304-23874-4qzklv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/113865/original/image-20160304-23874-4qzklv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/113865/original/image-20160304-23874-4qzklv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/113865/original/image-20160304-23874-4qzklv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=563&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/113865/original/image-20160304-23874-4qzklv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=563&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/113865/original/image-20160304-23874-4qzklv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=563&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The first cohort of TAU fellows.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Supplied</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There has been excellent feedback and very good buy-in. Of the 52 academics who enrolled for the pilot project, 50 attended the second residential session. This bodes well for a good completion rate. </p>
<p>Participants have said that they particularly appreciate being able to learn about different universities’ contexts and challenges. Many appreciate the chance to learn about teaching from their colleagues: some clearly feel very isolated at their own institutions and welcome the opportunity to be with others who are passionate about facilitating learning.</p>
<h2>Looking to the future</h2>
<p>So far, TAU reads like a success story. But the true test will be the fellows’ impact on their home institutions when the pilot project is done. It will also be crucial to see whether institutions keep collaborating even when the fellows are not actively working together.</p>
<p>There must also be discussions about future funding sources. The Department of Higher Education and Training awarded a substantial grant to the pilot project, so it is fully funded and universities bear no cost. Should this change in future? If it does, less well funded institutions might be forced to opt out. That would be to the program’s detriment.</p>
<p>Whatever happens, and whether TAU becomes institutionalised or not, academics clearly need opportunities to be acknowledged and empowered. They must be equipped to respond adequately to the challenges of the times.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/55717/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Elizabeth de Kadt is the project coordinator of the TAU Fellowship Programme.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Brenda Leibowitz is the convener of the TAU Fellowship Programme.</span></em></p>Universities stand to benefit enormously if excellent teachers are celebrated and given the chance to share their skills, and if they have the power to really change their institutions.Elizabeth de Kadt, Professor and Consultant in Higher Education, University of JohannesburgBrenda Leibowitz, Professor of Teaching and Learning, University of JohannesburgLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/500842015-11-19T04:24:56Z2015-11-19T04:24:56ZTop lecturers share their teaching secrets: passion, focus and flexibility<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/101236/original/image-20151109-7504-xn80fs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">What sets brilliant university lecturers apart from their more average peers?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Omar Faruk/Reuters</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>What makes a great teacher? Globally, university teaching is often dismissed by academics as being <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/11851642/University-lecturers-more-worried-about-research-than-teaching-minister-warns.html">secondary to research</a>. But, for the 2015 winners of South Africa’s <a href="http://heltasa.org.za/">National Excellence in Teaching and Learning Awards</a>, teaching comes first. </p>
<p>I was a member of the selection committee for the 2015 awards and sat down with the winners to find out what makes them tick as teachers.</p>
<h2>Enjoyment factor</h2>
<p><strong><em>What makes teaching so central to your own academic identity and what parts of your teaching bring you the most enjoyment?</em></strong></p>
<p><strong>Tania Hanekom</strong>: Having the privilege to shape and support the future of the intellectual youth of our country and in this way help to build a better future for all far outweighs any conventional incentives [such as financial rewards for research output].</p>
<p><strong>Andri Prozesky</strong>: Being an astronomer, my research is far removed from human experience and immediate benefit to society. Teaching bridges this disconnect and gives me an opportunity to connect with people. All teachers are in a position where even small gestures can have a substantial effect on students’ confidence, outlook and thinking. Most people will easily be able to recall specific teachers in their lives who, usually unknowingly, had this effect on them. </p>
<p><strong>Marianne McKay</strong>: Even during my own undergraduate experience 30 years ago, the lecturer who took charge of teaching the first and second years in Chemistry was “only” a doctor. He was quietly chortled at by the rest of the department, although none of them would ever have agreed to take on his enormous workload. I would say the majority of my current colleagues probably view teaching as a necessary chore, too. </p>
<p>From an intensely personal viewpoint, when I’m with a class I’m completely present. Everything else disappears. There is no space for anything except the learning. I have to find ways to do, describe, discuss, present, that haven’t been done before. Every single time, even with the same material, it is different. </p>
<p>The other part, of course, is that if I succeed in helping them to learn the students will become professionals and go out and achieve even more. I have contributed to the foundation of a person’s career, and helped them – a little – to build a life and a future. That is a great feeling.</p>
<p><strong>Mike Savage</strong>: Teaching is an essential part of the fabric of academic life. The young minds of today are the researchers of tomorrow. Without good teaching, the future of research is not sustainable. </p>
<p><strong>Carolyn McGibbon, Gwamaka Mwalemba and Elsje Scott</strong>: Teaching is the mirror that reflects the research done to inform one’s teaching practice. The one cannot exist without the other. Teaching is the joy of planting a seed and seeing it flourish. It is the excitement of accepting the challenge to unlock boundless potential.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/tv2fCWk4-ZI?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Members of the 2014 awards panel reflect on what ‘good teaching’ is.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Excellence</h2>
<p><strong><em>What does excellence in teaching mean for you in your context?</em></strong></p>
<p><strong>Andri:</strong> At its heart, I think excellence is about not accepting the status quo, but actively deconstructing, interrogating and improving it. In the teaching environment excellence is necessarily closely related to outcomes. But by its nature this concept is very hard to quantify in a meaningful way. It would be short-sighted to measure excellence purely on things like pass rates, student numbers and student experience. I think excellent teaching means to be inclusive, while at the same time having high expectations of your students. </p>
<p><strong>Marianne:</strong> I teach oenology, which is the chemistry and science behind wine making. The wine industry is, of course, far bigger than wine making and encompasses everything from soil science and water management to being able to manage exports, sell your product at trade fairs and deal with people from all sorts of situations and circumstances. It is impossible for an undergraduate academic programme to address everything.</p>
<p>So for me, excellent teaching in oenology will involve providing as many opportunities as possible for all our students to become well-rounded professionals who can make an excellent range of products, but can also solve problems, manage, innovate and empathise. I imagine this definition could encompass contexts other than oenology?</p>
<p><strong>Mike:</strong> Excellence in teaching means connecting – very quickly – with students. With passion. This involves understanding the students’ learning difficulties – working, talking, and communicating with students using a very empathetic approach in lecturing and at the same time imparting more than just knowledge. </p>
<p><strong>Carolyn, Gwamaka and Elsje:</strong> Excellence in teaching incorporates passion and courage to take both the teacher and students though a journey on learning and sense making that involves engaging various complex challenges facing our communities. These kinds of teaching and learning challenges also empower scholars. It encourages the kind of thinking, practice and innovation that is meaningful, socially embedded and relevant to address challenges as well as enforcing the values embraced within society.</p>
<h2>Society</h2>
<p><em><strong>How do you think your own teaching approaches and curriculum content attend to the concerns raised in 2015 by student movements?</strong></em></p>
<p><strong>Tania:</strong> Transformation to me means to destroy the grounds for biases by empowering everyone to contribute to the building of our country, including those seeking a career in higher education. Being a woman in engineering I find it degrading to even consider that I might be appointed because of my gender or just for the sake of transformation; being a woman is coincidental. I want to be recognised for my abilities and the contribution I can make. </p>
<p>My mission is thus to prepare all my students, whoever they may be, to be recognised for their effective, high-quality skills. Only then can there be equality and only then can real transformation take place.</p>
<p><strong>Andri:</strong> South African universities are increasingly run as businesses and financial sustainability informs almost all their decisions. In our recovering society, the social impact of universities should be prioritised and they should be leaders of change. </p>
<p>In my teaching, I emphasise critical thought and the construction of valid arguments based on evidence. In a democratic society, solutions necessarily start with informed debate. Our graduates should be engaged thinkers who can struggle with complex issues, appreciate larger context and ultimately bring about positive change</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/101237/original/image-20151109-7528-1uezd9a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/101237/original/image-20151109-7528-1uezd9a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101237/original/image-20151109-7528-1uezd9a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101237/original/image-20151109-7528-1uezd9a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101237/original/image-20151109-7528-1uezd9a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=527&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101237/original/image-20151109-7528-1uezd9a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=527&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101237/original/image-20151109-7528-1uezd9a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=527&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Great lecturers give their students time and attention.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah/Reuters</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><strong>Marianne:</strong> I have started to make space for social justice issues in my modules. Regular changes to the curriculum are an excellent opportunity to adopt and adapt, too. But it really is a tough call to raise what are seen as “social” issues of transformation in a technical or scientific context. It is possible, but takes some creative thinking and careful de- and re-construction of curriculum content to find the right space to do it without it appearing tacked-on and affected.</p>
<p>We don’t have a choice, though. To use a scientific analogy, not transforming is like defiantly sticking to only Newtonian physics, while the world outside the classroom is being rebuilt using quantum concepts. </p>
<p><strong>Mike:</strong> Most of my students have a mother tongue other than English. Many of the terms we use in lectures do not exist in their language. I call this language stagnation. We have approached scientific societies with a proposal that a technical glossary of terms for isiZulu and isiXhosa for the Atmospheric Sciences be created – but we need help.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>More information about the awards and how the winners were selected is <a href="http://heltasa.org.za/awards/2015-call-for-applications/">available</a> on the Higher Education Learning and Teaching Association of Southern Africa’s website.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/50084/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sioux McKenna does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Teaching often comes second to research in universities. A group of award winning lecturers explains why teaching is the best part of their work.Sioux McKenna, Professor and Higher Education Studies PhD Co-ordinator, Rhodes UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/442562015-07-06T13:34:35Z2015-07-06T13:34:35ZRanking universities on excellent teaching will be better for everyone<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/87337/original/image-20150703-20475-1jq0c76.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Searching out the best teaching. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/edbrambley/4260498576/sizes/l">edbrambley/www.flickr.com</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The quality of teaching at universities has emerged as one of the key priorities for the new Conservative majority government. In a <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/teaching-at-the-heart-of-the-system">recent speech</a> to Universities UK, Jo Johnson the new universities minister, said he wanted to see universities in England enhance teaching quality, bear down on grade inflation and achieve parity of esteem between teaching and research. </p>
<p>Driven by a desire to give student consumers better information about where to study based on the excellence of a university’s teaching, his plan is to introduce a <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-does-the-next-government-hold-for-higher-education-40588">long-mooted</a> Teaching Excellence Framework. He said that this:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>creates incentives for universities to devote as much attention to the quality of teaching as fee-paying students and prospective employers have a right to expect. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>One problem that might hinder Johnson’s chances of succeeding is that, while each of the particular aspirations on his wish list are credible, together they appear somewhat contradictory. For example, take <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-25811702">grade inflation</a> – above-trend increases in the numbers of firsts and 2:1s granted by universities in recent years. How much this reflects higher student achievement is unclear. But the elevation of the “student-as-consumer” in the era of £9,000 per year fees and the competitive marketisation of the higher education sector, which Johnson advocates, may bear some responsibility for unwarranted classification hikes.</p>
<p>Universities regard student grade classifications as a metric around which they cannot fall short – or else their reputations or student recruitment suffers. People paying high fees expect to do well and university rankings include this dimension in their calculations.</p>
<p>The US faces similar issues, in part as a result of empowered, fee-paying, student consumers demanding value-for-money as part of an entitlement to a good student experience. Arguably, increased emphasis on the “student experience” – or consumer delight – can take focus away from the rigour traditionally associated with simply teaching the curriculum. </p>
<p>Universities’ preoccupations with ensuring that the high grades they award are “in alignment” with those of similar universities are likely to be reinforced by both the minister’s comments and also recent proposals by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) for <a href="http://www.hefce.ac.uk/reg/review/">quality assurance</a>. Both want to shift the focus of debates around quality away from university evaluation onto student outputs – their grades and wages once they leave graduate. </p>
<p>There is less concern with “regulating regulation” – auditing universities’ own procedures by an external bureaucratic entity such as the Quality Assurance Agency – than there is on monitoring standards of student attainment around knowledge and skills. </p>
<p>However, judging institutions in these ways, including those struggling to attract good students, is actually a real incentive for grade inflation – at least in subjects, such as the arts and social sciences, where grades are awarded more as a result of subjective, rather than metric processes.</p>
<h2>Don’t put all hope in external examiners</h2>
<p>It’s unclear whether the government can regulate these potential market perversities to sustain the reputation of the English higher education system. Johnson (like HEFCE) shows a rather touching faith in a modernised, external examination system for universities as a key instrument to guarantee this. External examiners are set to become professionalised and trained guardians of standards at higher education institutions, helping to damp down any tendencies towards grade inflation. </p>
<p>Yet the notion of a highly trained cadre of external examiners is an oxymoron. External examining is done mostly reluctantly (except for those starting out on their careers as academics), is poorly paid, and undertaken as a professional responsibility mostly with a deep sigh. It only operates at all because the whole rickety affair is so fragmented and loosely disciplined. Tell external examiners that they have to become trained, registered and subject to bureaucratic oversight, and nobody will do it.</p>
<p>One alternative option could be to set up a central examining system so that all papers are assessed at one point by a trained group of examiners – as is done for school exams. This would overcome the somewhat isolated role of the current wandering external examiner and would provide more rigorous comparability. </p>
<p>But universities would hate this and object violently. It would be seen as an assault on their autonomy. Probably it would be better, if a key aim is to keep a handle on grade inflation, to set up a national sampling process. This could entail selections of university exam papers receiving some form of scrutiny outside the university itself by panels of experts – rather like the <a href="https://theconversation.com/qanda-what-is-the-ref-and-how-is-the-quality-of-university-research-measured-35529">Research Excellence Framework</a> for research.</p>
<h2>Which incentives will work?</h2>
<p>The question is then how best can ministers create incentives for universities to drive up teaching quality? The first step is to better understand how it can be improved. Responsibility for improving teaching needs to be owned and taken forward by departmental and course teams. External agencies and particularly institutional managers need to ensure that local teams are working collectively to raise standards. Here the <a href="http://www.thestudentsurvey.com/">National Student Survey</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/tick-box-surveys-arent-the-only-way-to-measure-student-satisfaction-28780">other feedback instruments</a> are very important by helping to drive these local processes competitively.</p>
<p>Devices that shame universities for bad teaching may be as effective as extra funding that rewards those where teaching is judged to be outstanding. Public rankings of universities based on their teaching quality performance, judged by student attainments, would be an energising force. It would help, too, if there were funding benefits for teams that demonstrate key “learning gains” by their students, measured by comparing the progress students make between starting and concluding a course. </p>
<p>Above all, good teaching quality is encouraged if institutions are transparent about it and discuss it openly. This is far easier with online and digital learning. Here, the fingerprints of teaching and learning quality are increasingly recordable and clear for all to see as <a href="https://theconversation.com/snooping-professor-or-friendly-don-the-ethics-of-university-learning-analytics-23636">students are tracked</a> throughout the learning process. Real-time intervention (including by insisting that assessment marking and feedback are undertaken online by all academic staff) is traceable and helps address persisting student complaints about the long waits to get their results.</p>
<p>If ministers and HEFCE could create incentives for innovation and the spread of good practice in digital learning through competitive funding awards, this would be an important contribution to raised standards. The key is making teaching more transparent, recordable and therefore accountable. </p>
<p>Only in this way will teaching in England’s universities attain “market-like” characteristics similar to the way research is currently funded. We need to reward the best practitioners by allowing them to “cash in” on their teaching expertise by moving to better-rewarded positions in other institutions. Marketisation needs to spread to teaching careers in just the way it has done for researchers.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/44256/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Roger King is affiliated with the Higher Education Commission and was co-chair of its inquiry 'Regulating the new landscape of higher education. He is also chair of the board of governors at UK College of Business and Computing (UKCBC), an alternative provider. </span></em></p>The higher education minister Jo Johnson has announced plans for a new Teaching Excellence Framework.Roger King, Visiting Professor, School of Management, University of BathLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/336472014-10-31T06:14:10Z2014-10-31T06:14:10ZSeven ‘great’ teaching methods not backed up by evidence<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/63316/original/zdspv2c8-1414679325.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">We know what doesn't work. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/s/classroom/search.html?page=2&thumb_size=mosaic&inline=115841701">Teaching via Shutterstock/michaeljung</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>What makes “great teaching”? It’s a complicated question, made more difficult by trying to measure how teachers make decisions in the classroom and what impact those decisions have on what pupils learn.</p>
<p>In <a href="http://www.suttontrust.com/researcharchive/great-teaching">a new report</a> for the Sutton Trust, we have tried to set out how great teaching leads to great learning. Our overall aim is to see whether setting out a framework of indicators that focus teachers’ effort on things which are important can help their pupils learn even better. </p>
<p>Some things we are pretty sure about. Effective teachers have good knowledge about what they teach and know how best to communicate this to their students. They have a high level of skill in questioning pupils and assessing what they know and can do. They have high expectations and set a climate which promotes challenge and values success. Most of our report looks at effective classroom practices and how we can measure these.</p>
<h2>What doesn’t work</h2>
<p>We also think it is useful to look at what hasn’t been shown to work, even if this may seem a rather negative way to focus on improvement. Many ineffective teaching practices seem to be quite popular, even though most evidence is anecdotal and selective. </p>
<p>By stopping doing things that are either ineffective or inefficient, it should allow more time to focus on things that will make more of a difference. Here are seven common teaching practices that are not backed up by evidence. </p>
<p><strong>No evidence for (1): Using praise lavishly</strong></p>
<p>Praise for students may be seen as affirming and positive, but a <a href="https://www.aft.org//sites/default/files/periodicals/PraiseSpring99.pdf">number of studies</a> suggest that the wrong kinds of praise can be very harmful to learning. <a href="http://www.education.com/reference/article/teachers-expectations-affect-learning/">Other research</a> argues that praise which is meant to be encouraging and protective of low-attaining students can actually convey a message of the teacher’s low expectations. What is important is praise which is valued by the learner.</p>
<p>*<em>No evidence for (2): Allowing learners to discover key ideas for themselves
*</em></p>
<p>Enthusiasm for “discovery learning” where learners undertake problem-solving activities or open-ended tasks is not supported by research evidence, which <a href="http://www.cogtech.usc.edu/publications/kirschner_Sweller_Clark.pdf">broadly favours</a> direct instruction where children are more explicitly guided through the learning process. Although learners do need to build new understanding of what they already know, if teachers want them to learn new ideas, knowledge or skills, they should teach them directly.</p>
<p><strong>No evidence for (3): Grouping learners by ability</strong></p>
<p>Evidence about the effects of grouping by ability suggests that it <a href="http://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/toolkit/ability-grouping/">makes very little difference</a> to learning outcomes. In theory, ability grouping might allow teachers to create lessons that have a narrower range of pace and content. But it can also create an <a href="http://www.education.com/reference/article/teachers-expectations-affect-learning/">exaggerated sense</a> in teachers’ minds that children in one group are very similar to each other, and that they are different to other groups. This can result in teachers not making the necessary accommodations for the range of different needs within a supposedly similar “ability” group and going too fast with the higher groups and too slow with the lower ones.</p>
<p><strong>No evidence for (4): Re-reading and highlighting</strong></p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/63321/original/z757f7vh-1414682969.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/63321/original/z757f7vh-1414682969.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/63321/original/z757f7vh-1414682969.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/63321/original/z757f7vh-1414682969.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/63321/original/z757f7vh-1414682969.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/63321/original/z757f7vh-1414682969.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/63321/original/z757f7vh-1414682969.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Doesn’t matter what colour, it probably won’t help.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/dey/3496389/sizes/o/">Dey</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span>
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<p>Re-reading and highlighting are among the commonest and apparently most obvious ways to memorise or revise material. They also <a href="http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674729018">give a satisfying</a> – but deceptive – feeling of fluency and familiarity with the material. Yet a range of studies have shown that <a href="http://www.indiana.edu/%7Epcl/rgoldsto/courses/dunloskyimprovinglearning.pdf">testing yourself</a>, trying to generate answers and deliberately creating intervals between study to allow forgetting, are all more effective approaches.</p>
<p><strong>No evidence for (5): Addressing issues of confidence and low aspirations</strong> </p>
<p>The evidence shows that attempts to enhance pupils motivation <a href="http://www.jrf.org.uk/sites/files/jrf/education-young-people-parents-full.pdf">are unlikely be successful</a> and even if they do, the impact on subsequent learning is close to zero. In fact the poor motivation of low attainers is a logical response to repeated failure. Start getting them to succeed and their motivation and confidence should increase.</p>
<p><strong>No evidence for (6): Teaching to a learner’s preferred learning style</strong></p>
<p>The belief in the importance of learning styles seems persistent. A <a href="http://www.nature.com/nrn/journal/vaop/ncurrent/pdf/nrn3817.pdf">recent survey</a> found that more than 90% of teachers in several countries (including the UK) agreed with the claim that: “Individuals learn better when they receive information in their preferred learning style (for example, visual, auditory or kinaesthetic)”. </p>
<p>But the psychological evidence is clear that there are <a href="http://www.psychologicalscience.org/journals/pspi/PSPI_9_3.pdf">no benefits</a> from trying to present information to learners in their <a href="http://new.peoplepeople.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/The-Myth-of-Learning-Styles.pdf">preferred learning style</a>.</p>
<p><strong>No evidence that (7): Active learners remember more than passive learners</strong> </p>
<p>This claim is commonly presented in the form of a “learning pyramid” which shows precise percentages of material that will be retained when pupils have different levels of activity. These percentages have no empirical basis and are pure fiction. <a href="http://www.aft.org//sites/default/files/periodicals/willingham_0.pdf">Memory is the residue of thought</a>, so if you want students to remember something you have to get them to think about it. This can be achieved by being either “active” or “passive”.</p>
<p>By including some examples of “ineffective practice” in our research on what makes great teaching, we are likely to provoke a strong reaction from teachers and parents. We hope this can be challenging in a constructive way. Clearly, telling a professional teacher that some aspect of their practice is problematic is a risky way to get a productive discussion going. But thinking about what is effective as well as what isn’t can help clarify how to improve professional teaching practice.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Next, read this: <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-make-teaching-great-33858">How to make teaching great</a></em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/33647/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Steve Higgins works for Durham University which received funding from the Sutton Trust to undertake this review. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Robert Coe has received funding from the ESRC, Sutton Trust, Education Endowment Foundation, Pearson, and many individual schools and local authorities. </span></em></p>What makes “great teaching”? It’s a complicated question, made more difficult by trying to measure how teachers make decisions in the classroom and what impact those decisions have on what pupils learn…Steve Higgins, Professor of Education, Durham UniversityRobert Coe, Professor, School of Education and Director, Centre for Evaluation and Monitoring, Durham UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/270412014-05-28T11:49:18Z2014-05-28T11:49:18ZWhat do students deserve? Concerns mount over quality of expanding higher education<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/49550/original/v8zpfp59-1401190821.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">We stumped up, now we get to stamp. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-143536204/stock-photo-rubber-stamp-marked-with-quality-control.html?src=k_-UVQkrr7CSR_RuQ6VBWw-2-36">Stamp via filmfoto/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The recent <a href="http://www.unialliance.ac.uk/blog/2014/05/21/quality-of-uk-he-will-be-number-one-issue-during-expansion/">University Alliance report</a> on quality in higher education brings into sharp focus one of the major issues facing contemporary UK higher education: how we ensure that the sector maintains its reputation for quality in a period of dramatic change. </p>
<p>The report rightly highlights the complexity of higher education today. Not only do universities compete against each other to recruit students but new “providers” offer alternative study routes. Programmes are now offered by further education colleges and by an increasing array of private businesses. The increasing number of technological options to study has made quality even more difficult to assure.</p>
<p>A <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/may/21/london-college-funding-students-cannot-learn">recent investigation</a> by The Guardian into private “cashpoint colleges” with largely empty classrooms has made this even starker, and <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/may/22/watchdog-investigate-private-colleges-potential-misuse-millions">triggered an investigation</a> by the National Audit Office.</p>
<p>In a context where potentially unlimited numbers of students now expect to pay unprecedented sums in tuition fees, institutions see potential for making a lot of money. It seems unlikely that things will become simpler any time soon, so it is vital for the students to be able to guarantee the quality of the programmes that they follow.</p>
<p>The report is right to highlight the need for recognised definitions of quality in the sector, but we must be careful not to reinvent the wheel. Key definitions were identified over 20 years ago by Lee Harvey and Diana Green during their government-funded <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0260293930180206#.U4RvaCjb6xU">Quality in Higher Education</a> project, definitions which have remained influential ever since. </p>
<p>Harvey and Green noted that quality can be excellence, what is up to standard, fitness for purpose and value for money. But they added a fifth definition which is particularly pertinent to an educational setting. Quality is about transformation: good quality assurance should be a learning process in which staff and students learn through dialogue how to do things better.</p>
<h2>Take student feedback seriously</h2>
<p>At the heart of the anxieties in the University Alliance report is the “student experience”, by which we normally mean “their experience of the programme of study”. Sometimes this also includes their wider experience of life at university. If students are paying such vast sums in tuition fees, it seems vital that they are able to make good choices.</p>
<p>This has been a concern of policy makers since the late 1990s: A committee led by <a href="http://www.ihep.org/assets/files/gcfp-files/HEFCEQA.pdf">Ron Cooke</a> met in 2001 to identify the public information needs of higher education. At the core of this debate was the concern that potential students and their parents needed to be able to make informed choices about where to study, bearing in mind that they were now paying tuition fees of £1,000 a year. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/49552/original/gctrt5sr-1401191286.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/49552/original/gctrt5sr-1401191286.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/49552/original/gctrt5sr-1401191286.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/49552/original/gctrt5sr-1401191286.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/49552/original/gctrt5sr-1401191286.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/49552/original/gctrt5sr-1401191286.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/49552/original/gctrt5sr-1401191286.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/49552/original/gctrt5sr-1401191286.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Student experience is not all about grades.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/nottinghamtrentuni/9236357457/sizes/l">Nottingham Trent University</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>One of the major achievements of the Cooke Committee was the recognition at the highest levels of institutions that students’ feedback had to be taken into account in the quality assurance process. </p>
<p>Cooke highlighted experience at several institutions where annual large scale student feedback surveys were used effectively. Students are major stakeholders in higher education and their collective voice should help inform change in the sector.</p>
<p>However, the main result of the Cooke Committee was the <a href="http://www.thestudentsurvey.com/">National Student Survey</a> (NSS). One of the (many) criticisms of the NSS is that it is based on typical customer surveys in which students rate items rather than how they feel they have engaged with their programme. </p>
<p>Now a new Higher Education Policy Institute and the Higher Education Academy <a href="http://www.hepi.ac.uk/2014/05/21/hepi-hea-2014-student-experience-survey/">survey of student experience</a> has shown that students are less satisfied with their time in higher education than previously thought – partly because they are not getting quite what they expect from their time in higher education.</p>
<h2>Student arbiters of quality</h2>
<p>The key issue here, then, is student engagement, a term that has become a bit of a cliché but important all the same. Engagement, like all buzzwords, is a vague term, but goes back to what is at the heart of UK higher education debates: how to engage and involve students in a way that is fulfilling for both them and the staff.</p>
<p>In practice, this means that engaged students are those who work in partnership with academic staff to address issues facing learning and teaching, and even in the most daring cases, to develop the curriculum. It is a conversation between student and learner.</p>
<p>In the increasing number of institutions that implement student partnership programmes, experience seems to be overwhelmingly positive. For example at Birmingham City University, where I teach, <a href="http://www.bcusu.com/learning/academicpartnerships/saps/">students are paid to engage in partnerships</a> with staff on a range of projects, including developing teaching materials in the media school. For staff, student partners have enabled them to do things they had neither time nor resources to do before, even to see things from a different perspective.</p>
<p>The overall message of the University Alliance report is clear: there needs to be a greater standardisation of higher education quality assurance mechanisms across the burgeoning sector, overseen by the Quality Assurance Agency. But we still need to be clear that at the heart of quality assurance within higher education needs to be a focus on the transformation of all students, staff and institutions.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/27041/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>James Williams received funding from the HEA to explore student perceptions of assessment (2008) in response to concerns about low scores in the NSS. Between 2002 and 2009, he was part of a team that implemented student feedback surveys at a number of UK universities.</span></em></p>The recent University Alliance report on quality in higher education brings into sharp focus one of the major issues facing contemporary UK higher education: how we ensure that the sector maintains its…James Williams, Senior Researcher, School of Social Sciences , Birmingham City UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/245802014-03-27T06:10:55Z2014-03-27T06:10:55ZA $1m ‘Nobel Prize’ for the world’s best teacher won’t make life easier for the rest<p>What would you do with $1m? One lucky teacher may have to start thinking. Entries are now open for a new <a href="https://educationandskillsforum.org/press-release-applications-open-for-worlds-first-one-million-dollar-teacher-prize/#.UzBhpKIucmK">$1m Global Teacher Prize</a>, launched by the Varkey GEMS Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the Dubai-based private education provider, at the Global Education and Skills Forum. </p>
<p>The award – touted by its organisers as a “Nobel Prize” for teaching – will be given in November 2014 to a single teacher, from any country in the world, who has “achieved exceptional results” and “won the respect of the community”. They also need to have “provided a role model”, “encouraged others to join the profession”, “opened up access to quality education for all” and “prepared young people to be global citizens”. </p>
<p>The money will come in instalments over a decade, and there is one condition: that the teacher has to remain a teacher for at least five years. </p>
<p>What are your initial reactions if you’re a teacher? Was it: “Wow $1,000,000. That’s a heck of a list, I don’t stand a chance of qualifying. Only one teacher? From the whole world? Who is going to do the judging – and how on earth are they to make a reasoned choice?”</p>
<p>I expect thoughts similar to those will go through the heads of many teachers. But there is a different question to consider on whether this will help raise the profile of a much-hounded profession.</p>
<h2>Status of teaching</h2>
<p>As part of the background information to the announcement we are told that <a href="https://www.varkeygemsfoundation.org/sites/default/files/documents/2013GlobalTeacherStatusIndex.pdf">“only in China” were teachers viewed</a> as having the same status as doctors. </p>
<p>In several countries – much of Europe, Japan and Brazil or example – a sizeable proportion of parents would not encourage their children to enter the teaching profession. This information is not new and is largely accepted: in many countries there is a poor and often declining view of the <a href="http://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/publications/ECE/2535/5971">status of teachers</a> in society.</p>
<p>The question now is how well this enormous prize is likely to change the opinion in several societies, particularly if there is only to be one prize across the whole world.</p>
<p>One prize means only one country wins. The media are likely to ask the question “what is wrong with all the rest?” It could easily play to the negative.</p>
<p>Entry will be by personal recommendation by a sponsoring individual, or teachers can also apply themselves. So there is a golden opportunity for campaigning or management by governments or professional groups who may be keen to get a brief spotlight on the world stage.</p>
<p>It could just be an opportunity for a media hyperactivity and over-excitement. Although it may improve the lives of a few individuals, it seems unlikely that it will change the way people think about teachers. After all the Booker Prize and Oscars help sales figures for some specific books and movies – but do they really increase the number of readers and regular film goers?</p>
<p>Change of this sort is not done by imposition from outside – it needs to happen at all levels, and all the time. </p>
<p>In England, for example there has been a <a href="http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=k1c8_NgFpG4C&pg=PA26&lpg=PA26&dq=stephen+ball+discourse+of+derision&source=bl&ots=N1vK65dnlq&sig=vdCo-qYJxRneoqoUFfmMxJEimGc&hl=en&sa=X&ei=pF8wU8H7EM-ThgfMn4D4Ag&ved=0CC4Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=stephen%20ball%20discourse%20of%20derision&f=false">“discourse of derision”</a> for many years aimed at teachers –- more or less since schools and education became a political topic in 1988. Nearly 25 years of belittling commentary, often echoed by some newspapers, is enough to depress anybody – up to and including a whole profession. Teachers <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/mar/25/nut-strike-thousands-school-england-wales-close">are taking strike action at the moment</a> angry at working conditions, pay and pensions. </p>
<p>So, let us all celebrate the complex, challenging, stressful (but never boring) profession of teaching. Teachers used to be thought of as “public servants”. Perhaps it is time to return to that concept of serving society –- for this is what we do – keeping it ready, willing and able to face the future.</p>
<p>Teachers should not just be thought of as entrants in some giant lottery which any single person, as an individual, has a vanishingly small chance of winning. Rather, all those individuals need to be allowed to do the difficult task they do, the space to do it in and the time to do it well. </p>
<p>Is $1m per year going to be more effective spent all in one place or spread about a bit? I think the latter. </p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/24580/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bob Burstow does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>What would you do with $1m? One lucky teacher may have to start thinking. Entries are now open for a new $1m Global Teacher Prize, launched by the Varkey GEMS Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the Dubai-based…Bob Burstow, Senior Lecturer in Educational Leadership & Management, Department of Education & Professional Studies, King's College LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/224132014-02-03T14:24:22Z2014-02-03T14:24:22ZWould you admit to being a teacher today?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/40322/original/wzc4q3m7-1391189966.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=15%2C225%2C3489%2C2090&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Would you admit to being a teacher?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">David Davies/PA Wire/Press Association Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Are you a teacher? When you are at a party, a wedding or in the pub, and asked: “What do you do for a living?” – what do you say?</p>
<p>Why might you lie? Is it too boring? Too complicated? Much too likely to trigger stories of your new friend’s own school days? Or worse, to be open to a criticism of just how bad schools are today?</p>
<p>There are many parts to this complex problem. But there are three things that influence our thinking: government policy, research and our own school days.</p>
<h2>Craft versus profession</h2>
<p>A question that people training to become a teacher are often asked is: “What is teaching? Is it a craft or a profession?”</p>
<p>The Labour government, near the end of its term in office, was in no doubt that teachers should become an <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/student/postgraduate/postgraduate-study/do-teachers-need-to-take-masters-863540.html">all masters profession</a> – and even introduced a new national degree. The Coalition government that followed has had a rather different view. </p>
<p>For <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/michael-gove-to-the-national-college-annual-conference-birmingham">Michael Gove</a>, the current secretary of state for education, it is “a craft … best learnt as an apprentice”. This change in opinion is not isolated, rather it is the latest step in an evolution that can be traced back several decades.</p>
<h2>Flood of legislation</h2>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/40036/original/xgcw2733-1390929323.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/40036/original/xgcw2733-1390929323.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/40036/original/xgcw2733-1390929323.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40036/original/xgcw2733-1390929323.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40036/original/xgcw2733-1390929323.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40036/original/xgcw2733-1390929323.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=493&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40036/original/xgcw2733-1390929323.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=493&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40036/original/xgcw2733-1390929323.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=493&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Fig 1: Numbers of items of government legislation annually since 1940.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Author's own image created from data gathered at www.legislation.gov.uk</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This chart shows how many pieces of school-focused legislation have been put in place in every year since 1940. Each bar is coloured according to the political party that was in power – blue for Conservative, red for Labour and purple for the coalition. </p>
<p>You will see that until the great education reform bill of 1988, schools were not much bothered by government. Then the number of pieces of legislation rose until it peaked in 1999 with 328 separate items – too much for any school to react to effectively.</p>
<p>Against this I have put the <a href="http://educar.files.wordpress.com/2007/04/4idadesprof.pdf">four ages of teacher professionalism</a> identified by Professor Andy Hargreaves. These are:</p>
<ul>
<li>The pre-professional age: when teaching was considered to be a craft and further training, after a very brief induction, was not needed.</li>
<li>The age of the stand-alone professional: when teachers were expected to develop, but as individuals in their own classrooms and signing up for any out of school courses that took their fancy.</li>
<li>The age of the collegial professional: when schools began to work as a unit in terms of the further development of their teachers.</li>
<li>The post-professional age: when teachers seemed once again to be viewed as technicians – just delivering education, rather like a milkman once delivered milk</li>
</ul>
<p>If we put these four ages alongside the reforms, you can see a match between the level of legislation and the way teachers have been regarded. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/40037/original/ktqzyhn8-1390929553.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/40037/original/ktqzyhn8-1390929553.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/40037/original/ktqzyhn8-1390929553.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40037/original/ktqzyhn8-1390929553.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40037/original/ktqzyhn8-1390929553.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40037/original/ktqzyhn8-1390929553.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40037/original/ktqzyhn8-1390929553.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40037/original/ktqzyhn8-1390929553.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Fig 2: Comparing Legislation with the four ages of teacher professionalilsm.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Author's own image created from data gathered at www.legislation.gov.uk and Hargreaves A, 2000</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>So the argument goes: before the government was involved, teachers were thought of as practitioners of a craft. Once legislation increased, the view of teachers shifted towards the professional. With the increasing pressure of government, schools needed to react as a whole unit. Finally, from the turn of the century, teachers have been returned to the role of technicians. We have now come almost full circle, and teaching is being thought of as a craft again.</p>
<h2>Research intensifies</h2>
<p>In parallel with this, we should also consider the importance of the growing interest in schools and education as a subject of research.</p>
<p>For much of the early period of the legislation chart there was an opinion that schools and teachers did not really make much difference. Where you lived and who your parents were had much more effect. Then, in 1982, Michael Rutter wrote a book, 15,000 Hours, that demonstrated the opposite. From this point the level of educational research increased, and there was a large amount of research in the classroom and development of new ideas and ways of teaching.</p>
<p>In England, the founding of the Teacher Training Agency in 1994 and the National College for School Leadership in 2000 signalled further involvement of government, as research was commissioned and then used to direct the way in which teachers worked. This produced a move from the mainly bottom-up approach of the autonomous professional to the increasing top-down influence that contributed to the age of the collegial professional.</p>
<p>Study of the changing expectations of these two government-initiated organisations also show the change from the view of teachers as professionals to a growing technical emphasis.</p>
<h2>We are affected by our own history</h2>
<p>In the first, pre-professional age of teaching, who could new teachers look to as an example? In many cases it was the best teacher who taught them when they were a child at school. This still holds true today, but now there is a large body of research and knowledge that can modify and influence this starting point. So teachers can, and do, change their approach.</p>
<p>But what of today’s parents? They all went to school when they were children. They all remember their school days and their teachers, both good and bad. Their opinion and expectations of school will be influenced by these memories and it can be a lengthy task for today’s teachers to get them to understand the changes that have taken place.</p>
<p>So what, then, about the politicians who create the reams of legislation? They too all went to school, and unless they had a career before politics that involved educating children, their opinion too may well be based largely on their own childhood memories. </p>
<p>There are examples from the recent secretaries of state for education of people who did have just such previous experience, such as Gillian Shephard from the Conservatives and Estelle Morris from Labour. They were notable for the understanding that they brought to their role.</p>
<p>But what of the majority? Their teachers almost certainly belonged to the pre-professional age of teaching. Are they seeking to form, from the modern teaching population, a replica of how they remember it being done?</p>
<p>Where does this leave us all? Completely at the whim of our politicians and legislators? I do not believe this to be the case. Despite the external labels that are applied to teachers, there is considerable evidence that teachers as a group have a very definite and positive view of themselves.</p>
<p>For example, at the start of this school year in September, there was what can only be described as a flash-conference. Started by <a href="https://twitter.com/tombennett71">Tom Bennett</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/bengoldacre">Ben Goldacre</a> and marketed over social media, <a href="http://www.researched2013.co.uk/">ResearchEd13</a> a day conference attended by more than 600 young teachers took place on a very crowded Saturday. </p>
<p>To listen to those who attended, all young teachers from a very wide range of schools, was to hear a desire to be informed about research and also to study their own practice. This is not the action or opinion of brain-washed and obedient technicians. It sounds much more like independent-minded professionals.</p>
<p>Again, the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/teachers-standards">latest version of the Teachers Standards</a> – the set of rules by which teachers are judged – includes the expectation that teachers should “reflect systematically on the effectiveness of lessons and approaches to teaching”. For many teachers and schools, this is being taken as permission to enquire and research their own situation.</p>
<p>Finally, and perhaps most confusingly, there are repeated demands from government to <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/8504341.stm">increase the qualification level of teachers</a>. How likely is it that teachers who have themselves been educated to a very high level would willingly submit to being an unquestioning delivery vessel, obediently ceasing to question what they are being told to do. </p>
<p>A much more likely outcome, surely, is that they will always seek to improve their own work and hence the education of the pupils in their care.</p>
<p><em>This is a foundation essay for The Conversation’s new Education section. If you are an academic or researcher with relevant expertise and would like to respond to this article, please use our <a href="https://theconversation.com/pitches/new">pitch facility</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/22413/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bob Burstow does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Are you a teacher? When you are at a party, a wedding or in the pub, and asked: “What do you do for a living?” – what do you say? Why might you lie? Is it too boring? Too complicated? Much too likely to…Bob Burstow, Senior Lecturer in Educational Leadership & Management, Department of Education & Professional Studies, King's College LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/204382014-01-22T03:10:43Z2014-01-22T03:10:43ZThe rise of teaching-only academics: belated recognition or a slippery slope?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/36997/original/pwkfby5y-1386217467.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Universities are increasing the number of academics who focus on teaching, not research. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Lecturer image from www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In 1988, then-federal education minister John Dawkins almost doubled the number of Australian universities. </p>
<p>Dawkins did this by by merging colleges of advanced education and institutes of technology into a unified national higher education system. The new universities were now required to undertake research. Over the next two decades, their academic staff were strongly encouraged to undertake PhDs, develop research, and compete for research funding. </p>
<p>More recently, influential global university rankings – which depend overwhelmingly on research reputation – have made Australian universities even more focused on research performance at both the institutional and individual level. </p>
<p>To be a successful academic, you needed to be successful at research, or at least that’s what many academics were told. </p>
<p>But over the last three or four years, there has been a steady increase in the number of academic staff who are being employed mainly to teach, not for their research. While still only making up about 10% of the academic workforce, they are to be found in every kind of university including the research-intensive sandstones. In fact, only a handful of institutions have decided to avoid them.</p>
<p>Teaching-focused, sometimes called teaching-only, positions are being created for different reasons in different universities. These range from an explicit desire to raise the status of teaching and create teaching-focused career paths, to improving institutional research performance by transferring research-inactive academics into a different employment category. This tactic allows a university to appear more research intensive than it really is. </p>
<p>While few will admit directly to this motive, teaching-focused academics are also a means of increasing teaching “productivity”, allowing for greater teaching loads on some staff.</p>
<p>Whatever the particular motive, after years of research focus, many continue to doubt that you can have a good university career based on teaching, or that a teaching position will be given the same respect as a researcher. Teaching is still widely talked about as a kind of punishment for not being a competitive researcher. </p>
<p>Poor researchers are often transferred to teaching, but it’s hard to imagine an unsuccessful teacher being transferred to a more research-focused position. Even though there are plenty of poor teachers that can do damage to students’ learning. </p>
<p>Financial pressures that have led to the widespread casualisation of university teaching have also made many academics wary of developments that might lead to the creation of another academic “underclass”.</p>
<p>It’s mainly in the science disciplines that the creation of teaching-focused positions seems to be able to meet apparently conflicting objectives. Many science faculties now have “Director of First Year teaching” positions, for example. The goal is to raise the status of teaching to improve student learning and improve retention rates in chemistry, biology, maths or physics. </p>
<p>In making this an area of specialist focus, departmental budgets can be improved, and other academics can be released to spend more time winning research grants and publishing research papers. </p>
<p>The most enthusiastic teaching-focused academics in Australia appear to work in science departments where their love of teaching is being rewarded, and they are seen as contributing in a vital way to the overall strength and status of their discipline. The academics do well out of it, but the biggest winners here are the students.</p>
<p>The growth of teaching-focused appointments in Australia is part of an international trend in which traditional academic jobs are being unbundled into more specialised roles. These include educational designers, teachers of academic skills, and technical experts in online education. The main reasons for this unbundling are seen as technological innovation and the pressures created by mass participation in higher education. </p>
<p>For example, a MOOC (massive open online course) might have tens of thousands of students across the world, needing only one content developer (traditional, research-active academic) and armies of local tutors. </p>
<p>Government objectives around increasing participation rates without increasing government expenditure mean that lower cost providers are being encouraged into higher education. TAFE institutes and specialist private providers are already teaching many of our undergraduates, relying on teaching-focused staff with much lower cost structures.</p>
<p>What is needed in this competitive environment is greater clarity about what constitutes excellence in higher education teaching so that it can be both assured and rewarded. Some believe that a greater “professionalisation” of university teaching is necessary in order to secure its status. Others see the issue as one of institutional leadership and strategic foresight. </p>
<p>Teaching-focused appointments can raise the status of teaching or continue its marginalisation. What happens next will depend on the strategy and values of senior management, and the extent to which these are reflected in the things that deans and heads of department do and say.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/20438/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Belinda Probert receives funding from the Office for Learning and Teaching, Australian Government, Department of Education.</span></em></p>In 1988, then-federal education minister John Dawkins almost doubled the number of Australian universities. Dawkins did this by by merging colleges of advanced education and institutes of technology into…Belinda Probert, Adjunct Professor, La Trobe UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/212182014-01-21T03:12:23Z2014-01-21T03:12:23ZWho’s afraid of ‘Rate your Professor’?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/37379/original/rvwp5d48-1386719469.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">There are now many sites that allow students to "review" their lecturers – but is this a good thing? </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>A number of years ago as a PhD student, I was told that you must “publish or perish”. The advice was clear: teaching should be secondary in any considerations. </p>
<p>Instead, I should prioritise producing as many “A-Star” journal articles as possible, apply for all sorts of grants and consider teaching a necessary evil.</p>
<p>“Universities would be great places if not for the students,” one academic once told me only half-jokingly as I began my search for full-time employment.</p>
<p>Proud of the fact that as I was completing my PhD, publishing and co-ordinating subjects as a casual academic, I responded to this comment by quoting the great student survey scores I had received.</p>
<p>Unimpressed, this academic stated that this counted for nothing as these scores could easily be manipulated. Just give students “exam insights” just before distributing the surveys and hold off bad news on essay results until they had been collected.</p>
<p>While I have never adopted such strategies, I am not convinced they would work. What does work is sustained quality teaching that is innovative, relevant, engaging and student centred.</p>
<p>Over the past few years I have been researching quality teaching and have seen frustrations expressed by both staff and students: staff who feel students are not engaged, and students who feel that they get more from reading the textbook and seeing the PowerPoint slides, than they do sitting in class.</p>
<p>This student frustration has led to dwindling class attendance as well as a spate of websites designed to review lecturers. These range from those that seem to rely on student irritation such as <a href="http://au.ratemyteachers.com">Rate My Teachers</a> and <a href="http://blog.ratemyprofessors.com">Rate my Professors</a> to the ones that focus more on popularity contests such as <a href="http://www.lectureroftheyear.com.au">Lecturer of the Year</a>. </p>
<p>This Lecturer of the Year one is brought to you by Uni Jobs – a great marketing exercise. There are also sites that seek to rate <a href="http://mylecturer.net.au">the institution and the course</a> as well as the lecturer.</p>
<p>But it’s not a one-way street for the students. Frustrated with some of the negative comments, a number of lecturers have responded. Rate My Professor has a page called <a href="http://blog.ratemyprofessors.com/category/professors-strike-back/">Professors Strike Back</a>, where academics respond to all sots of criticisms, ranging from the workload of certain subjects to the density of specific subject matter.</p>
<p>So with new sites popping up all the time, is this a positive for teaching at universities or a negative?</p>
<p>To begin answering this question, we must consider whether a university education can be considered equivalent to holiday accommodation or restaurants. If so, then the websites above are just versions of sites like <a href="http://www.tripadvisor.com.au">TripAdvisor</a> or <a href="http://www.urbanspoon.com">Urbanspoon</a>.</p>
<p>There is no doubt that over the last decade, students are both seen and are treated as “clients” or “customers”. The commodification of education has altered the relationship between universities and their students. Students now demand value for money.</p>
<p>On top of this, technology now makes it quite easy for students to express their opinions. Social media means that students can quickly share their frustrations and adulation about any experience, including what happens in the classroom.</p>
<p>It is now much easier to compare what can be identified as “teaching excellence” to “poor teaching”. From specifically made YouTube videos to teachers that ensure lecture attendance is rewarded with a unique pedagogical experience, students know what good teaching is and what it isn’t.</p>
<p>Such websites have both positive and negative elements. In <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02602938.2013.861384#.Uqaot2QW2A0">recent research</a>, marketing expert Dennis Clayson argues that evidence indicates that these sites are biased towards a “likeability” scale – the more you like someone, the higher they rate – rather than teaching quality.</p>
<p>While the evidence is compelling, there are two additional issues that such websites raise that we, as teachers, should take seriously.</p>
<p>The first is that many academics rarely give students a voice when it comes to content and delivery. While student surveys and ratings are collated diligently, students are rarely informed of the results or whether their feedback actually counts. Academics need to consider giving students a voice, getting informal feedback from both current and past students and seek their opinions. </p>
<p>We must remember that time at university is one of the most formative for most students, and they often feel they lack any control. These websites are one way of reclaiming some of that control.</p>
<p>Secondly, we should see these websites as a way of highlighting where problems lie in the higher education sector. Rather than taking a “shoot the messenger” approach, these websites can be the source of important insights. For example, if subject matter is seen as being “too dense”, then should it be a matter of changing the delivery, or is there a mismatch in expectations?</p>
<p>I am not saying that the students always get it right. But rather than ignoring what is being said, we should look to understand the source of frustrations.</p>
<p>Paulo Freire, one of the most important pedagogical philosophers of the 20th century, <a href="http://www.pedagogyoftheoppressed.com/bibliography/">reminds us</a> that teachers have as much to learn from students as they have from us. We should never dismiss their life experiences. All too often we are guilty of doing exactly that – and with social media, the emergence of such websites should not come as a surprise.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/21218/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>James Arvanitakis works for University of Western Sydney. He receives funding from the Australian Research Council and a grant from the Office of Learning and Teaching as part of his 2012 Prime Minister's University of Teacher of the Year Award.</span></em></p>A number of years ago as a PhD student, I was told that you must “publish or perish”. The advice was clear: teaching should be secondary in any considerations. Instead, I should prioritise producing as…James Arvanitakis, Lecturer in Cultural and Social Analysis, Western Sydney UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/207152014-01-20T03:01:42Z2014-01-20T03:01:42ZWhat makes a good teacher?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/37328/original/63sv8fmx-1386652503.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">We've all had good teachers... and bad ones. But how do you define quality teaching?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Lecture image from www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Do you have a good university lecturer? What makes them good? Is it because they make their classes relevant? Are their lectures interesting or challenging? </p>
<p>Or maybe they’re just fun to be around?</p>
<p>Good quality teaching can be hard to define and there is no single way of measuring it. But all students, throughout their education, experience the highs and lows of teaching ability. </p>
<p>In my own case, my love of some subjects was destroyed by incompetent, boring and, at times, uncaring teachers. But others helped me develop a passion for a subject that I never thought I would be interested in. My good teachers were the most creative and served as role models. They mentored their class on a journey of lifelong learning.</p>
<p>In my own experience as both a teacher and a student, I’ve found there are some key skills that good quality teachers have in common. You need to be creative, enthusiastic, be clear and keep the information relevant. Those tired lecturers, who never vary from the same worn lecture notes or PowerPoint slides year after year until they reach retirement, do a great disservice to themselves, the students and their profession. </p>
<p>But is good (or bad) teaching something you can measure?</p>
<p>My field is statistics and the students I teach are, in the main, doing an MBA and have an average age of about 30, along with generally being in middle to high management positions. They do not want simply to be entertained, but actually want to learn something of substance that can be applied in the “real world”. Otherwise they see a course as a waste of their time and money.</p>
<p>Students surveys can be an imperfect indicator. But these mature students can distinguish a “quality” teacher from a “popular” one, who might present an easy course that can be passed with little effort. In this sense these students’ judgements generally coincide with what academic colleagues think about the teacher as well.</p>
<p>I undertook a five year study of these surveys that included an overall rating of the teacher, along with questions regarding the teacher’s knowledge, the class dynamics, the teacher’s preparedness, organisational skills, enthusiasm for the subject and teaching, availability outside class time and a number of other factors. </p>
<p>Although these responses all correlated to varying degrees with the overall rating given to the teacher, there was one question that was consistently most highly associated across all subjects areas over all the years. </p>
<p>This was the one that asked whether the teacher was able to explain the course material clearly. There were a number of instances where a teacher was rated enthusiastic, knowledgeable and well-prepared, but still was considered a poor teacher overall.</p>
<p>The conclusion from this study was that if you cannot explain the concepts in a way that the audience can understand, it doesn’t matter what else you do. In this case, they will not enjoy the experience but leave frustrated. </p>
<p>Whenever I introduce a new topic, particularly if it is complex, into the lecture room, I am fully aware that although I have been familiar with it for many years, it is the first time that most of them will have heard it. And during my explanation I think to myself, “if I had been hearing this for the first time, would I have understood what I just said?”. </p>
<p>Sometimes the answer is no, and so I then go through it again in a slightly different way. I need to be satisfied that at least the majority of students have understood the principles and, of course, I always encourage questions at any time. </p>
<p>Whether a teacher has been effective or not naturally depends on just what the student has learned from the experience. A teacher might rate well immediately after a course is completed, but several years down the track when the student looks back they may find what they learned of little value or relevance.</p>
<p>This often means that they have retained next to nothing not long after the final exam, did not develop a passion to explore the field further or find any use for it in later life. To me that is a great shame. </p>
<p>Although students may not always remember what you teach them, they will always remember their outstanding lecturers and how good they made them feel about the subject. That is their greatest gift and the mark of a good teacher.</p>
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<p><em>This piece is appearing as part of a series on Choosing a University. <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/choosing-a-university">Read more pieces in the series here</a>. This topic will also be discussed on #TalkAboutIt on ABC News 24, iview and abc.net.au</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/20715/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Croucher does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Do you have a good university lecturer? What makes them good? Is it because they make their classes relevant? Are their lectures interesting or challenging? Or maybe they’re just fun to be around? Good…John Croucher, Professor of Statistics at Macquarie Graduate School of Management, Macquarie UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.