Best practice, best teaching

Keynote address discussing examples from my own, colleagues, and attendees practice. Conference participants worked in groups to share and build upon their existing teaching and learning strategies

Teaching as Creative Practice Symposium

The Teaching as Creative Practice Symposium explored the relationship between creative practice, creative teaching and teacher identity. The purpose of the symposium was to • celebrate UAL funded educational development projects and those responsible for them whilst building capacity • support colleagues in developing their own response • share good practice across the UAL and also across the sector through an open symposium • enable staff at the university to engage with a wider community • provide models of excellence and creative practice to support a wider understanding of professional development in creative subject

Qualitative Differences in Approaches to Teaching, Teacher Satisfaction and Communities of Practice in Art, Design and Communication Courses

The aims of this study were to investigate how approaches to teaching relate to the concept of communities of practice and to monitor teacher satisfaction as a function of approach to teaching. Following interviews with art, design and communication teachers, a slightly revised ATI, with the inclusion of teacher satisfaction and communities of practice items, was distributed to teachers in the UK, USA and Australia. 130 returned questionnaires were analysed. The results show; (a) that the ATI has validity in design-related areas, (b) that teacher satisfaction is related strongly and positively to student-focused approaches to teaching, and (c) that all teachers aim to develop students‟ skills, but those with a student-focused approach are more likely to also focus on the practice and the real world problems of the profession. The positive correlations between an emphasis on development for the professions and a student-focused approach to teaching, and teacher satisfaction and a student-focused approach to teaching, offer insight for those involved in the further development of teaching practice

Researching the Teaching Context: Faithful Practice

Christian teachers are called to a teaching practice that is biblically grounded or based on a biblical world and life view, but can the same imperative be applied to those wishing to conduct research in Christian education contexts? This paper considers one approach to qualitative methodologies that considers the ultimate goal of truth-seeking in research in the sciences to be a deeply religious activity. The ultimate goal of biblically grounded research is proposed as being greatest-commandment driven, and to accomplish this, an epistemological base that is holistic and relational is proposed. This epistemology moves from a biblically oriented sense of both being and purpose to bring a level of redemptive engagement with social phenomena. Such research is seen in the context of unhiding and/or reclaiming God’s truth to bring transformation and reformation to research subject individuals and communities. The paper includes references to philosophical bases such as reformed critical realism and methodological constructions such as critical ethnography

Humility, Listening and ‘Teaching in a Strong Sense’

My argument in this paper is that humility is implied in the concept of teaching, if teaching is construed in a strong sense. Teaching in a strong sense is a view of teaching as linked to students’ embodied experiences (including cognitive and moral-social dimensions), in particular students’ experiences of limitation, whereas a weak sense of teaching refers to teaching as narrowly focused on student cognitive development. In addition to detailing the relation between humility and strong sense teaching, I will also argue that humility is acquired through the practice of teaching. My discussion connects to the growing interest, especially in virtue epistemology discourse, in the idea that teachers should educate for virtues. Drawing upon John Dewey and contemporary virtue epistemology discourse, I discuss humility, paying particular attention to an overlooked aspect of humility that I refer to as the educative dimension of humility. I then connect this concept of humility to the notion of teaching in a strong sense. In the final section, I discuss how humility in teaching is learned in the practice of teaching by listening to students in particular ways. In addition, I make connections between my concept of teaching and the practice of cultivating students’ virtues. I conclude with a critique of common practices of evaluating good teaching, which I situate within the context of international educational policy on teacher evaluation

Theorising teaching

Theorising of teaching is not limited to the major theorists, as researchers and teachers also theorise teaching. This article explores theorising by researchers and a teacher in two ways: firstly, an overview or framework from the research literature on teaching as a sociocultural practice is developed, and secondly, the framework is tested by analysing the transcripts of a beginning teacher talking about her teaching

Practicing What We Preach: Using Professional Degree Principles to Improve HRIR and Management Teaching

Many of the central principles of professional degrees taught to HRIR and business school students-putting theory into practice, knowing your customers, benchmarking against best practices, and using diverse toolkits for problem solving-are equally valid for the practice of teaching HRIR and business courses. Learning theory needs to be put into practice in the professional classroom, instructors must understand students and their diverse learning styles, teaching practices should be benchmarked against best practices, and instructors need to develop teaching toolkits for creating effective courses. As teachers of professional students, we should practice what we preach.