Academic teachers' workplace learning and its role in the formation of their teaching practices

Few studies have examined the character of academic teachers' workplace learning and its role in the formation of their teaching practices. There is also a lack of appropriate theoretical and conceptual frameworks, or 'analytical perspectives', in the literature. This thesis is based on a small-scale, ethnographic-style case-study of the workplace learning of seven lecturers who comprise the Pharmacy Practice subjectgroup (PPG) in a 'new' university in the UK. During a six month period, qualitative data were gathered through observation of working activities and individual interviews, complemented by document review. The concepts and principles of Engestrom's Activity Theory were used to examine the character of the participants' workplace learning; its motives and its functions in relation to their teaching practices. The case study also evaluated this analytical perspective. Learning was a pervasive constituent of the participants' normal collaborative working activities. It had complex historical, social, cultural and individual dimensions; diverse motives, and its functions included the maintenance; adaptation and radical transformation of teaching practices. A comprehensive, coherent, systematic understanding of these characteristics required the adoption of the work-group as the prime unit of analysis, rather than individual members, and an acknowledgment that learning was a communal process involving various forms of participation. Thus the case study provides further evidence that academic teachers' practices are highly complex, 'situated' and often collectively formed in small-scale work groups, especially disciplinary or specialist-subject groups. These insights indicate that the technical-rational and interpretive-constructive analytical perspectives which are widely adopted to understand academic teachers' work and learning cannot provide an adequate account of their workplace learning or its functions. The thesis provides an alternative perspective, together with detailed insights, examples and findings, which can be used to inform measures intended to improve university teaching and support the professional development of academic teachers

AgamidDataTip

Excel file containing the data for each species and the tip names of the Agamid lizard studied. "." denotes a missing value

FranklinStuartFox_JEB2017_dataset

Excel file of data from female squid longevity experimen

A) Chromatic (CC; colour) and B) achromatic (AC; luminance) contrast of primary female throat colouration against a neutral background (30% grey), for each colour morph. CC and AC measured in units of just noticeable differences (JND).

<p>A) Chromatic (CC; colour) and B) achromatic (AC; luminance) contrast of primary female throat colouration against a neutral background (30% grey), for each colour morph. CC and AC measured in units of just noticeable differences (JND).</p

Variance-covariance matrix

Variance-covariance matrix of the phylogeny to the tip names in AgamidDataTip.xls. Branch lengths are set to 1 but polytomies resolved with a branch length of 0.0001

Discriminant function analysis (DFA) confirming the presence of four discrete throat colour morphs following testosterone implantation.

<p>Orange: red squares; orange+yellow: orange triangles; yellow: yellow triangles; and grey: grey diamonds. Individuals are plotted for canonical variables <b>A)</b> 1 and 2; <b>B)</b> 1 and 3; and <b>C)</b> 2 and 3, with 95% confidence ellipses.</p

Linear and quadratic changes in colour over time for each morph separately.

<p>Only colour variables for which there was a significant interaction between colour morph and time are presented. Values remaining significant after applying FDR corrections in bold.</p

Mean percent of A) red, B) yellow and C) grey components of throat colouration over time.

<p>Data for each morph category were derived from digital images using segmentation analysis (n = 40). Significant effect of time for proportion red in O and OY morph, and proportion grey in OY morph (quadratic trendline fitted); p < 0.0001 in each case.</p

Effect of testosterone implantation on components of female colour expression.

<p>The change in proportion of throat colours (red, yellow and grey) was derived from segmentation analysis of digital images, and the chromatic (colour) and achromatic (luminance) contrast of the primary throat and bib was derived from spectral measurements. For significant quadratic interactions between morph and time (denoted by *), each morph was analysed separately (<a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0140458#pone.0140458.t002" target="_blank">Table 2</a>). Values remaining significant after applying FDR corrections in bold.</p

Effect of testosterone on female throat colour expression for each morph.

<p>Pre-testosterone implantation (left) versus same lizard at peak of morph expression (right): <b>A)</b> orange, <b>B)</b> yellow, <b>C)</b> orange+yellow, <b>D)</b> grey.</p