Alex Radloff

Informed Teachers and Learners: The Importance of Assessing the Characteristics Needed for Lifelong Learning.

In order to be members of the learning society, students must become lifelong learners; that is, learners who have a wide repertoire of cognitive learning strategies, are metacognitive about learning and themselves as learners, are motivated to learn, and can manage their feelings and available resources effectively. Although there is evidence that these lifelong learner characteristics contribute to academic achievement, not many teachers or students know much about them or their relationship to learning and assessment. In this paper, we describe how cognitive, metacognitive, motivational and affective aspects of learning can be assessed using both quantitative and qualitative methods and discuss how the outcomes of this assessment can inform learning, teaching and assessment practices that foster lifelong learning.

Quality Management of Academic Development Work: Implementation Issues and Challenges.

This paper summarises current ideas about the place of academic development in the twenty‐first century university. It focuses on aligning the leadership and management of academic development work with the ‘ownership’ of such work by its key stakeholders—teaching academics, university management and the wider academic development community—and with an institutional quality agenda. It offers insights taken from the authors’ experiences in one AD unit over a five‐year period, and from the diverse perspectives on its work held by various stakeholders, into critical issues that underlie efforts to improve the management of academic development. It outlines the challenges in trying to elucidate the work of academic development within a quality management framework and argues for advancing its work through clearer articulation of its principles, standards, performance tracking and intended impact. Cet article dresse un bilan des idées courantes en ce qui a trait au rôle du développement pédagogique au sein de l’université du 21e siècle. L’article établit un lien entre le leadership et la gestion des programmes de développement pédagogique, et la ‘propriété’ de ces programmes par les participants—le personnel enseignant, les administrateurs universitaires et la communauté du développement pédagogique dans son ensemble—de même que les orientations institutionnelles en matière de qualité. L’article repose sur l’expérience des auteurs, acquise au sein d’un centre de développement pédagogique durant cinq années, de même que sur l’expérience des divers partenaires en ce qui a trait aux activités du centre de développement pédagogique, et nous éclaire sur les efforts entrepris pour améliorer la gestion du développement pédagogique. L’article élabore au sujet des défis que pose le développement pédagogique dans un contexte de gestion de la qualité et soutient que le développement des activités en matière de développement pédagogique passe par une clarification des principes, des standards, du suivi de la performance et de l’impact envisagé.

What’s it all about? Making sense of Australian university learning and teaching plans

Universities put considerable resources into developing learning and teaching plans. In this paper, we examine the purpose of these plans in the context of legislative requirements, public accountability and the quality agenda. We analyse a sample of Australian university learning and teaching plans using a framework we have developed based on theory and research on strategic planning and core themes in learning and teaching. Analysis reveals considerable variation in plans’ form and format, planning characteristics and learning and teaching themes addressed and omissions of key characteristics and themes. We consider the ability of such plans to meet the needs of internal and external readers, we discuss implications for their capacity to direct and motivate changes aimed at improving learning and teaching and we challenge the higher education sector to determine more clearly the role of learning and teaching plans.

Demystifying the publication process – a structured writing program to facilitate dissemination of teaching and learning scholarship

This paper reports on a writing program to support academic staff to publish in peer-refereed journals. Nine participants completed a 12-week program, which involved regular meetings, set writing tasks, and peer feedback on drafts. A pre- and post-survey and follow-up interviews were used to gather feedback. Participants especially valued the discipline of weekly sessions and peer feedback. They reported increased skills and confidence in their writing, greater knowledge of the publication process, and intention to continue writing. Although five papers were published, a 12-month follow-up revealed that original writing intentions were not sustained. Thus, while a structured writing program can be effective, the pressures academic staff experience trying to meet conflicting requirements of teaching, administration, and research, must also be addressed.