Geoff Isaacs

Short courses, beyond and beside:What do newly appointed university teachers want?

Abstract In many Australian universities there is no compulsion for new academic staff to involve themselves in any form of teaching development; in others any compulsion extends only to attendance at brief introductory programmes. The staff development community seems to favour longer‐term contact. However, even extensive programmes must start somewhere. The question therefore arises: ‘What should a brief introductory programme comprise?’ In late 1995 we interviewed 35 newly appointed university staff, all of whom enrolled for (not all actually attended) a four‐day introduction to university teaching programme. We asked them about most aspects of their lives as academics, and we report here on what they felt desirable in a brief introductory programme and on their feelings as to what kind of support is needed for newly appointed teachers. Most significantly, these staff saw a need for information and skills for survival in the short term, rather than a well‐founded set of knowledge and skills to be built...

Course and tutorial CAL lesson design : Helping students take control of their learning

An aim of all teaching is to improve students’ ability to use their right to learn what they will when they will. Giving students increasing control of their learning helps them to learn how to control it; it can enable them eventually to exercise their freedom efficiently and usefully. Courses designed in modules fit this strategy and also mesh well with tutorial computer‐assisted learning (CAL). The control of learning involves both acquiring specific study skills and the development of a varied repertoire of learning styles. Tutorial CAL is not well suited to the teaching of the more complex learning styles, but methods are noted which help to overcome this problem. An analysis is given of the ways in which, within a tutorial CAL lesson, control can be handed to the student. The skills a student must gain to use tutorial CAL effectively are also examined in the light of the literature on note‐taking and note‐giving, as well as that on learning styles. The implications for lesson design are noted.

Developing the developers: Some ethical dilemmas in changing times

Abstract Universities in Australia, like those in many Western countries, currently are being pushed to find for themselves an increasing share of their own budgets and to consider themselves as service providers to students, their ‘customers’. These students, having paid fees, may well expect to get what they have paid for and, in current labour market conditions, that may amount to a degree rather than an education. That is, universities are now under‐funded and, frequently, far from being seen as educational institutions, are seen as businesses whose role is to provide adequate service at optimum price. By and large, educational development staff do not teach students so they do not contribute directly to the income of the enterprise. The position of such staff and the units in which they are located is thus increasingly coming under threat as ‘economies’ are sought by academic ‘managers’. One poignantly pointed issue, then, is the extent to which educational developers might appropriately change the s...

CHANGES IN RATINGS FOR STAFF WHO EVALUATED THEIR TEACHING MORE THAN ONCE

ABSTRACT It is reasonable to ask whether staff who have their teaching evaluated improve their teaching as a result, but this question is probably an unanswerable one. In the present paper, however, we look at whether staff evaluated on more than one occasion using the same type of teaching in the same subject improve their ratings. The study is based on ratings generated from over 2000 class groups evaluated during a four year period and involving about 72000 student questionnaires. About one quarter of these class groups satisfied the selection criteria (same subject and teaching method on two separate occasions) and were included in the analysis. We find that on average there is a modest increase in both subject and teacher ratings. Further analysis reveals that the change in the relevant initial rating on average decreases with increasing initial rating. There is no clear relationship apparent between the number of semesters between successive evaluations and the magnitude of the change in ratings.

Client Relationships and Consulting Realities a response to John Hedberg's paper ‘Client Relationships in Instructional Design‘

Abstract For the practising consultant, the most directly usable part of Hedbergs paper is his treatment of the effects that the interaction of the clients and consultants cognitive styles can have on their working relationship. The treatment of consulting modes, reviewed by Hedberg, is, in essence, an application of role theory. In practice the use of mode‐theoretic language increases the risk of the consultant depersonalizing the relationship between consultant and client. Role‐theoretic language, with its focus on client and consultant as individuals and in interaction, maintains equal emphasis on people, task and process. Role‐theoretic language also facilitates the formulation of explicit agreements or ‘contracts’ between the client and the consultant. Such agreements are extremely useful to both client and consultant, and are almost essential in large‐scale consultations.