Kate Thomson

Informal conversations about teaching and their relationship to a formal development program: learning opportunities for novice and mid-career academics

Engaging in informal activities, like conversations with colleagues, is one way that professionals can learn within workplace contexts. Informal conversations present opportunities for academics to learn about teaching. The current study investigated academics’ experience of informal conversations, and their experience of the relations between conversations and one formal development program. Semi-structured interviews with 30 individual academics were conducted and the transcripts analysed using the constant comparative method associated with grounded theory. This analysis provided evidence that conversations play a developmental role in supporting academics to learn about teaching from colleagues, and these conversations can reinforce the learning from a formal development program. The results of this study suggest roles for academic developers in encouraging informal conversations about teaching, and building constructive relations between formal and informal development strategies.

Learning by observing a peer’s teaching situation

This article reports on a study of academics who observed their colleagues’ teaching at a large research-intensive university in Australia. These academics had completed peer observation as part of a foundations programme designed for those new to teaching or new to the university. Survey responses and interview transcripts form the basis of an investigation of academics’ experience of observation, and whether the experience led academics to change their teaching practice. The results provide evidence for reconsidering how academics learn about teaching from observing peers. There is support for the premise that academics learn from observing teaching, an approach distinct from those more common in higher education, such as being observed, or observing with the aim of providing feedback for colleagues. Recommendations for those interested in developing the teaching of academics through peer observation are discussed.

The role of informal conversations in developing university teaching

ABSTRACT Within workplace contexts, professionals learn from colleagues by engaging in informal conversations, yet little is known about the contribution these types of conversations make to how academics develop as teachers. Taking a socio-cultural perspective, this article reports on the experience of mid-career academics in conversations about teaching within their departmental contexts. This study drew on semi-structured interviews with 24 academic staff working in different departments at an Australian research-intensive university. The transcripts were analysed using Glaser and Strauss’ [1967. The Discovery of Grounded Theory: Strategies for Qualitative Research. New York: Aldine] constant comparative method for developing grounded theory. The analysis reveals that the nature of conversations between colleagues has a distinct role in supporting academics to learn how to manage and improve their teaching practice in several unique ways, for example, through collaboration following a venting incident. Informal conversations about teaching are revealed as an avenue for continuing professional development for mid-career academics, and a productive area for future higher education research.

Peer observation of teaching: the case for learning just by watching

Peer observation and peer review of teaching are much lauded in academic and educational development circles. They refer to a process where academics have their teaching observed by a colleague and...

From Dream to Reality: Sustaining a Higher Education Community of Practice Beyond Initial Enthusiasm

This chapter is set within the complex context of academia where challenges facing sustainability of learning communities are yet to be explored in detail. It presents a narrative of one such exploration with a focus on the personal experience stories of community members who have taken their vision for a sustainable higher education community of practice called Talking about Teaching and Learning (TATAL) from dream to reality. The focus of this chapter, the 2009 and 2011 TATALs, are two of seven on-going TATAL communities. Their journey suggests that to maintain long-term sustainability, learning communities need to be both individually sustaining places and collectively sustainable spaces. These places and spaces are characterised by connection through professional and social relationships, engagement through purposeful collaborative reflective inquiry, ownership through shared commitment to each other, safety based on multiple trusts and permissions, and holistic facilitation as weaving. Knowing more about individual and collective sustainability enhances individual, community, and institutional understanding of the value of informal learning for teachers. This knowledge better positions individuals to negotiate the challenges of the shifting higher education landscapes.

Supporting peer observation of teaching: Collegiality, conversations, and autonomy

Abstract Little is known about how university leaders approach the complex task of supporting peer observation of teaching in their Faculties. This paper explores the experiences of four Associate Deans of Learning and Teaching at a research-intensive university in Australia. Interviews revealed three different approaches to supporting peer observation of teaching: a focus on the benefits of observing; a focus on collegiality and conversations between teaching staff; and a focus on autonomy of choice for teaching staff. These approaches are likely the result of disciplinary differences, personal experiences and institutional pressures. It is clear that Associate Deans who are leading peer observation of teaching balance the needs and agency of their staff against institutional and cultural factors. Recommendations for further research and practical implications for leadership are discussed.

The alchemy of facilitation revealed through individual stories and collective narrative

Abstract Facilitation is a key ‘ingredient’ in the success and sustainability of communities of practice. Yet, little attention has been given to in situ experiences of facilitators of these communities. This paper takes up the challenge to explore these experiences using reflective stories written by seven TATAL (Talking about Teaching and Learning) facilitators (the authors) from different disciplines in five different Australian universities. The authors’ collaborative analysis of their experiences suggests reframing the role of facilitator to include the role of alchemist, a promoter of transformation. This reframing has the potential to change the way higher education community of practice facilitators think about and enact their role. The story-based reflective process used in this self-study could also be used by facilitators to investigate their own practice, as a component of facilitator education programmes or by academics and researchers in other contexts who seek a participatory, collaborative approach to evaluate their practice.

Inspiring academics: learning with the world’s greatest university teachers, edited by Iain Hay

Inspiring academics is a series of stories written by great university teachers from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the UK and the USA. Many have received awards for teaching and draw on decades of teaching experience to write their chapter. They represent a variety of disciplines (including physics, psychology, political science, geography and graphic design), but emphasise their teaching, so that disciplinary content knowledge is not necessary to appreciate the pedagogy. Five themes that frame high-quality university teaching and learning (identified by the Australian Learning and Teaching Council and mirrored in the criteria of other national bodies) are used to organise the authors’ stories: