Maria Clavert

Pedagogically aware academics’ conceptions of change agency in the fields of science and technology

Pedagogical transformations in universities are typically explored as ‘top down’ attempts or in the context of training programs targeted towards educating more pedagogically aware individuals. In this study, promoting pedagogical development is explored on a community level as change agency: acting as a broker between the discipline-specific and pedagogical communities of practice in order to establish mutually shared new concepts and practices of teaching and learning. Thirteen pedagogically aware academics from the fields of science and technology participated in thematic interviews in which they were asked to describe change agency. The descriptions were explored utilizing a social theory of learning and categorized with content analysis. The findings reveal practical means of promoting pedagogical development between academic communities and point out various identities related to acting as a change agent. The study provides a theoretical model and further advances the understanding of pedagogical change agency in the fields of science and technology.

Developing as a teacher in the fields of science and technology

In universities, development as a teacher may be contradicted with developing as a researcher. Most previous studies have investigated pedagogical development merely as a result of pedagogical training and ignored the dual teacher-researcher identity. This study examines what kind of meaningful experiences are perceived to have triggered and influenced the process of developing as a teacher in the fields of science and technology. The data were gathered by interviewing 10 academics who had participated in a pedagogical training offered by a Finnish technical university between 1999 and 2009. Based on a narrative analysis utilizing dimensions of transformative learning, the results highlight the influence of the working environment and experiences, and imply that teacher development process in the fields of science and technology can be better understood in terms of becoming a teacher, rather than as a continual, conscious development process. The resulting teacher-researcher identity provides a basis for pedagogical development.

Change agency as a way of promoting pedagogical development in academic communities: a longitudinal study

ABSTRACT In the face of organizational transformations, academics are given a role as informal ‘change agents’ in their discipline-specific communities of practice (DCoP). Simultaneous participation in pedagogically oriented communities of practice (PCoP) enables them to promote pedagogical development through brokering at community interfaces. This empirical study explores academics’ experiences of acting as informal change agents at the interfaces of DCoP and PCoP during an organizational transition phase of three years. The longitudinal data were collected with interviews of 13 academics from the fields of science and technology. The findings reveal a variety of pedagogical development activities related to shared meanings, practices, identities, and ways of belonging. The activities are aligned with the organizational transition process and enabled by collegial support. The findings indicate that lack of supportive formal leadership may terminate the informal development activities. The resulting model of change agency provides a novel approach to pedagogical development in higher education.

A Sino-Finnish Initiative for Experimental Teaching Practices Using the Design Factory Pedagogical Platform.

The paper presents a Sino-Finnish teaching initiative, including the design and experiences of a series of pedagogical workshops implemented at the Aalto-Tongji Design Factory (DF), Shanghai, China, and the experimentation plans collected from the 54 attending professors and teachers. The workshops aimed to encourage trying out interdisciplinary hands-on teaching, and enable teachers to implement their ideas for teaching development utilising the DF pedagogical platform. The majority of the participants planned teaching experimentations aiming at enhancing student understanding of curricula through various group exercises utilising concrete artefacts, but found their implementation within established practices quite challenging, highlighting the challenges of transforming strategic collaboration into grass-root activity. However, the workshops ignited widespread interest in a continuum of collaboration in teaching development, and the DF has since acted as a hub for the implementation of subsequent internationalisation efforts of the two universities, including establishing a dual-degree programme.