Paul Ramsden

A performance indicator of teaching quality in higher education: The Course Experience Questionnaire

ABSTRACT Performance indicators (PIs) in higher education have focused chiefly on research outputs. They have largely ignored the teaching function of universities and colleges. This article outlines the development of a student evaluation instrument designed to measure the teaching performance of academic organisational units. The theory of teaching and learning that underlies the Course Experience Questionnaire (CEQ) is described. The instruments statistical qualities and its ability to discriminate intelligibly between different courses are discussed in the context of results from national trials in Australian higher education. The principal conclusion reached is that the CEQ offers a reliable, verifiable and useful means of determining the perceived teaching quality of academic units in systems of higher education that are based on British models. Several technical and political issues remain unresolved in its application as a PI.

Associations between Research and Teaching in Australian Higher Education.

This article describes results of an empirical investigation of the relationship between research and undergraduate teaching in Australian higher education. Two research indexes (weighted number of publications, and number of research activities) were used. Scores on a Likert-type scale of reported commitment to teaching undergraduate students formed the main criterion of teaching effectiveness. This was supplemented by student ratings in one of the aggregate-level analyses. The results revealed typically no relation or a negative relation between teaching and research at the level of the individual and at the level of the department, across all subject areas. The only exceptions concerned one group of former colleges of education. Further analysis by staff self-rating of academic quality showed that there existed one group of staff, mainly in the universities, who were committed to teaching and highly active researchers. However, the data did not support a causal interpretation of the association. It is concluded that there is no evidence in these results to indicate the existence of a simple functional association between high research output and the effectiveness of undergraduate teaching. Some implications for policy and student course choice are discussed.

Describing and explaining research productivity

This article describes results from a study of academic productivity in Australian higher education. It estimates the output (in terms of quantity of publications) of individual staff and academic departments across different subject areas and types of institution. Concerning research productivity, Australian academics resemble their colleagues in other countries: the average is low, while the range of variation is high. Most papers are produced by few academic staff. Several potential correlates of productivity, including level of research activity, subject area, institutional type, gender, age, early interest in research, and satisfaction with the promotions system, are examined. A model linking departmental context to personal research performance through department and personal research activity is developed and tested. The results support the view that structural factors (such as how academic departments are managed and led) combine with personal variables (such as intrinsic interest in the subject matter of ones discipline) to determine levels of productivity. There is also evidence that research and teaching do not form a single dimension of academic performance.

Improving teaching and learning in higher education: The case for a relational perspective

ABSTRACT The article argues for a particular view of teaching and learning in higher education. A relational perspective links the improvement of the professional practice of teaching with research into student learning. It offers an alternative to paradigms which reduce the complex relations between students, subject content, and teaching to characteristics of instruction and of students, and whose findings and prescriptions often appear distant from everyday teaching problems. Learning in institutional settings is bound up with content and context; isolating general mechanisms that ‘good learners˚s use to learn any subject matter may be less than helpful. A relational perspective conceptualises the teaching and learning process holistically. It involves inquiry into and reflection on how students learn specific subject matter in particular contexts. The results are used to amend teaching and assessment. The perspective has far-reaching implications for staff development and the quality of teaching in hi...

Managing the Effective University

Aabstract Universities face an almost certain future of relentless variation in a more austere climate. Changes in the environment — mass higher education, knowledge growth, reduced public funding, increased emphasis on employment skills, pressures for more accountability have been reflected in fundamental internal changes. One result has been a growing sense of disillusionment among academic staff. At the same time, standards of research and teaching have come under increasingly close examination, while inter‐university competition has never been greater. Evidence from several investigations points to the crucial role of academic leadership in maintaining morale, enhancing productivity, and helping staff to welcome momentous change. Tomorrows effective universities will require academic managers whose leadership qualities resemble those of good teachers in higher education.

Student Learning Research: Retrospect and Prospect

ABSTRACT This article reviews some salient findings of recent research into how higher education students learn. The defining features of the research examined here are its emphasis on idipgraphic explanation and its concern with realistic learning activities. Examples of investigations into approaches to learning, outcome space, learning styles, orientations to learning, conceptions of learning, and the context of learning in higher education are provided. Against this background, five main areas for future development are outlined: the theory of study process; the conditions for deep approaches to learning; transition, progress, and persistence; studies of everyday learning; and action research into the content and context of learning. The paper concludes with a discussion of certain problems in relating the research findings to practice.

Displacement, velocity, and frames of reference: Phenomenographic studies of students’ understanding and some implications for teaching and assessment

Student understanding of fundamental concepts in kinematics has been explored using the phenomenographic research method. University and high school physics students were interviewed and their understandings of displacement, velocity, and frames of reference have been analyzed in particular problem contexts. Descriptions of the different ways students understand the concepts have been developed and relations between the different levels of understanding have been identified. The data highlight the contextual nature of learning and the need for teachers to focus on the nature of student understanding in specific contexts using questions that require qualitative explanation by students. In particular, it is demonstrated that success in mechanical, quantitative problem solving can mask inadequate understanding of basic concepts that hinders learning in later years of study of the subject. Implications for teaching and assessment are discussed.

Context and Strategy

This chapter focuses on contextual aspects of learning. Its special concern is with understanding higher education students’ learning in terms of the teaching and evaluation environment in which it takes place. The question posed is this: How does this environment, defined by institutional practices, assessment methods, the skills and attitudes of faculty, and the kinds of learning tasks encountered, influence the ways individual students learn?

Institutional Variations in British Students' Approaches to Learning and Experiences of Teaching.

This article examines differences in reported approaches to studying and course perceptions of students in British universities and polytechnics. Hypotheses about these differences derived from the functions and characteristics of the two sets of institutions are compared with data from a questionnaire survey of 1903 university students and 305 polytechnic students. The results, adjusted for subject area differences, indicate that contrary to expectation the university group are less likely than the polytechnic group to use deep approaches to studying. The two groups report similar patterns of study organisation. The university students experience somewhat poorer teaching. The polytechnic students are more interested in gaining qualifications for employment and perceive their courses to be clearly to this end. The results are considered in relation to further research into student learning patterns and implications for the binary system of higher education.

Theories of Learning and Teaching and the Practice of Excellence in Higher Education

ABSTRACT This paper critically examines two sorts of theories of teaching and learning in higher education ‐ the informal and the formal. It argues that defining the problem of how to improve the quality of higher education in terms of “theory into practice” is not useful; practice is continually informed by theory. However, there is a tendency to ignore the contribution of formal educational theory, which is experimental and forward‐looking, in favour of an essentially amateur approach to improving teaching, which is driven by institutional imperatives, rewards compliance rather than risk‐taking, and trivialises the teachers experiences. Examples of this process are given; they include the Higher Education Councils draft advice on quality and the use of student ratings of teaching. The problem is redefined as one of bringing formal and informal theories into a fruitful relationship in order to develop, through democratic means, the practice of integrity in teaching. Some implications for the role of th...