Peter G. Taylor

Institutional change in uncertain times: Lone ranging is not enough

ABSTRACT The subject of this article is how universities, and individual members of staff, have responded to external challenges for higher education, especially those associated with the increasing availability and capacities of information technologies. The article presents an argument for a dual track approach—innovation and appropriation—to the task of reinventing university cultures in order to increase the alignment between external demands and internal practices. The discussion initially focuses on the innovative development of technology-augmented pedagogical practices through an approach based on the work of isolated enthusiasts—lone ranging. This approach leads to valuable outcomes, but is inadequate as the institutional response. A second approach, based on appropriation of the innovations of the lone rangers, is offered as a strategy for engaging a critical mass of staff with technology-augmented pedagogical practices. A five phase process for appropriation is described, along with several pre...

Changing expectations:preparing students for flexible learning.

The report of the Dearing Committee (NCIHE, 1997) identifies a rapid and ongoing increase in use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) to support teaching and learning in higher education. This rapid expansion involves practices that are changing the traditional roles of both staff and students. The need to orient staff to the unfamiliar roles associated with student-centred learning and ICT-augmented teaching is well recognized. This paper argues that students also need to be prepared for their new roles. The paper provides a rationale for student development to prepare students for the transition to learning environments that include extensive use of ICTs as learning technologies. The argument is that both staff and student development are necessary and that these are complementary foci. The discussion then provides a detailed overview of successful student-development strategies that have been developed to support students starting studies at a purpose-built flexible learning campus.

Principals' conceptions of competent beginning teachers

The variation in high‐school principals’ conceptions of beginning‐teachers’ competence was investigated. Sixteen high‐school principals from Central and South‐East Queensland were interviewed, and phenomenonographic techniques were used to elicit, from the data, categories of description that depicted the principals’ varying conceptions of beginning‐teacher competence. Five distinct conceptions of beginning‐teacher competence emerged from the data analysis. A competent beginning teacher may be conceived as: (i) having a particular type of personality, (ii) being a subject expert, (iii) being a skilled manager, (iv) having a professional approach, or (v) having control of the class. It is argued that principals with different conceptions of competent teaching behaviour focus their attention on different aspects of teaching performance and so may provide beginning teachers with qualitatively different performance ratings.

One-to-one pedagogy: Developing a protocol for illuminating the nature of teaching in the conservatoire

This article outlines the approach used to develop a scheme to characterize the nature and quality of specific practices of one-to-one teaching, selected on the basis of their potential significance to the development of student performance. Although the value of one-to-one teaching remains largely unchallenged at the conservatoire level, music institutions are increasingly being called to justify the need for such a cost- and resource-intensive pedagogical approach. Funding pressures combined with a lack of systematic investigation into the value and efficacy of one-to-one teaching underscore the urgent need for a rigorous, evidenced-based way to characterize related pedagogical practices. This article documents the processes of developing one such approach at an Australian conservatoire. The authors hope to encourage and facilitate the implementation of similar projects elsewhere, and thereby help lay the foundation for a systematic and credible international understanding of the value and limitations of one-to-one learning and teaching practices in the conservatoire environment.

Characterising One-to-One Conservatoire Teaching: Some Implications of a Quantitative Analysis.

Despite the significant recent growth in research relating to instrumental, vocal and composition tuition in higher education, little is known about the diversity of approaches that characterise one-to-one teaching in the conservatoire, and what counts as optimal practice for educating twenty-first-century musicians. Through analysis of video-recorded one-to-one lessons that draws on a ‘bottom up’ methodology for characterising pedagogical practices, this paper provides empirical evidence about the nature of one-to-one pedagogy in one Australian institution. The research aims (1) to enable a better understanding of current one-to-one conservatoire teaching and (2) to build and improve upon existing teaching practice using authentic insights gained through systematic investigation. The authors hope the research will lead to a better understanding of the diversity and efficacy of the pedagogical practice within the specific context in which the study was conducted, and beyond, to conservatoire pedagogy generally.

Silly, Soft and Otherwise Suspect: Doctoral Education as Risky Business.

This article investigates how certain doctoral practices come to count as scandalous and with what effects on universities. To do so, it engages with a number of recent media allegations that relate to doctoral practice in Australia and elsewhere. The analysis of these allegations is developed in terms of three broad categories, namely allegations of silliness in relation to thesis content, allegations of softness in relation to entry, rigour and assessment, and allegations of suspect conduct and/or credentials. The impact of such allegations on university governance is then addressed.

Creating environments which nurture development: Messages from research into academics’ experiences

Abstract In this discussion I map a process through which academic developers might become players rather than pawns in their work within changing universities. In doing so, I draw on recent research into the way academics respond to the pressures on them to adopt more flexible teaching practices, including the use of information and communication technologies in those practices (Taylor, Lopez & Quadrelli, 1996). Four themes are reflected in the findings of that research: tribalism; community; the need for refuges (for safety); and the value of guiding principles to the development of new practices. I explain the origin and meaning of these themes, and explore the relationships between them and their implications. My argument is for the development of communities in which university staff can innovate in contexts which provide constructive, as distinct from judgemental, feedback and support. That is, communities which are sources of both safety and challenge. Before moving to discuss those four themes I l...

Who's Dean today? Acting and interim management as paradoxes of the contemporary university

Interim, discontinuous or ‘acting’ management is an increasingly ubiquitous feature of universities. This paper asks: What are the implications of this for good academic governance? Should we understand this managerial dance as a symptom of the collapse of good managerial order or, by contrast, as a symptom of the robustness and flexibility of the organisational culture of the university? Or both? This paper answers ‘all of the above’ to these questions. It reaches that conclusion by examining relevant literature, theorising a methodology for reading the field of interim management, and by applying this theorising to an analysis of qualitative data collected as part of a national collaborative research project conducted in Australia.

Open Learning and the New Educational Order: Some Questions about Access and Participation.

This work examines the proposition that open learning practices will reduce barriers to participation in continuing education. The analysis is based on the potential contributions of open learning practices to a new educational order outlined in the work of Morrison (1995) and the reports of an Australian Senate Employment, Education and Training References Committee (1995). It explores some implications of these practices for providers, teachers and students and concludes with the argument that, while those practices should not be opposed, open learning advocates must broaden their agendas to address questions of access ‐ what, how and why.

Exploring the roles of grief and grieving in coping with lifelong change

This paper explores the value of the concept of grief as one way to make sense of individuals reactions to change. The discussion acknowledges that change is always from something, not just to something. In an environment that is increasingly expected to involve lifelong change, there is an urgent need for individuals to develop capacities to ‘move with’ change. The paper identifies a number of strategies to assist individuals and groups acknowledge and grieve change-included loss, strategies which support sustainable ‘moving on’.