Reflective Teaching in Higher Education

Paul Ashwin, David Boud, Susanna Calkins, Kelly Coate, Fiona Hallett, Greg Light, Kathy Luckett, Jan McArthur, Iain MacLaren, Monica McLean, Velda McCune, Katarina Mårtensson, Michelle Tooher

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9781350084667
• eBook ISBN: 9781350084681
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Higher Education

Reflective Teaching in Higher Education is the definitive textbook for those wanting to excel at teaching in the sector. Informed by the latest research in this area, the book offers extensive support for those at the start of an academic career and career-long professionalism for those teaching in higher education. Written by an international collaborative author team of experts led by Paul Ashwin, Reflective Teaching in Higher Education offers two levels of support:
- practical guidance for day-to-day teaching, covering key issues such as strategies for improving learning, teaching and assessment, curriculum design, relationships, communication, and inclusion
- evidence-informed 'principle's to aid understanding of how theories can effectively inform teaching practices, offering ways to develop a deeper understanding of teaching and learning in higher education In addition to new case studies from a wider variety of countries than ever before, this new edition includes discussion of:
- What is meant by 'agency'
- Gender, ethnicity, disability and university teaching
- Digital learning spaces and social media
- Teaching career development for academics
- Decolonising the curriculum
- Assessment and feedback practices
- Teaching excellence and 'learning gain'
- 2015 UN General Assembly 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development reflectiveteaching.co.uk provides a treasure trove of additional support. It includes supplementary sector specific material to support for considering questions around society's educational aims, and much more besides.

Part one

Becoming reflective

1Identities  Who we are as teachers and who are our students?

2Learning  How do students develop their understanding?

3Reflection  How can we develop the quality of our teaching?

4Principles  What are the foundations of effective teaching and learning?

Part 1 introduces the activity of becoming a reflective teacher in higher education. We start in Chapter 1 with a focus on identities, who we are as teachers and who are our students. Then comes an introduction to ways of understanding students’ ‘learning’ (Chapter 2) – which is the foundation of how we make judgements about our teaching. The chapter on reflective practice (Chapter 3) examines our learning as teachers and discusses how such processes can improve the quality of our teaching. We then review the ten principles of effective teaching, learning and assessment in Chapter 4. These principles underpin the purpose of this book, which is to argue for the methodical use of evidence to inform our judgements as reflective teachers in higher education.

Chapter 1

Identities

Who we are as teachers and who are our students?

Introduction

Knowing ourselves as teachers

What we can do

Where we are going

Who we are going there with

What our values are

How our identities interact with our institutions, academic disciplines and work groups

The role of narrative and autobiography

How we understand and engage with our students

Knowing our students as learners

Students’ views of themselves as learners

Students’ identities and their experiences of university

Our assumptions about our students

Students’ perceptions of their teachers’ identities

Responding to individual students’ identities and their needs

Thinking about identities with our students

Conclusion

INTRODUCTION

Why does it matter who we are as teachers in higher education? Why does it matter that we think about who we are? Why does it matter who our students are, and why does it matter what we think about them? Why does it matter how our students think about themselves as learners?

These questions all concern matters of identity, which lie at the heart of what it means to be a reflective teacher in higher education. This is because the ways in which we see ourselves as human beings, as academics and as teachers, play a vital role in how we teach. Likewise, how our students see themselves as learners is crucial to how well they will be able to engage with the learning experiences we share with them. Understanding matters of identity helps us to navigate our careers and helps us to orientate ourselves towards our students, and to help them to learn.

Our identities can be attributed to us and our students, as white, black, female, LGBT+, working class, middle class, disabled, as members of particular disciplines or fields of study, as ‘home’ or international students or staff. Our identities are constructed through the work we do and the practices that we engage in. They are also a matter of affiliation, in that we may choose to identify with a particular group, but we do not have full control over matters of our identity. What is certain is that an understanding of matters of identity, our own identities and those of our students, enhances our sense of agency, efficacy and ability to influence our teaching and learning in many ways.

Being a teacher and being a student are interrelated processes and so our own identities as scholars and learners can help us to understand our students’ identities. Simply because as teachers we are not learning the same things as our students, it does not mean that we stop learning. On the contrary, our learning should be ever deepening and broadening as we move through our careers as reflective teachers in higher education.

See Chapter 4

TLRP Principles

Two principles are of particular relevance to this chapter on identity:

Principle 2: Effective teaching and learning depends on the scholarship and learning of all those educators who teach and research to support the learning of others. The need for lecturers, teachers and trainers to learn through doing research to improve their knowledge, expertise and skills for teaching should be recognized and supported.

Principle 10: Effective teaching and learning equips learners for life in its broadest sense. Learning should help individuals develop the intellectual, personal and social resources that will enable them to participate as active citizens, contribute to economic, social or community development, and flourish as individuals in a diverse and changing society. This means adopting a broad conception of worthwhile learning outcomes and taking seriously issues of equity and social justice for all.

This chapter discusses the significance of identities for teachers, covering issues such as sense of direction, values, attitude towards students, narrative and biography, shared assumptions, and the role of emotions. In relation to students’ identities, it considers: their perceptions of themselves, their views of each other and their attitudes towards their teachers. The chapter concludes with a restatement of the importance of coming to terms with the role of identity in reflective teaching.

In this chapter, some of the examples we draw upon come from South Africa. South African higher education remains influenced by the vestiges of its apartheid past, and its university teachers often need to grapple with ongoing tensions and opportunities in relation to group and individual identities. Whilst these issues may be more immediately striking in the South African context, they are issues that we all face as reflective teachers. Other examples in this chapter come from research conducted in the UK into how academics understand themselves as teachers and how students from different backgrounds see themselves as learners. Wherever we are located, these cases can help us to think through what ‘identities’ might mean in contexts of diversity and change, which are increasingly present in higher education globally.

To aid this process, Research Briefing 1.1 examines the different meanings of identities and how these relate to agency.

RESEARCH BRIEFING 1.1 Identities and agency

It is quite common when writing about how academics and students see themselves to use the word ‘identities’. This plural form is used to signal that how we understand ourselves is a complex dance over time between: stories we tell about ourselves; stories others tell about us; our values; and our sense of connection with or exclusion from different groups and communities (for recent explorations of academic identities see Evans and Nixon 2015; Brew et al. 2018; McAlpine and Amundsen 2018; Ursin et al. 2018).

It can be helpful to think of our identities as a set of stories about us which are created and recreated over time through social, cultural and historical processes (Sfard and Prusak 2005; McAlpine and Amundsen 2018). The consistent storylines we use over time can give u...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-Title Page
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Introduction
• Using this book
• A summary of the book
• Part one Becoming reflective
• 1 Identities Who we are as teachers and who are our students?
• 2 Learning How do students develop their understanding?
• 3 Reflection How can we develop the quality of our teaching?
• 4 Principles What are the foundations of effective teaching and learning?
• Part two Creating conditions for learning
• 5 Contexts How do they shape us and how do we shape them?
• 6 Relationships How are we getting on together?
• 7 Engagement How does our engagement with teaching influence student learning?
• 8 Spaces How are we creating environments for learning?
• Part three Teaching for understanding
• 9 Curriculum What is to be taught and learned?
• 10 Planning How are we implementing curricula?
• 11 Teaching How can we develop strategies focused on student understanding?
• 12 Communication How can we support learning through dialogue?
• 13 Assessment How does it make a contribution to learning?
• Part four Reflecting on consequences
• 14 Quality How are we monitoring and enhancing the quality of teaching and learning?
• 15 Inclusion How are we enabling opportunities?
• Part five Deepening understanding
• 16 Expertise How do we develop a career-long engagement with teaching?
• 17 Professionalism How does reflective teaching contribute to society?
• The Reflective Teaching in Higher Education Team
• Bibliography
• Index
• Copyright