How Faculty Student Partnerships Can Minimize Student Attrition and Enhance Research/Instruction

Clifford E. Tyler,  School of Education, National University, USA

Abstract

Slovenian higher education (hereafter HE) legislation ensures that students are relatively well integrated in different evaluation procedures as well as in decision- making on the national and on the institutional level. However, the analysis of the Slovenian Quality Assurance Agency’s (SQAA) 2013 report on quality in Slovenian higher education, which contains the evaluation of more than 100 reports, indicated that only one part of the students’ population is directly integrated in the higher education development and quality assurance (QA) procedures prepared by the SQAA experts on a basis of external evaluations, site visits, and initial accreditation procedures of Slovenian study programs and higher education institutions (HEI), and a pilot research conducted among 422 students of Slovenian HEIs.

Keywords: Student-faculty partnerships, student retention, university accreditation

Read more

Reflection on Action: A Scholarly Activity to Ensure Quality in Teaching and Learning in Higher Education: The Case of Universidad de La Serena

Pamela Labra,* Rodrigo Fuentalba Jara, Ana María Vera, Jorge Fernández Labra, José Enrique Novoa, Jorge Pizarro Guerrero, Erika Zuñiga Fuentes, Claudia Toledo Robles, Oscar Robles González, Patricia Cortés Maldonado, Eric Troncoso Riquelme, Hernán Guiñez Guiñez, Luis Cortés Estrada, Moises Villablanca Villanueva, Ana María Villagrán Barrios, & Erico Wulf Betancourt, Universidad de La Serena, Chile

Abstract

Improving professional development in higher education is of vital importance, especially when seen in the context of (a) the increase in the number of students entering the university system in Chile who are insufficiently prepared for their studies, and (b) the increase in the number of higher education faculty hired to teach for the first time. The present study aims at summarizing the experience of the Teaching Center at the Universidad de La Serena in providing faculty with institutional
support to reflect on their teaching, i.e., to undertake a scholarly examination of the teaching-learning process in higher education.
Read more

The Applicability of Speech Act Analysis to Course Evaluation: A Small-Scale Pilot Study

Alison Devine, Edge Hill University, UK

Abstract

The current paper has both a substantive and methodological focus. Substantively, it finds that the online discussion board postings of students enrolled on a postgraduate certificate in teaching and learning display evidence of students’ applying course studies in their workplace, but that these displays are mostly limited to comments regarding their own physical activities and (affective) approaches, rather than any attempt to disseminate their learning any more widely. Methodologically then, this paper argues that speech act analysis (SAA) can be of partial use to the course evaluator who is seeking evidence of an impact on practice as one means of triangulating data, but that there are three types of evidence of impact on practice apparent in the students’ online postings and a detailed understanding of these types can aid in enhancing student learning.
Read more

An Initial Certificate of Teacher Development: the UNAB Experience

Roberto Espejo, Mariana Ahumada, Guido Fuentealba, Carolina Cáceres, Carolina Pino, & Mauricio González-Suarez, Universidad Andrés Bello, Chile

Abstract

In this paper we present the experience of the training team in university pedagogy at the Andrés Bello University (Chile) concerning the design and implementation of an initial certificate of teacher development. This certificate is awarded following the completion of three courses: “Planning and Syllabus Design,” “Active Methods for Learning,” and “Pedagogic Strategies in Virtual Environments.” Each course is intended to promote a standpoint wherein teachers consider students as individuals who can take control of their own learning, considering methodological strategies as well as up-to-date materials and contents. In our paper we also discuss assessment and follow-up work for this process.
Read more