Improving teaching in higher education is a concern for universities worldwide. This study explored academics' developmental processes in teaching using episodic interviews and teaching portfolios. Eight academics in the context of teaching development reported changes in their teaching and change triggers. Thematic analyses revealed seven areas…

In order to strengthen departmental collegiality and improve teaching, our mathematics department instituted a Teaching Polygon. Building on the faculty development idea of Teaching Squares, each member of our department visited one class taught by every other department member in a round-robin fashion during the school year. The visits were…

This paper reports findings from a project that explored the use of a modified form of "lesson study" in a one-year programme of secondary school initial teacher education (ITE). Twelve mentors and student-teachers worked in pairs to design and teach two "research lessons" in the course of two eight-week teaching practice…

As online learning is becoming more deeply entrenched in higher education, many institutions are designing professional development activities aimed at helping faculty improve their online teaching. The focus of this descriptive study was on identifying the preferences faculty who teach online have regarding how they want to learn about new…

Dropout is a serious problem within education. This article reports on an intervention project, titled "New Roles for the Teacher--Increased Completion Rates Through Social Responsibility," which sought to reduce nonattendance and drop-out rates in the Danish adult educational system by improving teachers' competences. This goal was…

For too long, the quality of teaching and learning in universities has been undervalued in comparison to research. Current social, economic, ecological and other challenges require that more attention be given to measures to improve the situation. Academic staff should receive incentives, policy support and high-quality pedagogical training to…

This paper explores the integration of Open Educational Practices (OEP) into an institutional strategy to develop distinctive excellence in teaching, learning and scholarship. The institution in the case study is a public polytechnic university serving a metropolitan area in Canada. If emerging Open Educational Practices are to flourish at our…

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of microteaching on pre-service teachers' critical thinking dispositions. The participants of the study consisted of 70 pre-service teachers (64.3% females, 35.7% males) in the Turkish language teacher education program at a public university in the north of Turkey. In the study, an experimental…

The advent of faculty development centers that focus on the improvement of teaching skills and better understanding of student learning concepts dates back to the 1960s. These centers were initiated from a realization that the effectiveness of a faculty member resulted from growth and maturity over time and that certain support systems were…

In this article, we use the findings of a study conducted in a university in the southeast of Mexico to examine strengths and limitations of portfolios to assess formatively the quality of teaching. The research is part of the study: Model for the Development and Evaluation of Academic Competencies, involving researchers from six Mexican…

The article contains analysis software products used in the preparation of professionals through which they can realize themselves in this industry. The aim of the study is the analysis of personnel petroleum education in specialized university. The result is a sociological study on the question of the need and importance of personnel support…

This paper analyzes a higher education policy issued in China in 2002: "the Quality Assessment of Undergraduate Education Policy." It examines students' perceptions of the policy impacts and students' roles in the evaluation process by semi-structured interviews and questionnaire surveys. It reveals that the quality assessment in China…

Faculty members traditionally develop a teaching philosophy statement (TPS) as part of the job application process, for tenure reviews, or to encourage reflection. In this paper, we propose an alternative approach--to develop the TPS with students as the primary target audience, distribute it to students at the beginning of a course, and collect…

The main purpose of this study is to understand the opinion of student trainee teachers towards Microteaching skills. In this study, survey method was adopted. The participants of this study were 130 trainee students from four Teacher Training Colleges of West Bengal, India in 2013-14 sessions. The tools used in the study for data collection was a…

Khatuna Kharkheli is an English language teacher in the Faculty of Education, Exact, and Natural Sciences at Gori State Teaching University (GSTU) in Gori, Georgia. With her passion for developing innovative and creative lessons and with her commitment to professional development, Ms. Kharkheli works to inspire her students to achieve success both…