Lecturers who are actively engaged in shaping their teaching and teaching practices demonstrate agency. Teacher agency has increasingly been described as a key factor in educational development at universities. Lecturers are expected to innovatively develop courses and continuously improve their teaching practices to respond to, for example,…

This study contributes to the research field of entrepreneurship education by providing a new perspective that combines concepts of the entrepreneurial teacher, entrepreneurial teaching methods and the development of entrepreneurial competences in students. As being entrepreneurial in the teaching context can be explored from various angles, the…

The managerial transformation of higher education often means implementing novel modes of teaching and learning, including experiential and collaborative teaching. University teachers' agency is crucial for managing and enacting changes in higher education. Collaborating as part of these changes requires a specific kind of agency, namely…

User-centricity and usability are a premise of digitalization, a current trend for business model innovation based on advanced digital technologies. The article addresses a gap in the literature, in which descriptions of the cases of updating university curricula in usability are lacking. This gap also exists in the practice. The study uses the…

The purpose of this study was to understand the factors behind university teachers' ability to implement instructional changes during the COVID-19 pandemic. An online questionnaire comprised of open-ended and Likert-scale questions was administered to teachers at a Finnish university in April 2020. The sample consisted of 378 university teachers…

This article presents a two-phase study exploring the usage of technology in higher education as well as the role of the general innovativeness in predicting the actual use of technology. During the first phase of the study, which involved 502 staff members, a descriptive analysis of their usage of social media, technological devices, and…

This report and the accompanying online repository (https://sfdora.org/dora-case-studies/) bring together and analyse case studies in responsible academic career assessment. The case studies are intended to serve as inspiration for institutions planning to become or already engaged in a complex review process, and to provide potential pathways of…

Innovativeness has been believed to be a significant psychological construct underlying individual differences in adopting novel ideas, experiences or approaches. Although few recent studies have contributed to identifying the factors that predict innovativeness, there is a lack of research showing the impacts of implicit theories and goal…

Learning management systems (LMSs) are widely used in higher education and offer a gateway to innovative, technology-enhanced teaching and learning. However, many university staff still choose not to adopt them or do not explore the more creative functionality. Previous research has developed models of technology adoption which map observed…

Teachers' competence in launching and managing pedagogical change collaboratively is crucial for the continuous development of their work as well as for meaningful student learning. However, research on how teachers can thrive in their profession in the changing higher education environment is limited. This study investigated the experiences of…

The world has been discussing the Finnish educational system for over a decade now. This paradigm shift in education in Finland has brought about tremendous changes that the world is discussing. To find out how Finland has reached such a high level of student achievement, Principal Mussarut Jabeen, who had long planned to visit Finland, and Dr.…

New tools and technologies are being developed to cater to the e-learning triangle of content, technology, and services. These developments (in technology, needs of students, emergence of new modes of education like MOOCs or flipped classrooms, etc.) have resulted in a change in the approach to teaching. "Innovative Applications of Online…

Finnish universities are about to enter a period of radical change. This paper considers the reforms expected of a new Universities Act currently before parliament and a set of institutional mergers. When passed, the new act will provide universities with independent legal status, change their relationship with the government in several ways,…

This publication deals with two broad issues: (1) selection, equality, and reproduction of social hierarchies in higher education, and (2) development policies and the assessment of their effect on higher education. It contains the following 10 papers: "Ambitious Goals--Small Changes? On the Structure of Student Population in Finland in the…