Research-based educational development

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Research-based educational development

• Professor Sari Lindblom-Ylänne
• University of Helsinki
• Finland

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University of Helsinki in a nutshell

• Established in 1640
• 38.000 students and 7.400 staff members
• 4.200 degrees per year
• of these, 350 doctorates
• 63 female students
• 11 faculties
• bilingual (Finnish and Swedish)

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The University aims at

• student-centred approach to teaching
• reseach-based teaching
• as well as research-based development of teaching
  and learning
• high-level scientific resesarch and researcher
  education
• member of LERU (League of European Research
  Universities)

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Centralised and decentralised support for
academic development
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Financing of academic development

• Centre for Research and Development of Higher
  Education
• funding from central administration
• about 150.000 to 200.000 euros per year
• separate funding for certain research projects
• Campus Development Units
• funding from central administration
• funding from the Faculties

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Centre for Research and Development of Higher
Education

• Established in 2002
• Concentrates on carrying out research on teaching
  and learning in higher education
• The main research areas
• Scholarship of university teaching
• Quality of teaching and learning at university
• Development of academic thinking skills of
  students
• Virtual university and virtual learning
  environments

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Pedagogical courses at the centre

• More than 100 teachers per year participates in
  the courses
• Courses are not compulsory
• Teaching skills and merits are taken into
  consideration when fulfilling academic posts
• Teachers are very motivated
• Hardly no dropouts
• Aims of the courses
• providing knowledge of research on learning and
  instruction in higher education
• reflection of conceptions of teaching and
  learning as well as on onw teaching practices
• developing teaching and supporting student
  learning

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Courses on university pedagogy

• University pedagogy I
• 10-12 ECTS
• 4-6 months
• University pedagogy II
• 30 ECTS
• Only after course I
• one year
• Scholarship of university teaching
• 70 ECTS
• Only after courses I and II
• two years

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What is research-based teaching?

• Teaching and assessment practices are based on
  pedagogical research
• overlaps with evidence-based teaching
• pedagogical subject knowledge
• subject matter knowledge and knowledge about how
  to teach it (Shuman, 1987)
• Teaching derives from strong research base in own
  discipline
• Teaching content is strongly related to own
  research areas
• Students as researchers

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Enhancing research-based teaching

• Combining powerful concepts from educational
  psychology with those from student learning
  research might well underpin research-based
  teaching in a more complete and convincing way
  (Entwistle, 2004)
• Thus, also educational development has to have a
  solid theoretical framework and has to be based
  on research

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Discipline has an effect on teachers approaches
to teaching

• Teachers from hard sciences are more
  teacher-centred than teachers from soft
  sciences
• t300 3.58, p lt .001
• Teachers from soft sciences are more
  student-centred than teachers from hard
  sciences
• t300 -4,54, p lt .001

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Approaches to teaching and self-efficacy beliefs
in different disciplines
Scale Pure hard Applied hard Pure soft Applied soft F (p)
Student-centred 3.4 3.6 4.0 3.9 8.45 (.000)
Teacher- centred 3.0 3.3 2.8 3.0 5.90 (.001)
Self-efficacy 4.2 4.0 4.2 4.1 1.76 (.154)
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Self-efficacy beliefs vary across faculties

• Teachers from the Faculty of Sciences scored
  significantly higher on self-efficacy scale than
  teachers from other faculties
• F(10,193)2.86, p0.003)

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Approaches to teaching vary from one teaching
context to another
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Student-focused approach more context-specific

• Teachers are more student-centred in a less usual
  teachingt context and in the usual context
• t(181)-3.12, p.002
• No significant change in the teacher-centred
  approach to teaching from one context to another

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How pedagogical training affects approaches to
teaching and self-efficacy beliefs of teachers?
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How teaching experience affects approaches to
teaching and self-efficacy beliefs of teachers?
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The unique effect of pedagogical training on
approaches to teaching and on self-efficacy
beliefs
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Examples of the teachers comments of pedagogical
training

• It increased my level of consciousness. It also
  increased my willingness to apply different kinds
  of teaching methods. My teaching experiments are
  now more conscious. This is in my opinion the
  most important effect of the pedagogical
  training. (a 39-year-old female teacher, Faculty
  of Arts)
• I was able to discuss with different teachers
  during the course and to see that in other
  faculties things are done differently. I received
  different viewpoints to teaching. My way of
  seeing teaching is not so narrow anymore.
• (a 38-year-old female teacher, Faculty of
  Veterinary Medicine)

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An example of a teachers comment on teaching
experience

• Teaching experience affects so that the more you
  have taught, the more self-confident you become.
  I dont know if teaching experience has any
  effect on my approach to teaching. My approach to
  teaching has changed, because of the various
  courses for university teachers I have completed.
  I have now courage to receive feedback from
  students and to change my teaching on the basis
  of the feedback I have received. I dont any more
  follow a certain routine in teaching.
• (a 38-year-old male teacher, Faculty of Law)