A comparative study of three educational development courses for doctoral students and teaching and learning initiatives in higher education
(2019)- Abstract
- Educational development initiatives in the form of short-lived, isolated pedagogical courses may at best change the thinking and practice of a few pioneers, and then perhaps only temporarily. It is only possible to successfully address the need that such initiatives are intended to meet if the impact is lasting and effects a cultural change locally at the university. In this study, we look beyond the immediate and detached impact of a single course, Learning-Centred and Reflective Teaching: From Theory to Good Practice, and suggest ways in which this course in particular and newly stablished development courses in general may endure and blossom into wider educational development activities. We believe our findings can be of benefit to... (More)
- Educational development initiatives in the form of short-lived, isolated pedagogical courses may at best change the thinking and practice of a few pioneers, and then perhaps only temporarily. It is only possible to successfully address the need that such initiatives are intended to meet if the impact is lasting and effects a cultural change locally at the university. In this study, we look beyond the immediate and detached impact of a single course, Learning-Centred and Reflective Teaching: From Theory to Good Practice, and suggest ways in which this course in particular and newly stablished development courses in general may endure and blossom into wider educational development activities. We believe our findings can be of benefit to institutional developers of new initiatives in teaching and learning in higher education, national policymakers, and grant agencies supporting or planning to support similar initiatives. First, we place the Erasmus+ grant-supported course at Masaryk University (MUNI) and the University of Economics in Bratislava (EUBA) in a comparative perspective at the individual level and compare it to long-standing and reputable educational development courses from the University of Tartu and Lund University, looking at their quality, viability, and impact. This horizontal comparison across courses establishes that the three courses (1) have been designed along the same principles, even though these principles were realized differently mostly because they had to be adapted to local needs and contexts; and (2) have performed equally well when looking at impact on the level of individuals.
Second, we focus our attention to the institutional level and compare additional educational development activities at these three universities. Here, as expected, we identify differences especially between the nascent MUNI/EUBA and the two more mature initiatives, including the nature and breadth of these activities and their impact on institutional culture. These differences are instrumental in understanding not only the progress at MUNI/EUBA since the beginning of the grant project, but also in setting future directions for this and similar initiatives and informing
the designers of any new educational development courses and initiatives. We find that increasing the local embeddedness and visibility of educational development courses and activities are beneficial for this end. We highlight four ways in which this could be achieved. We recommend that (1) the course is also made available in the local language to be able reach more of the university faculty including doctoral students, (2) local educational developers are trained to run the course and to provide educational development activities as needed, (3) that in the first years of the project more frequent local events (for example, small conferences or workshops) are held in order to raise awareness in educational development, and (4) an educational development unit is established at the university, a place where faculty interested in issues of teaching and learning could turn for advice and go meet one another. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/a38bb35a-0171-4b78-b58c-b0919f73e66e
- author
- Simon, Agnes ; Karm, Mari ; Soomere, Triinu ; Roxå, Torgny LU ; Löfgreen, Jennifer LU ; Simon, Eszter and Pleschová, Gabriela
- organization
- publishing date
- 2019-09-30
- type
- Book/Report
- publication status
- published
- subject
- pages
- 131 pages
- publisher
- Erasmus + European Union
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- a38bb35a-0171-4b78-b58c-b0919f73e66e
- alternative location
- https://qualityteaching.euba.sk/www_write/files/project-outcomes/o4_study_with_supplements.pdf
- date added to LUP
- 2025-08-12 10:43:04
- date last changed
- 2025-08-29 10:50:23
@techreport{a38bb35a-0171-4b78-b58c-b0919f73e66e,
abstract = {{Educational development initiatives in the form of short-lived, isolated pedagogical courses may at best change the thinking and practice of a few pioneers, and then perhaps only temporarily. It is only possible to successfully address the need that such initiatives are intended to meet if the impact is lasting and effects a cultural change locally at the university. In this study, we look beyond the immediate and detached impact of a single course, Learning-Centred and Reflective Teaching: From Theory to Good Practice, and suggest ways in which this course in particular and newly stablished development courses in general may endure and blossom into wider educational development activities. We believe our findings can be of benefit to institutional developers of new initiatives in teaching and learning in higher education, national policymakers, and grant agencies supporting or planning to support similar initiatives. First, we place the Erasmus+ grant-supported course at Masaryk University (MUNI) and the University of Economics in Bratislava (EUBA) in a comparative perspective at the individual level and compare it to long-standing and reputable educational development courses from the University of Tartu and Lund University, looking at their quality, viability, and impact. This horizontal comparison across courses establishes that the three courses (1) have been designed along the same principles, even though these principles were realized differently mostly because they had to be adapted to local needs and contexts; and (2) have performed equally well when looking at impact on the level of individuals. <br/><br/>Second, we focus our attention to the institutional level and compare additional educational development activities at these three universities. Here, as expected, we identify differences especially between the nascent MUNI/EUBA and the two more mature initiatives, including the nature and breadth of these activities and their impact on institutional culture. These differences are instrumental in understanding not only the progress at MUNI/EUBA since the beginning of the grant project, but also in setting future directions for this and similar initiatives and informing<br/>the designers of any new educational development courses and initiatives. We find that increasing the local embeddedness and visibility of educational development courses and activities are beneficial for this end. We highlight four ways in which this could be achieved. We recommend that (1) the course is also made available in the local language to be able reach more of the university faculty including doctoral students, (2) local educational developers are trained to run the course and to provide educational development activities as needed, (3) that in the first years of the project more frequent local events (for example, small conferences or workshops) are held in order to raise awareness in educational development, and (4) an educational development unit is established at the university, a place where faculty interested in issues of teaching and learning could turn for advice and go meet one another.}},
author = {{Simon, Agnes and Karm, Mari and Soomere, Triinu and Roxå, Torgny and Löfgreen, Jennifer and Simon, Eszter and Pleschová, Gabriela}},
institution = {{Erasmus + European Union}},
language = {{eng}},
month = {{09}},
title = {{A comparative study of three educational development courses for doctoral students and teaching and learning initiatives in higher education}},
url = {{https://qualityteaching.euba.sk/www_write/files/project-outcomes/o4_study_with_supplements.pdf}},
year = {{2019}},
}