No full-text available
To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the author.
Monitoring and Measuring Teaching Excellence in Higher Education: From Contrived Competition to Collective Collaboration: Challenges, Changes and the Teaching Excellence Framework
... Leaving aside the challenges of measuring teaching excellence that have been explored in a voluminous literature (e.g., see Ashwin, 2017;Berger & Wild, 2016;Greatbach & Holland, 2016;O'Leary, 2017;O'Leary & Wood, 2018;Wood & Su, 2017), the difficulties of developing capability and demonstrating quality in teaching should not be underestimated. A number of the sector-wide and institutional schemes, outlined earlier, have sought (directly and indirectly) to raise the standards of teaching in the sector and have clearly had an impact. ...
... It also results in higher prioritisation being placed on professionalising the teaching aspect of HE work (Shaw, 2018) which, in turn, has led to the creation of PGCert-type programmes and the growth of Academic (or Educational) Development work (Gibbs, 2013). Given my professional role it is unsurprising that this latter point is something that I find a positive outcome but that needs to be set against the inevitable neo-liberal outcomes of increased surveillance (from both within and outside each institution) (Collini, 2017), exploitative work practices (Gill, 2014) and obsession with league tables sourced from data which is often a poor proxy for what it purports to measure (O'Leary, 2017b). It is no surprise that in cultures that value increased scrutiny, observation as a tool for monitoring becomes more prominent. ...
Available: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10079394/
Drivers for improving teaching in Higher Education (HE) may be slowed by convention, conservatism and a sense of academic autonomy but are nonetheless inexorable. Formal programmes, such as Post Graduate Certificates in HE (PGCerts) for teaching academics, are still relatively nascent. The tension between academic autonomy and accountability is mirrored by the core tension of purpose when it comes to all types of observation of teaching and learning (OTL) used in HE, including those used within PGCerts. In this climate, some Academic Developers (ADs) who lead training programmes are experimenting with approaches to observation that deviate from an orthodoxy characterised by an emphasis on observee learning through feedback by a colleague on a teaching session. This study focusses on three cases of unorthodox approaches to professional learning designed to develop those with teaching responsibilities in HE from three very different universities. Case one examines a model of observation that widens the vista of observation beyond face to face teaching and asserts particular value in observer learning. Case two explores a system that extends and revitalises ‘microteaching’ and Case three analyses a scheme where students review teaching and ancillary work of lecturers. As a qualitative study, this exploration of cases of unorthodox observation seeks to understand how and why each is organised and the contextual drivers and impediments that shape AD thinking and the observation schemes they design and oversee. Of equal importance and fundamental for contrast and depth, within each case and comparatively across cases, is the experience of each observation system by those participating. Using Activity Theory as a framework for both data collection and analysis, the data has been used to narrate, interpret and critique each approach and then draw conclusions about actual and potential effectiveness. This, in turn, illuminates broader conclusions about academic development, professional learning in HE and the broader observation landscape. The findings show that breaking from the orthodoxy necessarily reflects the culture of the institution, can lead to positive (and sometimes unanticipated) outcomes and reinforces the imperative to question underpinning purpose and design of all observation schemes. Surveillance, compulsion, voluntarism, collegiality and developing self-efficacy are all key lenses of the analysis. Beyond these case-specific findings and conclusions, the thesis presents an original contribution to practice in the form of an analytical framework (The 4 Ms Observation Audit) for ADs (or anyone overseeing or designing OTL schemes) that can be used to appraise existing approaches and/or as a basis for the creation of new schemes, whether orthodox or innovative.
... A key premise underpinning the government's argument was that if teaching were to be considered of equal value to research, then an equivalent scheme to the Research Excellence Framework would need to be established to enable the monitoring and measurement of the quality of teaching across higher education institutions (HEIs). Continuing its adherence to neoliberal policy making, the government decided that for the TEF to achieve its desired outcomes, it was important to create the conditions for free market competition amongst providers, which would, in the government's eyes, subsequently result in each HEI striving for excellence in teaching (O'Leary 2017). ...
In 2016, the introduction of the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) marked a watershed moment for higher education (HE) in the United Kingdom. This paper views the TEF as an extension of the neoliberal policy narrative that has dominated policy thinking and decision making in HE in recent decades. It argues that the epistemology and methodology underpinning this narrative is flawed and ill-equipped to improve the quality of teaching. As a counter narrative, this paper discusses the creation of a cycle of collaborative observation (CoCO) between academic staff and students in an English university. Drawing on theoretical and empirical insights, the paper explores the conceptual and methodological framework behind CoCO, as well as the preparation of academic staff and students for engaging with this collaborative approach to observation. We argue that CoCO offers the potential to transform understanding of learning and teaching in HE and the reciprocal relationship between the two.
In this chapter I continue the discussion on the nature and characteristics of university education. I highlight what I judge as both the domain and the drivers of university education, that together give us a comprehensive set of characteristics that typify university education. I combine features of university teaching, as identified by (Richmond et al. in Teach Psychol 41(4):281–295, 2014) and (Pickford in J Perspect Appl Acad Pract 6:98–102, 2018). When joined together, they form constitutive components, that define the unique nature of university teaching. They accurately depict all dimensions of university teaching that are prerequisites for correctly executing teaching as scholarship.
In this chapter I discuss the debate about the UK Government’s controversial policy, called The Teaching Excellence and Student Outcomes Framework (TEF). The purpose of the discussion is to learn from these controversies what issues are fundamental for a debate on teaching excellence. Through this discussion of lessons learnt from the intellectual debates around TEF, I develop a set of challenges to be fulfilled for any meaningful account of how university faculty can strive to become excellent in teaching. In the second part of the chapter, I examine how researchers have thus far defined teaching excellence at university, so that I can develop an account of my own. I emphasise four themes that emerge in the literature about teaching excellence.
Purpose
Teaching excellence remains a contested term in English higher education (HE). This paper begins by reflecting on its complex and sometimes blurred meaning, charting the divergence between academic interests in the complexity and contextual questions relating to practice development and organisational and sectoral shifts which have been driven by managerialism, accountability and “top-down” ideas of change. The authors argue that this divergence, epitomised in the development of the teaching excellence framework, has led to a confused, if ubiquitous, use of excellence to identify organisational and sector-led ideas of what it means to deliver quality teaching. However, these frameworks have become progressively detached from the complexity of practice investigated by those interested in pedagogy. The paper aims to discuss this issue.
Design/methodology/approach
This is a conceptual paper which brings together literature from teaching excellence, organisational science, time and HE to develop an alternative approach to pedagogic development.
Findings
Based on a critique of the current, confused conceptualisation of teaching excellence, the authors offer a different narrative which demonstrates how a reconsideration of the factors is important in developing critical and challenging teaching opportunities. Based on a “bottom-up” system focusing on dialogue, sustainability and “unhasty” time, the authors argue for a re-establishing of a holistic approach in HE providers based on emergent pedagogies as opposed to teaching excellence.
Originality/value
This paper demonstrates why teaching excellence has become conceptually fractured in an English context, and why a new approach to pedagogic development needs to be considered to establish a more positive and critical approach at both the institutional and sectoral levels. This paper outlines a possible approach to developing such renewal.
Classroom Observation explores the pivotal role of lesson observation in the training, assessment and development of new and experienced teachers. Offering practical guidance and detailed insight on an aspect of training that is a source of anxiety for many teachers, this thought-provoking book offers a critical analysis of the place, role and nature of lesson observation in the lives of education professionals.
Illustrated throughout with practical examples from a range of education settings, it considers observation as a means of assessing teaching and learning and also as a way of developing teachers’ skills and knowledge. Key topics include:
•The purposes and uses of lesson observation
•The socio-political and historical context in which lesson observation has developed
•Practical guidance on a range of observation models and methods
•Teacher autonomy and professional identity
•Performance management, professional standards and accountability
•Peer observation, self-observation and critical reflection
•Using video in lesson observation.
Written for all student and practising teachers as well teacher educators and those engaged in educational research, Classroom Observation is an essential introduction to how we observe, why we observe and how it can be best used to improve teaching and learning.
In little over a decade, the observation of teaching and learning (OTL) has become the cornerstone of Further Education (FE) colleges’ quality systems for assuring and improving the professional skills and knowledge base of tutors. Yet OTL remains an under-researched area of inquiry with little known about the impact of its use on the professional identity, learning and development of FE tutors. This paper examines the specific practice of graded OTL and in so doing discusses findings from a mixed-methods study conducted in 10 colleges situated across the West Midlands region of England. Data from a questionnaire survey and semi-structured interviews were analysed within a theoretical framework that drew largely on aspects of Foucauldian theory as well as the twin phenomena of new managerialism and performativity. This analysis revealed how OTL has become normalised as a performative tool of managerialist systems designed to assure and improve standards, performance and accountability in teaching and learning. It is argued that FE has now outgrown graded OTL and it is time for a moratorium on its use. Colleges and tutors need to be given greater professional autonomy with regard to OTL and be allowed to develop their own systems that place professional learning and development at the forefront, rather than the requirements of performance management systems.
The ESRC Teaching and Learning Research Programme (TLRP) worked for ten years to improve outcomes for learners across the United Kingdom. Individual projects within the Programme focused on different research questions and utilised a range of methods and theoretical resources. Across-programme thematic seminar series and task groups enabled emerging findings to be analysed, synthesised and communicated to wider audiences. One outcome of this activity was the development of ten ‘evidence-informed’ principles, which engaged with diverse forms of evidence, whilst acknowledging that ‘users’ would need to judge how best to implement such principles in their particular contexts. Synopses of these principles were published in posters and booklets, from 2006, but the evidence and reasoning underpinning them has not been fully explained. This contribution attempts to fill this gap. It provides a justification for the production of the TLRP principles and describes the iterative process by which they were developed. It clusters the ten principles in four broad areas that reflect the multilayered nature of innovation in pedagogy: (1) educational values and purposes; (2) curriculum, pedagogy and assessment; (3) personal and social processes and relationships; and (4) teachers and policies. It elaborates the argument and evidence for each principle, drawing not only on findings from projects but, crucially, the thematic initiatives that began the synthetic work. There is also an attempt, though by no means comprehensive, to relate TLRP insights to research and scholarship beyond the Programme’s school-focused work in order to ground them in a wider literature: to work in other sectors of education; and to the broader literature that has accumulated internationally and over time. Finally, the five years since the principles were first published provides some evidence of impact. Although direct impact on learner outcomes cannot be measured, it is possible to provide an account of take-up by mediating agencies and others. The piece has been prepared as a contribution to international dialogue on effective teaching and learning and to provide a focus for scholarly comment, sharing of expertise and knowledge accumulation.
According to Bourdieu's theory of cultural reproduction, children from middle-class families are advantaged in gaining educational credentials due to their possession of cultural capital. In order to assess this theory, I have developed a broad operationalisation of the concept of cultural capital, and have surveyed pupils on both their own and their parents' cultural capital. I will conclude that cultural capital is transmitted within the home and does have a significant effect on performance in the GCSE (General Certificate of Secondary Education) examinations. However, a large, direct effect of social class on attainment remains when cultural capital has been controlled for. Therefore, ‘cultural reproduction’ can provide only a partial explanation of social class differences in educational attainment.
In this article, the authors report on their research on which aspects of parentalcultural resources affect educational attainment and distinguish between parentalbeaux arts participation and parental reading behavior. Using representative data for the Netherlands in 1992 (N = 1,653), they found that parental reading behavior, not parental beaux arts participation, affects children's educational attainment. The authors also examine the validity of two alternative theories on theinteraction of parents' educational background and their cultural capital (distinguishing between parental reading and beaux arts participation): Bourdieu's cultural reproduction theory and DiMaggio's cultural mobility theory. The data provide support for the cultural mobility hypothesis with respect to parental readingbehavior; that is, parental reading is effective in predicting success in school, especially for children whose parents have low levels of education.
Incl. bibl., abstract. The 'drop-out' of working-class students from universities has been identified as one of the most pressing issues for the higher education (HE) sector in the United Kingdom. This article draws on the initial findings of a major research project that explores the meanings and implications of such withdrawal from HE amongst young working-class people. The article argues that drop-out should be seen not just as an educational problem, but also as a manifestation of sociocultural change. To understand drop-out we need to look beyond student support needs or institutional barriers to cultural narratives and local contexts. This enables us to use a sociological frame to understand the educational question, and employ the educational data to contribute to sociological debates on class. The article analyses 'drop-out' as a self-fulfilling cultural narrative that is increasingly connoted as working class, as well as being a consequence of the material exigencies of working-class circumstances. It illustrates how class identity mutates yet stays the same, with the working class still positioned in terms of 'lack'. Although the possibility of university study has become a part of working-class identity, the expectation that this experience may be 'flawed' or 'spoilt' has also become engrained. The article analyses drop-out as two sides of one coin: as both significantly influenced by local culture and as having a perceived impact upon that culture, with different effects in different locales.
Attempts to measure the quality of teaching and learning have resulted in an overreliance on quantitative performance data and the normalisation of a set of reductionist practices in England’s further education sector in recent years. Focusing on lesson observation as an illustrative example and drawing on data from a national study, this article examines the application of observation and its impact on further education teachers’ practice. In viewing lesson observation through a complexity theory lens and contextualising it against the wider neoliberal backdrop of the marketisation of education, we seek to critique the inadequacies of current reductionist approaches to teacher evaluation, whilst simultaneously opening up a debate regarding the consequences of seeing classrooms as complex adaptive systems. In focusing on performative models of lesson observation in particular, the article exposes what we perceive as some of the epistemological and methodological shortcomings of neoliberalism in practice, but also offers an alternative way forward in dealing with the contested practice of evaluating the quality of teaching and learning. © 2016 International Professional Development Association (IPDA)
This book focuses on education and its relation to professional accountability as viewed from two different, but not unrelated, perspectives. First, the book is about the work of professionals in schools and colleges (teachers, head teachers, leaders, principals, directors and educational managers, etc.) and the detrimental effects which our present system of accountability – and the managerialism which this system creates – have had on education, its practice, its organization, its conduct and its content. It is also about the professional education (the occupational/professional formation and development) of practitioners in communities other than educational ones and how they, too, contend with the effects of this system on their practices.
This article reports on a study of the National Teaching Fellowship Scheme (NTFS), which was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council. The study undertook a critical evaluation of the NTFS and focused on three main areas: (1) how ‘teaching excellence’ is understood within the NTFS; (2) the key characteristics of the NTFS as a development mechanism and strategy; and (3) the impact of the NTFS on the professional lives and identities of the award winners. Following a discussion of findings related to these three areas, some recommendations are identified to help improve the NTFS and enhance its credibility within the sector.
In this article we will present a reflexive way of producing a narrative analysis on teaching and learning that involves all participants of the pedagogical process. Our theoretical contribution rests on the concept ‘lived pedagogy’, adapted from Max van Manen's term ‘lived experience’. Like van Manen, we start by asking the key question of phenomenological–hermeneutical research: what is the nature of the phenomenon as meaningfully experienced? For us, the phenomenon is the pedagogical relationship; the interaction between the people involved in the pedagogical process. Thus, we will present how lived pedagogy is researched through the narratives told by the teacher‐researcher, the students, and their parents, and how the analysis and interpretation is made with reference to three voices; my voice (teacher), your voice (pupils) and their voice (parents).
Abstract In this essay, Gert Biesta provides a critical analysis of the idea of evidence-based practice and the ways in which it has been promoted and implemented in the field of education, focusing on the tension between scientific and democratic control over educational practice and research. Biesta examines three key assumptions of evidence-based education: first, the extent to which educational practice can be compared to the practice of medicine, the field in which evidence-based practice was first developed; second, the role of knowledge in professional actions, with special attention to what kind of epistemology is appropriate for professional practices that wish to be informed by the outcomes of research; and third, the expectations about the practical role of research implicit in the idea of evidence-based education. Biesta concludes that evidence-based practice provides a framework for understanding the role of research in educational practice that not only restricts the scope of decision making to questions about effectivity and effectiveness, but that also restricts the opportunities for participation in educational decision making. He argues that we must expand our views about the interrelations among research, policy, and practice to keep in view education as a thoroughly moral and political practice that requires continuous democratic contestation and deliberation.
Securing a sustainable future in higher education London: Department of Business Innovation and Skills Available at: www.bis.gov.uk/assets/biscore/corporate/docs/s/10-1208-securing-sustainable-highereducation-brownereport.pdf Accessed 21
- J Browne
Browne, J. (2010) Securing a sustainable future in higher education. London: Department of
Business Innovation and Skills. Available at:
www.bis.gov.uk/assets/biscore/corporate/docs/s/10-1208-securing-sustainable-highereducation-brownereport.pdf Accessed 21/11/2016.
What are Universities For? London: Penguin
- S Collini
Collini, S. (2012) What are Universities For? London: Penguin.
Innovation and Skills (2016) Success as a Knowledge Economy: Teaching Excellence, Social Mobility and Student Choice
- Department
- Business
Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (2016) Success as a Knowledge Economy:
Teaching Excellence, Social Mobility and Student Choice, Higher Education White Paper.
Graduate employability data no way to measure teaching quality', Times Higher Education
- G Gibbs
Gibbs, G. (2015) 'Graduate employability data no way to measure teaching quality', Times
Higher Education. Article published online 7 th July 2015. Available at:
https://www.timeshighereducation.com/blog/graduate-employability-data-no-way-measure-
David Willetts interview: 'What I did was in the interests of young people
- J Gill
Gill, J. (2015) David Willetts interview: 'What I did was in the interests of young people',
Times Higher Education. Article published online 18 th June 2015. Available at:
https://www.timeshighereducation.com/david-willetts-what-i-did-was-in-the-interests-of-
TEF to limit use of 'flawed' NSS scores, Times Higher Education
- J Grove
Grove, J. (2017) TEF to limit use of 'flawed' NSS scores, Times Higher Education. Article
published online 25 th January 2017. Available at:
https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/tef-limit-use-flawed-nss-scores#node-
Considering Teaching Excellence in Higher Education
- V Gunn
- A Fisk
Gunn, V. and Fisk, A. (2013) Considering Teaching Excellence in Higher Education 2007
A Literature Review since the CHERI Report
A Literature Review since the CHERI Report 2007. Higher Education Academy, York,
UK.
Engagement through partnership: students as partners in learning and teaching in higher education
- M Healey
- A Flint
- K Harrington
Healey, M., Flint, A. and Harrington, K. (2014). Engagement through partnership: students
as partners in learning and teaching in higher education. York: HEA. Available at:
https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/engagement-through-partnership-students-partnerslearningand-teaching-higher-education. Accessed 21/05/2017.
National Student Survey Available at
HEFCE (2016) National Student Survey. Available at: http://www.hefce.ac.uk/lt/nss.
In Defence of Public Higher Education: Knowledge for a Successful Society. A response to 'Success as a Knowledge Economy
- J Holmwood
- T Hickey
- R Cohen
- S Wallis
Holmwood, J., Hickey, T., Cohen, R. and Wallis, S. (2016) In Defence of Public Higher
Education: Knowledge for a Successful Society. A response to 'Success as a Knowledge
Economy', BIS (2016), Convention for Higher Education.
Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/329746/whatmakes-great-pedagogy-nine-claims-from-research.pdf
- Ncsl Nottingham
Nottingham, NCSL. Available at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/329746/whatmakes-great-pedagogy-nine-claims-from-research.pdf. Accessed 11/05/2017.
Proposing a sustainable Teaching Excellence Framework', WONKHE, published online 5 th Available at: http://wonkhe.com/blogs/proposing-asustainable-teaching-excellence-framework
- S Marshall
Marshall, S. (2015) 'Proposing a sustainable Teaching Excellence Framework', WONKHE,
published online 5 th October 2015. Available at: http://wonkhe.com/blogs/proposing-asustainable-teaching-excellence-framework/. Accessed 12/4/2017.
Students Don't Know What's Best For Their Own Learning', The Conversation
- A Poropat
Poropat, A. (2014) 'Students Don't Know What's Best For Their Own Learning', The
Conversation 18 November, available at: https://theconversation.com/students-dont-knowwhats-best-for-theirown-learning-33835. Accessed 20/5/2017.
Appendix A: Literature review
- P Ramsden
- C Callender
Ramsden, P. and Callender, C. (2014) Appendix A: Literature review. Available at:
http://www.hefce.ac.uk/media/fb/content/pubs/indirreports/2014/Review,of,the,NSS/2014_ns
sreviewa.pdf. Accessed: 23/10/2016.
Securing a sustainable future in higher education. London: Department of Business Innovation and Skills. Available at: www
- J Browne
Browne, J. (2010) Securing a sustainable future in higher education. London: Department of
Business Innovation and Skills. Available at:
www.bis.gov.uk/assets/biscore/corporate/docs/s/10-1208-securing-sustainable-higher-
Monitoring and measuring teaching excellence in higher education: from contrived competition to collective collaboration
- S Collini
Collini, S. (2012) What are Universities For? London: Penguin.
To cite: O'Leary, M. (2017) 'Monitoring and measuring teaching excellence in higher education: from
contrived competition to collective collaboration', chapter in French, A. & O'Leary M. (eds) (2017)
Teaching Excellence in Higher Education: Challenges, Changes and the Teaching Excellence
Framework. Bingley: Emerald Group Publishing, 75-107.
National Student Survey
- Hefce
HEFCE (2016) National Student Survey. Available at: http://www.hefce.ac.uk/lt/nss.
Accessed 14/5/2017.
Monitoring and measuring teaching excellence in higher education: from contrived competition to collective collaboration
- S Marshall
Marshall, S. (2015) 'Proposing a sustainable Teaching Excellence Framework', WONKHE,
published online 5 th October 2015. Available at: http://wonkhe.com/blogs/proposing-asustainable-teaching-excellence-framework/. Accessed 12/4/2017.
To cite: O'Leary, M. (2017) 'Monitoring and measuring teaching excellence in higher education: from
contrived competition to collective collaboration', chapter in French, A. & O'Leary M. (eds) (2017)
Teaching Excellence in Higher Education: Challenges, Changes and the Teaching Excellence
Framework. Bingley: Emerald Group Publishing, 75-107.
- Sullivan A.