Learning about Teaching in Teaching Groups

Participants who are members of teaching groups in which close collaboration occurs, spoke strongly about the benefits for teaching and learning about teach- ing. Members of teaching groups with little interaction were in some cases able to recall positive interactions with individuals from outside their groups, but other- wise could not report much on learning from within their groups. The main areas discussed related to observations of teaching and to sharing of teaching material.

Participants talked about observations of teaching in two contexts. First, op- portunities to observe the teaching of colleagues can occur naturally. Examples given were from disciplines like the arts, where the presence of multiple teachers in one room seems common, or based on circumstances, such as arise when aca- demics have travelled to a teaching location and spent time in the teaching space due to not having an office available. Second, participants reported on initiatives that deliberately place an observer into a teaching space. Both circumstances provide opportunity for learning from others. As participant P1 states, it is useful to be able to observe others to gain new ideas that then can be adapted in one’s own teaching. Participant P12 describes the benefits from a deliberate observation and feedback process, conducted by a more experienced colleague.

P1: And being in the classroom with other people I find, other lec- turers, is just fantastic, picking up ideas.

P12: When I first came to [campus] one of the lecturers did it, she came and sat in one of my tutorials and wrote a report and it was fantastic, it was so valuable.

Participants also described that the benefits of observation can go both ways. While it is not surprising that the less experienced colleague can benefit from their more experienced counterpart, the questions and viewpoints of a novice can also help the experienced teacher to gain new insights and look at their teaching in a fresh light. Several participants alerted to the dangers of having observations of teaching linked to line management, as then issues such as striving for promotion might overshadow the focus on pedagogical improvements. Opportunities arising from new technologies were mentioned. For example, where lecture recordings are taken, observations of teaching can occur based on watching the recordings. This provides more flexibility in timing the observations and might also be less obtrusive. Participants also discussed that in some contexts lectures have lost their central place in teaching, for example, where courses are delivered over distance. In these contexts, ‘observations’ of teaching need to take different forms, such as given via the sharing of teaching material.

Having access to each other’s teaching material was largely discussed in the context of moving to the University’s new electronic teaching and learning system. Participants described how working with the system has increased the level of access to the material of colleagues and has helped to increase the understanding

of what and how others teach. While academics could have shared material previously, the way the system was setup made sharing the default. Participant P4 describes how even temporary access to the teaching material of colleagues facilitated understanding.

P4: Once everybody was happy with it, they now understood what each other was doing and had each others ideas, you just closed off access again. And that worked really well as an education forum for everybody.

Participants provided further reasons why it would be beneficial to have access to the teaching material of colleagues. They stated that academics are competi- tive and are driven by peer pressure. Seeing the material of others, and having one’s own material looked at, encourages striving for the best. Participant P28 described how less motivated members of a group were being pulled along by the more active members of the group, with the group dynamic having positive effects on the overall outcome. It was also pointed out that there a differences between the characteristics of individuals in subject areas, with some being typically more cooperative and others more competitive.

P28: [There were] a couple of people who were really into it and who drove a programme to go into it, which then dragged a whole lot of unwilling people into it, you know that sort of domino effect.

Typically in each focus group session, there were participants who could report on experiences of learning from each other about teaching in their teaching groups, but also others who had little or no such experiences. After largely listening to the discussions, these other participants were asked if they could see potential in learning about teaching from interactions with colleagues in their teaching groups. Statements by participants P16 and P29 provide examples of the responses given that support the potential of both sharing of material and observation of lectures.

P16: There is a huge amount if we could just engage and learn a lot more from each other.

P29: I’d love to sit in on other people’s lectures and find out more about what they do and learn more myself so I can add more to my lectures.

An interesting observation was made by participant P19, describing how they first would like to analyse their own teaching before sharing with others. Together with comments by other participants, who had described initiatives where peer- observations of teaching were imposed, leading to poor outcomes, this might indicate that interactions need to be carefully prepared, with individuals reaching a certain level of readiness and understanding of their own teaching first.

P19: I would find it interesting, I have never done it, but I think it would be interesting to put down my teaching philosophy, my ap- proach to teaching and what assessments I use and why. But once I did that I’d also would like to share it with the other people in my teaching group and to see what they’ve had to say and to compare and contrast and learn from that process.

While the conversations in the focus groups concentrated on experiences within the participants’ teaching groups, comments were also made relating to learning from others in the wider academic environment. Participants value the input from others outside their own disciplines. Getting together with others who are equally motivated and knowledgeable, as it would be for example the case with teaching award winners, is clearly seen as beneficial. In addition to learning from colleagues, the role of the academic development unit of the University was also mentioned. Some participants appreciate being able to take courses offered by this unit. It was acknowledged that members of academic development units have knowledge that can help academics to make connections between teaching in their subject areas and teaching approaches. A service offered by the academic devel- opment unit that assists with soliciting student feedback and helping academics to analyse and improve their teaching was appreciated. Others saw more potential for the services an academic development unit could offer, for example in looking at ‘tips and tricks of teaching’ sessions. What was seen as important is to provide support tailored to the needs of a target group of academics. Presentations from a theoretical, educational perspective might not be taken up well by academics from non-education subject areas. More practical-minded presentations, tailored to the needs of specific subject areas, were asked for.

While there was overwhelming focus on the positive aspects of interactions in teaching groups, points of caution were raised. Too much interaction can become time-consuming and there is the potential of individuals stepping over boundaries, violating the desire for privacy felt by others. Interaction, taken too far and into

a wrong direction, can slide into control, especially if hierarchies within a group are involved. This can have a stifling effect on others, who might regard this as too much interference with their teaching. While these points were only reported by two participants, it seems prudent to consider potential negative effects of interactions in subsequent investigations.

4.2.4

Summary

This section has focused on reporting on the interactions taking place in teaching groups, on the atmosphere in teaching groups, and on learning about teaching in teaching groups. In terms of interactions within teaching groups, the results from the focus group research show a wide spectrum. On the one side there are groups in which interaction is limited to administrative matters, talked about at scheduled meetings only. On the other side, there are groups that discuss teach- ing deeply, with members having frequent informal conversations in addition to scheduled meetings. A task for the quantitative research phase will be to establish what interactions take place in the teaching groups of survey participants, and looking at how these teaching groups will be distributed across the spectrum. As alerted to in the findings about interactions in teaching groups, it was difficult to find out to which degree the members of a teaching group are engaged. This gave rise to the idea of enquiring about who is initiating interactions, which might help to distinguish from more passive participation. These considerations led to specifying Goal 2.

Goal 2 — Interaction in teaching groups

• Find out how frequent participation in meetings about teaching is • Find out if chance interactions are frequent

• Find out if most members initiate interactions about teaching • Find out if most members participate in interactions about teaching With regard to atmosphere in teaching groups, the open and trusting nature of some groups stood out in the findings and clearly seems to contribute to valuable exchanges about teaching. Again, it will be important to establish in the survey if such positive atmosphere is prevalent among teaching groups. It will also be

relevant to ask how important such an atmosphere is seen in general, beyond the boundaries of teaching groups. This leads to Goal 3 and Hypothesis 2.

Goal 3 — Atmosphere in teaching groups

• Find out if teaching groups have an open and trusting atmosphere

Hypothesis 2 — Importance of atmosphere

• The majority of academics say that an open and trusting atmosphere facil- itates constructive interaction on teaching

• The majority of academics regards an open and trusting atmosphere as necessary for constructive interaction on teaching

Many participants spoke strongly about positive experiences with learning from others in their teaching groups. On the other hand, many participants could not contribute to this conversation when restricted to experiences within their teaching groups. For this research, two aspects are important. First, it needs to be established what the characteristics of a teaching group are that enable positive experiences with learning from others in the teaching group. This will be addressed in Section 4.3 that deals with the characteristics of teaching groups based on the focus group data. Second, it needs to be established if positive experiences with learning from others are prevalent among academics when looking beyond teaching groups as defined for this research. This second aspect can be addressed in the quantitative research phase, which also will look at potential negative experiences. As the positive experiences have been reported so strongly in the focus groups, a hypothesis is formulated. As only some negative experiences were mentioned, a goal is stated.

Hypothesis 3 — Learning from others

• The majority of academics have experienced interactions with colleagues that have had positive impact on their teaching

Goal 4 — Learning from others

• Find out if academics have experienced interactions with colleagues that have had negative impact on their teaching