Teaching Development Programmes

Rutz et al (2012) were able to demonstrate a direct relationship between

amount of teacher development and improvements in teaching making

development programmes important within higher education. Stes et al

(2013a) also looked at the impact of these courses on student learning and

showed that teacher’s instructional development had limited effect on

student learning.

As stated earlier there has been a move over recent years across the higher

education sector to encourage or enforce new teacher development with

programmes such as the Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice

(PGCAP). This programme has been a requirement of academic probation

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University for at least ten years but has not been required by existing staff

or offered to teaching personnel employed by the NHS.

Discussion regarding the impact of these courses is important to this study

as many of the teachers have not been subject to it. Stes et al (2010a & b) in

their review of literature about the impact of PGCAP programmes found

that the greatest impact of involvement in a PGCAP or equivalent was on

teachers’ attitudes towards their teaching. There was measurable impact on

knowledge and skills in relation to teaching but little evidence to show

development in teaching concepts. Stes et al (2010 a & b), criticize the

studies they reviewed for a lack of inclusion of comparison groups which

may raise questions about the type of evidence available. A range of studies

do, however, demonstrate significant value from participating in teacher

development programmes and some of the key studies are outlined below.

Hanbury et al (2008) used a pre-test/post-test comparison in their study

looking at teaching attitudes over 30 universities in the UK, comparing

those who participated in courses verses those who did not. They recorded

a significant shift amongst participating teachers to employing student-

centred rather than teacher-centred approaches to their teaching delivery.

This finding is backed-up in a report by Postareff (2007) who also

concluded that it took a year for this kind of transformation to take place

within a teachers’ practice, and that the transformation was facilitated by

increased self-awareness. Of particular interest to the current study, Butcher

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teachers appointed for their professional disciplinary expertise. The study

looked at participants in different stages of the programme including post

qualification and involved mixed research methods. Again, a shift was

evident from teacher-centred to student-centred approaches and showed that

teachers were willing to adopt new approaches to teaching, planning and

assessment. They were also able to detect a shift in reported professional

identity moving from discipline related only to also identifying themselves

as teachers. Lueddeke (2003) found that individuals with a strong concept

of their position within their discipline combined with a responsibility to

teach have the strongest influence on increasing teaching scholarship; this is

considered to be a key facet of teacher professionalism. In Lueddeke’s

study, teaching qualifications and years of teaching had a moderate impact

on scholarly activity, with gender and position playing no significant role.

Dixon and Scott (2003) present a study using self-reporting to describe how

teachers judge their participation in development programmes as leading to

an increase in their teaching and learning skills. The programme made them

feel more adept at; creating an optimal learning environment; time

management; student engagement and encouraging student interaction.

Postareff (2007) found evidence of a self-reported increase in reflective

skills for teachers participating in a development programme.

An interesting study from the US (Romano et al 2004) reported on the

effects of a teaching development programme on mid-career academics.

Value added by the programme was reported as; provision of focus;

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skills. The study emphasised that constructive feedback following peer

review was of particular value in helping develop a teacher’s ability to deal

with both professional and personal challenges. McArthur et al (2004) had

spent years promoting development programmes in Australia, but in 2004

they reported no differences in adopted teaching methods between teachers

who had completed a postgraduate certificate and those who had not.

However, they did detect an increase in the rate at which new staff

members reached appropriate teaching momentum if they had been through

a development programme.

With regard to outcomes for the students, there is little evidence to measure

any effect of having teachers who have participated in postgraduate

development courses. Several authors have suggested this is because we

lack the common tools needed for measurement and that future research in

this area is required (Kreber and Brook 2001, Tigwell 2012).

The HEA document on the impact of introductory teaching programmes

(Parsons et al 2012), states that teachers with experience are more proficient

and adept at transferring information and implementing ideas from

development programmes than less experienced or novice teachers. They

suggest new teachers may need to develop foundational pedagogic

knowledge before they are able to transfer effectively the knowledge they

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Development programmes have demonstrated evidence of a positive impact

on teaching attitudes but looking forward research has failed to show a link

between certificated programmes and a rise in the sociocultural status of

teaching within higher education (Steinert 2006). This continues to be an

ongoing problem. Chalmers and Gardiner (2015) has suggested that the

research paradigms around impact and effectiveness of teacher

development programmes needs to shift more towards evaluation in order

to properly inform and enhance programmes in the future. They also

suggests that evaluation strategies be built in from the beginning to enable

better measurement of impact.