Pedagogical competence comprises several different competencies a teacher needs to have (see i.e. the criteria on pp. 39-40). Carolin Kreber makes the distinction between different levels of quality in her division into “teaching excellence”, “teaching
expertise” and “scholarship of teaching” (Kreber 2002). Simplified we can talk about
“teaching skills” as a lower level and ”scholarship of teaching and learning” as a higher level.19 Somewhere in that spectrum lies a reasonable requirement level for pedagogical competence.
Teaching skill
Teaching is a complex practice where the number of factors that can influence results is limitless and difficult to grasp. The teacher’s task of promoting student learning is especially difficult. According to the traditional view pedagogical competence is primarily a question of practice “in the classroom”. A teacher who is a skilful teacher is a teacher who through their knowledge, their methods, their actions, their ability to communicate etc. gets teaching situation to function and creates conditions for learning. The focus is on pedagogical practice and the competencies that are directly related to it.
The problem with this view is that it does not also include a scientific attitude towards teaching and learning. The teacher’s ability lies primarily in a scientifically based subject competence and the practical teaching skills that he/she has acquired and
continued to develop. Deficient knowledge of learning theory, pedagogy for higher education research into teaching and tried experiences means that the teacher does not have a real scientific foundation for pedagogical development work. The frame of reference risks being limited to the teacher’s own experiences and the traditions of the institution. Often there is also not enough knowledge about rules and regulations and structured work with the curriculum.
There are also more nuanced attempts at emphasising the importance of teaching competence. Khalid El Gaidi stresses teacher’s work as a professional knowledge built on experiential knowledge:
“The teacher’s professional knowledge is practical knowledge. No matter how much is written about theoretical knowledge, there will always remain a great deal that we still wonder about. It is a question of people with preconceptions of the world,hopes and fears drowned in a thousand-year-old tradition of ambiguous terminology mixed with an understanding and prejudice and a whole range ofpossibilities for interpretation for each action.
It is through reflection on concrete and common experiences that the necessary knowledge is developed. That which characterises such knowledge is that it, unlike scientific knowledge, does not allow itself to be described verbally, but nevertheless can be understood clearly in action.” (El Gaidi 2007 p. 24)
There is no antagonism between El Gaidi’s perspective and the requirement of a theoretical foundation20. The ability to reflect critically and put one’s own pedagogical practice into words is something that unites them.
Scholarship of teaching and learning
At least the concept scholarship of teaching and learning appears often in pedagogy for higher education and courses in pedagogy for higher education. It was minted by Ernest Boyer in 1990 and since then it has been central in the discussion about pedagogical competence. During the same period there has been a strong trend in increased efforts to professionalise pedagogical development work and the different central forms that support it.21 The purpose is to carry out pedagogical activities in the
20 El Gaidi 2007 p. 78: “In the meeting with higher education’s theoretical traditions the
teacher’s professional knowledge has been eroded and finally nearly emptied of its practical content. The logic of practice shows itself many times to be completely different than that of theory. The formalisation has for a long period of time gone in a direction that distances itself more and more from practical knowledge. Those who stand for practical knowledge are as good as completely left out of participating in knowledge building on their own terms. Research on the other hand is done primarily by people who wholly lack practical experience of teaching.
21
I am thinking primarily about courses givning qualification in pedagogy in higher education, national initiatives via Swednet for accrediting and evaluating pedagogical development units, courses for pedagogical developers, efforts towards creating possibilites for publishing in Sweden in order to disseminate research and development work on pedagogy for higher education.
same spirit as scientific activities. The requirements of having a foundation based on theory and research, methodological awareness and a critical approach are stressed. Carolin Kreber gives a good picture of the idea of scholarship:
“[…] I suggest that the scholarship of teaching and learning involve (1) careful consideration of educational goals and purposes suitable for addressing the various political, social, cultural, environmental and economic challenges of our times, (2) understanding how students learn and develop toward these and other academic goals, and (3) identifying ways to best facilitate this learning and developmental process.
I further contend that the notion of the scholarship of teaching and learning implies that we approach our teaching practice with the same sense of scepticism that guides our research. As researchers, we habitually provide arguments or reasons for our assertions. Depending on our discipline or subject area, we engage in the process of hypothesis testing, interpretation or critical analysis routinely. Moreover, we recognize that it is important to share with colleagues the evidence we generated for our point of view and invite them to follow, and possibly critique, our lines of argumentation. It has been proposed that we engage in similar processes with respect to our teaching; however, traditional ways of sharing such as conference papers and journal publications are but two of several possibilities.”
Kreber 2006 p. 90.
Compared with Great Britain Sweden is several years behind in development. The dismantling of the central support for pedagogical development that the Council for Renewal in Higher Education and NSHU were responsible for has not made the situation better. In spite of that there is now development towards finding forms for promoting a teacher’s scholarship of teaching and learning. This development will probably also improve the possibilities for experts to do reliable assessments. We can expect greater competence among the experts and that teachers ought to be better at integrating theory and practice when reporting their qualifications. A result of the idea of scholarship ought to be also that teachers have better documentation of their pedagogical development work.