Staff development at the K.U.Leuven

The case of academic development

Hilde Creten en An Verburgh

K.U.Leuven

• 13 Faculties, 50 departments, 240 sub-departments representing three different groups: positive sciences, social sciences and humanities, and biomedical sciences

• 28.000 students, 1370 professors and 3441 researchers

• Centrally organised, yet discussions about new structures

Staff development

• Varied offer:– use of ICT– leadership training– communication– languages– safety & prevention ...

• Different ‘providers’:– HR, Ludit, DUO/ICTO, ...– all central support units

Institutional policy with regard to staff development

• Free offer (in some cases administrative cost)

• Free participation

• Impact on professional career not (always) clear

Academic Development

• “Provision of pedagogically sound and discipline relevant development for academic staff across the broad spectrum of disciplines present within a university as to impact effectively on student learning.” (Hicks, 1999)

– General aim: implementation of university’s teaching concept ‘Guided Independent Learning’ (G.I.L.)

Academic Development: Offer

• General initiatives– summer course– workshops– digital chalk

• Targeted initiatives– program for new faculty– program for new teaching assistants

• Bespoke initiatives– workshop for program directors about curriculum

evaluation

Principles of Academic Development

• Modeling G.I.L.

• Learning to teach and learning about teaching

• Evidence-based:– integrated approach– professional growth– impact

• Supported by tools

• Promoting scholarship of teaching

Principle: Modeling G.I.L.

• Research-based education• Students are responsible for own learning• Teachers are responsible for adequate

support (high degree of student activity, importance of feedback, fading during program)– Summer course: input based on state of the art of

research, varied offer, yet freedom to choose: attend sessions, work on own project, with or without counseling

Principle: Learning to teach & learning about teaching

• Practical training– Micro-teaching, DLE-skills

• Introduction to research on teaching and learning– Input about learning theories, impact of

teaching strategies– Link to personal teaching practice through

specific assignments

Principle: evidence based Integrated approach

• Faculty members identify with department (Gibbs, 1996; Knapper, 2000)

• Importance of ‘metaprofessionals’ (Candy, 1996)

→ Academic development is multidimensional and distributed activity for which various partners within the university bear responsibility (Hicks, 1999)

– Program for new Teaching Assistants

Principle: evidence based Professional growth

• Importance of teaching conceptions (Prosser & Trigwell, 2002)

– Exercise about teaching conceptions

• Conceptualising the change process– Program for new faculty

Faculty develop-ment

Change in beliefs

Change in practice

Change in student outcomes

Principle: evidence based Professional growth

(Ho, 2000)

Faculty develop-ment

Change in beliefs

Change in practice

Change in student outcomes

(Guskey, 1986)

Principle: evidence based Professional growth

External source of information or stimulus

Professional experimentation

Salient outcomes

Knowledge, beliefs, attitudes

Personal domain

External domain

Domain of practice

Domain of consequence(Clarke & Hollingsworth, 2002)

Enactment

Reflection

Principle: evidence based Professional growth

Principle: evidence based Impact of academic development

initiatives (Weimer & Lenze, 1994; McAlpine, 2003)

• Direct and explicit focus on students and learning

• Practical application with feedback

• Free participation

• At least 12 hours, spread over semester

• Feedback on implementation in teaching practice

Principle: supported by tools

• Opti-kwest: on line tool to design questionnaire (http://www.kuleuven.ac.be/opti-kwest)

• Anatool: on line instrument to analyse teaching practice (https://www.kuleuven.ac.be/duo-icto/anatool)

• BV-databank: on line database of ‘good practices’ (http://www.kuleuven.ac.be/icto/bv)

• DLE-manual: on line manual about use of digital learning environment (http://

docbook.kuleuven.be/frame.html)

Principle: promoting scholarship of teaching

• Research about teaching practice and students’ learning in order to ameliorate one’s knowledge about teaching in general and the quality of one’s teaching practice in particular– Research groups– Opti-kwest

How to organise academic development

• Needs detection:– internal and external curriculum reviews– G.I.L.– contacts within Faculties– new evolutions

How to organise academic development

• Practical organisation:– designing the program– creating institutional support for the program– asking for help:

• experts• specialists from the field• administrative and logistic support

– coaching contributors– evaluating and providing feedback

How to organise academic development

• Organisational embededness– reporting to educational council and vice-

president for education– building a Faculty policy

Guided independent learning: a concept

Term 1 Term 2 Term 3

Collective

Interim day Collective

Closing day

Data-collection opti-kwest

Data-collection opti-kwest

Collegial consult

Discussion about results

Collegial consult

Action plan

Collective

Start (2 days)

Program for new faculty

Anatool

• Part 1: Description of teaching practice according to global scheme

• Part 2:Comparison of descriptions