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The purpose of this report is to provide an overview of the objectives, activities and outcomes of the [Australian Learning and Teaching Council] ALTC National Teaching Fellowship titled 'Navigating a pathway between the academic standards and a framework for authentic, collaborative, outcomes-focused thinking in engineering education'. The report is designed to be, in itself, a useful resource for practising academics, university leaders at various levels, and future applicants and nominees for grants and national teaching fellowships.

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This study explores the experiences of educators using the [Virtual Learning Network] VLN Groups network to determine how far this user-generated mode of professional learning might extend professional practices in school. The study considers the ways and the extent to which the affordances of the VLN Groups social network site combine to affect educators' abilities to engage in effective professional learning. Findings highlight how the typical usage patterns of participants within the social network site reflect a growing familiarity with online ways of working, as well as opportunities to exploit this mode of professional learning more effectively.

This study suggests that the VLN Groups can provide a thriving participatory system that enables educators to engage in an informal kind of professional learning focused on immediate concerns and contexts in their own teaching and leadership situations. It also raises questions related to what 'counts' as professional learning and how self-driven learning can be integrated into a cycle of active inquiry into practice. The study concludes by outlining recommendations for teachers, schools and policy makers related to connecting and coordinating professional learning in ways that maximise opportunities in the digital age.

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Internationalization is more commonplace in university strategies and activities more than ever before. In the current arms race to internationalize, careful attention needs to be paid to the quality of internationalization efforts. This article describes two cases on the experiences of international scholars and students, followed by implications on how internationalization should be critically assessed and practiced as a social and educational responsibility.

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This paper reports the results of qualitative research, viewed through the theoretical lenses of social learning theory and communities of practice, which aimed to investigate strategies to support female [science, technology, engineering and mathematics] STEM faculty at all ranks at East Coast University (ECU). Sixteen such strategies were identified via the iterative analysis of interviews with 19 tenured/tenure-track female STEM faculty at ECU, representative of all academic ranks and of multiple departments across the College of Science and Mathematics and College of Engineering. The strategies responded to initiatives and policies in place at ECU to support female STEM faculty, were specifically mentioned by at least one participant, or attended to issues common to female faculty such as work-life balance.

The strategies were organized into four categories: (1) changing culture (category contains five strategies, including 'emphasize data-driven decision making'); (2) building networks of support and information (three strategies, including 'encourage informal networking among female STEM faculty'); (3) supporting work-life balance (three strategies, including 'continue, clarify and enhance family-friendly policies'); and (4) other strategies to support female STEM faculty (five strategies, including 'increase opportunities for female STEM faculty to be officially recognized for their work'). The study has implications not only for how ECU might better support female STEM faculty, but also how other universities might do the same.

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The extent to which continuing educators respond to the challenges and opportunities presented in this volume will determine to a large extent their future relevance to their institutions.

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This book presents the analysis of the representative survey about the academic profession in 12 European countries. Higher education in Europe has experienced a substantial change in recent years: Expansion progresses further, the expectation to deliver useful contributions of knowledge to the ‘knowledge society’ is on the rise, and efforts to steer academic work through external forces and strong international management are more widespread than ever. Representative surveys of the academic profession in twelve European countries show how professors and junior staff at universities and other institutions of higher education view the role of higher education in society and their professional situation and how they actually shape their professional tasks. Academics differ across Europe substantially in their employment and working conditions, their views and their activities. Most of them favour the preservation of a close link between teaching and research and feel responsible for both theory and practice. Most consider efforts to enhance academic quality and social relevance as compatible. The overall satisfaction with their professional situation is rather high.

Excerpt from publisher’s website.

The chapters are as follows: The academic profession in twelve European countries: the approach of the comparative study / Ulrich Teichler and Ester Ava Hohle; Academic career paths / Gulay Ates and Angelika Brechelmacher; Academic work, working conditions and job satisfaction / Marek Kwiek and Dominik Antonowicz; Gender in academia between differences and inequalities: findings in Europe / Gaele Goastellec and Nicolas Pekari; The teaching function of the academic profession; Ester Ava Hohle and Ulrich Teichler; The research function of the academic profession in Europe / Jonathan Drennan, Marie Clarke, Abbey Hyde and Yurgos Politis; The academic profession and the role of the service function; Bojana Culum, Nena Roncevic and Jasminka Ledic; Movers and shakers: academics as stakeholders - do they control their own work? / Timo Aarrevaara and Ian R. Dobson; From academic self governance to executive university management: institutional governance in the view of academics in Europe / Elke Park; New university governance: how the academic profession perceives the evaluation of research and teaching / David Campbell; The internationalisation of academic markets, careers and profession / Gaele Goastellec and Nicolas Pekari; The European academic profession or academic professions in Europe? / Ester Ava Hohle and Ulrich Teichler; and Appendix: Contextual information about the countries. Show less

This research explores the professional situation of teacher educators in post-compulsory education. The article reports on a project that included the largest online survey of this particular group to date, and the results provide rich insights into their values, experiences and particular working context. The results significantly extend our understanding of the characteristics and beliefs of this under-researched professional community, and they have a powerful resonance as we move into a new era for UK teacher education.

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Information on the professional journey towards becoming an expert in Continuing Professional Education (CPE) is important to the novice who wants to venture on the same route. The objective of this paper is to explore the CPE journey of the experts and to identify the factors contributing to becoming an expert. Four expert teacher educators from two Malaysian Institutes of Teacher Education were interviewed using retrospective interview approach. Data were analysed and findings as themes were developed. Results showed that involvement with deliberate practice in CPE, individual values, leadership through experience and a positive environment to develop are the contributing factors in the CPE journey towards becoming an expert.

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This article addresses the adoption of standards-based professional development (PD) in contemporary Australian education, through consideration of three different areas of professional practice: mathematics teaching, early childhood education and care (ECEC), and school leaders' legal literacy. The article sets out the policy basis for standards-based PD in education, in particular the development of the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers and Principals by the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership, as well as recent research on PD. A framework for effective PD, which draws on both policy and research, is set out as a model through which standards-based PD in the three areas of practice is examined. Standards-based PD in mathematics teaching, which has had, and continues to exhibit, close connections with the relevant professional population through their peak representative body, is seen to satisfy the criteria for effective PD in terms of being continuous, relevant, collaborative and future-focused. The PD arrangements within the [early childhood education and care] ECEC sector, which have been well resourced and supported at the highest policy levels, similarly meet the criteria. The lack of systemic PD on Education Law for school principals is cause for concern.

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The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) has yet to fully enter the mainstream of life in higher education. In this case study, [the authors] consider a specific network focused on the reform of engineering education. The network involves global collaboration within the discipline of engineering and is based around curricular activity that affects entire departments or groups of staff. [The authors] suggest that SoTL should pay greater attention to collaboration that addresses substantive disciplinary purposes, further embodying these purposes through spaces, motivations and capacities for action in the disciplinary and departmental setting. [The authors] frame [their] argument around a theoretical model of collaborative working in higher education and go on to offer a synoptic overview of ways to articulate common purpose around teaching and learning at large. [The authors'] account highlights potential drivers for such collaborative activity in other settings. In this way, [the authors] offer a means for others to develop the collective commitments, structures and understanding needed to mainstream SoTL within specific disciplinary or departmental settings.

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