Becoming a teaching scholar

Abstract

University teaching is going through a professionalization process as part of a change or reform of the teaching and learning culture. This process builds on the notion that it is no longer sufficient for a university employee to be an excellent researcher; she must also be an excellent teacher. The relation and interaction between research and teaching is of great importance, but it is documented that being a good researcher does not necessarily correlate with being a good teacher (Feldman, 1987; Hattie and Marsh, 1996, 2002). In higher education there is a reinterpretation of academic scholarship including educational/teaching scholarship (Boyer, 1990; Entwistle, 2003; Entwistle et al., 2000; Trigwell et al., 2000). The primary argument for scholarship is that we share common knowledge about good teaching, which is promoted by the community of scholars communicating their concepts, findings, methods, and principles. The idea is that educational scholarship promotes high quality teaching (Shulmann, 1993). So if the aim of teaching is "to make student learning possible" (Ramsden, 1992), the aim of scholarly teaching is "to make it transparent how we have made learning possible" (Healey, 2000, p. 171). In other words, we need theories about teaching. Andresen (2000) points out that educational scholarship is not just about describing what, how and why, but also a term of recommendation or challenge. We are engaged in promoting a set of intellectual values, so teaching scholarship is also a moral discourse. Scholars' communication is also a negotiation of status and power in the establishment of teaching. Boyer (1990) points out that the scholarship of education cannot be isolated from academic scholarship in general. The aim of professionalism is to change the academic culture towards including knowledge about teaching and learning in academic scholarship. Staff development programmes aim to promote this educational scholarship or professionalism. Thus today, university teachers are being educated as educators. In an international context, this professionalization has become one of the most important parameters in the further development of research-based education (Felten and Pingree, 2003; Lauersen, 2003). But why is this professionalization process taking place now? The what, how and why questions of teaching are crucial internal parameters with regard to both the total curriculum and the actual teaching situation. Increasingly, every teacher, every departmental teacher team, and every institutional authority with responsibility for and influence on teaching faces substantial didactical1 tasks. They have to choose what (content) and how (form) they are going to teach, and they must have good reasons for their choices (aim). In a publication like this, which aims at understanding some of the multiple aspects and dimensions of the transition of science and mathematics education in the current information society, it is important that teachers are also taken into account. It is essential that the teacher recognizes the importance and relevance of implementing the development of competencies, ethics, theory of science or metareflection in their teaching, and finds it realistic to actually teach in that particular way. In that way, the challenges and possibilities for university science and mathe matics education depend on teachers acknowledging the challenges and seeing the possibilities. Changing the culture of teaching and learning is by all means a complex process that depends on both the individual teacher's ability to reflect upon their beliefs, concepts and approach, but also on the patterns of social relations and the academic culture related to teaching and learning (Trowler and Cooper, 2002). Science teachers especially face the challenge of developing professionalism or educational scholarship (Cope and Prosser, 2005; Healey, 2000). For 6 years we have been involved in the development of training programmes in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education (LTHE programmes) for new staff members at the Royal Veterinarian and Agricultural University in Copenhagen. In the period 2001-2003 we conducted an investigation among science teachers attending such training programmes for novice academic staff at science and technical faculties at eight universities in Denmark. Based on this investigation and our experience as teacher trainers we focus, in this chapter, on what the teachers themselves consider to be "good teaching." After presenting the results of our investigation of the teachers' views on good teaching, two interrelated discussions follow: ? The complexity of good teaching. How can teachers' views on good teaching be interpreted compared with relevant research on teachers' beliefs or concepts of teaching and learning? ? Implications for teacher training. What kind of consequences and demands do these views make on the organization of future LTHE programmes? How do we promote educational professionalism and scholarship? © 2009 Springer US.