Challenging Frameworks for Understanding Teaching Practices in Higher Education: The End or the Beginning?

Abstract

Dominant conceptions of teaching in higher education imply that, essentially, there are two types of teaching approaches: the ‘content’ and the ‘student-focused’ approach. Against that background, this paper has a dual purpose. On the one hand, it initiates a critique of the contemporary teaching approaches framework. On the other hand, it offers some suggestions as to an appropriate methodology for researching teaching in higher education, given its critique of the teaching approaches framework. The methodology here is built around a detailed description and analysis of the teaching practices of two lecturers from different disciplinary fields in a Spanish University. Building on an observation of the micro-level of their teaching practices and taking into account students’ experiences, it is suggested that broad a priori categories are always going to be inadequate in capturing teaching practices in higher education.