The effect of pedagogical training on teaching in higher education

Abstract This article reports a study on the impact of university teachers’ pedagogical training on approaches to teaching and self-efficacy beliefs (measured by Approaches to Teaching Inventory and an additional part measuring motivational strategies). The participants were 200 teachers of the University of Helsinki, who were divided into four groups depending on the amount of pedagogical training they had. The results indicated that pedagogical training had an effect on scales measuring conceptual change/student-focused approach and self-efficacy beliefs. Even when the effect of teaching experience was held constant, in order to find out the unique effect of pedagogical training, the results remained the same. In addition, twenty-three interview transcripts were analysed. The teachers mentioned only positive effects of pedagogical training on teaching.

[1]  Rainer Bromme,et al.  Professional learning: Gaps and transitions on the way from novice to expert , 2004 .

[2]  J. Bailey.  Academics' Motivation and Self-Efficacy for Teaching and Research. , 1999 .

[3]  Graham R. Gibbs,et al.  Measuring Teachers' Repertoire of Teaching Methods , 2002 .

[4]  P. Pintrich.  A Manual for the Use of the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ). , 1991 .

[5]  Michael Prosser,et al.  Congruence between intention and strategy in university science teachers' approaches to teaching , 1996 .

[6]  G. Boulton‐Lewis.  Teaching for quality learning at university , 2008 .

[7]  Katherine Samuelowicz,et al.  Revisiting academics' beliefs about teaching and learning , 2001 .

[8]  J. Vermunt,et al.  Congruence and friction between learning and teaching , 1999 .

[9]  Katherine Samuelowicz,et al.  Conceptions of teaching held by academic teachers , 1992 .

[10]  A. Bandura.  Self-Efficacy: The Exercise of Control , 1997, Journal of Cognitive Psychotherapy.

[11]  K. Trigwell,et al.  Understanding Learning and Teaching: the experience in higher education , 1999 .

[12]  K. Trigwell,et al.  Changing approaches to teaching: A relational perspective , 1996 .

[13]  G. Lueddeke,et al.  Professionalising Teaching Practice in Higher Education: A study of disciplinary variation and 'teaching-scholarship' , 2003 .

[14]  Tony Becher,et al.  Academic Tribes and Territories: Intellectual Enquiry and the Cultures of Disciplines , 2001 .

[15]  Philip Taylor,et al.  A phenomenographic study of academics' conceptions of science learning and teaching , 1994 .

[16]  R. Debus,et al.  Developing deep learning approaches and personal teaching efficacy within a preservice teacher education context. , 2002, The British journal of educational psychology.

[17]  Noel Entwistle,et al.  Conceptions and Beliefs About “Good Teaching”: An integration of contrasting research areas , 2000 .

[18]  K. Trigwell,et al.  Relations between teachers' approaches to teaching and students' approaches to learning , 1999 .

[19]  Tony Becher,et al.  Academic Tribes and Territories: Intellectual Enquiry and the Cultures of Disciplines , 2001 .

[20]  David Kember,et al.  Lecturers’ Approaches to Teaching and their Relationship to Conceptions of Good Teaching , 2000 .

[21]  W. Godwin.  Article in Press , 2000 .

[22]  Sari Lindblom‐Ylänne *,et al.  The Bologna Declaration as a Tool to Enhance Learning and Instruction at the University of Helsinki , 2004 .

[23]  Gerlese S. Åkerlind.  Growing and Developing as a University Teacher--Variation in Meaning , 2003 .

[24]  Graham R. Gibbs,et al.  Can Academics Benefit from Training? Some Preliminary Evidence , 2000 .

[25]  A. Biglan.  Relationships between subject matter characteristics and the structure and output of university departments. , 1973 .

[26]  Graham Gibbs,et al.  The Impact Of Training Of University Teachers on their Teaching Skills, their Approach to Teaching and the Approach to Learning of their Students , 2004 .

[27]  Stephen E. Newstead,et al.  Teachers’ beliefs and intentions concerning teaching in higher education , 2005 .

[28]  D. Kember.  A reconceptualisation of the research into university academics' conceptions of teaching , 1997 .

[29]  K. Arrow.  Higher education as a filter , 1973 .

[30]  K. Trigwell,et al.  Development and Use of the Approaches to Teaching Inventory , 2004 .