Researching While Teaching: promoting reflective professionality in higher education

Abstract

In an interdisciplinary approach to improve faculty members’ teaching competencies in higher education at the University of Innsbruck (Austria), an action research type of programme proved most suitable to promote reflective professionality across the disciplinary boundaries. After an introductory session individual projects were initiated, in which the participants undertook different approaches to action research by reflecting on their own teaching situation. As an ongoing evaluative process between individual inquiry‐based phases of lecturing and reflective plenary sessions the programme tried to offer deeper insights into the participants’ own theories of what they intend to accomplish in the classroom and how they want to achieve these goals. Moreover, through its co‐operative design across the disciplinary boundaries, the action research approach played an important part in organisational development. Because of their complexity, institutional changes depend on individual as well as collective actions on various levels of an educational institution. Experience in this programme has shown that promoting reflective professionality in an institution of higher learning helps in dealing with the important relationship between the subjective and objective factor In the dynamics of institutional development. In this sense, educating the reflective practitioner within university teaching will help in establishing a culture of self‐evaluation and personnel development across disciplines.