Organisational and training factors affecting academic teacher training outcomes

ABSTRACT

University teacher training has become an important topic in recent years due to the curricular and methodological reforms introduced by the Bologna process. Despite its acknowledged importance, evaluations have been limited to measures of participants’ satisfaction, and little is known about its impact on teaching practices. This study seeks to analyse the effects of the different delivery methods used during workshops that aim to enhance academic teachers’ pedagogical competence and teaching practices. Moreover, the study analyses to what extent individual characteristic and job requirement also have an effect on training outcomes. The study draws on data collected through a self-reported questionnaire administered to academic teachers two years after they participated in training workshops at a Spanish university (n = 204). The results show that specific delivery methods have a significant effect on the outcome variables, especially those related to the design of learning activities and assessment tools.

KEYWORDS:

• Higher education
• teacher training
• Bologna process
• delivery methods
• training design

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. There are four main job positions in the Spanish university context: a ‘professor’ is a long-term, full-time position – the highest position in the academic hierarchy. An ‘associate academic teacher’ is a short-term, part-time position; for most of these teachers, university teaching is a secondary professional activity, and they typically work in their primary job at another organisation or engage in private professional practice. A ‘researcher and teacher trainee’ is a short-term, full-time position; those who hold this position are doctorate students under research contracts that typically include a certain number of teaching hours. Finally, a ‘lecturer’ is a short-term, full-time position – the entry-level position in the academic hierarchy.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Agència de Gestió I Ajuts Universitaris I de Recerca under Grant [No. 2010MQD00092].