Reflections on the changing nature of educational development

Abstract

Educational development has changed in many ways over the last 40 years and the International Consortium for Educational Development has highlighted the sheer variety of practices by bringing together educational developers from countries where activities differ markedly. These reflections identify the wide range of foci of attention that are visible – what it is that developers are trying to develop – and the different change mechanisms that they adopt. It also highlights changes that can be seen over time, as educational development within a university, or within a country, matures and expands. Observations are made about the value and desirability of some of these changes. It is hoped that outlining the changes in educational development helps educational developers to recognise their own activities in a different light and to prompt reflections on what else they might do and what direction they might move in.

Keywords:

• educational development
• changes in educational development

Acknowledgement

The ideas underlying this paper emerged out of participating in an event on ‘How to improve a whole university’s teaching’, organised by Torgny Roxå and Katarina Mårtensson at the University of Lund, and their initiative is gratefully acknowledged.