Edited by Leonie Rowan

Published: Aug 2013
ISBN: 978-1-921980-38-1
Pages: 96 (PDF version)

Overview

This special edition proceeds from the belief that opening up debates about terms that are often used uncritically - quality, pedagogy, learning - is necessary if universities are going to respond in any meaningful way to the diverse range of staff, students, and environments that they are composed of.

The papers in this special issue work together to ask a range of questions:

• What counts as quality pedagogy in universities of the 21st century, and which voices feature most prominently in related efforts to ‘measure’ or determine quality?
• To what extent do dominant discourses about quality pedagogies or innovation recognize and respond to diversity in student and staff populations, and the range and variety of higher education institutions?
• How does the increasing pressure to develop new modes of delivery (intensive, flexible, online) complicate attempts to define ‘quality pedagogies’ for diverse cohorts?
• How do debates about, and scrutiny of pedagogical quality and teaching performance impact upon academic identity?

The papers in this special edition explore these questions - and the debates and opportunities they highlight - through reference to a variety of national and international activities within diverse higher education contexts. They provide a range of conceptual frameworks to support reflection upon what ‘ quality pedagogy’ might, can or should mean for academics and for students in contemporary higher educational environments.

Taken together these very different papers demonstrate the key point that, in their day-to-day work, contemporary university academics must negotiate multiple and often competing expectations. In this complicated environment the ability to step back and reflect upon both the assumptions that underpin our decision making, and the constraints that seek to limit what we see as possible, has perhaps never been more important. Central to this reflection, of course, is the value of considering higher education from the perspective of all who it seeks to involve: students, staff and the members of the wider community that universities exist to support. Only when all these perspectives are considered can we truly feel confident that we are making significant, valuable and sustainable progress in the pursuit of quality education for diverse learners.

Table of Contents

Editorial: Quality pedagogies for quality learning in contemporary higher education: Debates, innovations, opportunities
- Leonie Rowan

Professional identity formation: Curriculum considerations for inducting undergraduate students into discursive communities
- Sharn Donnison, Margaret Marshman

Emotional and social intelligence competence: Implications for instruction
- Vishal Arghode

Theoretical and methodological issues of formative e-assessment in plenary lectures
- Rune Johan Krumsvik, Kristine Ludvigsen

Engagement of African-American college students through the use of hip hop pedagogy
- Tracy D Hall, Barbara N Martin

International students' experiences of informed learning: A pedagogical case study
- Hilary Hughes, Christine S Bruce

Individual agency in contemporary academic life: The lived experience of internationalising the university curriculum in an increasingly competitive global marketplace
- Barbara Garrick

What price success? The impact of the quest for student satisfaction on university academics
- Leonie Rowan