Individual Development and Collective Change: A Dynamic Approach to University Teacher Training

Abstract

University teacher training is often centered around extensive courses and seminars, and may have limited impact on improving teaching practice. We suggest this may be due to faculty perceiving what is being taught as not immediately relevant for solving concrete, practical challenges they face in their everyday practice. Further, lasting change in teaching practice requires a collective effort. We are developing a new approach to teacher training combining individual just-in-time-teaching (Bransford et al., 2000) and group-based problem solving. This is based on the ASSURE-model of instructional design (Kurt, 2015) and comprises a comprehensive online resource and made-to-order workshops. The online resource is aimed at individual teachers. The purpose is to help solve specific problems related to the various components of the instructional design process, and provide inspiration for improving teaching practice. The resource presents a graphic overview of the instructional design process, where each component contains a collection of need-to-know resources relevant to a particular area, and suggestions for further reading. In order to thrive, individual development is dependent on a supportive environment. Addressing faculty development on a departmental level, the workshops are based on a dynamic, collaborative model where we work with groups of faculty in two phases: 1) identifying and framing teaching challenges, 2) prototyping and testing possible solutions.