Professional Development; Creating an Arena for Pedagogical Reflections among Academic Staff: A Hermeneutic Phenomenological Study among Learning Teachers at Nord University, Norway

Abstract

<p>The competence of academic staff plays a crucial role in the quality of the learning process and student success. There has been an increasing emphasis on pedagogical competence among university lecturers as a way to ensure the quality of university teaching. Pedagogical competence is intended to be developed through participation in different university courses. <p>In our study, we reviewed learning experiences among 48 university lecturers at Nord University, Norway during a threemonth pedagogical course. The lecturers maintained a reflection diary, they logged the practical part of the course and completed digital evaluation at the end of the course. The course was delivered through blended, asynchronous teaching, synchronous lessons and practical parts. Our study focused on the lecturers selfreported learning experiences recorded in the diary, the logs and the evaluation form. Our findings showed that the lecturers felt a positive recognition of their experiences, they appreciated the colleague observation and learning dialogues with colleagues, demanded a more strategic and holistic approach to academic development and reflected on actions with intentions to learn from experiences.