+Accessing professional

development activities:

a survey of

health sciences academics

in their teaching role

J Blitz and S van Schalkwyk

Acknowledgement:

ESA20100729000013945 funded by the South African National Research Foundation:

Interplay of Structure, Culture and Agency: A study on Professional Development in Higher Education

+Professional development – what’s

in a name?

Staff development

Faculty development

Instructional development

Academic development

“any planned activity to improve an individual’s knowledge and skills in areas considered essential to the performance of a faculty member” … in their teaching role …

(Sheets and Schwenk, 1990)

With a view to enhancing student learning.

+Professional development (in

Health Sciences)

Supporting academics in their teaching role has become an accepted responsibility of institutions internationally

Burgeoning body of scholarship that highlights various aspects of this work and that reflects different trends in thinking around teaching and learning over time (McLean et al 2008)

Studies generally focus on the ‘what’ and the ‘how’ of faculty development

Calls in the literature for studies that can take this work further to determine impact and to uncover evidence of changed behaviour

+But let’s take a step back

Our study:

What factors, as reported by

academics, enable and constrain them

accessing professional development

opportunities for their teaching role.

+The study

Multi-site, national study (eight institutions in SA – focus on 3 with health sciences faculties)

Aim: discern the contextual influences on academics in terms of their uptake of professional development activities

Electronic survey adapted from Slowey (XXXX)

25 questions divided into four sections:

Biographical details

Teaching experience

Professional development activities undertaken

Enabling and constraining factors for professional development

Final section comprised 5 Likert scale questions with open-ended follow-up questions

+Our respondents

Three participating institutions with a faculty of health

sciences (n = 145)

Predominantly female (68%)

Most were in age group 41-50 years (32.9%)

29% described having some form of teaching ‘qualification’

Largest group (26.9%) were at senior lecturer level

32.4% indicating that they had been teaching for between 10

– 20 years.

+Self-rating as a teacher

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

Acceptable Developing Satisfactory Great

Nu

mb

er

of

pa

rti

cp

an

ts

Neutral

I like it

Passionate

+ What I want advice on or support

for (top 10):

Topic % responses

(n=145)

Assessment of students 51.7

Curriculum design and development 46.2

Integrating technology in teaching 65

Interactive teaching 62

Research on teaching 52

Engaging students in class 44

Small group teaching 43

Teaching in clinical settings 37

Using student feedback for professional

learning

30

Teaching large classes 30

+ Where do I go for help (top 10):

Topic No of responses

Teaching colleagues 101

Internet 78

Centre for Teaching and Learning (or similar) 54

Conferences 52

Specialist in higher education/medical

education

39

Library 34

Head of Department 30

Mentor 22

Supervisor 14

I don’t need help 11

+ What will prompt my attendance?:

Topic No of responses

If it can help my teaching 107

If I have time 103

If the topic is of relevance 102

If I think it is worthwhile 90

If I am interested (in the topic) 84

If it speaks to a need 80

If my colleagues suggest it is worthwhile 58

If it will advance my career 42

+Enabling and constraining factors

My institution provides formal recognition for engagement in professional learning for teaching: 40.3% were ‘not sure’

My institution provides resources for engagement in professional learning for teaching: 55.9% agreed and 20.2% strongly agreed

My workload often hinders my ability to participate in professional learning for teaching: 91.5% agreed/strongly agreed

The topics of the professional learning opportunities are not applicable in my own discipline: 59% disagreed/strongly disagreed

I can easily access information on professional learning opportunities for teaching in my institution: 60% agreed/strongly agreed

+ Understanding the responses

Political lens

Political lens

Structural lens

Structural lens

Symbolic lens

Symbolic lens

Human resource

lens

Human resource

lens

+Political lens

Acknowledge that ‘faculties are constrained by limited resources …’ (Lieff 2010)

As a researcher … , we often struggle to balance teaching (and publishing), which is encouraged and rewarded by the institution, with garnering funding, and performing research activities on an ongoing-basis. This probably the biggest constraint on our teaching activities.

We are busy with clinical service delivery - and the work load keeps increasing all the time

Those responsible for professional development need to identify leaders who are potential champions for their work

+Structural lens

The way in which roles and responsibilities are framed within

the institution – specifically with regard to teaching.

‘I am a joint appointment, but sadly I do not think the university

knows or at least recognises this. It sometimes feels they are these

strangers sitting in a glass tower, demanding that we push through

more students, but who are completely removed from the reality

on ground level in the hospital. And thus there is this gap between

what is demanded and what support we (on the ground) know

about’

+Symbolic lens

Recognising the work that people do (e.g. their teaching) as having value.

Work done by departments and faculties that ‘explicitly and transparently legitimize[s] educational activity and scholarship’ (Lieff 2010)

The main issue at institutional level is that there is this demand to perform on the 3 levels: Teaching/Research and service delivery. Sadly the recognition for each level is not equal and therefore some people that play a major supportive role on the service delivery side may never get the recognition.

[There is an] unwritten rule that teaching is not nearly as valued as research outputs

+Human resources lens

A focus on the individual. Ensuring protected time for their

wellness and development

Lack of support or understanding of the passion for

professional learning for teaching often leads to demands and

deadlines being placed on me that make attendance of

learning for teaching events/workshops impossible

I dont have the energy to read for my own education when I am

done teaching and supervising masters students

+What does this mean for our work

in professional development?

There are a wide range of factors that can either enable or constrain the uptake of professional develop initiatives

These factors will include issues such as the relevance and quality of the workshops, but also extend beyond these to include organisation factors as described above

Accordingly, definitional clarity and messaging with regard to roles and responsibilities of teaching academics and the extent to which teaching is valued, is required.

Given that a large number of health science faculty teachers are clinicians who see their primary commitment as being to patient care, professional development initiatives need to take cognisance of the tensions that this can lead to

Faculties need to explore ways to make activities more accessible and relevant and address all four lenses through which organizations can be reframed.

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