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Although instructional development for teachers has become an important topic in higher education, little is known about the impact it has on daily teaching practice. The lack of systematic programme evaluation is an ongoing concern. In this study we investigate by use of a quasi-experimental design, the impact of an instructional development program for beginning university teachers on their teaching approach. Quantitative pre-test as well as post-test data were assembled from 20 experimental teachers and 20 control teachers. At the post-test qualitative data were gathered too: 17 teachers of the experimental group and 12 teachers of the control group were interviewed. Paired t-tests and analysis of covariance with the pre-test scores as a covariate showed some effect of instructional development on teaching approach. The analysis of the qualitative data sustained this result. Our results reveal the influence of instructional development on teachers' teaching approach being slightly different for teachers belonging to distinct disciplines. Several interpretations and perspectives for further research are discussed.

The Revised Two-Factor Study Process Questionnaire (R-SPQ-2F) is used to examine students’ study approaches in higher education. The questionnaire assumes to measure two factors: a deep and a surface study approach. Analyses into the validity and reliability of the original English R-SPQ-2F yielded positive results. In this study, we examined the degree to which these positive results can also be found for the Dutch version that we developed. By comparing our results with the results of earlier studies in different cultures, we conclude cross-cultural sensitivity is an important point to be borne in mind when using the R-SPQ-2F. Our research supports the validity and reliability of our Dutch version of the R-SPQ-2F.

BackgroundPalliative care often requires inter-professional collaboration, offering opportunities to learn from each other. General practitioners often collaborate with specialized palliative home care teams. This study seeks to identify what, how and from whom health care professionals learn during this collaboration.MethodsCross-sectional survey in Belgium. All palliative home care teams were invited to participate. General practitioners (n = 267) and palliative care nurses (n = 73) filled in questionnaires.ResultsGeneral practitioners (GPs) and palliative care nurses learned on all palliative care aspects. Different learning activities were used. Participants learned from all others involved in patient care. The professionals’ discipline influences the content, the way of learning and who learns from whom. Multiple linear regression shows significant but limited association of gender with amount of learning by GPs (M < F; p = 0.042; Adj R2 = 0.07) and nurses (M > F; p = 0.019; Adj R2 = 0.01).ConclusionsThis study is the first to reveal what, how and from whom learning occurs during collaboration in palliative care. Training professionals in sharing expertise during practice and in detecting and adequately responding to others’ learning needs, could optimize this way of learning.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12913-014-0501-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.