Teaching university teachers to become better teachers: the effects of pedagogical training courses at six Swedish universities

Abstract

Do pedagogical training courses for university teachers have desirable effects on the participants? We set out to answer this question by following a panel of 183 university teachers from Sweden's six largest universities, who participated in pedagogical training courses. Our study reveals that the participants' selfreported confidence in their role as teachers increased slightly, and their self-assessed pedagogical skills increased notably after they had finished their courses. Even though the courses were rather short, we could also observe some changes in fundamental approaches to teaching in some of the subgroups of respondents, both toward more student-centeredness and, perplexingly, toward more teacher-centeredness. Additionally, most respondents (7 out of 10) found the courses useful or very useful. Course satisfaction was most notable among participants with less than three years of teaching experience. Considering the fact that we find the positive effects of pedagogical training courses to be present mainly in the group of participants with less than three years of teaching experience, we discuss whether a policy of making these courses mandatory for all university teachers implies an overestimation of their impact. ARTICLE HISTORY

Analysis of Training Offers on Active Methodologies for University Teachers in Spain

“…In short, the conclusions of our research and the findings set out in the literature analyzed demonstrate the positive effects of training programs Odalen et al (2019) training programs. Partially, these results reaffirm the research of Houston and Hood (2017) which points out the benefits of training programs more at the individual level and not so much at the level of transference of learning to practice which depends on many other factors including time of experience.…”

“…This issue is reaffirmed by the findings of research by Odalen et al (2019) conducted on 183 university teachers who participated in professional training courses and showed improvements in confidence, pedagogical skills and some changes in teaching methodology, with a greater focus on students. This is reaffirmed by the results of our research showing that one of the main objectives of these courses is to reflect on the implications of the methodological change of the new teaching and learning context.…”

“…These courses offer the participants the attitudinal bases and the necessary tools to improve their teaching skills and competences, among which are the elaboration of a teaching and research project, the improvement of the didactic communication competence, the teaching planning, the methodology, the use of technologies, the educational evaluation and the personalized attention to the student. This offer may be limited in quantity, subject matter and purpose, since there is evidence that new teachers require more in-depth training to provide them with specific resources to have a bank of didactic resources and methodological strategies to meet the different forms of learning or specific educational support needs (Conde-Jimenez & Martin-Gutierrez, 2016;Odalen et al, 2019).…”

“…Currently, interest in the training of university teachers goes beyond their own professional development, and there is a great deal of research that focuses on its analysis from pedagogical and educational perspectives (e.g. Aramburuzabala et al, 2013;Gibbs & Coffey, 2004;Montes & Suarez, 2016;Odalen et al, 2019). In this line, we frame this work that analyzes the training offer for teachers of higher education in institutions of the Spanish territory, both initial and permanent training.…”

The effect of short online pedagogical training on university teachers’ interpretations of teaching–learning situations

“…In addition, the length of the pedagogical training required to have an impact on teachers' conceptions or practices has been discussed. Doubts have been raised about the efficacy of short pedagogical training programmes lasting less than six months to one year (e.g., Chalmers and Gardiner 2015;Stes et al 2010;Ödalen et al 2018). However, the question remains as to what types of improvements, if any, can be made with short training programmes.…”