The role of informal conversations in developing university teaching?

Developing a conversation: A strategy to engage faculty in pedagogical change

“…Pre‐ and post‐testing is the most common quantitative means of assessing student understanding, particularly of core concepts, but is usually used by individual faculty members in their own classrooms rather than as a window into collaboration . Other means of gaining insight into one's own teaching effectiveness exist including extended conversations with students, reciprocal peer learning, and informal discussion among faculty . Some of these are time‐intensive and, hence, are unlikely to be employed by individual faculty members.…”

Eportfolio Implementation in a Multiple Campus University Environment 6 – Academic Teacher Continuous Improvement

“…The authors of this paper observed that the 'Opinion leaders' who were good communicators, engaged well with colleagues and practice scholarship of teaching (by sharing their experience which included integration of technology, to help others) are a powerful, yet positive, force for change. A recent article by Thomson and Trigwell have suggested that not all colleagues transform and improve their own professional learning from reading and writing about their practice [19].…”

“…Some academics may improve their practice and understanding by engaging in informal professional conversations with more experienced colleagues, collaboration to streamline processes or if we consider how the authors were supporting these staff in the National School of Education, to facilitate professional conversations. These conversations had to take place to build rapport, trust and confidence to help academic teachers engage with the set up and establishment of standard templates for teacher education practicum for units of study in degree Bachelor or Education degree program in the ePortfolio hosting system, called Mahara [19].…”

“…Frameworks and guidelines to help academics achieve teaching excellence can be most useful to academics if they appreciate that their colleagues may have a different, but valid view about their purpose. These views are often revealed in professional conversations with colleagues [19]. In a multiple campus environment, with many sub cultures on each campus, engagement in different modes of teaching and significant change in the Higher education sector there are bound to be some challenges building effective lines of communication and accommodating diverse approaches to completion of academic work.…”

“…Getting to know colleagues can be problematic across multiple campuses but not impossible. Meet with colleagues in a more informal way at functions, morning teas, in a short catch-up meeting for a particular purpose [19]. It may be online or face to face with an emphasis on finalising a mutually beneficial task over a period of time or just to do some team building over shared responsibilities such as working with people undertaking course redevelopment or joining learning and teaching committees [18].…”