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Book part
Publication date: 21 December 2017

Phil Wood

With the introduction of the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF), the status of teaching has been moved towards the centre of concerns in the UK higher education (HE) sector. This…

Abstract

With the introduction of the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF), the status of teaching has been moved towards the centre of concerns in the UK higher education (HE) sector. This interest develops further the notion of teaching excellence created through various institutional and sectoral schemes such as the Higher Education Academy (HEA) fellowship. Whilst excellence schemes and the TEF all highlight the importance of teaching, they also run the danger of reducing it to lists and simplified proxies.

This chapter argues that reductive characterisations of teaching, through metrics supporting the TEF, such as the national student survey, or ‘idealised’ descriptions of the foundational aspects of ‘excellent practice’, all lead to partial accounts of the teaching process. Such characterisations might lead to creeping performativity and increasing organisational attempts to control. An alternative account of teaching is proposed based on complexity theory. This sees teaching as emergent, multifaceted and contextually based. It refutes notions of ‘best practice’ and argues that any attempt to capture ‘excellent practice’ is to reduce the holistic nature of the processes that bring teaching, learning, curriculum and assessment together.

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Teaching Excellence in Higher Education
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78714-761-4

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Book part
Publication date: 5 February 2016

Catherine Paradeise and Ghislaine Filliatreau

Much has been analyzed regarding the origins and the impact of rankings and metrics on policies, behaviors, and missions of universities. Surprisingly, little attention has been…

Abstract

Much has been analyzed regarding the origins and the impact of rankings and metrics on policies, behaviors, and missions of universities. Surprisingly, little attention has been allocated to describing and analyzing the emergence of metrics as a new action field. This industry, fueled by the “new public management” policy perspectives that operate at the backstage of the contemporary pervasive “regime of excellence,” still remains a black box worth exploring in depth. This paper intends to fill this loophole. It first sets the stage for this new action field by stressing the differences between the policy fields of higher education in the United States and Europe, as a way to understand the specificities of the use of metrics and rankings on both continents. The second part describes the actors of the field, which productive organizations they build, what skills they combine, which products they put on the market, and their shared norms and audiences.

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The University Under Pressure
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78560-831-5

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Book part
Publication date: 28 February 2019

Margaret I. Kanipes, Guoqing Tang, Faye E. Spencer-Maor, Zakiya S. Wilson-Kennedy and Goldie S. Byrd

This chapter highlights the creation of a STEM Center of Excellence for Active Learning (SCEAL) at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University. The overarching goal…

Abstract

This chapter highlights the creation of a STEM Center of Excellence for Active Learning (SCEAL) at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University. The overarching goal of the STEM Center is to transform pedagogy and institutional teaching and learning in order to significantly increase the production of high-achieving students who will pursue careers and increase diversity in the STEM workforce. Some of the STEM Center’s efforts to reach its goals included supporting active learning classroom and course redesign efforts along with providing professional development workshops and opportunities to garner funding to cultivate student success projects through the development of an Innovation Ventures Fund. Outcomes from this Center have led to several publications and external grant funding awards to continue implementation, assessment, and refinement of active learning innovations and interventions for STEM student success for years to come.

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Book part
Publication date: 28 February 2019

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Broadening Participation in STEM
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78756-908-9

Book part
Publication date: 6 August 2020

John Sanders, Joanne Moore and Anna Mountford-Zimdars

This chapter critically engages with ways that teaching excellence has been operationalised in practice. Specific focus is on developing individual teaching excellence, rewarding…

Abstract

This chapter critically engages with ways that teaching excellence has been operationalised in practice. Specific focus is on developing individual teaching excellence, rewarding of success and recognition of teaching excellence and the building of evidence around what works in teaching for the benefits of students. We consider the daily interactions with students that form the basis of frameworks of teaching excellence before arguing that operationalisations of teaching excellence are highly context specific and operate at the level of institutions and the whole higher education sector. We discuss the criteria that underpin teaching excellence awards. This includes governance as well as development frameworks. After considering the complex links between research and teaching and the importance of the disciplinary dimension of teaching excellence, the chapter finally looks at the skills and attributes commonly associated with individual teacher excellence and argues that these are exceptionally difficult to pin down let alone measure. It concludes with some reflections on some of the challenges faced by institutions as they seek to develop the quality of teaching whilst meeting the requirements of the TEF.

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Challenging the Teaching Excellence Framework
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78769-536-8

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Book part
Publication date: 21 December 2017

Sue Robson

This chapter considers the opportunities and challenges for HE to develop, support and celebrate excellent teaching. Drawing on conceptualisations of teaching excellence in…

Abstract

This chapter considers the opportunities and challenges for HE to develop, support and celebrate excellent teaching. Drawing on conceptualisations of teaching excellence in quality frameworks and in the literature, it considers how teaching quality has traditionally been interpreted, suggesting (as in Chapter 2) that there is a need for more nuanced and comprehensive understandings of teaching excellence to be developed, demonstrated, recognised and rewarded, to reflect the complex nature of teaching excellence across the academic career profile. It considers how institutions might build and communicate shared understandings of excellence in teaching and promote a culture in which excellence at all levels of teaching is valued in the same way as research. It discusses the ways in which the professional learning and support needs of academics can be met at various stages of the academic career, to develop in teaching faculty and education leaders a sense of being appreciated, connected and competent in their contribution and commitment to teaching excellence.

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Teaching Excellence in Higher Education
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78714-761-4

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Book part
Publication date: 1 November 2003

Mac H Brown and Nancy K Freeman

The University of South Carolina’s child development lab school faced extinction because of campus renewal projects and shifting priorities. Shrinking state budgets ended…

Abstract

The University of South Carolina’s child development lab school faced extinction because of campus renewal projects and shifting priorities. Shrinking state budgets ended subsidies for small-scale programs at the same time the university was privatizing non-essential services. It became apparent that we needed to forge new partnerships and explore innovative funding strategies if the center was to continue providing quality childcare on our research university campus. Our five-year-long struggle has culminated with the creation of a unique public/private partnership linking the management expertise and investment capital of a for-profit childcare provider with the resources and professional knowledge at the state’s flagship university. After the framework for the public/private partnership had been created the state’s Department of Health and Human Services and Educational Television joined to create a center of excellence that will be a demonstration site for the entire early childhood community. We believe the partnership we have created is a sustainable solution to the campus childcare dilemma, one that will keep quality childcare and related research and teaching on our campus. The partnership we have created can serve as a sustainable model for other programs faced with shrinking budgets, eroding support, and threats to their existence.

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Bridging the Gap Between Theory, Research and Practice: The Role of...
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-84950-242-9

Book part
Publication date: 2 March 2022

Sotirios Zygiaris

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) has a comprehensive and coherent innovation system producing significant outcomes. However, as with every system, continuous improvement is…

Abstract

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) has a comprehensive and coherent innovation system producing significant outcomes. However, as with every system, continuous improvement is required to optimize system performance. This chapter analyzes KSA’s innovation system based on the 2018 Global Innovation Index indicators among 127 countries. The chapter identifies the highlighted performance areas of the system and its market failures. In turn, the systemic analysis of the country’s NIS reveals the strong interactions but also the system’s failures, proposing a set of action policies to be undertaken that will generate a significant improvement over the expected results of the system. The main system failures identified are the low knowledge diffusion or knowledge spillover effects and the minimal access to equity funding for startups, or the absence of a risk capital culture. However, the country’s innovation system is coherent, presenting strong interaction linkages between the research, innovation, and commercialization node. It presents a remarkable improvement since 2011, presenting an above-average performance in terms of allocated resources for research and innovation.

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Entrepreneurial Rise in the Middle East and North Africa: The Influence of Quadruple Helix on Technological Innovation
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80071-518-9

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Book part
Publication date: 24 May 2007

Frederic Carluer

“It should also be noted that the objective of convergence and equal distribution, including across under-performing areas, can hinder efforts to generate growth. Contrariwise

Abstract

“It should also be noted that the objective of convergence and equal distribution, including across under-performing areas, can hinder efforts to generate growth. Contrariwise, the objective of competitiveness can exacerbate regional and social inequalities, by targeting efforts on zones of excellence where projects achieve greater returns (dynamic major cities, higher levels of general education, the most advanced projects, infrastructures with the heaviest traffic, and so on). If cohesion policy and the Lisbon Strategy come into conflict, it must be borne in mind that the former, for the moment, is founded on a rather more solid legal foundation than the latter” European Commission (2005, p. 9)Adaptation of Cohesion Policy to the Enlarged Europe and the Lisbon and Gothenburg Objectives.

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Managing Conflict in Economic Convergence of Regions in Greater Europe
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-84950-451-5

Book part
Publication date: 7 July 2017

Simon Hudson, Fang Meng, David Cárdenas and Kevin So

A number of tourism researchers have suggested that despite the proliferation of research in the field, the exchange of knowledge from academic research to practical application…

Abstract

A number of tourism researchers have suggested that despite the proliferation of research in the field, the exchange of knowledge from academic research to practical application in the industry is poor. The argument made is that academic research seldom influences the real world of practice, and that for knowledge transfer to assist destinations a paradigm shift is required. This chapter takes a look at the challenges of knowledge transfer in tourism and focuses on a unique research center in South Carolina, where private and public sectors have joined together in an effort to support applied and commercially relevant research in order to improve the competitiveness of the state as a destination.

Details

Knowledge Transfer to and within Tourism
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78714-405-7

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1 – 10 of over 4000