The demands on lecturers in higher education to select, structure, and contextualise relevant and up-to-date resources for their students have increased; behaviour that is often referred to as curation. Currently, systematic insight into lecturers’ curational behaviour is limited. This scoping literature review provides an overview of the existing body of knowledge regarding lecturers’ curational behaviour. Twenty-four articles were selected and analysed, using the framework of Ajzen's Theory of Planned Behaviour). Findings show that although studies can be linked to elements of the TPB, current research does not approach curational behaviour as an interconnected process of behaviour and its intentions. Additionally, current research mainly focusses on selection of resources; other elements of curation such as structuring resources and providing context are overlooked. More knowledge of lecturers’ curational behaviour could lead to better understanding of how lecturers’ curation could be supported, which could improve the quality of higher education.
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Blended learning is not a flash in the pan, it’s here to stay. At The Hague University of Applied Sciences (THUAS) the implementation of blended learning is not yet in an adult stage, but in a newly introduced educational framework (The Hague University of Applied Sciences, 2017) blended learning plays a vital role. The intention is for teams to come to a shared approach when it comes to blended learning. In his blog, Leonard Geluk, (Geluk, 2016) the Chairman of the Executive Board of the University notes that ‘the development is slow to get off the ground’ and ‘there is still work to be done before we can fully embed ICT in education.’ The toolkit of teachers has been supplemented with many digital tools in recent decades (Geluk, 2014), but what makes lecturers actually use these new possibilities? What causes them to pick up the toolkit or leave it? Jacobs (2013) indicates that people’s ability to exploit the benefits of technology, in particular digital technology, is not obvious and can be a big challenge, especially for teachers. The central question to this study is: What brings lecturers in motion around blended learning? In my opinion, gaining more understanding in the lecturers’ perspective is an important part of the ‘work’ that Leonard Geluk describes above. This is the main goal of this research.
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During the last decade, the relationship between university and non-university higher education institutions has changed. As a contribution to the knowledge economy, non-university higher education institutions are expected to educate their students in research activities. Previously, teaching was the main responsibility of lecturers in non-university higher education, while research hardly played a role. This paper is about the belief of lecturers in non-university higher education in their own research ability (research self-efficacy). In a survey study conducted among Dutch lecturers (N = 790), the research self-efficacy has been measured. A structural equation model shows the effects of personal aspects, mastery experience and organisational context on the research self-efficacy of lecturers. Research self-efficacy is also modelled in relation to lecturers’ need to work on professional development in research skills. Results show that research self-efficacy is mostly affected by aspects of mastery experience, in which the context is similar to the given task. Implications are discussed.
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How lecturers in higher education handle, or curate, educational resources during course design, has become increasingly important with the growing amount of digitally available educational materials. Despite the recognition of curation in educational literature and the development of two conceptual models, there is a lack of empirical knowledge of lecturers' actual curational practices. Through 23 semi-structured interviews at a Dutch University of Applied Sciences, this study identified six categories of distinguishable but interconnected activities that constitute lecturers' curational behaviour, taking place within the context of course design. These activities are: searching for resources, assessing and selecting resources, creating and editing resources, structuring resources, sharing resources, and soliciting feedback. The findings suggest that lecturers underemphasize the construction of a narrative that relates the resources and are providing students with little didactical support when sharing the resources. This paper offers an empirical a foundation for educational curation and suggests directions for future research to inform lecturers’ course design practices and enhance support for lecturers in this critical task.
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Lecturers in higher education who design courses, should consider, among other things, the use of educational resources (Van den Akker, 2004). They have an abundance of resources at their disposal and it is important they select, structure and present those resources in ways that benefit their students (Littlejohn, 2011). It is often recognized that this task of selecting, structuring and presenting resources is remarkably similar to the task of curators in museums. Today, the notion of curation is also used more widely to describe a complex set of activities that center around dealing with large quantities of information (Snyder, 2015). In education, lecturers are increasingly regarded as curators (e.g. Anderson, 2015; Siemens, 2007). However, little is known about lecturers’ curational behaviour (Wolff & Mulholland, 2013). A literature review shows that previous research has mainly looked at criteria lecturers apply when selecting resources, and at obstacles they experience (Leighton & Griffioen, 2019). Curation though consists of more than mere selection (Bhaskar, 2016), and behaviour is influenced by other elements than (perceived) obstacles (Ajzen, 1991). The proposed paper will present a research design for a PhD study in which 25 lecturers in a Dutch university of applied sciences will be interviewed about their curational behaviour. The participants experience in designing a course will be the starting point for the interviews and interview questions will be based on the Theory of Planned Behaviour questionnaire (Ajzen, 2019). With this proposed paper, the authors aim to invite questions, feedback and discussion on the research design.
YOUTUBE
In today’s era of content abundance, education has to deal with changed practices for the dissemination of knowledge. Many digital resources are available, and they have the potential to take the place of textbooks. ‘The role of the classic textbook as the key, immutable reference point for any class subject, is rapidly fading’, says Good (2016). Educational publishers like Pearson see a decline in textbook use (Sweney, 2017), and a study at a Dutch university of applied sciences (Leighton, 2015) indicates that lecturers in higher education move away from core textbooks towards a variety of materials, including powerpoint slides, websites, and videos. Baron & Zablot (2015) complement this, saying ‘teachers now have the possibility to create and modify resources’. This development carries the risk that the structure, continuity and coherence textbooks are supposed to provide (Littlejohn, 2011), disappear. One could argue that when structure and coherence disappear from learning materials, the quality of education is at risk. To make the most of (digital) materials that teachers select, they must be organized well (Deschaine & Sharma, 2015). In order to do that, lecturers will have to act as skilled curators when selecting and structuring learning materials. Central in the concept of curation is that it goes beyond selection: providing coherence and context is what sets out curation from mere selection (Bhaskar, 2016). Considered from the perspective of teaching, curating means selecting and structuring learning content for students, while also providing them with context and coherence. The notion of lecturers as curators has been discussed by Siemens (2008), who describes the changing roles of lecturers and identifies ‘curational educators’ as those who ‘acknowledge the autonomy of learners, yet understand the frustration of exploring unknown territories without a map’. So far, the literature mainly focusses on providing students with curational skills, since these are important 21st century and media literacy skills (e.g. Jenkins et al., 2009; Potter, 2012). Little empirical research has been done when it comes to curational roles of lecturers. This proposed poster provides a mixed-methods research design for a PhD study.
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This article explores the development of skills of lecturers for internationalisation at home. It discusses backgrounds and the current situation, but also suggests ways forward. These suggestions are made mainly on the basis of experiences in The Netherlands, one of the few countries outside the English-speaking world, where a body of literature is emerging that discusses the implementation of internationalisation at home. The insights generated by this research may benefit universities in other countries in continental Europe, where English is not the standard language of instruction. Original Article at: https://www.zfhe.at/index.php/zfhe/article/view/1095
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Higher professional education in Europe has changed from teaching-only institutes to hybrids of teaching and research. The purpose of this study was to examine factors that influence the judgements of lecturers about new organisational goals and perceptions of their new research-related competencies. Lecturers’ judgements of new organisational goals and self-efficacy related to newly expected competencies were modeled in a bio-ecological model. Findings show that lecturers’ perceptions of self-efficacy can be influenced by an open organisational culture, while lecturers’ judgements of new organisational goals can be influenced by decision-making systems. The professional development of lecturers through formal education and articipation in research influences both self-efficacy and judgements. Hence, direct executive managers have three steering mechanisms by which they can influence lecturers’ perceptions during the implementation of new organisational activities: a) Educational Policy, b) Management Policy and c) Developmental Policy. Implications are discussed.
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New universities on the European mainland were mostly teaching oriented until the start of this century. Current national and local management intends to better connect research and teaching through the increase of lecturers' research capacity, often defined through their master's degrees or PhDs. However, this strategy is complex due to the needed combination of didactical expertise, professional practise, and research competencies in lecturers' professional profiles, which are not captured by the notion of formal degrees. This study considers the professional profiles of new lecturers through a thematic analysis and a correlation analysis of tasks and competencies in job openings (N = 126). The findings show that two professional profiles underpin the hiring of new lecturers: the teaching lecturer and the research-active lecturer. These profiles do not imply a better connection between research and teaching. To reach this goal, higher education policy should explicitly define lecturers' professional profiles beyond their formal degrees.
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This article explores the criteria for ‘good research’ employed by lecturers in traditional universities and institutes of higher professional education. The implementation of research-related activities in the latter created a repositioning of both types of Dutch institutions, similar as in many European higher education systems. The higher education institutes state their mutual difference is based on different types of research and research education, being more fundamental (or ‘Mode 1’) versus being more applied (or ‘Mode 2’). Lecturers’ criteria for‘good research’ potentially have a considerable influence on the research character in different higher educational types, both in education and research. Hence, this study assumes that the presumed institutional differences can be seen in their lecturers’ criteria for ‘good’ research. In a focus group and interview study, participants were asked to elaborate on personal examples of ‘good’ and ‘nongood’ research. A thematic analysis resulted in six themes on ‘good research’. The differences between both groups of lecturers found are related to the value of the research, and do not reach the core of research quality. This shows how the policy intent to steer on institutional differences actually is successful, but also limited. Implications are discussed.
MULTIFILE
