Improving academic teaching and internationalisation through enhanced competences of university teachers Erasmus Project

Project Title

Improving academic teaching and internationalisation through enhanced competences of university teachers

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for higher education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2019

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; Teaching and learning of foreign languages; Pedagogy and didactics

Project Summary

This project aims to improve internationalization at universities in Europe through professional development of academics. We will design two courses to help participants to teach international students more effectively and to improve academic writing skills. As a result, participant teachers will devise new curricula of undergraduate and graduate courses for international students, prepare effective academic writing assignments for students and enhance own publication record through publishing in impacted journals and/or with reputed academic publishers.
We will undertake pilot testing of both courses with at least 75 academics from two universities. Another project outcome will be a dedicated web portal with freely accessible materials for teachers in social sciences and humanities that will allow them to use innovative teaching methods and approaches and network with colleagues from other institutions. We will evaluate the course impact in at least two studies focusing particularly on the potential of reflective teaching and on the role of trust while facilitating changes in teaching and wider academic practice. Finally, under this project we will compile a plan for professionalizing higher education teaching in the region. The outcomes of our project will be disseminated to a number of institutions beyond the project consortium to increase internationalization and quality of education in Europe in general.

To conclude, please allow us to summarize the main strengths of our project as we can see them. This project builds upon a survey of needs undertaken at two project partners for which the new curricula will be designed and where they will be tested before offering them to other beneficiaries teams up institutions that are leaders in internationalization with those committed to increase internationalization and quality of learning in order to allow tangible synergic effects from cooperation
produces high-quality outcomes: curricula of two courses, a dedicated portal with teaching and learning materials and a cooperation plan that can be accessed easily and for free by a variety of users including university teachers, students, university managers, educational developers, learning technologists, etc.encourages symbiosis between research (including that from cognitive sciences) and teaching, which are two key responsibilities of academics, yet too often considered separately
includes two reputed associated partners outside the project consortium. Each of them has a number of institutional members that can directly benefit from this project
focuses on areas that can be directly linked to enhanced student and staff mobility evaluates its outcomes using scientific methods of data collection, data analysis and presentation, similarly as it has been done in impacted peer reviewed publications
innovates for a wide circle of European institutions of higher education based on the latest findings from pedagogical research.

References
Adamová, Ľ, Muráriková, P, eds. (2013) Innovating Teaching and Learning. Reports from University Lecturers. Budrich Unipress
Erasmus+ in numbers 2016. European Comm, 2017 http://ec.europa.eu/programmes/erasmus-plus/about/statistics_en,
Handal, G (1999) Consultation Using Critical Friends. New Directions for Teaching and Learning 79, 59-70
Knight, P T, Trowler, P R (2000) Department-level cultures and the improvement of learning and teaching. Studies in HE, 25(1) 69-83
Kreber, C (2004) An analysis of two models of reflection and their implications for educational development. International Journal for Academic Development 9(1) 29-51
Lave, J, Wenger, E (1991) Situated Learning. Legitimate peripheral participation, Cambridge: University of Cambridge
Mezirow, J (1999) Transformative Dimensions of Adult Learning. San Francisco: Josey-Bass
Pleschová, G, McAlpine, L (2016) Helping teachers to focus on learning and reflect on their teaching: What role does teaching context play? Studies in Educational Evaluation 48,1-9
Pleschová, G. Simon, A, eds. (2018) Early Career Academics Reflections on Learning to Teach in Central Europe. Staff and Educational Development Association
Roxå, T,Mårtensson, K (2009) Significant conversations and significant networks -exploring the backstage of the teaching arena. Studies in HE 34(5) 547-559, (2014) Higher education commons – a framework for comparison of midlevel units in higher education organizations, European Journal of HE 4(4) 303-316
Schön, D A (1983) The Reflective Practitioner. How Professionals Think In Action. Basic Books.
Šeďová, K, Švaříček, R, Sedláčková, J, Čejková, I, Šmardová, A, Novotný, P, Zounek, J (2016) Beginning University Teachers and Their Approaches to Teaching and Professional Self-Perception. Studia Paedagogica, 21(1) 9-34
Van Waes, S, Van Bossche, P, Moolenaar, N, Stes, A, Petegem, P (2015) Uncovering changes in university teachers’ professional networks during an instructional development program. Studies in EduE 46,11-28

Project Website

http://fphil.uniba.sk/impact

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 275254 Eur

Project Coordinator

UNIVERZITA KOMENSKEHO V BRATISLAVE & Country: SK

Project Partners

• THE EUROPEAN CONSORTIUM FOR POLITICAL RESEARCH
• TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITEIT DELFT
• KOZEP-EUROPAI EGYETEM
• Masarykova univerzita