Assessment, Learning & Teaching Reflections |
Wednesday 30th November
What makes a great university teacher? The literature on excellent teaching offers no universal consensus but identifies a number of factors including a strong orientation towards student-centredness and a commitment to one’s own subject. Words like ‘passion’, ‘inspiration’ and ‘humanity’ are commonly found in any list of descriptors of excellent teaching and most would also include a sense of humour, creativity, flexibility, approachability and an inclusive approach. Primarily research-orientated institutions tend to focus their definitions on how research informs teaching, whereas teaching-led HEIs tend to foreground working with diverse students and widening participation among disadvantaged communities. The most helpful definitions encompass not just lecturing and traditional classroom teaching, but include lab and studio work, one-to-one tuition, leadership of fieldwork and other kinds of off-campus learning, project supervision and support for distance-, blended- and open learning.
Behaviours commonly associated with outstanding teaching include the ability to organise course materials and content effectively, to use audio-visual aids and IT well, to present clearly, audibly and articulately, to respond to student queries helpfully and to provide valuable and formative feedback on assessment tasks. It’s a tall order, but this is a standard to which we hope all Leeds Met teaching staff would aspire.
Sally Brown
Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Professor of HE Diversity in Learning and Teaching
