Abstract Faculty development (FD) and the preparation of future faculty are central to university teaching quality, yet in Japan they are studied separately and remain underexamined in English. Pre-faculty development (pre-FD), a term coined within Japanese higher education, exclusively denotes the pre-service teaching preparation of doctoral students and other prospective academics, broadly corresponding to the American “Preparing Future Faculty” movement. Treating the two as tracks of a single academic-development continuum, this article asks how each has been institutionalized and localized in Japan, and what constrains the translation of policy into teaching improvement. The study is a narrative, document-based conceptual review of policy documents, statutory standards, national surveys, and Japanese- and English-language scholarship, using the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) as an analytical lens. Three findings emerge. First, both tracks advanced through top-down policy-driven and policy-induced reform: In-service FD became a legal mandate in 2008, whereas pre-FD remains a best-effort obligation. Second, in-service FD has developed a distinctive cluster of locally grounded practices: inter-university networks, mutual FD, the collegial model, and student-engaged FD. Third, national survey data show participation rising while collegial formats and dedicated provision declined over the same period, indicating that participation rates are a poor proxy for teaching-development quality. Reading the tracks together reveals what single-track accounts obscure: shared organizational carriers and a common ceiling set by the absence of a continuing professional role in academic development. The article argues, as a proposition derived from the analysis, that sustainable development depends on connecting the two tracks into a continuous career pathway framed by SoTL.
In this paper, we present findings from an interactive workshop at the 2024 International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (ISSOTL) conference that aimed to develop a global roadmap to advance the awareness and appreciation of the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL). While some institutions have successfully embedded SoTL into their cultural fabric, challenges persist in many academic contexts where SoTL remains misunderstood as a cross-discipline field of scholarship and research as well as undervalued as a change-making enterprise. Through collaborative activities, workshop participants explored systemic barriers, misunderstandings, and effective strategies from diverse institutional perspectives. The findings highlight actionable steps for institutions, administrators, and faculty to align their efforts, bridge knowledge gaps, and further elevate SoTL as a recognized scholarly pursuit. We also propose practical suggestions to support SoTL initiatives, enhance institutional commitment, and foster cross-institutional collaborations.
در این مقاله، یافته‌های حاصل از کارگاه تعاملی در کنفرانس بین‌المللی انجمن دانش‌پژوهی تدریس و یادگیری (ISSOTL) سال ۲۰۲۴ را ارائه می‌دهیم که با هدف تدوین یک نقشه راه جهانی برای ارتقای آگاهی و قدردانی از دانش‌پژوهی تدریس و یادگیری (SoTL) برگزار شد. اگرچه برخی نهادهای آموزشی موفق به نهادینه‌سازی SoTL در بافت فرهنگی خود شده‌اند، چالش‌هایی در بسیاری از زمینه‌های آکادمیک همچنان پابرجاست که در آن‌ها SoTL به‌عنوان یک حوزه دانش‌پژوهی و پژوهش میان‌رشته‌ای درک نادرستی شده و به‌عنوان یک کوشش تغییرآفرین نیز دست‌کم گرفته می‌شود. شرکت‌کنندگان کارگاه از طریق فعالیت‌های مشارکتی، موانع سیستمی، برداشت‌های نادرست و راهبردهای مؤثر را از دیدگاه‌های نهادی متنوع بررسی کردند. یافته‌ها گام‌های عملیاتی را برای نهادهای آموزشی، مدیران و اعضای هیئت علمی جهت همسوسازی تلاش‌ها، پر کردن شکاف‌های دانشی و ارتقای بیشتر جایگاه SoTL به‌عنوان یک پیگیری علمی شناخته‌شده برجسته می‌سازند. ما همچنین پیشنهادهای کاربردی را برای حمایت از ابتکارات SoTL، تقویت تعهد نهادی و ترویج همکاری‌های میان‌نهادی ارائه می‌دهیم.
Various disciplines view reflection as both a theory and a practice for helping make learning more visible to students as well as giving them a greater sense of agency; thus, the importance of reflection in higher education is well established. In recent years, scholars in SoTL have acknowledged and theorized about the importance of reflection for faculty. Our 360-degree model builds on this scholarship and research in writing studies in order to suggest that directional (inward, outward, forward, backward) reflection helps faculty analyze their teaching practices by integrating theoretical insights and evidence to evaluate effectiveness while also supporting ongoing professional growth. This poster shares an application of the 360-degree model of reflection, encouraging faculty to build reflective practices into their SoTL projects.
This study contributes to the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) by examining how case-based teaching and threshold concepts promote culturally inclusive pedagogical practices among pre-service teachers (PSTs). Our research design reflects SoTL principles by taking a systematic, transparent, iterative, and collaborative approach to collecting, analysing, and sharing data. Our work is explicitly aligned with theoretical frameworks, and we address unresolved issues in order to facilitate transformative learning. We aimed to explore how PSTs perceive culturally inclusive pedagogy and professional competence in a case-based course. Three key findings emerged: increased awareness of classroom diversity, a change in the PSTs’ understanding of culturally inclusive teaching, and resistance to exploratory learning designs. Many PSTs demonstrated transformative learning and sound professional judgment. However, some expressed resistance and uncertainty, underscoring the importance of scaffolding and support. The findings align with the literature on threshold concepts as gateways to boundary crossing and a deeper understanding of diversity in SoTL. The results highlight the potential of case-based teaching to encourage metacognitive reflection and to promote inclusive educational practices in teacher education programs. The study demonstrates that designing inquiry-based learning activities that integrate case studies and threshold concepts can facilitate critical reflection and metacognition among PSTs.
This reflective essay examines the establishment of the Research Guild in King’s Digital, a department at King’s College London specialising in online and blended postgraduate education. The Research Guild is an internally created, mentor-supported community of practice designed to help professional services staff engage more confidently in educational research and scholarship. Using an autoethnographic approach and a systems thinking lens, I explore how the Guild emerged in response to a recurring pattern: teams highly effective at delivery but lacking time, infrastructure and perceived legitimacy to undertake inquiry. The essay describes how mentoring through the ALT ELESIG Scholar Scheme, a training needs analysis survey and three structured development pathways (literature review, conference participation and research projects) combined to make evidence-seeking feel more normal, safe and worthwhile. I highlight key outcomes and persistent tensions around time, equity and sustainability, arguing that staff development is most transformative when treated as a deliberately designed ecosystem of scaffolds, feedback loops and shared identity rather than a series of isolated activities.
Shared Reading (SR) is a communal well-being intervention in which a literary text is read aloud and discussed in a group. A form of emotion-centred close reading, SR emerged as a reaction against elitist academic norms and was developed in an attempt to emotionalise and democratise literary study by moving it outside of the confines of the university. This theoretical essay argues that humanities and social science lecturers might benefit from introducing SR praxis into their classes. Each section analyses an aspect of SR through emotionally engaged (hooks, Palmer), relational (Hickey, Riddle, Gravett), and critical (Freire) pedagogical and theoretical lenses, arguing that SR serves many of the aspirations of these pedagogies. I then consider how SR might be implemented in an academic setting and the kind of adaptations that might be necessary. This essay is a thought experiment which I hope will lay the groundwork for a more sustained and applied experiment in SR. Throughout, I argue that infusing SR into university settings has the potential to positively benefit student well-being and academic performance.
This paper explores the challenges faced by Mathematics and Science teacher-educators at a South African university in maintaining assessment credibility during the transition from face-to-face to online modalities. It utilises a Professional Learning Community (PLC) framework and authentic conversations amongst nine PLC members as a means of documenting scholarship of teaching and learning. The study delves into the challenges relating to disruptions to traditional assessment practices and the strategies employed to navigate them. The research is guided by the substitution, augmentation, modification and redefinition model, which provides a theoretical lens for understanding the evolution of technology in teaching and assessment. The findings reveal four key challenges: assessment integrity issues, load shedding disruptions, technical glitches and limited lecturer expertise in designing and administering higher-order online tasks. While the transition initially involved substitution and augmentation, with online assessments often deemed ‘too simplistic’ and prone to issues of academic integrity, efforts to move towards the modification phase showed promise. Modifications, in the context of assessment, included adapting the assessment task to ensure Mathematics and Science concepts are effectively assessed in an online, non-invigilated settings, as illustrated in the paper. Despite these advancements, progress towards the redefinition phase where assessments are fully integrated and technologically sophisticated to mitigate unethical usage of artificial intelligence remains limited. The paper argues that achieving this phase requires sustained and deliberate training for teacher-educators in advanced technological integration, emphasising the need for continued professional development in the post-COVID era.
این مقاله به بررسی چالش‌هایی می‌پردازد که مدرسان معلم ریاضی و علوم در یک دانشگاه آفریقای جنوبی در حفظ اعتبار ارزشیابی هنگام گذار از شیوه حضوری به شیوه‌های برخط با آن مواجه بوده‌اند. این پژوهش از چارچوب اجتماع یادگیری حرفه‌ای (PLC) و گفتگوهای اصیل میان نه عضو این اجتماع به عنوان روشی برای مستندسازی دانش تدریس و یادگیری بهره می‌گیرد. مطالعه حاضر به چالش‌های مرتبط با اختلال در شیوه‌های سنتی ارزشیابی و راهبردهای به‌کاررفته برای مواجهه با آن‌ها می‌پردازد. پژوهش با مدل جایگزینی، افزایش، اصلاح و بازتعریف هدایت می‌شود که لنزی نظری برای فهم تحول فناوری در آموزش و ارزشیابی فراهم می‌کند. یافته‌ها چهار چالش کلیدی را آشکار می‌سازد: مسائل مربوط به سلامت ارزشیابی، اختلالات ناشی از قطع برق، مشکلات فنی و محدودیت تخصص مدرسان در طراحی و اجرای تکالیف برخط سطح بالاتر. در حالی که گذار اولیه بیشتر شامل جایگزینی و افزایش بود و ارزشیابی‌های برخط غالباً «بسیار ساده» و مستعد مسائل سلامت علمی تلقی می‌شدند، تلاش‌ها برای حرکت به سوی مرحله اصلاح امیدبخش بود. اصلاحات در زمینه ارزشیابی شامل انطباق تکلیف ارزشیابی به منظور اطمینان از ارزیابی مؤثر مفاهیم ریاضی و علوم در محیط‌های برخط و بدون مراقبت حضوری بود که در مقاله تشریح شده است. با وجود این پیشرفت‌ها، حرکت به سوی مرحله بازتعریف که در آن ارزشیابی‌ها به طور کامل یکپارچه و از لحاظ فناوری پیشرفته باشند تا از سوءاستفاده غیراخلاقی از هوش مصنوعی جلوگیری شود، همچنان محدود باقی مانده است. مقاله استدلال می‌کند که دستیابی به این مرحله نیازمند آموزش مستمر و هدفمند مدرسان معلم در زمینه ادغام پیشرفته فناوری است و بر ضرورت توسعه حرفه‌ای مداوم در دوران پساکرونا تأکید می‌کند.
Graduate employability remains a central concern in computing education, where students are expected to move from academic learning into professional environments requiring technical, organisational, social and self-management capabilities. This study examines, from a Scholarship of Teaching and Learning perspective, changes in students’ self-reported work readiness after participation in a curriculum-embedded consultant–client project workflow in an undergraduate computing module in Botswana. The module required student teams to elicit requirements, complete benchmarking activities, develop an e-learning module, participate in structured meetings, prepare staged deliverables, demonstrate outputs to peer-client teams and submit final handover documentation. A within-cohort pre–post survey design was used. Self-reported work readiness was measured before and after the module using an adapted Work Readiness Scale. Thirty-two students with matched pre- and post-module responses were included in the final analysis. Wilcoxon signed-rank tests were used to compare pre- and post-module scores. Significant increases were found in organisational acumen, work competence, social intelligence and overall self-reported work readiness, while personal characteristics did not change significantly. Sensitivity analysis excluding one influential case showed that work competence, social intelligence and overall self-reported work readiness remained significant, while organisational acumen became a non-significant positive trend. The study provides practical guidance for computing educators by illustrating how professional project practices can be made explicit, structured and assessable within the curriculum.
اشتغال‌پذیری فارغ‌التحصیلان همچنان یکی از دغدغه‌های اصلی در آموزش رایانه است، جایی که انتظار می‌رود دانشجویان از یادگیری دانشگاهی به محیط‌های حرفه‌ای با نیاز به توانمندی‌های فنی، سازمانی، اجتماعی و خودمدیریتی منتقل شوند. این مطالعه از منظر بورس آموزش و یادگیری، تغییرات در آمادگی شغلی خودگزارش‌شده دانشجویان پس از مشارکت در جریان کاری پروژه مشاور–مشتری تعبیه‌شده در برنامه درسی یک واحد درسی کارشناسی رایانه در بوتسوانا را بررسی می‌کند. این واحد درسی مستلزم آن بود که تیم‌های دانشجویی نیازمندی‌ها را استخراج کنند، فعالیت‌های بنچمارکینگ را انجام دهند، یک واحد آموزش الکترونیکی توسعه دهند، در جلسات ساختاریافته شرکت کنند، تحویل‌دادنی‌های مرحله‌ای آماده سازند، خروجی‌ها را به تیم‌های همتای مشتری ارائه دهند و مستندات نهایی واگذاری را ارائه نمایند. از طرح پیمایش پیش‌آزمون–پس‌آزمون درون‌گروهی استفاده شد. آمادگی شغلی خودگزارش‌شده پیش و پس از واحد درسی با استفاده از نسخه تعدیل‌شده مقیاس آمادگی شغلی سنجیده شد. سی‌ودو دانشجو با پاسخ‌های منطبق پیش و پس از واحد درسی در تحلیل نهایی وارد شدند. برای مقایسه نمرات پیش و پس از واحد درسی از آزمون رتبه علامت‌دار ویلکاکسون استفاده شد. افزایش معناداری در فراست سازمانی، شایستگی شغلی، هوش اجتماعی و آمادگی شغلی کلی خودگزارش‌شده مشاهده شد، در حالی که ویژگی‌های فردی تغییر معناداری نداشتند. تحلیل حساسیت با حذف یک مورد تأثیرگذار نشان داد که شایستگی شغلی، هوش اجتماعی و آمادگی شغلی کلی خودگزارش‌شده همچنان معنادار باقی ماندند، در حالی که فراست سازمانی به روند مثبت غیرمعنادار تبدیل شد. این مطالعه با تبیین چگونگی صریح، ساختارمند و قابل ارزیابی کردن شیوه‌های پروژه حرفه‌ای در برنامه درسی، راهنمایی عملی برای مدرسان رایانه ارائه می‌دهد.
