Continual professional development for science lecturers: using professional capital to explore lessons for academic development
Author(s)
Chadha, Deesha
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Personal observations suggest that science lecturers in higher education do not always feel comfortable engaging with the support offered through academic development initiatives. At a research-intensive university in the UK, research was conducted using a mixed-methods approach to establish how science lecturers engaged with continual professional development (CPD) activity. A total of 64 science lecturers completed 28-item surveys about their current experience, context, teaching preferences, and the practices that have supported their CPD as teachers. Surveys were analysed through a statistical package, and descriptive analysis responses were modelled for interest in CPD activity. Dependent model variables included: pedagogical training, teaching receiving greater weighting, and experimentation. Follow-up interviews were carried out with 10 survey respondents with analysis centring on developing a better understanding of CPD engagement. Professional capital was used as a theoretical lens to discuss the research findings which suggest future directions for academic developers and institutions in supporting CPD activity among science lecturers. These include academic developers acting as mentors and offering practical tips to these lecturers. Additionally, academic developers can act as weak ties in fostering institutionally important social networks and foster important collaborative research opportunities. Institutionally, promotion and recognition are key incentives to engage with CPD activity.
Date Issued
2024-11-01
Date Acceptance
2021-07-16
Citation
Professional Development in Education, 2024, 50 (6), pp.1253-1268
ISSN
1941-5257
Publisher
Informa UK Limited
Start Page
1253
End Page
1268
Journal / Book Title
Professional Development in Education
Volume
50
Issue
6
Copyright Statement
© 2021 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way.
Identifier
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19415257.2021.1973076
Publication Status
Published
Date Publish Online
2021-08-31