Reilly, Dawn ORCID: 0000-0003-2317-4700 and Warren, Elizabeth ORCID: 0000-0002-1441-9369 (2020) Mentoring new teaching-only colleagues to develop teaching expertise. In: Exploring Expertise in Teaching in Higher Education, 16-23 October 2020, University of the West of England, Bristol.

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Abstract

The increasing casualisation of teaching in higher education has been an issue for some time (Leathwood and Read, 2020). One example is the use of hourly paid lecturers (HPLs) on short-term contracts. In the summer of 2019, the Business School at the University of Greenwich commenced a major initiative to replace its HPL contracts with permanent (mainly part-time) teaching-only posts. Many of these colleagues have professional qualifications and current industry experience in the sectors which our students want to join after graduation. To add to this technical expertise, we support colleagues’ development as educators in various ways including through their inclusion in our peer supported development scheme. This means that they not only receive feedback on their teaching from a colleague to improve their practice, but they also give feedback to the same colleague in a two-way exchange (Bell and Mladenovic, 2015) which reinforces their position as valued members of the academic community.

We also provide mentors who support our new teachers to work toward a Higher Education Academy fellowship. For many, this will be Associate Fellow initially. Discussing an application, including a fellowship teaching observation, with a mentor, underlines an individual’s identity as a teaching professional. The UK Professional Standards Framework (UKPSF) points fellowship applicants to scholarship in Teaching and Learning. For a new part-time lecturer, engagement with scholarship can be a hitherto unexplored area. However, Shulman (1986) argues that this type of engagement is necessary in the development of teaching expertise, and reflecting on the dimensions of the UKPSF under the guidance of a mentor points colleagues to the literature. We encourage them to work toward submitting a Fellowship application in the next few years where appropriate. This provides the opportunity to extend the mentoring relationship and promote continuing and increasing engagement with scholarship in Teaching and Learning, including as future authors.

Our presentation will reflect on the first year of employing teaching-only colleagues and include a preliminary review of the effectiveness of the peer-development and mentoring schemes which we provide to aid their development into teaching experts.

Bell, A and Mladenovic, R (2015), Situated learning, reflective practice and conceptual expansion: effective peer observation for tutor development, Teaching in Higher Education, 20(1): 24-36

Leathwood, C and Read, B (2020), Short-term, short-changed? A temporal perspective on the implications of academic casualisation for teaching in higher education, Teaching in Higher Education, 1-16

Shulman, L (1986), Those who understand: knowledge growth in teaching, Educational Researcher, 15(2): 4-14

Item Type:	Conference or Conference Paper (Other)
Uncontrolled Keywords:	mentoring, teaching expertise, peer observation, peer supported development
Subjects:	L Education > LB Theory and practice of education > LB2300 Higher Education
Faculty / School / Research Centre / Research Group:	Faculty of Business Faculty of Business > Department of Accounting & Finance
Last Modified:	01 Apr 2021 13:29
URI:	http://gala.gre.ac.uk/id/eprint/31039

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