This article investigates how professional development courses for university teachers are viewed by different stakeholders, specifically students, university teachers, central university management, and the government. The particular focus of the investigation is on the relationship of theory and practice, disciplinary content, and forms of pedagogical knowledge. The results, based on interviews and documents, show that university teachers tend to ask for more practical, hands-on knowledge, whereas the government focuses on the theoretical content of pedagogical courses. Stakeholders were vague in their views about the content of pedagogical courses, indicating that professional development fails to be regarded as a strategic matter. 

The aim is to explore the absence or presence of, and motives for, research at centers for academic development and to problematize the research situation among academic developers. Boyer's and Healey's theories are used as lenses for the analysis based on the questionnaires that were used for data collection. The conclusion is that research is a challenging and sensitive area for university centers for academic development, and that both teaching positions and research funds are needed. Research is usually not included in the missions of centers; staff do not normally hold research positions. Unclear research directions and opposing interests weaken the centers' ability to hire qualified staff and deliver high-quality teaching.

This paper provides an analysis of the motives, goals and perceived result of Higher Education Teacher Training courses (HETT) at Swedish universities. A growing demand on improved quality of teaching and learning in Swedish higher education have led to an increased number of Educational Development Units at universities as well as to a higher turn-out of teachers taking part in HETT. In addition, this has come with substantial investments in launching and organizing university units for educational development. Despite the demand on improved quality of teaching and learning in Swedish higher education, there is only limited research on the result of HETT courses. Existing training courses seem to embed a diverse set of goals, different expectations from course instructors and participants and in terms of result more research on HETT is needed. 

This study sets out to focus on perceived result of former course participants in HETT courses. Four groups of stakeholders are in focus: 1) students, 2) university teachers, 3) the university management and 4) the government. The overall question to be explored is: What different expectations do these stakeholders have on HETT regarding course motives and goals and what perceived result do they see. While motives and goals are mainly analyzed in existing documents, perceived outcomes are collected through interviews.

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What are the motives for engaging in Higher education development courses? This question is of interest for educational developers, teachers, university managers and policy makers in order to design courses and to meet stakeholder´s expectations. Previous research has mainly focused the impact of higher education development courses on teacher practice and student learning. Few studies has investigated the motives behind these courses or addressed how the result is used by higher education institutions. In this paper the motives and perceived result is investigated among students, teachers, university management and the government. Preliminary result indicate a variety of motives among stakeholders.

The aim of my critical literature review is to identify studies where students are engaged as partners in teaching in higher education and to analyze how tutors and tutees benefit from peer teaching. Thirty studies were included for review. Thirteen countries are represented and two thirds of the studies conducted in the United States of America or the United Kingdom. There is a significant representation of studies from natural- and physical science. The dominating pedagogical belief and theory is social constructivism. The most frequent study design is the use of quasi-experimental pre- and post-testing. University teachers do not comprise the view of peer teaching necessarily resulting in greater academic achievement gains or deep learning. University teachers identify and esteem other pedagogical benefits such as improving students’: critical thinking, learning autonomy, motivation, collaborative and communicative skills. The main finding of this review is the clarification that the training of generic skills benefits from peer teaching. © 2016 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Pedagogiska utvecklingsenheter är organiserade på olika sätt och utsatta för täta omorganisationeroch studien syftar till att klargöra vilka överväganden som kan ligga till grund förenheternas uppdrag och organisation. Tolv universitet i Sverige har kartlagts genom granskningav hemsidor, telefonintervjuer med ansvariga för enheterna samt tre rundabordssamtalvid konferenser. Resultatet visar att i uppdraget ingår typiskt att arrangera högskolepedagogiskutbildning, erbjuda konsultativt högskolepedagogiskt utvecklingsstöd och främja universitetspedagogiskterfarenhetsutbyte. Det fanns inga samband mellan uppdrag och organisationsform.Informanterna såg det som ett problem att forskning inte ingick i uppdraget och attorganisation och finansiering förhindrade forskning. Organisatoriska konsekvenser av krav påforskningsanknytning av högskolepedagogisk utbildning är att pedagogiska enheter kommeratt vara fristående centrumbildningar, del av en institution eller utgöra en egen institution.

Denna publikation är ett exempel på hur kunskap om universitetspedagogisk utveckling kan kommuniceras. Att kommunicera är en av flera viktiga delar av Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL). SoTL är ett internationellt etablerat fenomen som tydliggör det viktiga och komplexa uppdrag som universitetslärare har, nämligen att i sin profession på ett kreativt, kritiskt och integrerat sätt undervisa, forska samt kommunicera med omgivande samhälle. Att kommunicera och initiera ett lärande om forskningsgrundad kunskap på ett adekvat sätt är därigenom ett centralt pedagogiskt uppdrag tillsammans med såväl forskarkollegor och studenter, som med människor i omgivande samhälle. Ofta kräver detta ett vetenskapligt språk, men också ett mer populärvetenskapligt förhållningssätt. Det betyder att en didaktisk (undervisande) förmåga gynnar de tre uppdragen som alla olika universitetsläraranställningar vilar på. I de texter som presenteras i rapporten får du läsa om några av Linnéuniversitetets lärares identifierade pedagogiska problem eller lösningar, av ämnesdidaktisk eller allmänpedagogisk karaktär. De har alla relevans för kunskapsbildande och kunskapsspridande aktiviteter på grundnivå, avancerad nivå, forskarutbildningsnivå eller forskningsnivå. Texterna utgår från lärarnas många olika ämnen: kemi, socialt arbete, musik, svenska, psykologi, ekonomi, biologi, design, statistik, skog och trä och litteraturvetenskap.

During the last decades there have been extensive investments in order to stimulate ICT-supported flexible learning. The increased interest in flexible learning has heightened the need for a critical analysis of the consequences of on-line teaching. However, critics argue that the new teacher role has not yet been thoroughly scrutinized. The aim of this paper is to trigger a debate about the changes and challenges related to the modified teacher role at universities. The methodology follows empirical data from interviews and literature surveys as well as our own experience in different flexible courses and continuous training of colleagues. Results of this study problematize both positive and negative implications on the teacher role in ICT-supported flexible learning, e.g. tendencies of teacher de-professionalization, increased ICT-dependency and uncertainty of quality in learning outcome. In conclusion our findings emphasize the need for increased teacher training in using ICT in educational settings.

Mot bakgrund av förändringar inom högskolesektorn på senare tid vill vi undersöka pedagogiska utvecklingsenheters uppdrag och organisation. Som en del av en större studie ordnade vi på konferensen en RundaBordsdiskussion där vi bad våra kollegor diskutera pedagogiska enheters uppdrag och forskningsanknytning av detta, enheternas organisation samt uppföljning av uppdraget. Vi samlade in deras sammanfattningar av diskussionerna. Deltagarna menade att uppdraget omfattade stöd till pedagogisk utveckling i mycket vid mening inkluderande kurser och eget förändringsarbete. Forskningsanknytning ansågs viktig och för några innefattar det egen forskning. Synpunkterna på organisation var att enheten måste vara förankrad både i ledning och i lärarnas verksamhet, men konkreta förslag var få. Uppföljning av uppdrag gjordes genom statistik och enkäter, både direkt efter kurs och senare.