Proposal for a session at TERNZ 2009

Alison Viskovic

Assoc. Dean, Faculty of Arts

Whitireia Community Polytechnic

Title:

Does tertiary teacher education matter? What does the literature say? What do session participants think?

Relevance:

In 2005 my PhD addressed a range of issues relating to tertiary teacher education. That research focused on informal workplace learning, but recognised that more formal learning also mattered. Concerned at reductions in the courses available at some NZ institutions, I updated the literature survey this year, funded by Ako.  Some of the conclusions from that survey included:

·      Tertiary teaching is a professional occupation, focused on promoting student learning and supported by a growing research base.

·      Professional teachers need professional education relating to teaching, as well as their disciplines, achieved through a well-supported mix of informal and formal learning.

·      Research has shown the importance of tertiary teachers’ workplace learning in their communities of teaching practice.

·      Formal courses need to make connections with teachers’ own working practice, and vice versa. There is a growing pool of research on the effects of courses on teaching.

·      While basic skills/knowledge can be addressed in induction and short workshops, for deeper understanding and a wider repertoire of abilities time, experience, and engagement with formal study courses to integrate theory and practice are desirable.

·      Tertiary institutions have a responsibility to support the professional learning of people they appoint to be teachers

·      Tertiary teachers have a responsibility for engaging in informal learning in their community of teaching practice, and participating in teaching-related development and/or courses of study.

How the session will be run:

(a)   Initial presentation to summarise some key findings from the literature review update (15 minutes max.).

(b)  Group discussion, starting from the points raised above and drawing on members’ own experiences and conclusions from their contexts.  

(c)   Identification of matters members want to take back to their home groups

Alison Viskovic

BA (NZ/Canterbury), MEd (VUW), PhD (Massey).

My first involvement with tertiary teaching was as a Communication English tutor at TCI (now Open Polytechnic) from 1971 – 1980. I moved to Wellington Polytechnic in 1981 to join the Teaching Resources Unit, later the called Professional Development Unit. That involved me in supervising the Resources Centre,  tutor “training”, and a range of related work. In the 1990s I worked with Nick Zepke to develop the first BEd for tertiary teachers, and was involved with many Academic Board functions as well. In 1998 the polytechnic’s MEd was launched (led by Linda Leach), and in 1999 the merger with Massey occurred. Our programmes went into the College of Education, and our staff development role ceased. From 1999 to 2005 my BEd and MEd teaching was increasingly extramural, and I also completed a PhD, studying how people become tertiary teachers in NZ. I retired from Massey early in 2006 when the adult education group was moved to Palmerston North; but was soon invited to do a range of teaching, research and curriculum work at Whitireia Community Polytechnic in Porirua – which has led to my current 0.6 position as Associate Dean of the Arts Faculty.