Education Development and Leadership in Higher Education: Developing an effective institutional strategy

• Published in: Canadian journal of higher education (1975) 2008, Vol.38 (1), p.124
• Main Author: Mighty, Joy
• Format: Review
• Language: English
• Subjects: Case Studies; Educational Development; Educational leadership; Fraser, Kym; Higher education; Nonfiction; Quality of education
• ISSN: 0316-1218; 2293-6602

The remaining chapters (6 to 11) describe different strategies and processes used in educational development practice. Chapter 6, for example, explores issues of leadership in educational development. Drawing on several models of change management and grounding their ideas in a case study, authors Margot Pearson and Chris Trevitt discuss the importance of building capacity by sharing leadership and actively engaging faculty in the change process. In Chapter 7, Carmel McNaught uses two case studies to illustrate strategies and processes for integrating an institution's information technology infrastructure and policies with teaching and learning principles. [Kym Fraser] and Ellen Sanders, in Chapter 8, demonstrate through a case study how educational development can help faculty facilitate the learning of students with disabilities. Chapter 9 identifies issues in providing programs for Graduate Certificates in Higher Education (GCHEs). The author, Kym Fraser, argues that in developing such programs educational developers should focus on the discipline of teaching and learning in higher education and consider participants' disciplinary and local contexts, the stages of their teaching career, and their institutional structures. In Chapter 10, Bob Matthew and Ray Land draw on their own experiences to discuss educational development lessons learned through Scottish-, English-, and European-funded projects. They emphasize the importance of funding agencies and developers reaching consensus about the purpose and direction of the project at the beginning, and clarifying the theoretical perspectives and conceptual frameworks underlying the educational development approach taken in the project. In the concluding chapter, Yoni Ryan, Kym Eraser, and John Dearn suggest that, given the different contexts of higher education described by [Peter Ling] in the first chapter, the professionalization of university teaching is urgently needed. However, after drawing on focus group data from a study that found mixed attitudes of Australian faculty towards such professionalization, the authors conclude that it is unlikely to occur unless an international body such as UNESCO acts as a "super-accreditation body for national schemes" (p. 196).