Innovative teaching for successful learning
What innovative approaches to teaching and learning are being used at Victoria University of Wellington? This question is driving a strategic initiative between the Faculty of Education and the Centre for Academic Development (CAD).
Teaching initiatives to enhance student engagement are a way to increase student participation, as well as improve retention and completion rates within universities. Innovative approaches to tertiary teaching are part of this focus, and a team from the Faculty of Education and CAD has been investigating the characteristics of innovative pedagogical practices across the University. As part of this research, 12 of Victoria University’s award-winning academics were interviewed about their innovative approaches to teaching and the resulting case studies can be found at: http://learning.vicinnovate.ac.nz/innovative-pedagogies-project.html
Faculty of Education Senior Lecturer Jae Major says innovation in teaching is a particularly slippery term. “In the context of tertiary education, it has been (usefully) defined as having the following characteristics: it is an intentional action, it aims to improve students’ learning, it is a new way of teaching, and it surprises students,” she says. “These notions of change, difference and improvement were apparent in the practices of the academics interviewed for the case studies. Although interestingly, none of the participants thought that what they did was particularly innovative—they were trying to address questions or problems they identified in their teaching and students’ learning.”
Dr Major says problems related to student engagement were common, with the main driver being the need to engage and address the learning needs of a diverse range of students. “There was also a desire to enhance and provide opportunities for students to be creative in their learning, as well as providing students with choice and flexibility,” she says.
Examples of innovative practices include online tools such as GoSoapbox, Socrative, and Kahoot, field trips, dialogic lectures, flipped classrooms, student discussion and collaboration and embedded matauranga Māori kaupapa.
Dr Major says that connecting with students and building positive teaching and learning relationships underpinned all the innovative practices. “The case studies reveal a range of ways in which this occurred, but all are based on a genuine interest in and concern for students.”
The team is now surveying staff and students to investigate wider experiences of innovative teaching at the University, and to identify factors that support or constrain innovative approaches to teaching and learning.
If you would like to participate in a staff survey about your experience of innovative teaching at the University, please use this link: https://vuw.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_2oc7A8tilP85EbP