Limit your overheads

Teaching is being professionalised in some universities, reports Olga Wojtas

Few skills may seem more basic than those needed to use an overhead projector, but beware.

"It's a common mistake to put too much material on the acetate. Some experts say there should be a maximum of nine to 12 words,'' says Alan Robinson, senior lecturer in adult and continuing education at Ulster University.

"There's also a technique to moving the page downwards as you talk. And you should list your objectives on an acetate at the start of the class, and return to it at the end to hang a summary round it. In concentrating on OHP skills, you're emphasising the importance of opening and closing classes, focusing on one competence can help another.'' Overhead projector skills are covered by Ulster's postgraduate certificate in university teaching. The course, launched in 1989 and mandatory since 1996 for all new staff without teaching experience, involves observation, case studies, role play, and computers.

Induction courses for new staff have proliferated in recent years, but are often cursory and undervalued.

Ulster is one of a minority of institutions which have decided to professionalise teaching locally by launching their own postgraduate certificates. Its course became mandatory following the organisers' concerns that heads of schools were not sufficiently supportive of new lecturers who took part.

Ulster has particular problems as a multi-campus institution, with some staff facing three and a half hours' travelling time. But the course shifts campus each session, and new staff can begin at any point in their first three years, allowing them to complete a PhD where necessary, or meet publication demands.

Video-conferencing is an essential skill, with some new staff discovering they have to take classes one after the other at different campuses.

"Video-conferencing requires special techniques,'' says Mr Robinson, next year's course director. "You don't lecture. The concentration span is shorter because you're sitting in a room just watching a screen. The students can't really concentrate for more than 15 minutes.'' The new academics have to learn how to break up the session into manageable chunks, for example setting group tasks which the students carry out independently of the tutor.

"It's an excellent opportunity to learn skills which should be used in conventional work anyway,'' Mr Robinson says.

Large classes demand this type of approach, agrees Claire Pickles, Bradford University's curriculum development adviser. "It means getting people actively involved. You have to be prepared, with a good worksheet that has activities ready, with students taking part in buzz groups, or simply turning to their neighbour, to keep their attention going.'' Bradford is training the third intake on its PGC in higher education, which leads on to an MEd degree. The course is run jointly by Bradford's teaching and learning development unit and the department of teaching studies at the neighbouring Bradford and Ilkley Community College.

It is a partnership that has led to recognition from the Department for Education and Employment, which not only pays students' fees but also provides a substantial grant for books.

The qualification is not compulsory, but a high-powered steering committee strongly encourages heads of department to support new staff on the course, and not to overburden them with other duties.

"We've been able to create a greater sensitivity to the plight of new academics and their workload,'' says George Lueddeke, director of the teaching and learning unit.

He believes good teachers are made, not born. "Are you born to be a medical doctor? I don't think so. I think most people can acquire the knowledge and skills to become very proficient educators.'' He does not believe that improvement will be possible only when teaching excellence is rewarded by promotion alongside research excellence.

"The rewards are not necessarily monetary. What about professional pride? A well-designed teaching development programme for new academics can lead not only to more confident teaching and satisfied students, but also to greater pride in the teaching itself."

Bradford's PGCE students have shown a genuine enthusiasm for wanting to teach well, despite the pressures to pay more attention to research.

Sheffield University reports a similar response from its new certificate course which is specifically for postgraduate students. In their second and third year, they spend a weekly average of six hours learning how to cope with small groups, laboratories and lectures. The course, which will expand to 20 students next session, is voluntary but heavily oversubscribed.

"This is addressing the needs of a sector of university teachers who are often neglected,'' says teaching and learning adviser Tony Harland.

"We're getting incredibly high-quality teaching out of them. They work very hard, prepare very well, and mark very carefully. Undergraduates relate to them much more easily because they're closer in age."

Sandra Griffiths, Ulster's director of educational development, is adamant that induction courses can make up only a part of any institution's strategy. Both she and Mr Lueddeke hope that the Dearing inquiry will lead to a higher education council to oversee national professional development. "If you put initial training in place without continuing professional development, you're giving the wrong message that you can do it at the beginning and then it's over and done with,'' she says.

She dismisses the view that established academics have little interest in teaching. Her recent study for the Universities' and Colleges' Staff Development Agency, on academics' professional development in teaching, revealed that individual lecturers were very keen on continuing professional development, but there were fewer opportunities for this compared to those for initial training.

Bradford expects heads of department to encourage all academics to draw up individual development plans covering teaching and research, which could include modules from the PGCE course.

"Maybe established academics don't like to profess publicly that they don't know as much as they would like, but they can dip into a topic within a module, such as student assessment,'' says Mr Lueddeke.

"I'm very much in favour of different tasks at different stages of a person's life.

"Mathematicians in their late 20s may be focusing mainly on research, and perhaps in their late 30s, they should temper this with a bit more teaching. Varying patterns should be in tune with personal needs and organisational needs, and perhaps what is wrong is this broad brush approach where everyone has to be five-star and something is wrong with us when we're not.''