‘We need to keep teacher development on the agenda’
Good education starts with good educators. The university has taken various steps in recent years to help our teaching staff develop. But new teaching staff require particular attention, say staff who work on teacher professionalisation.
Marjoleine Vermeulen is a senior educational adviser at the Leiden Learning & Innovation Centre (LLInC) who also works as the Faculty of Science faculty coordinator with the SEEDS Teacher Support Desk and is a member of the Teacher Development Working Group.
Development interviews
‘At present, there is little teaching support for many of our new teaching staff. They get the slides from their predecessor and possibly some tips from a mentor and have to make do with that. But real coaching is so much more than that. Most new teaching staff obtain their basic teaching qualification in the end, but you would prefer them to be supported at work right from the start. It would be good if teacher professionalisation at the university were based on the teacher development model and for this to be embedded in a cycle of development meetings. The new GROW interviews are definitely a positive step. But we need to make sure this progress does not grind to a halt.’
‘Bringing new teachers together regularly is incredibly worthwhile’
Learn from and with one another
‘Research has shown that learning from and with each other works. The Faculty of Humanities offers peer reflection and coaching groups, for example. Here new teaching staff meet every couple of weeks under the guidance of an experienced teacher and teaching coach. Bringing new teachers together regularly is incredibly worthwhile. My advice for them? Ask for coaching and don’t bottle things up. And don’t just go to your manager but also ask colleagues to get together and talk about teaching. I think the role of managers here is to raise awareness among university leaders of the importance of support and to facilitate it.’
Investment pays off
‘Many teaching staff will be retiring in the coming years and student numbers continue to grow. So if we as a university care about our teaching and want it to continue to be excellent, we will have to invest in teacher professionalisation. What is more, the researchers of the future are now in the lecture halls. By giving teaching a prominent position alongside research, we give our teaching staff more time and space to develop and provide good teaching – and that in turn will lead to better researchers. Investing in teaching will pay off. Let’s not scrimp on what makes our teaching so good: well-equipped and inspiring educators who see and convey the value of continued learning.’
Daan Weggemans is a teacher and researcher at the Institute for Security and Global Affairs. As an LTA Teaching Fellow, he focuses on how best the university can invest in the career development of teaching staff.
Passion for teaching
‘I think our university has taken positive steps in recent years, including offering young teaching staff permanent contracts and working on a new form of recognition and rewards for teaching performance. But I would like to see more attention being given to the group of teachers who do not have a PhD. These are often young people in their first job who have a great passion for teaching. They play a crucial role in giving seminars, mentoring students and ensuring consistency in our programmes. How can you support and help them develop their skills while also helping with their career progression? The academic world is now mainly equipped to support people who want to do research. We could definitely offer more support to people who want to learn to teach and perhaps pursue another career in the long run.’
‘We could definitely offer more support to people who want to learn to teach.’
Many options
‘If you are creative, much is possible. Peer reflection groups, for example, where teaching staff learn from each other’s experiences or afternoons where they can share thoughts on topics such as AI in education or new teaching methods. For students we regularly invite external professionals to talk about their work; we should do the same for teaching staff. In my own Security Studies programme, new lecturers receive onboarding about not only the content of the programme but also about dealing with difficult classroom situations. As a programme coordinator, you can also consider secondment more often. Give people the chance to work one day a week on another skill so they can build a great CV.’
Expensive investments
‘The tricky thing is that these are often significant investments that you have to be able to afford as a degree programme or institute. The looming cuts will definitely not help. My goal therefore is to show easier and cheaper options. But more important than that is keeping teacher development on the agenda. That’s my main motivation.’
Our vision on teacher development
Various teacher development initiatives have been started at the university in recent years. The Basic and Senior Teaching Qualifications, for example, and the Leiden Teachers’ Academy, the Teaching Culture Survey and the annual teaching day. But the offering could be more comprehensive, the Teacher Development Taskforce concluded in a report at the end of 2022. The task force’s advice, which the Executive Board has also welcomed, contains six focal points:
- Implement the teacher development model
- Provide a varied and appropriate range of development opportunities
- Collaborate via new types of teacher teams and teaching communities
- Experiment with educational innovation projects
- Recognise and reward teaching performance and ambitions
- Encourage and facilitate teacher development (this is a role for management)
The Teacher Development Working Group was created to implement the task force’s advice. This comprises a range of staff from different faculties, the teacher support desks and Administration and Central Services. The working group recently held a good-practice afternoon, where passionate lecturers shared how they support new colleagues.