Педагогические науки/2. Проблемы подготовки специалистов

Козлова Е. В.

Пензенская государственная технологическая академия, Россия

Academic staff development in British universities (the second half of the XXth century.)

During the second half of the XXth century the interest towards the process of academic staff development has especially grown. Many different units and services have been set up for this purpose.

Let’s compare the activities of two British universities (the University of Lancaster and the University of Bath) providing academic staff development training there in the second half of the XXth century.

In 1969 in the University of Bath an Educational Services Unit started its work improving learning and teaching and providing assistance in many aspects of education (motivation, learning theory, etc.).

As for the University of Lancaster there was not a special unit for this purpose. The university had the Department of Educational Research that had such a responsibility.

According to G. W. Miller the work of the department was oriented to helping staff to make use of audio-visual facilities, to induction of new staff, to the general improvement of learning and teaching.

But in both universities there was a lack of incentive on the part of staff to take part in it and to attend the given courses. It was one of the main problems along with social and even political difficulties in some cases [1, C. 64, 71].

It’s interesting to notice that the staff responsible for academic staff training was from various departments (science and arts departments, the audio-visual aids department, the educational department). Moreover the staff could be invited from other colleges.

G. W. Miller puts an accent on the fact that in the University of Lancaster teachers could attend courses if they wanted. But there were ideas of including special clauses in contracts for new teachers to attend available courses because it could be important for their career. G. W. Miller states that in the University of Bath almost all new teachers attended seminars and courses though there were no special items written in their contracts [1, C. 65, 72].

As for the financial side of the question G. W. Miller stresses that there were special funds supporting the academic staff development activities in the given universities.

All in all the organization of such units and services in British universities is a very important step for the development of higher education in general. New teachers and their colleagues could get useful information in different spheres:

§ student assessment;

§ the use of audio-visual aids;

§ teaching methods;

§ motivation;

§ the improvement of the learning environment, etc.

In present time the process of academic staff development is a necessary and important part of any university educational policy as the quality of teaching is connected with the quality of knowledge that students have.

Nowadays there are many ways of academic staff development in British universities:

§ various courses;

§ seminars;

§ symposia;

§ programs;

§ workshops;

§ trainings;

§ discussions, etc.

As we can see teachers have a wide range of opportunities to enhance their professional skills, to communicate and to share their experience with colleagues and to get new knowledge.

In conclusion we can underline that the example of these two universities (the University of Lancaster and the University of Bath) demonstrates the changes taking place in higher education in the UK in the second half of the XXth century in compliance with the demands of the modern society.

Литература:

1. Miller, G. W. (1976) Staff Development Programmes in British Universities and Polytechnics. Paris: IIEP.