University lecturer awards can ‘sow division’, warns study - timeshighereducation.com, 03.03.2016

Students tend to nominate entertaining or ‘sexy’ academics, says paper.

Singled out: academics said that student-led teaching awards unfairly identified an 'elite'

Student-nominated teaching awards do more to sow division between academics than they do to drive up educational standards, a study suggests.

A survey of 329 lecturers conducted by researchers at Sheffield Hallam University found that while 79 per cent of respondents said that they valued institutional recognition of their teaching practice, significantly fewer (61 per cent) supported student-led teaching awards.

Only 40 per cent felt that such awards – which operate in many UK universities – served as an incentive to improve the quality of teaching.

Writing in Teaching in Higher Education, authors Manny Madriaga and Krystle Morley say that many respondents had highlighted how such awards were “divisive”.

2. Mär. 2016
27. Feb. 2016