Ensuring quality in and through teaching and learning has become a fundamental global concern. Emanating from a colloquium on Quality Assurance and Teacher Education hosted by University College Dublin in 2010 and funded by the European Educational Research Association, this book interrogates how quality cultures can be fostered in the field of education. The volume brings together a series of background and case study chapters from leading scholars in the field of teacher education internationally.
One of the key elements in determining the socio-economic significance of education is quality. Quality management plays an integral role in higher education by ensuring that quality benchmarks are being met, thereby attributing to its prestige, increased enrollment, and student success. Quality management policies must be successfully implemented for the institution to thrive. With quality management still in the growing stage, research is needed regarding the applications, challenges, and benefits of these policies within advanced academics. Quality Management Principles and Policies in Higher Education provides emerging research exploring the theoretical aspects of quality management policies and applications within the educational field. Featuring coverage on a broad range of topics such as faculty involvement, administration practices, and critical success factors, this book is ideally designed for educators, administrators, educational consultants, researchers, policymakers, stakeholders, deans, provosts, chancellors, academicians, and students seeking current research on successfully implementing quality management systems in teaching, learning, and administrative processes.
This practical and authoritative handbook provides a comprehensive overview of the issues and approaches to assuring quality in university teaching. Including contributions from major international figures, the book contains a wealth of ideas and practical advice to help universities commit to quality in teaching and offers insights into how the topics raised can be directly applied. The book initially identifies some of the key issues surrounding the topic, such as the evidence-based identification of teaching quality; the training of university lecturers and faculty; external and internal quality assurance; the tension between professional autonomy and governmental regulation; and the involvement of students in developing quality. It then moves on to present ideas and initiatives to address these problems, tackling the subject through four sections: Assuring Quality – questioning what quality assurance means and how it might be practised; Identifying Quality – examining what knowledge exists at present and how it might be further researched; Developing Quality – investigating the development of staff through teacher training and appraisal; Case Studies of Quality Assurance – reviewing six case studies of quality assurance in a range of contrasting subjects including the professional subjects of Medicine, Nursing and Teacher Training which are also addressed systemically in the first section. Full of practical advice, Handbook of Quality Assurance for University Teaching is an invaluable and unique resource for Faculty, Subject Leaders, University Administrators and Quality Assessors.
Accreditation of teacher education programs is increasingly embraced internationally and is being modeled after the American experience, despite criticisms from some in the field of teacher education in the United States. This book examines the transformation of accreditation and the interest and perception of nations and regions choosing to use the model in their own culture, including the Middle East and Gulf Region, South America, and the United Kingdom. Its distinctive edge is the juxtaposition of three sectors: quality assurance/accreditation, teacher preparation, and global/international experiences. The authors address how the adoption of a universal requirement for accreditation embraces a particular view of what teacher quality means. The emphasis on the development of teacher preparation in concert with accreditation is of academic interest to scholars in the United States and abroad. The experiences and voices of teacher educators as international colleagues in a global climate of accountability brings a fresh perspective on shared challenges.
This volume takes a holistic view of the current trends and challenges in quality and quality assurance in TESOL and teacher education. Bringing together top scholars in the field from all over the world, the text features invaluable international perspectives with the common objective of improving the quality in TESOL and teacher education in constantly changing and challenging educational contexts globally. Grouped into four wide-ranging, thematic sections – on multilingualism, diversity, teacher education, and future challenges – the book addresses new obstacles faced by educational professionals in today’s rapidly changing educational landscape by offering alternatives to quantitative targets. Chapter authors cover a range of contexts and timely issues, including technology in the classroom, culturally relevant teaching, teaching for continuous improvement, professional development, and monitoring and evaluating quality. Providing a forum of discussion on the intricacies, complexities, and challenges related to the urgent question of quality in the field, this book is a must-read for prospective ESL/EFL teachers and teacher educators.
Assuring quality for teaching in a time of rapid change is the major challenge facing UK universities. This practical book combines review chapters with case studies within a number of comparative perspectives, describing approaches to quality assurance in the context of teaching.
This book examines the evolution and innovation of teacher education in Singapore in the 21st century. It covers teacher education reforms in the conceptualising and implementing of the Teacher Education for the 21st Century (TE21) Model and discusses curriculum improvements that are aligned to new competencies; values development that re-envision teacher professionalism and calling; pedagogical changes that emphasise self-directed inquiry and technology-enabled learning; strengthened theory–practice linkages and enhanced teaching practices through school partnerships and mentoring; and impactful education research in areas such as assessment and developing teaching competencies, practices and mentoring. Teacher education in Singapore focuses on developing professional leaders in the field of education who are proactive problem-solvers and empowered researchers. It entails a long-term vision of education and an innovative approach to develop teachers with design skills and an inquiring mindset to understand learners in the fast-changing digital and mobile world. This book is aimed at scholars, researchers, policymakers, teacher educators and teachers as well as anyone interested in learning the philosophy behind Singapore’s unique TE21 Model for the 21st century and beyond.
This book provides a comprehensive overview of quality assurance in Vietnamese higher education under the centralised management of the government after 15 years of development. By implementing quality assurance and accreditation mechanisms, the Vietnamese government expected to be able to control and improve the quality of the higher education system. The editors and contributors therefore examine and analyse policies and practices related to the establishment and development of Vietnam's quality assurance system. Amongst other things, the chapters investigate drivers of quality assurance, stakeholders engaged in quality assurance and the future of quality assurance in Vietnamese higher education in benchmarking with other quality assurance systems in the region and across the world. This book will be of interest and value to students and scholars of Vietnamese higher education, as well as quality assurance in higher education more generally, but particularly in developing nations.
This book analyses the range of potential measures national quality assurance agencies may have to employ to deal with the new issues caused by Cross Border Higher Education (CBHE). The expansion of CBHE raises quality problems, which are currently assessed differently depending on the countries concerned. This has been exacerbated by the growth of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) which have developed very quickly and can be prone to rogue providers. This book considers the steps that have already been taken to ensure quality as well as those ahead. It is important that the swift growth of CBHE is not just seen as a means to increase the revenues of higher education institutions faced with decreasing public funding but also as a means to keep educational standards high.
The International Handbook of Teacher Quality and Policy is a comprehensive resource that examines how teacher quality is conceptualized, negotiated, and contested, and teacher policies are developed and implemented by global, national, and local policy actors. Edited by two of the leading comparative authorities in the field, it draws on the research and contributions of scholars from across the globe to explore five central questions: How has teacher quality been conceptualized from various disciplinary and theoretical perspectives? How are global and transnational policy actors and networks influencing teacher policies and practices? What are the perspectives and experiences of teachers in local policy contexts? What do comparative research studies tell us about teachers and how their work and policy contexts influence their teaching? How have various countries implemented policies aimed at improving teacher quality and how have these policies influenced teachers and students? The international contributors represent a wide variety of scholars who identify global dynamics influencing policy discourses on teacher quality, and examine national and local teaching and policy environments influencing teacher policy development and implementation in various countries. Divided into five sections, the book brings together the latest conceptual and empirical studies on teacher quality and teacher policies to inform future policy directions for recruiting, educating, and supporting the teaching profession.
