Abstracts - Earli

1) a qualitative analysis of the development of the students’ understanding of studying‘effectively’ – a concept with contradictory implications when seen in relation to different goals.2) a similar analysis of students’ concluding ‘evaluation’ essays. Booth, S. & Ingerman, A.Making sense of Physics in the first year of study, Learning & Instruction, 12, 493-507, 2002.B 1528 August 2007 17:30 - 18:50Room: 0.100APaper SessionTeaching in higher educationChair:Robert Jan Simons, University of Utrecht, NetherlandsThe development of new teachers’ conceptions and approaches to teaching in higher educationIan Sadler, York St John University, United KingdomThe current study uses empirical data to illustrate how novice teachers in higher education developin the way they think and go about their teaching. Three longitudinal interviews over a period oftwo years were conducted with twelve new teachers. Participants were teaching in a range ofhigher education institutions and settings, as well as across a range of disciplines including; SportScience, Physiotherapy, Psychology and History. Interview transcripts were analysed using acombination of phenomenography and case studies. This allowed for general categories ofdescription to be created while at the same time preserving the idiosyncratic nature ofdevelopment. The analysis identified a number of themes which are supplemented by contextspecific experiences of individuals. The emerging themes relate to the new teachers understandingof teaching, development in this understanding of teaching and the influences upon thisdevelopment. Case studies of individual teachers’ experiences illustrate the importance of thesubject discipline upon teaching and the development of teaching. Factors which appear toinfluence development include; confidence, knowledge of teaching in the discipline,experimentation with student activities and feedback and reflection. Such data has value forinforming teaching development programmes for new teachers in higher education.Relations between dissonance and change in ways of experiencing university teachingJo McKenzie, University of Technology, Sydney, AustraliaWhile there have been a number of studies of dissonance in student learning, less attention hasbeen focused on dissonance in the experience of university teaching. This paper exploresdissonance and its relation to change in ways of experiencing university teaching, using alongitudinal qualitative approach based on phenomenography and variation theory. Analysis ofinterviews with university teachers revealed two broad forms of dissonance. One involved acts ofteaching which were dissonant with the teacher’s intention in a particular situation, the otherinvolved ways of experiencing which were congruent and coherent with the teacher’s perceptionsof their situation but dissonant with the teacher’s preferred way of experiencing teaching. Thefindings suggest that dissonance may resolve if the teacher experiences it as dissonance and isaware of necessary patterns of variation in aspects of ways of experiencing teaching.– 100 –