A Handbook for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education Enhancing academic and Practice

6 ❘
Teaching, supervising, learning
Part 3: Enhancing personal practice
This section is concerned with how teachers can learn, explore, develop, enhance and
demonstrate their teaching expertise. It describes frameworks and tools for professional
development and demonstrating experience in teaching, be it as part of a programme to
enhance individual practice or about sustaining career development.
Glossary
The final section is a glossary of educational acronyms and technical terms. This may be
used in conjunction with reading the chapters or (as many of our previous readers have
found) separately. In the chapters the meaning of words or terms in bold may be looked
up in the glossary.
DISTINCTIVE FEATURES
Interrogating practice
Chapters feature one or more instances where readers are invited to consider aspects of
their own institution, department, course, students or practice. This is done by posing
questions to the reader under the heading ‘Interrogating practice’. This feature has several
purposes. First, to encourage readers to audit their practice with a view to enhancement.
Second, to challenge readers to examine critically their conceptions of teaching and
workplace practice. Third, to ensure that readers are familiar with their institutional and
departmental policies and practices. Fourth, to give teachers the opportunity to develop
the habit of reflecting on practice. Readers are free to choose how, or if, they engage with
these interrogations.
Case studies
A strength of the book is that each chapter contains case studies. These exemplify issues,
practices and research findings mentioned in the body of the chapters. The examples are
drawn from a wealth of institutions, involving everyday practice of authors and their
colleagues, to demonstrate how particular approaches are used effectively.
FURTHER READING
Each chapter has its own reference section and suggested further reading, including current
web-based resources.