Learning Our Lesson

Leaders and academics can improve the quality of higher education teaching, and thereby the quality of their graduates, by reflecting on institution-wide practices. This book explores the interplay between actors within institutions, organisational structure, commitment of senior leadership, involvement of faculty and students, and evaluation instruments. Based on an OECD review of 46 quality teaching initiatives in 20 countries, the report highlights the significant impact of the institutions’ environment, trends in the quality of academia, teaching methods and learning conditions. The sample represents 29 higher education institutions, from technological and vocational institutions to business and economic schools, from small undergraduate institutions to multidisciplinary postgraduate universities. The book illustrates the following factors with examples from around the world: the aims of institutions when fostering quality teaching, their options and the guiding philosophy behind a quality approach; concrete ways to apply quality teaching initiatives, challenges to implementing them, and key actors in their dissemination; evaluation systems and the impacts of institutional support on teaching, research and quality culture; how institution-wide approaches can be combined to enhance quality teaching in a sustainable way. The book also analyses the effects of quality teaching on institutional leaders, faculty members, quality units and students.