Enhancing professionalism through collaboration between teachers and administrators in University Pedagogy courses
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Leena Evesti
Leena Evesti has been Head of Language Training at the University of Helsinki Language Services Unit since 2000. She was formerly a teacher of English, and her interests include the English language, language learning and teaching, language testing, and management and development issues.
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Satu Kattainen
Satu Kattainen is a Study Adviser at the University of Helsinki Language Centre Student Affairs Office. She has been working at the Language Centre since 2008. Her interests include student counselling and research-based teaching and learning in higher education.Johanna Vaattovaara is a Senior Lecturer in University Pedagogy in the Support for Teaching and Learning unit at the University of Helsinki Language Centre, where her duties include university pedagogical training and research support for Language Centre staff. Her research interests focus on university language teaching and learning, and also on sociolinguistics (language attitudes and the popularization of science).
Abstract
This article reports on the experiences and opportunities that two University Pedagogy courses offered to University of Helsinki Language Centre personnel in 2011–2012. The Language Centre and Language Services working community shares an understanding that everyone is working towards the same goal: to support university students' language learning. Thus the courses were open to all academic personnel, both teachers and administrators. This article introduces three voices: two administrative staff voices and one University Pedagogy course instructor voice. The main concern of the article is to identify how collaboration between teachers and academic administrators can enhance professional development and quality in Language Centres. We aim to show how University Pedagogy courses are not only suitable but also, more importantly, fruitful for those members of staff who have no teaching duties. We describe how participation in such courses opened up new perspectives on the participants' work, and summarize the insights they achieved while carrying out their course work in collaboration with their teacher colleagues. The stories we include show how one's individual learning experiences can refine working processes at the Language Centre, with important implications for long-term collaboration between teachers and administrators and also for quality assurance.
About the authors
Leena Evesti has been Head of Language Training at the University of Helsinki Language Services Unit since 2000. She was formerly a teacher of English, and her interests include the English language, language learning and teaching, language testing, and management and development issues.
Satu Kattainen is a Study Adviser at the University of Helsinki Language Centre Student Affairs Office. She has been working at the Language Centre since 2008. Her interests include student counselling and research-based teaching and learning in higher education.
Johanna Vaattovaara is a Senior Lecturer in University Pedagogy in the Support for Teaching and Learning unit at the University of Helsinki Language Centre, where her duties include university pedagogical training and research support for Language Centre staff. Her research interests focus on university language teaching and learning, and also on sociolinguistics (language attitudes and the popularization of science).
©[2013] by Walter de Gruyter Berlin Boston
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- Establishing a Korean language programme in a European Higher Education context: Rationale, curriculum and assessment procedures
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- Enhancing professionalism through collaboration between teachers and administrators in University Pedagogy courses
Articles in the same Issue
- Masthead
- Bridging passion and profession: Supporting agency and investment in multilingual university writers
- Understanding the learning experiences of postgraduate Latin American students in a UK context: A narrative approach
- Languages for specific academic purposes or languages for general academic purposes? A critical reappraisal of a key issue for language provision in higher education
- Student writing standards: A descending spiral or a bold new direction?
- “Come and sit here next to me”: Towards a communicative assessment of oral language skills
- Special features of assessment in reading comprehension in a Finnish university language centre
- Can blended learning aid foreign language learning?
- Establishing a Korean language programme in a European Higher Education context: Rationale, curriculum and assessment procedures
- Meeting the needs of students, in-service workers and enterprises in a multilingual and multicultural Europe: A challenge for language centres
- Enhancing professionalism through collaboration between teachers and administrators in University Pedagogy courses
