Keynore presented at the Chinese Higher Education Development Network conference (CHED2017) Shanghai, July 2017.

2. Overview
• Motivation – why did we do this?
• Process – how we went about it
• Results – what we learned from the data
Additional resources

3. Mo#va#on
• Gain insights into our understanding of:
• Teaching prac#ces
• A9tudes towards teaching
• Percep#ons of the teaching and learning environment
At a range of research intensive universi#es
(members of the Universitas21 network)
• Establish baseline / comparator measures
• Compare across ins#tu#ons

4. Title of slide
• Content
www.cwsei.ubc.ca 2008 à 2014

5. Process
• U21 member institutions invited to take part
• Local customizations for academic context
• Deployment locally through teaching
leadership (May – Sept 2016)
• Analysis and reporting done by UBC

7. Survey Responses
63
1616
199
68
457
401
186
85 43
1131
113
35
285
236
116
58
0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
1400
1600
1800
A B C D E F G H
Ini#ated survey
Completed survey

8. How many years have you been teaching at
the university level?
2.3%
11.4%
20.8%
17.2% 16.6%
30.3%
0.2%
1.3%
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
<1 1-4 5-9 10-14 15-19 20+ Don’t
know
Prefer not
to answer

9. Student Enrolment Variability
120
55
100
47.5 48
70
95
120
0
50
100
150
200
250
A B C D E F G H

10. Common Teaching Practices
89% frequently encourage students to ask the instructor ques#ons during class.
78% frequently connect assessments to course learning goals/objec#ves/outcomes1
77% frequently connect teaching ac#vi#es to course learning goals/objec#ves/
outcomes.2
70% frequently structure teaching #me so students learn by listening to the
instructor or other experts.
62% frequently encourage students to seek mul#ple approaches to a problem/
ques#on.
62% frequently expect students to spend a significant amount of #me interac#ng
with the course materials in prepara#on for class mee#ngs.
57% frequently require students to work together in groups.

11. Classroom Time
0.0%
10.0%
20.0%
30.0%
40.0%
50.0%
60.0%
Presen#ng
content
Whole class
discussion
Small group
discussion
Student led
teaching
ac#vi#es
Students solving
problems or
producing work
Student peer
review of work
Assessments Other
Ins#tu#onal High
Ins#tu#onal Low
Ins#tu#onal Average
On average 37% of classroom #me is
ac#ve learning.

12. Outside Class Time – Instructor
Expectations
62.3% Expect students to review material (readings, video, web resources) but not to complete
an assessment of their understanding before class. (87.3%, 14.0%)
28.1% Expect students to review material (readings, video, web resources) and to complete an
assessment of their understanding before class. (47.4%, 14.1%)
34.6% Expect students to work on problem sets/homework/worksheets that do not contribute
to course grade. (55.8% ,18.4%)
46.7% Expect students to work on problem sets/homework/worksheets that do contribute to
course grade. (68.4%, 36.1%)
33.6% Expect students to produce research papers or major projects. (72.1%, 15.7%)
39.0% Expect students to write short papers or produce other minor works. (52.6%, 18.6%)

13. 41.2%
35.1%
38.6%
43.3%
13.5%
13.7%
5.8%
6.7%
1.0%
1.3%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Strongly Agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly Disagree
Perceptions: Class Size & Resources
Even without a smaller class size, I believe it is possible to improve the
effec#veness of one’s teaching.
Even without more resources, I believe it is possible to improve the
effec#veness of one’s teaching.

14. Perceptions: Institutional Recognition
for Teaching
19.9%
14.7%
37.9%
40.0%
25.8%
25.0%
9.9%
13.2%
6.6%
7.2%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Strongly Agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly Disagree
University leadership at my institution recognizes the importance of
teaching.
Leadership in my Faculty/School recognizes the importance of
teaching.

15. “Please write one word that describes your experience
of the teaching and learning environment at your institution.”

16. “Please write one word that describes your experience
of the teaching and learning environment at your institution.”
Which of these words occurred most
frequently in responses?
1. Challenging
2. Suppor#ve
3. Undervalued
4. Rewarding

17. Please write one word that describes your experience
of the teaching environment at your institution.

18. What changes could be made at your institution
to help you teach more effectively?
Change U21 weighted score Total comments
Value of teaching 67 260
Funding and resources 46 210
Workload and time 45 193
Technology 40 180
Administrative support 38 46
Facilities and space 32 141
Class size 25 149
Curriculum and course content 22 47
Engagement with colleagues 17 118
Professionalism 17 92
Student centered pedagogies 16 110
Timetabling, scheduling 15 17
Formal PD 14 21
Rigor 11 21
Other 5 16

19. What changes could be made at your institution to
help you teach more effectively?
Most prevalent themes in ranked order:
1. Increase the value placed on teaching
“More recognition of teaching as the bread and butter of what we do in
[institution] and appropriate rewards: for example the potential to be
promoted to Associate Professor on the strength of excelling in teaching
and curriculum design would be so beneficial.At the moment I feel my
career is going nowhere fast because I've focused on teaching.”
2. Increase funding and resources
“My teaching is subsidized by my external research grants.If the
faculty/university covered the real cost of teaching and teaching
development (i.e.the time I spend on improving my class),then I could
take the time to develop my teaching and learn to teach more
effectively.”

20. Continued:
3. Decrease workload, allocate more time for teaching
“More time for focusing on teaching instead of having to ‘balance’
multiple academic roles,which results in not having sufficient time to
prepare as well as I'd like for teaching.”
4. More technology and support for technology
“More teaching support in adopting new information technology.”
5. More administrative support
“The burden of excessive administration and over assessment mean
time that could be spent developing module material in a better way
What changes could be made at your institution to
help you teach more effectively?

21. Challenge U21 weighted score Total comments
Workload and time 69 579
Value of teaching 57 295
Student engagement and enthusiasm 53 186
Student centered pedagogies 36 126
Class size 30 193
Funding and resources 29 174
Student preparedness 24 94
Curriculum and course content 23 84
Administrative support 18 22
Leadership 14 13
Professionalism 10 9
Rigor 10 16
Technology 9 85
Assessment 8 71
Experience and practice 8 11
Other 8 16

22. Most prevalent themes in ranked order:
1. Workload and #me
“Having enough time to prepare and be truly engaged with students
learning experience,given other obligations such as research and
administration.”
2. Value of teaching
“General stress on faculty in a research-intensive university where
there's certainly lip service given to teaching,but where one knows that
tenure and promotion decisions will ultimately be based on research.”
3. Student engagement and enthusiasm
“Most students are final exam-oriented.They do not concern any other
things which are not relevant to the final exam.This is a big challenge in
making them to be active learners.”

23. Con#nued:
4. Student centered pedagogies
“Using extensive experiential learning and essay/project based
assignments in large classes… but not having the dedicated
programme/admin assistance to help me do so.”
5. Class size
“Dealing with very large student numbers.Not only large classes (and
trying to get students involved) but the volume of student queries and
emails this leads to.”

24. Improvement U21 weighted score Total comments
Engagement with colleagues 65 338
Experience and practice 56 266
Student feedback 56 256
Formal PD 53 223
Student centered pedagogies 45 204
Technology 41 171
Self-reflection, motivation 39 121
Scholarly practice 32 91
Student engagement and
enthusiasm
19 19
Value of teaching 17 12
Funding and resources 16 61
Other 16 14
Professionalism 13 71
Curriculum and course content 12 5
Leadership 10 2
Collaborative teaching 9 15

25. Most prevalent themes in ranked order:
1. Engagement with colleagues
“Support from my own departmental faculty members who have
encouraged me and helped me grow as a teacher.”
2. Experience and prac#ce
“Trying things out.If it works,great.If it needs to be improved,that's
perfect.If it doesn't work,recognising that this too had some value.”
3. Student feedback
“Listening carefully to student feedback and trying to change at least
one thing on my modules each year in response to student feedback.”

26. Next steps / future work
• Individual reports to participating
institutions, together with global data report
• Factor analysis and refinement: reiteration in
early 2018 (TPS2018).

27. Resources / more information
• Full data report:
http://www.universitas21.com/article/educational/details/310/u21-
teaching-practices-survey-tps-project
• This presentation:
http://bit.ly/batestalks
• Publication from UBC study:
http://celt.uwindsor.ca/ojs/leddy/index.php/CELT/article/view/4433