There are some great conversations going on in the sector at the moment about professionalism and teaching quality in higher education, a topic very close to my heart and that of CAULLT.

ATEC have focused attention on teaching quality and professional development of teaching staff with their Interim Statement of Strategic Priorities which calls for increased professionalism in learning and teaching across the sector, including working towards improving the professional recognition of quality teaching. Last week the Australian Teaching and Education Focused Academic Network (TEFA) hosted Professor Liz Johnson and teaching specialists from across the sector to talk about teaching quality. The briefing paper is available on their LinkedIn page

The work CAULLT is doing through our grants and commissioned projects speaks directly to this focus.  Our professional learning survey explored the current landscape of professional learning in Australia and New Zealand; the benchmarking standards for academic development give us evidence-based criteria to consider the effectiveness of our academic development activities; the micro-credentialling framework for professional learning considered how we might align professional learning across the sector; and the student evaluations project explored how evaluation outcomes are used to support teaching quality.

We have several projects currently underway to explore the long-term impact of Graduate Certificates; how we can build quality teaching in hybrid learning spaces; and the role of Learning and Teaching Academies in promoting and celebrating teaching excellence. Also, CAULLT is proud to continue to support the Contemporary Approaches to University Teaching MOOC which runs twice a year to enhance the capability of our educators.  

This is a great time to engage with these projects as we come together to consider what teaching quality and professionalism looks like for our sector going forward.

Professor Barbie Panther, Vice President of CAULLT