Leading Pedagogical Change in Higher Education

Author(s):

Coral Pepper

Conference:

ECER 2009

Network:

26. Educational Leadership

Format:

Paper

Session Information

26 SES 06 A,

Paper Session

Time:

2009-09-29

10:30-12:00

Room:

NIG, Seminarraum, 6. Floor

Chair:

Helen Wildy

Contribution

In this paper I report on leading pedagogical change in a Western Australian University and compare this with similar change in the Danish university context (Kolmos, 2008). Contemporary theories on leadership include transformational leadership (Leithwood et al, 1999), distributed leadership (Spillane, 2006) and sustainable leadership (Hargreaves & Fink, 2006). Leading for change has been conceptualised as occurring in three phases called initiation, implementation and institutionalisation by Huberman and Miles (1984). I use this framework to discuss distributed and sustainable leadership for change. In undertaking this evidence based research I investigate participant perceptions of the introduction, leadership strategies selected to embed change and the shared leadership experience within the Faculty. This is compared with the Danish educational tradition which is based on democratic learning and free education (Kolmos et al., 2008).

Method

A case study methodology will be adopted to examine and report on the leadership practised to implement pedagogical change (Problem Based Learning) into a research intensive UWA Science Faculty. A questionnaire designed to elicit participant views on the leadership and implementation of PBL is under construction. In addition data gathered from semi-structured interviews designed to probe participants’ experience of the leadership and implementation will be discussed briefly. Data gathered from questionnaires and interviews will be compared and contrasted with the Danish experience. Participants in this study will be drawn from unit coordinators who implemented PBL tasks into their units during the 2007 and 2008 academic years. This methodology offers the opportunity to obtain rich, powerful and reflective data from academics leading pedagogical change.

Expected Outcomes

The research builds on an earlier study undertaken during 2007 (Pepper, 2007). It is anticipated that participants welcomed the opportunity of shared leadership and the evidence of lessons learnt from the Danish experience of implementing and sustaining pedagogical change.

References

Hargreaves, A. & Fink, D. (2006). Sustainable leadership. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Huberman, A.M. & Miles, M.B. (1984). Innovation up close: How school improvement works. New York: Pelenum. Kolmos, A. (2008). Problem based learning and the course structure review: an opportunity to develop integrated learning. Workshop for the Faculty of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics and the Centre for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning at The University of Western Australia, November 2008. Kolmos, A., Du. X., Holgaard, J. and Jensen, L. (2008). Facilitation in a PBL environment, Publication for Centre for Engineering Education Research and Development, Aalborg University. Leithwood, K., Jantzi, D. & Steinbeck, R. (1999). Changing leadership for changing times. Buckingham: Open University Press. Pepper, C. (2007). Implementing Problem-Based Learning in a science faculty, Issues in Educational Research, 18(1). Spillane, J. P. (2006). Distributed leadership. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Author Information

Coral Pepper

The University of Western Australia

Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences

Perth

Search the ECER Programme

Search for keywords and phrases in "Text Search"
Restrict in which part of the abstracts to search in "Where to search"
Search for authors and in the respective field.
For planning your conference attendance you may want to use the conference app, which will be issued some weeks before the conference
If you are a session chair, best look up your chairing duties in the conference system (Conftool) or the app.