engleski

Research papers are what counts: excellence in teaching is neither supported nor properly evaluated

The aim of this paper is to explore and analyze junior academics’ attitudes towards teaching competencies. The main research question was: what significance do junior academics in Croatia attach to teaching competencies and how they acquire them? In order to answer this question we have used both quantitative and qualitative approach to research. The results of the quantitative research indicate that junior academics perceive to possess a high level of teaching competencies, however, at the same time assign statistically significantly lower importance to teaching competencies in comparison with the senior academics. The aforementioned results of the quantitative research created the need for deeper analysis of professional socialization of junior academics. The qualitative approach (phenomenology and narrative analysis) was used in order to gain insight into personal attitudes towards teaching, education for acquiring teaching competencies, personal freedom in teaching, institutional perspective on teaching, as well as the presence of support and evaluation mechanisms in the teaching process. The results suggest that there is a lack of support for the junior academics in the process of acquiring and developing teaching competencies on various levels (institutional, mentorial and collegial support). Furthermore, teaching is not properly evaluated and there is no formal education in the context of developing teaching competencies. The results raised a new question: why do the junior academics perceive to possess a high level of teaching competencies despite the fact that there is a considerable lack of education and support in acquiring and developing teaching competencies?

junior academics ; higher education ; teaching competencies

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