Educational Development
Our Department promotes innovation and best practices in Higher Education. For that purpose we provide a wide range of activities fostering staff development through provision of workshops, seminars and coaching.
Next, we conduct - in close collaboration with academic departments - research and development projects enhancing student learning through the use of e-learning technology, improved course design, and development of new pedagogies for learning. Finally, we give advice about educational policy making based on research and institutional data analysis.
Staff development
Educational staff plays a vital role in the expertise development of students. Given our focus on cooperative learning environments, a crucial question is which roles and approaches contribute to student’s learning processes and in turn their expertise growth. Moreover, insight is needed in how to support faculty in their professional development. For example, do teachers that have been participating in staff development programs continue to update their competencies? What conditions needs to be created such that keep developing? How can e-learning tools support faculty in a wide range of teaching roles?
The advancements in technology have challenged those involved in education and training & development to look for new ways to support students’ as well as professionals’ learning. Our research and development activities focus on the current landscape of formal as well as informal learning through the use of digital technologies. For that purpose we work in close collaboration with developers of e-learning platforms to develop a better understanding of essential features in e-learning that enable continuous learning and development of students, teachers, and staff.
Educational development and staff development offer a variety of consultancy and developmental programmes.
Consultancy and developmental programmes
Consultancy
Over the past few years our department has served many higher education institutes to initiate programme reform, or to further develop innovative programmes in the fields of economics and business education.
Problem-Based Learning (PBL)
We are specialised in providing tailor-made advice on how to develop and implement Problem-Based Learning (PBL). We can help you through provision of teacher-training programmes, course development, and design of student assessment programmes to get the most out of the potentials of PBL.
More information
please contact Inken Gast
Improvement of workplace learning
Next to our research and consultancy on PBL, we are specialised in various issues concerning improvement of workplace learning. Our work and consultancy deals with issues of portfolio assessment, team learning, and networked expertise. In close collaboration with consultancy firms we help organisations to improve training and development programmes.
More information
please contact W.Gijselaers
IWIO
Over the past few years, the ERD department has developed a university-wide information system to collect data about our educational programme: IWIO. The purpose of IWIO is to provide SBE with an interactive web-based quality management system that monitors all its courses and programmes on elements that are of particular importance to SBE. Data and information are available through a special website, named IWIO.
Visit IWIO website
This implies that all courses are evaluated every year for aspects of study load, the quality of the materials and the performance of the lecturer or tutor. For this purpose, students fill in a web-based questionnaire at the end of each course. Web-based data collection ensures that feed back is given anonymous. Course-evaluation reports are available to students, teachers, programme director, chair of the programme committee, and department chair.
The basic idea behind IWIO
is that all educational activities (Skills, Courses and Programmes), need permanent monitoring on essential parameters.
PBL coaching
Maastricht University’s Problem-Based Learning (PBL) requires special teaching staff who are able to play a seemingly modest role by using their expertise to serve the learning process in which the student is central. Our department trains and guides new tutors in Problem-Based Learning by offering trainings and regularly offering specific courses, such as ‘teaching in the international classroom’ and ‘the use of e-learning’.
Teacher Qualification certificate (UTQ)
This teacher qualification program is part of the policy of Maastricht University to qualify all teaching staff. ALL Dutch universities agreed in January 2008 to accept each other’s teachers’ qualification certificate. In the United Kingdom and the Scandinavian countries like Norway and Sweden a similar obligatory teaching qualification degree does exist.
Contact
More information about
'Teacher Qualification Certificate' at SBE
I.Gast@maastrichtuniversity.nl
Bas.Giesbers@maastrichtuniversity.nl
Purpose
The School of Business and Economics recognizes the importance of high quality education and qualified teaching staff (see strategic plan 2009- 2013). The start of the Teacher Qualification Certificate programme (UTQ), approved by the Faculty Board in October 2008, supports and stimulates the professional development of teachers. In this program teachers improve and develop their competences related to the teaching and learning practice in our faculty.
At the end of the UTQ-trajectory the result will be that the participants:
- have developed and improved their teaching competencies
- know the most recent educational developments and innovations within the faculty
- are able to reflect on their teaching competencies and to initiate future improvements
- have an educational portfolio as evidence for their teaching competencies
The 6 competences are:
- Subject related aspects
- Development of education
- Teaching delivery
- Assessment and testing of students
- Cooperation
- Self reflection
Target group
The UTQ is meant for ALL staff who is involved in teaching at our faculty. Since January 2009 on the UTQ teacher qualification is mandatory for all new incoming staff members with a contract of = 0.6 fte in the following position:
- Full professor
- Associate professor (UHD) 1 and 2
- Assistant professor (UD) 1 and 2
- Lecturer 1, 2, 3
Not mandatory for junior lecturers, PhD students, student assistants and post docs.
NB. For some departments it is mandatory for PhD students to acquire their Teaching Qualification certificate.
Time investment and support
A total UTQ-trajectory will take maximum 185 hours and will consist of:
- Training Problem Based Learning and Tutor training, video-observation of a tutorial with feedback and the Workshop Managing
- Diversity (obligatory for ALL new incoming staff members) (25 hour)
- Practical work: course design, teaching, assessment (75 hour)
- Intervision meetings with colleagues (15 hour)
- Self reflection and development of e-portfolio (16 hour)
- Elective activities (Taking workshops, reading educational literature, attending educational seminars) (54 hour)
Procedure for new staff members.
Target group
Maximum 2 year can be taken. All new staff members will be informed by the HRM department about the teaching qualification (UTQ) requirement during the application procedure. The UTQ-coordinator Bas Giesbers will contact the new staff members and have an intake. Former teaching experiences will be taken into account in defining a as tailor made programme as possible. Own teaching experiences will be analysed and transformed to new insights which can be used in the own teaching practice. Each participant will have a coach; a senior staff member of the department who will support and facilitate during the trajectory.
Assessment and certification
The 6 teaching competencies will be developed and each staff member has to show evidence in an e-portfolio. The department chair will marginally check the portfolio and writes a recommendation letter for the Assessment Committee This e-portfolio will be assessed by an Assessment Committee installed by the Faculty Board. The candidates will receive a certificate signed by the dean of the faculty.
Support
The UTQ coordinator has an overview of courses, workshops, literature etc. which can be taken for further professional development. The website with information, articles, checklists etc. is in construction and will be made available very soon.