engleski

Illuminating the quality of teaching in Croatian higher education

The quality culture of teaching in European higher education area has (recently) been put forward in a fast-growing number of European policies, reports, declarations, and recommendations. Documenting and discussing various (national) higher education systems and positioning of teaching, many of those referential European documents demand an additional effort with regard to the enhancement of the quality in university teaching, advocate for a paradigm change in the approach to teaching, and the adjustment of teaching to the requirements of the new generations of students. In parallel, research conducted in the national context of higher education reveals lack of serious critical self-assessment of teaching competencies among academic, as well as the possibility of unfamiliarity with the complex networks of ability, knowledge, skills, attitudes, and values inherent to teaching competencies (Ćulum, Miočić and Rončević 2017). The research results also indicate to the absence of the promotion criteria connected to teaching (Turk and Ledić 2016), as well as that the excellence in higher education teaching is not valued (Ledić 2016 ; Vignjević, Turk and Ledić 2016). Some claim that leads to the disregard of teaching as a profession, and inability to advocate the development of teacher competencies in higher education (Turk and Ledić 2016). This paper focuses on various aspects of teaching quality in the national higher education context (teaching preferences, diversity of teaching activities, evaluation, the interconnectedness of teaching and other academic activities) in the span of the last decade, comparing results with those from previous collaborative international projects on changes in the academic profession. The sample includes both junior and senior academics affiliated in various disciplinary fields (social sciences, humanities, arts, and natural sciences), thus opening a platform for a critical reflection on a quality of teaching and training in Croatian higher education area. The latest research results come out as part of a still undergoing quantitative comparative international project “Academic profession in a knowledge society”, so the first (preliminary) results will be presented.

quality of teaching in higher education ; diversity of teaching activities ; teaching preferences ; evaluation

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