The Impact of Academic Discipline on University Teaching and Pedagogical Training Courses

Abstract

Professional development of university teachers in teaching, not only in research, has become an important topic in the development of higher education (HE) policies in recent years. Specific research on pedagogical development of university teachers remains limited, not taking into account academic disciplines and their impact on teachers' perceptions of different components of their teaching and training courses intended for their professional development. In this paper, we are presenting the differences among Slovenian teachers in different disciplines regarding their perception of teaching and their attitude towards pedagogical training courses (PTCs) with the results of an online survey study. Our findings show that teachers of soft sciences are more involved in PTCs than university teachers of hard sciences, except those from Health sub-discipline. Teachers of soft sciences, in comparison to those of hard sciences, generally perceive the quality of their own teaching as slightly higher, and they also have a slightly, but statistically significantly better attitude towards PTCs and teaching in general. Teachers from Health sub-discipline are generally more similar to soft sciences teachers than to hard sciences teachers in terms of different pedagogical dimensions studied. We can conclude that there is quite a clear distinction between teachers of soft sciences and teachers of certain hard sciences in their attitude and perception of different elements of university teaching and training courses in general (external heterogeneity). However, there is little separation between individual disciplines (internal homogeneity), which should be taken into account at least when introducing and implementing PTCs for teachers in different disciplines at institutional or national level. Show more