Abstract
ABSTRACTTeaching and learning is a growing field of research and practice globally, and increasing investments are being made in developing academics as teachers. An inability to adequately account for disciplinary knowledge can lead to academic development inputs that are unable to fully address the needs of students, educators, or disciplines themselves. Semantics, from Legitimation Code Theory (LCT), provides insight not just into the hows of pedagogy but also the whats and whys, particularly the ways in which knowledge needs to be connected up in meaning-making. This paper argues for the use of semantic profiles to open up conversations with educators about teaching, learning, and the nature of knowledge in their disciplines. It raises important questions about the practical uses of LCT tools in higher education and shares initial ideas, informed by lecturer feedback in one case study, of how these tools can be used in academic staff development.
Highlights
Teaching and learning is a growing field of research and practice globally (Manathunga, 2006; Quinn, 2003, 2012), and in South Africa the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) is investing increasing amounts of money in developing academics as teachers, and developing university capacity to support academics in their pedagogic practice (CHE, 2015; DHET, 2014)
This paper argues that academic development work needs to open up different kinds of conversations that are lecturer- and discipline-centred in that they have a theory of knowledge that can be applied to disciplinary contexts, and in that they can engage educators in specific and focused rather than more generic conversations about what they are teaching, how, why, and how they expect or want their students to be learning
I do not want to dwell here too long, as the conceptual tool used in the research this paper reports on, as noted, is Semantics
Summary
This paper argues that academic development work needs to open up different kinds of conversations that are lecturer- and discipline-centred in that they have a theory of knowledge that can be applied to disciplinary contexts, and in that they can engage educators in specific and focused rather than more generic conversations about what they are teaching, how, why, and how they expect or want their students to be learning.
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