Koncepcije nastave univerzitetskih nastavnika i njihovi pristupi nastavi

Abstract

Within the scope of discussing possibilities for improving the quality of higher education teaching, ongoing since the 1990s, intensive research has been evident in literature, regarding university teachers' conceptions of teaching and their approaches to teaching, and in that respect, also the issue of pedagogical training and advanced professional training of university teachers. In view of the fact that different terms have been used in literature to describe the diverse ways in which teachers conceptualise higher education teaching, the purpose of this paper is to gain a profound understanding of the different conceptual and terminological definitions in this area of academic research. In this process, special attention has been directed at analysing the research findings presented in literature regarding the dilemma of whether university teachers' conceptions of teaching and their approaches to teaching are relatively stable over time, or represent relational constructs that develop in response to a specific context or the teaching situation. Apart from discussing the scope of the meaning of the constructs of university teachers' conceptions of teaching and their approaches to teaching, an additional objective of the research has been to analyse the research findings presented in literature, relating to the relationship between these two constructs. It has been established that the findings presented in literature corroborate the idea that university teachers' conceptions of teaching are the basis for their teaching practice. The conclusion is that understanding beliefs about teaching and finding appropriate ways to encourage university teachers' awareness of them, and their self-assessment, is of essential importance, because this creates the fundaments for adopting scientifically based conceptions of teaching and introducing adequate changes in teaching practice in order to support students' learning in a better way.