Teaching Expertise in Higher Education: Constructive Alignment and How an Experienced University Teacher Maintained Constructive Alignment in Practice

Abstract

Teaching expertise in higher education currently receives elevated attention. This attention has also sparked an interest in expertise development, which is the focus of this chapter. The chapter characterises teaching expertise in higher education from a knowledge development perspective, and presents a knowledge development model grounded in the concepts of tacit knowing and self-care. This model provides theoretical sensitivity for an ethnographic case study on knowledge development at the Faculty of Science at University of Copenhagen, where I engaged in fieldwork with an experienced university teacher, and explored the way in which she developed her expertise based on her teaching experience. Analysis of this case highlights that this teacher was involved in an expertise development process that focused on maintaining constructive alignment for students throughout her course.