Developing New Roles for University Teachers: Grass-roots Local Staff Development Serviced by Top-down Investment and Policy

摘要

Effective staff development is the weaving together of many strands. We need to support staff in their current work, while providing them with ideas, incentives and resources to look for new ways to design learning environments which will enhance student learning. Staff development must be combined with specific projects where change is occurring. Ideas are not hard to find. Incentives and resources are another matter. The paper will outline some general principles for effective staff development. These principles will be applied in the description of the substantial investment RMIT has made in order to realise our Teaching and Learning Strategy. We have a model of 'grass-roots' faculty-based work funded by large-scale corporate 'investment'. 'Bottom-up' meets 'top-down'.