Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/1959.3/198743

Title

Lessons from the Promoting Excellence Initiative project: the influence of context

Author(s)

Brooker, Miriam;  Cummings, Rick;  Nagy, Judy;  Smeal, Georgia;  Mazzolini, Margaret;  Devlin, Marcia

Abstract

The ALTC has funded the 'Lessons learned from the PEI project' to investigate its Promoting Excellence Initiative [PEI] (which allocated $9m to 42 institutions), with a focus on the leadership strengths developed and the lessons learnt within the university-based projects. The overall purpose of this project is to highlight the leadership challenges faced by PEI project leaders and champions. This showcase highlights institutional perspectives about the extent to which initiatives have promoted engagement with learning and teaching excellence within their own institutions, as distilled from institutional reports submitted to the ALTC. As the first stage in the larger project, a cross-section of 18 of the 34 available PEI Final Reports (53%) as well as the 13 corresponding PEI Evaluation Reports from higher education institutions was analysed. An analytical framework incorporating institutional contexts, the institutional structures, leadership approaches, and institutional outcomes was utilised to code the common themes and unique outcomes within NVivo9 software. Based on the evidence provided in the PEI project and evaluation reports, it was apparent that universities supported their PEI in a variety of ways, and subsequently reported positive impacts in the following key areas: improved dissemination, heightened scholarship of teaching, and, increased alignment between institutional grants and awards and ALTC grants and awards. The findings contain many lessons learned about what approaches and leadership qualities were most commonly effective in furthering learning and teaching within the higher education sector in Australia.

Publication type

Conference paper

Source

Paper presented at 'Higher education on the edge', the Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australasia Conference (HERDSA 2011), Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia, 04-07 July 2011

Publication year

2011

Keyword(s)

Higher education;  Leadership qualities;  Learning;  Promoting Excellence Initiative;  Teaching

Publisher

Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australasia

Publisher URL

http://conference.herdsa.org.au/2011/

Copyright

Copyright © 2011.

Peer reviewed