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Graduate students’ conceptions of university teaching and learning: formation for change

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Abstract

The paper introduces a framework concerning conceptions of teaching and learning of advanced graduate students and the trajectory of change in their conceptions following a formal course on course design and teaching. Students were enrolled in six sections of this graduate course, two offered in a 6-week format and 4 in a 13-week format. The courses were taught by three different instructors. Data were obtained from 88 doctoral students before and after the course using four questions pertaining to the meaning of effective teaching, effective learning, role of the teacher, and role of the learner. Using an open coding procedure, four conceptions were identified. These were transmitting knowledge, preparing context/managing instruction, promoting course learning, and promoting life-long learning. The generalized linear model procedure was used to conduct within and between group pre and post course comparisons. Overall, there was a significant change in response frequency ratios in all four categories across all courses, indicating a decrease in the responses in the first two categories and an increase in the frequency of responses in the last two categories. No significant differences were attributed to course type or instructor.

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Notes

  1. One research assistant coded 100% of the data. The other two coded 50% each.

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Acknowledgements

Research for this paper has been supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. A version of this paper was presented at the 2007 EARLI conference in Budapest, Hungry. The authors are grateful for comments received from Denis Berthiaume and other participants in that conference. We wish to also thank Olivia Hua, and Elaine Laflamme for reading drafts of this paper and providing useful comments. The listing order of the second and third co-authors is alphabetical. Both have contributed to the development of this paper equally.

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  1. Education & Counseling Psychology, McGill University, Montreal , QC, Canada

    Alenoush Saroyan, Joyce Dagenais & Yanfei Zhou

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  1. Alenoush Saroyan
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Correspondence to Alenoush Saroyan.

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Saroyan, A., Dagenais, J. & Zhou, Y. Graduate students’ conceptions of university teaching and learning: formation for change. Instr Sci 37, 579–600 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11251-008-9071-8

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