Paul Ashwin
Lancaster University, Educational Research, Faculty Member
- Higher Education, Educational Research, Academic curriculum, Educational Development, Methodology (Education), Teaching-learning interactions, and 7 morePost-compulsory education, Teaching and Learning, Learning And Teaching In Higher Education, Assessment in Higher Education, Phenomenography, Academic Development, and Education Policyedit
- Paul Ashwin is Professor of Higher Education in the Department of Educational Research, Lancaster University, UK. Pau... morePaul Ashwin is Professor of Higher Education in the Department of Educational Research, Lancaster University, UK. Paul’s research focuses on teaching, learning and curriculum practices in higher education and how they are shaped by higher education policies. He is the lead author of Reflective Teaching in Higher Education (2015, Bloomsbury), which is designed for all of those working in higher education who are interested in further developing research-informed approaches to university teaching. Paul is a researcher in the ESRC and HEFCE funded ‘Centre for Global Higher Education’, a coordinating editor for the international journal ‘Higher Education,’ and co-editor of the Bloomsbury book series ‘Understanding Student Experiences of Higher Education’.edit
Imprint: Continuum Pub. date: 09 Apr 2009 ISBN: 9780826494184 176 Pages, hardcover Whilst current research into teaching and learning offers many insights into the experiences of academics and students in higher education, it has... more
Imprint: Continuum
Pub. date: 09 Apr 2009
ISBN: 9780826494184
176 Pages, hardcover
Whilst current research into teaching and learning offers many insights into the experiences of academics and students in higher education, it has two significant shortcomings. It does not highlight the dynamic ways in which students and academics impact on each other in teaching-learning interactions, or the ways in which these interactions are shaped by wider social processes.
This book offers critical insight into existing perspectives on researching teaching and learning in higher education and argues that alternative perspectives are required in order to account for structure and agency in teaching-learning interactions in higher education. In considering four alternative perspectives, it examines the ways in which teaching-learning interactions are shaped by teaching-learning environments, student and academic identities, disciplinary knowledge practices and institutional cultures. It concludes by examining the conceptual and methodological implications of these analyses of teaching-learning interactions and provides the reader with an invaluable guide to alternative ways of conceptualising and researching teaching and learning in higher education.
Pub. date: 09 Apr 2009
ISBN: 9780826494184
176 Pages, hardcover
Whilst current research into teaching and learning offers many insights into the experiences of academics and students in higher education, it has two significant shortcomings. It does not highlight the dynamic ways in which students and academics impact on each other in teaching-learning interactions, or the ways in which these interactions are shaped by wider social processes.
This book offers critical insight into existing perspectives on researching teaching and learning in higher education and argues that alternative perspectives are required in order to account for structure and agency in teaching-learning interactions in higher education. In considering four alternative perspectives, it examines the ways in which teaching-learning interactions are shaped by teaching-learning environments, student and academic identities, disciplinary knowledge practices and institutional cultures. It concludes by examining the conceptual and methodological implications of these analyses of teaching-learning interactions and provides the reader with an invaluable guide to alternative ways of conceptualising and researching teaching and learning in higher education.
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Published as KLEMENČIČ, M., ASHWIN, P. (2015). New directions for teaching, learning, and student engagement in the European Higher Education Area. In Remus Pricopie, Peter Scott, Jamil Salmi and Adrian Curaj (eds.) Future of Higher Education in Europe. Volume I and Volume II. Dordrecht: Springer...more
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In this article, we explore the extent to which 42 newer researchers, in the academic sub-field of higher education, were aware of, responded to and negotiated their careers in relation to higher education policies. Participants, who were... more
In this article, we explore the extent to which 42 newer researchers, in the academic sub-field of higher education, were aware of, responded to and negotiated their careers in relation to higher education policies. Participants, who were mainly from European countries, tended to divide into two similarly sized groups: one that engaged with and made strategic use of higher education policy, who we termed ‘policy actors;' and another who felt that they were shaped by policy rather than working with it, who we termed ‘policy subjects.' These differences appeared largely to relate to participants’ background prior to studying for their doctorate, their mode of study and doctoral route. All of our participants appeared to perceive the relationship between their research and policies in individual terms, rather than in terms of being a part of a community of higher education researchers. We explore the implications of these findings.
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Пол Эшвин (Paul Ashwin) — профессор Университета Ланкастера (Lancaster University, UK). Сфера его профессиональных интересов — качество преподавания и обучения в высшем образовании; разработка учебных программ; связь исследований в сфере... more
Пол Эшвин (Paul Ashwin) — профессор Университета Ланкастера (Lancaster University, UK). Сфера его профессиональных интересов — качество преподавания и обучения в высшем образовании; разработка учебных программ; связь исследований в сфере высшего образования с образовательной политикой. На VI международной конференции «Переосмысливая студентов: идеи и новые исследовательские подходы» почетный гость Российской ассоциации исследователей высшего образования Пол Эшвин выступил с пленарным докладом «Меняет ли студента обучение в университете? Роль знаний в процессе развития студентов».
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Are the ways of engaging with the world that students develop through higher education particular to bodies of knowledge they study? In this article, we examine how students’ accounts of the discipline of chemistry in England and South... more
Are the ways of engaging with the world that students develop through higher education particular to bodies of knowledge they study? In this article, we examine how students’ accounts of the discipline of chemistry in England and South Africa changed over the three years of their undergraduate degrees. Based on a longitudinal phenomenographic analysis of 105 interviews with 33 chemistry students over the course of their undergraduate degrees in four institutions, we constituted five qualitatively different ways of describing chemistry. These ranged from chemistry as something that happens when things are mixed in a laboratory to a more inclusive account that described chemistry as being able to explain molecular interactions in unfamiliar environments. Most students expressed more inclusive accounts of chemistry by the end of their degrees and the level of change appeared to be related to their educational experiences. In contrast to approaches that emphasise the generic student out...
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In this article, I examine the educational purposes of higher education in terms of the societal outcomes of educating students through higher education. Based on an analysis of the first 80 volume of Higher Education, published from 1972... more
In this article, I examine the educational purposes of higher education in terms of the societal outcomes of educating students through higher education. Based on an analysis of the first 80 volume of Higher Education, published from 1972 to 2020, I argue that discussions of societal educational purposes were dominated by authors from the Anglophone, global North and these authors were more likely to write as if the educational purposes under discussion were relevant to all higher education systems regardless of national context. This tendency increased over time. The overall models of the educational purposes in each contribution differed in terms of whether they focused on single, multiple, or differentiated sets of educational purposes. I argue that as higher education has become increasingly stratified, there has been less discussion of whether there are differences in the societal outcomes served by different forms of higher education. This is problematic because it obscures th...
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In what ways does access to undergraduate education have a transformative impact on people and societies? What conditions are required for this impact to occur? What are the pathways from an undergraduate education to the public good,... more
In what ways does access to undergraduate education have a transformative impact on people and societies? What conditions are required for this impact to occur? What are the pathways from an undergraduate education to the public good, including inclusive economic development? These questions have particular resonance in the South African higher education context, which is attempting to tackle the challenges of widening access and improving completion rates in in a system in which the segregations of the apartheid years are still apparent. Higher education is recognised in core legislation as having a distinctive and crucial role in building post-apartheid society. Undergraduate education is seen as central to addressing skills shortages in South Africa. It is also seen to yield significant social returns, including a consistent positive impact on societal institutions and the development of a range of capabilities that have public, as well as private, benefits. This book offers comp...
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In this paper we examine policy texts in three European societies to consider the ways in which they construct a view of how each society ensures the production of knowledgeable professionals. Based on an analysis of national policy texts... more
In this paper we examine policy texts in three European societies to consider the ways in which they construct a view of how each society ensures the production of knowledgeable professionals. Based on an analysis of national policy texts in England, Germany and the Netherlands, we argue that there are differences in the ways in which higher education is positioned as being responsible for producing knowledgeable professionals; the ways in which employment is defined, and the roles that research is expected to play in the production of professionals. These differences are related to the national structure of the higher educational system and more fundamental notions of the role of higher education in society. We argue that these differences offer helpful alternative ways of thinking about the relations between higher education and employment.
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This article discusses the challenges of developing system-wide approaches to teaching excellence and offers three principles that can support the development of more effective approaches. &nbsp
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Structure Introductions; Theory in higher education research; Caveats; My position on the relation between theory and My position on the relation between theory and data;
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Reflective Teaching in Higher Education is the definitive textbook for reflective teachers in higher education. Informed by the latest research in this area, the book offers extensive support for those at the start of an academic career... more
Reflective Teaching in Higher Education is the definitive textbook for reflective teachers in higher education. Informed by the latest research in this area, the book offers extensive support for those at the start of an academic career and career-long professionalism for those teaching in higher education. Written by an international collaborative author team of higher education experts led by Paul Ashwin, Reflective Teaching in Higher Education offers two levels of support: practical guidance for day-to-day teaching, covering key issues such as strategies for improving learning, teaching and assessment, curriculum design, relationships, communication, and inclusion; and evidence-informed 'principles' to aid understanding of how theories can effectively inform teaching practices, offering ways to develop a deeper understanding of teaching and learning in higher education.
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This article places itself in conversation with literature about how the experience and outcomes of university education are structured by intersections between social class, ethnicity, gender, age and type of university attended. It... more
This article places itself in conversation with literature about how the experience and outcomes of university education are structured by intersections between social class, ethnicity, gender, age and type of university attended. It addresses undergraduate students’ acquisition of sociological knowledge in four diverse university settings. Basil Bernstein’s concepts of pedagogic identity, pedagogic rights, classification and framing are employed to analyse curriculum and interviews with 31 students over the period of their undergraduate degree. The nature of a sociology-based disciplinary identity is described and illustrated, and it is shown how the formation of this identity gives access to pedagogic rights and the acquisition of valuable capabilities. Addressing the question of whether pedagogic rights are distributed unequally in a stratified university system, it was found that they were not distributed, as might be expected, according to institutional hierarchy. It is argued ...