The U21 Teaching Standards Framework
Universitas 21 (or U21) is a network of high profile research-intensive universities around the world who work together to enhance teaching and learning.
The U21 Teaching Standards Framework, created in 2018, is designed to be used to review, evaluate and benchmark the teaching performance and contributions of individuals appointed to academic positions in universities.
As you think about constructing your teaching portfolio, it helps to consider the roles you play in relation teaching in your institution (eg as a teacher, manager or leader), and the types of teaching activity you undertake (eg teaching, course design, and so on). It also helps to think about the influence and impact you have on others, and how they perceive you as a professional. The U21 Teaching Standards Framework helps you to bring all these ingredients of your teaching portfolio into sharp focus.
TEACHING DIMENSIONS AND ROLES
The U21 Conceptual Framework for Teaching identifies the following four DIMENSIONS of teaching-related activity:
Learning Facilitation
That dimension of teaching that involves engaging, challenging, scaffolding, supporting and providing students with feedback on their learning.
Educational Design
That dimension of teaching that involves designing, developing and deploying resources, learning activities, support, and assessment tasks within physical and/or digital environments to enable and support learning.
Reflective Practice
That dimension of teaching that involves the collection and analysis of data to inform on-going efforts to assure and improve the quality of one’s teaching, learning and curricula.
Scholarly Practice
That dimension of teaching that involves engaging in and with, and/or contributing to, the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) through the dissemination of teaching approaches and/or enhancements.
And the following three ROLES:
Teacher Practitioner
Whose focus is on the work the individual does in any of these areas of teaching to facilitate and support the learning of their students.
Teacher Leader
Whose focus is on the work the individual does to influence and support others to innovate or change their practice in any of these areas of teaching.
Teacher Manager
Whose focus is on the work the individual does to create the organisational conditions necessary to enable and support learning and the development of teaching in any of these areas of teaching practice.
TEACHING PROFILES
Effective assessment of performance in and/or contribution through teaching begins with the development, articulation and agreement on the individual’s TEACHING PROFILE. Everyone’s teaching profile is different.
To create your personal teaching profile, complete the following grid:
| Teacher Practitioner | Teacher Leader | Teacher Manager | |
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Learning Facilitation |
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Educational Design |
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Reflective Practice |
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Scholarly Practice |
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For example, the teaching profile of an Early Career Academic in a research/teaching position might look like this:
- Engages in three or four dimensions of teaching (learning facilitation, educational design and reflective practice) as a teacher practitioner.
- Focuses their teaching on maximising the quality and effectiveness of their:
- students’ learning
- own development as a teacher practitioner
- Develops familiarity with best practice approaches to teaching within their discipline and teaching context(s).
- Aligns their teaching practices (learning facilitation, educational design and reflective practice) with these approaches.
- Uses knowledge of developments in their discipline/ profession to support on-going review and development of the content, foci and purposes of the subjects they teach.
The teaching profile of a Mid Career Academic in a tenured research/teaching position might look like this:
- Engages in three or four dimensions of teaching (learning facilitation, educational design and reflective practice) as a teacher practitioner, teacher leader and teacher manager.
- Focuses their teaching on maximising the quality and effectiveness of their:
- students’ learning
- own development as a teacher practitioner, teacher leader and teacher manager
- Develops and maintains familiarity with research-based approaches to teaching within their discipline/profession and teaching context(s).
- Aligns their practice as a teacher practitioner, teacher leader and teacher manager with these approaches.
- Uses knowledge of developments in their discipline/ profession to support on-going review and development of the content, foci and purposes of the subjects they teach.
Finally, the teaching profile of a Later Career Academic in a tenured research/teaching position might look like this:
- Exercises leadership in all four dimensions of teaching (learning facilitation, educational design, reflective practice and scholarly practice).
- Focuses their leadership and teaching on maximising the quality and effectiveness of their own and others’:
- students’ learning
- development as scholarly, reflective teacher practitioners, leaders and managers
- Maintains a deep familiarity with the scholarship of learning and teaching within and beyond their own discipline by actively engaging with and/or contributing to it.
- Aligns their practice as a teacher practitioner, teacher leader and teacher manager with this broader scholarship.
- Influences the development of teaching and learning within their own and others’ programs, schools, faculties and/or institutions.
TEACHING STANDARDS, INDICATORS AND METRICS
The U21 Teaching Standards Framework defines standards in terms of indicators of performance and contribution, and describes the metrics that can be used to evaluate these.
There are four INDICATORS of performance and contribution. These are:
Esteem
This is the esteem in which the individual is held by students and peers in relation to the work they do as a Teacher Practitioner, Teacher Leader and/or Teacher Manager in each of the four core dimensions of teaching (learning facilitation, educational design, reflective practice and scholarly practice).
Impact
This is the objective measurable impact the individual has had on improving those things to which teaching, either as a practitioner, leader or manager, is directed – improvements in student learning outcomes, student experience/ satisfaction of/with learning, teaching, curricula, or the organisational (administrative, technological, physical, social or cultural) conditions in support of same.
Influence
This is the influence the individual has had on another’s thinking, practice or development as a teacher.
Sustainability
This is the sustainability of the individual’s performance or contribution.
There are two METRICS for differentiating between standards for different levels of appointment. These are:
Size
This is the size of the individual’s sphere of esteem, impact and influence.
Period
This is the period over which the individual’s performance or contribution has been made.
“As you think about constructing your teaching portfolio, it helps to consider the roles you play in relation to teaching in your institution (as a practitioner, leader and/or manager), and about the domains of teaching-related activity in which you exercise these roles (learning facilitation, educational design, reflective practice and/or scholarly practice). On the basis of these, you will be able to create your own personal teaching profile.
Once you have done this, you need, as objectively as possible, to evaluate and evidence the size of the esteem, impact and influence you have achieved in each activity, and the period over which your performance in each activity has been sustained.”
