Teaching in Tertiary Education - A reflective and experiential approach to University Pedagogy

Abstract

This paper presents the round-table discussions on the theme of “University Pedagogy: Thoughts, Proposals, Reflections,” at the 2nd International Experiential Conference on Applied Teaching: “Teaching Trends and Challenges in Contemporary Learning Environments”. In order to achieve the active and experiential engagement of all participants, a process inspired by the Science Café movement has been applied. Participants were invited to send in short comments and questions regarding the issue of University Pedagogy/Teaching and learning in Higher Education. These comments were collected, categorized and discussed immediately after the predetermined speeches, which are presented extensively herein with the following titles: “University Pedagogy: Trends and perspectives in Greece and internationally”, “University Pedagogy in Practice: An Epistemological and Didactical Approach” and “University Pedagogy in Greece: findings of empirical research”. The participants then participated in an open discussion based on the questions they had asked before andalso after the preparedlectures. The review of all the contributions during the discussion, and of the proposals submitted, concludes that University Pedagogy can be a powerful means of enhancing the quality of Greek Higher Education, provided that: a) university institutions invest in the continuous improvement of the teaching skills of their teaching staff, and b) universityprofessors have incentives and the readiness to engage in teaching and learning based on scientific and well-tried methods.