By Marie Leijon
In our project we are interested in how university educators´ profession has changed due to the digital transformation during the pandemic. In a pre-study called the Corona Crash Course project, educators at our own university shared their experiences on change in pedagogical practice in written narratives and interviews during spring and autumn 2020. The result from the pilot project is presented in relation to “knowledge domains” – defined as the areas in which university educators need knowledge and skills to be able to carry out their pedagogical practice (Alexander & Judy, 1988). The six domains that were highlighted early on during the pandemic by educators in the pilot where: 1) digital media, 2) design of physical and digital learning environment, 3) accessibility 4) social relations, 5) work environment and 6) risk assessment (Leijon & Stigmar, n.d.)
Let me focus on the last two. They may have existed before, but in relation to the pandemic, the educators in the pre-study are much more aware of their working environment and how to assess risks. As teaching has moved to the home, workload, stress, and computer fatigue have increased. Teachers need knowledge about how an ergonomic work environment is designed and how to teach via video meetings.
University educators talk about risk assessment in relation to health – their own and others´ – when deciding on going back to campus or not. The risk of infecting others with Covid is very prominent for educators in the pre-study, both in spring and autumn 2020. Educators also think about risk in the case of social distance in a classroom, what to do if a student show up ill and so on. But the risk discussion also concerns “Zoom bombing”, i.e. unauthorized people participate in Zoom meetings.
The knowledge domains we have identified during the digital transition are mainly about the implementation of teaching, but the pedagogical practice has changed to become even more complex with the awareness of work environment and risk assessment.
Will these knowledge areas continue to be prominent in a post-pandemic university teaching practice? The pre-pilot from 2020 (during the first phase of the pandemic) shows that educators had no time for a critical pedagogic reflection. However, Lundberg & Stigmar (2022) show that educators in fact took the time critically reflect after the first phase of emergency remote teaching. And what about the other knowledge domains that teachers haven´t had time to focus on during the early phase of pandemic – i.e professional development, knowledge of the subject matter, scholarship of teaching and learning and research (Shulman, 1986; van Dijk et al, 2020)?
Marie Leijon
Alexander, P. A., & Judy, J. E. (1988). The interaction of domain-specific and strategic knowledge in academic performance. Review of Educational research, 58(4), 375-404.
Leijon, M & Stigmar, M (submitted). Pandemins påverkan på universitetslärares pedagogiska praktik.
Lundberg, A., & Stigmar, M. (2022, accepted). Deliberative academic development with university teachers in times of crisis. International Journal for Academic Development, 1-13. DOI: 10.1080/1360144X.2022.2084742
Shulman, L. S. (1986). Those who understand: Knowledge growth in teaching. Educational researcher, 15(2), 4-14.
van Dijk, E. E., van Tartwijk, J., van der Schaaf, M. F., & Kluijtmans, M. (2020). What makes an expert university teacher? A systematic review and synthesis of frameworks for teacher expertise in higher education. Educational Research Review, 100365.