Abstract:

Regular continuing pedagogical development for academic staff in Latvia is one of the tools to promote higher teaching quality. The problem is how to make continuing education qualitative, innovative and attractive for usage in teaching process. That is why the aim of the research was to substantiate the support for academic staff continuing pedagogical development in the frame of the Bologna Process principles and guidelines. The Bologna Process promoting multisided qualitative development of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) and transformative teaching and learning are a topical core for academic staff pedagogical development. The research design comprises two parts: firstly, the background of Continuing Pedagogical Development (CPD) course for academic staff consisting of three elements: the groups of themes emerging from the Rome Communiqué statements, principles of transformative teaching/learning and the model of CPD course; secondly, the survey of academics who finished CPD course. The methods of the research were the theoretical analysis of transformative teaching/learning and the Bologna Process documents, and the survey of 112 academic staff members of Latvia University of Life Sciences and Technologies (LLU) on five questions of CPD course. Academics evaluated continuous education using three grade scale: high, sufficient, insufficient. The data were processed by Chi-square test. Higher education institutions should develop continuing pedagogical education course and ensure systemic implementation of them both for experienced and new academic staff members promoting their motivation to choose and learn the themes important in their careers. Purposeful and regular development of continuous education for academic staff means that updated theoretical background should be worked out and data from stakeholders should be gathered, and considered to keep the quality of the course.

Keywords:

Continuing pedagogical development, academic staff, the Bologna Process, transformative teaching/learning.