University teachers' experiences of expertise and the implications for student-teacher learning interactions

Abstract

This research draws on research-based and theoretical analysis to support the linkage between teaching and research in higher education. Central to this is the assumption that university teaching is fundamentally about enhancing students' learning towards developing expert understanding (Kinchin & Alias 2005). University teachers who are active researchers, are continually developing their disciplinary knowledge and pedagogic awareness, having attained experts "ways of thinking" and understanding in their disciplines (Reid & Petocz 2003). In theory, this expert understanding of a discipline should enable university teachers to engage more effectively in meaningful interactions with students, enhancing learning and understanding. A critical aspect ofthese interactions are the epistemological beliefs and understanding that university teachers hold about knowledge and knowing in their disciplines, including their beliefs about the nature of expertise. Structural differences between disciplines have been demonstrated to influence disciplinary practice in both teaching and research activities (Becher 1989; Smeby 1996). The aim of the study was to investigate variation in the underlying meaning of the way university teachers experience the phenomena expertise, learning and understanding in their disciplines in the context of their main teaching and research practices. To ascertain whether qualitative differences in expertise, learning and understanding are experienced between the disciplines and to provide insight to the epistemological beliefs of university teachers (Dall & Alba 2005).