The Accreditation of Senior Teachers in Higher Education (ASTHE) programme conducted by the Staff Development Centre of the University of Colombo in 2005/6 was finally successful in arresting the decay of what started as an exciting teaching career and degenerated into chore within a single decade. In particular, its emphasis on reflective practice using tools such as the Kolb Cycle gave me a glimpse of what effective teaching-learning could be. To be sure I had made some progress albeit sub-consciously over the previous years as an Academic. I had progressed from being a teacher who focused on what the student is (Biggs Level 1) where all blame for ineffective learning is attributed to the quality of students, to one who focuses on what the teacher does (Level 2). This was partly owing to my own personality type (INFP) which was characterized by making oneself responsible for things that are not right.
It is as a Level 2 teacher who was unsuccessful despite my best efforts at improving my performance, that I spent the last few years as an Academic in frustration. Reflective practice and Biggs’ definition of a Level 3 teacher - one who focuses on what the student does gave me a new perspective on where I had gone wrong. The past three semesters, during and following my ASTHE programme has brought back some of the early excitement and passion for teaching – or more accurately, of enabling learning.
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