Call for Papers: ZFHE 15/4

Posted on 2019-12-18

Call for papers – Special issue
Promoting educational development, rewarding excellence in teaching

Editors: Gabi Reinmann (Hamburg) & Peter Tremp (Lucerne)
Date of publication: December 2020

 

Outline

Recent years have seen an increase of initiatives for educational development at universities (e.g. “Qualitätspakt Lehre” in Germany). Based on the rather low standing of teaching in traditional academia, where teaching hours contribute very little to careers and reputations, more and more efforts are being made to heighten the significance and visibility of teaching and encourage educational development through various actions. Institutional measures act as a complement to the training in tertiary didactics introduced at many universities in the 1970s, which promotes educational development through individuals. Teaching is increasingly made a topic of conversation and, albeit haltingly, research, which encourages a didactic perspective on the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning.

The wide range of approaches includes the creation of teaching innovation funds, awards for excellence in teaching, “Teaching Days”, and statements of teaching philosophy. Acting at different levels, some of these initiatives have found widespread implementation, while others have had less support, such as the “teaching professorships” proposed by the German Science Council in its recommendations for a teaching-oriented reform of the organizational structure of universities. Yet other options, such as combining science education with research activities, remain largely unexplored in the context of educational development.

We are inviting theoretical, conceptional, and empirical contributions which discuss

  • ways of classifying the wide range of possible actions and initiatives
  • specific actions and their effects
  • controversial issues of a specific action
  • conditions for successful development
  • the link between institutional educational development and personal academic development
  • challenges surrounding the sustainability of educational development projects
  • the unique challenges of project management in educational development
  • any of the points listed above in relation to different types of universities and their characteristics

 

Guidelines regarding the journal

The ZFHE is a peer-reviewed online journal that publishes scientific contributions of practical relevance concerning current higher education development issues. The focus is on didactical, structural, and cultural developments in teaching and learning. Topics that are innovative and still regarded as open in respect of their design options are preferred.

The ZFHE is published by a consortium of European researchers and funded by the Austrian Ministry for Science, Research and Economics. For more information, see https://www.zfhe.at.

 

Submission information

English contributions may be submitted in two possible formats:

Scientific contributions within the main theme should comply with the following criteria:
The contribution...

  • presents innovative perspectives, arguments, problem analyses etc. on the key topic;
  • focuses on essential aspects of the key topic;
  • is theoretically supported (i.e. it offers a clear connection to the scientific discourse of the topic under discussion);
  • provides scientific insights with added value at least in some parts;
  • clearly elucidates the methodology used to acquire knowledge;
  • follows the relevant citation rules consistently (APA style, 6th edition);
  • comprises up to 33,600 characters (incl. spaces, as well as cover page, bibliography and author information)


Workshop reports comprise the instructional presentation of practical experience, good practice examples, design concepts, pilot projects, etc. Workshop reports should comply with the following criteria:

  • demonstrates potential for knowledge transfer;
  • describes illustrative aspects and factors for the purpose of theory formation;
  • systematically and transparently presented (e.g., no incomprehensible clues to details in an area of practice);
  • follows the relevant citation rules consistently (APA style, 6th edition);
  • up to 21,600 characters (incl. spaces, as well as cover page, bibliography and author information).

 

Submission and review schedule

June 26, 2020 – Submission deadline for complete articles:
Please upload your contribution(s) to the ZFHE journal system (https://www.zfhe.at) in the corresponding section (scientific contribution, workshop report) of ZFHE 15/4 issue in anonymous format. To do so, you must first register as an author in the system.

September 18, 2020 – Feedback / Reviews: Scientific contributions and workshop reports are evaluated in a double-blind process (see below).

October 16, 2020 – Revision deadline: Where necessary, contributions may be revised according to feedback and recommendations from the reviews.

December 2020 – Online publication: In December 2020, the finalized contributions are published under https://www.zfhe.at and also made available in print.

 

Review Process

All submitted contributions will be examined in a double-blind peer review process to guarantee scientific quality. The editors of the current issue propose the reviewers for the respective theme and allocate individual contributions to the reviewers; they also determine which contributions will be accepted. The selection of reviewers and the review process for each thematic issue are always supervised by a member of the editorial board.

 

Formatting and submission

In order to save valuable time with the formatting of the contributions, we kindly ask that all authors work with the template from the beginning. The template can be downloaded from the ZFHE website under the following link:
https://www.zfhe.at/userupload/ZFHE_15-4_TEMPLATE_en.docx

Since we must be able to edit the texts, they must be submitted unlocked/unprotected in in Microsoft Word (.doc), Office Open XML (.docx), Open Document Text (.odt) or Plain Text (.txt) format. Please do not submit any PDF files! Submissions in the “Scientific Contribution” and “Workshop Report” categories must first be made in anonymous format in order to guarantee the double-blind review process. Please remove all references to the author(s) of the document (including in the document properties!). Upon a positive review result, this information will be re-inserted.

 

Questions?

If you have any questions regarding the content of the issue, please contact the editors (gabi.reinmann@uni-hamburg.de or peter.tremp@phlu.ch).
For technical and organizational questions, please contact Michael Raunig (office@zfhe.at).

 

We look forward to your submissions!

Gabi Reinmann & Peter Tremp