Core Competencies for University Teachers – An Analysis of What’s Needed from the Point of View of Teachers and Staff- Developers

In this article we ask the question which competencies university teachers need in order to lead their students towards employability via teaching and coaching. All documents on which this analysis is based have developed within the framework of a certified Higher Education curriculum (HDZ Baden-Württemberg). For one they are reflections written by the teachers themselves as part of their portfolio work, the other are minutes taken by the staff-developers during courses and coachings sessions. We have taken a three step approach to answer our guiding question about the core competencies for university teachers. First we list the topics, questions, cases and problems as put forward by the teachers and we than catalogue them into learning objectives. The further rephrasing leads to a systematic competence profile for teachers in their teaching and coaching of students. The analysis as well as the results are embedded and framed in the German discussion of existing, rather theoretical concepts about the competence profile of university teachers. This contribution herewith adds to the current German Higher Education discourse a first empirical approach by incorporating the felt need of the target group of staff development programmes: the university teachers.

04.01.2007 | Sabine Brendel (Berlin), Petra Eggensperger (Heidelberg) & Anette Glathe