Abstract:
When lecturers seek to improve their teaching skills they may initially demand mere performance tips, but what they can come to value more is understanding processes of learning. This was investigated during workshops for lecturers at three Universities in Uganda at which participants were asked to write down what they hoped to gain from the workshops, and then on completion of the workshops they were asked to write what had interested them most and what actions they planned to take. The responses were coded in NVIVO and analysis reveals that expectations were met and also that many found the workshops gave them new views on learning. Alerted by this attempt to "mind the gap" (between expectations and outcomes), lecturers in other Higher Education disciplines may want to implement similar formative assessment of their teaching (and their students' learning) by coding pre-course statements on expectations as well as in-course or post-course evaluative responses.

Full text available as: http://mountainrise.wcu.edu/archive/vol3no1/issue.html

Mbali, Charlotte (2006). Mind the gap: an exploration of participant expectations and facilitator intentions via an analysis of outcomes of workshops held at three Ugandan universities. MountainRise an electronic journal dedicated to the scholaship of teaching and learning. vol 3(1) 9pages.