Defining excellence in teaching

If you were hoping for a simple definition on this page you’ll be disappointed!

This quote, from the University of Technology , Sydney (cited in Gibbs, G and T, Habeshaw , Recognising and Rewarding Excellent Teaching, paragraph 20) is perhaps the closest you will find:

Extract of a definition of good teaching, University of Technology, Sydney

‘Good teaching is teaching which helps students to learn … it encourages high quality student learning. It discourages the superficial approach to learning and encourages active engagement with the subject matter. This does not imply that good teaching always results in high quality student

learning but that it is designed to do so and that it is practices in a way likely to lead to high quality learning …good teaching is that which encourages in the learner, no matter what the subject content, motivation to learn, desire to understand, perseverance, independence, a respect for the truth and a desire to pursue learning.’

(Lublin and Prosser, 1994)

In addition to this student-centred view of excellent teaching, a number of sources discuss the relative nature of excellence. For example, the University of South Australia guide for teaching excellence awards says:

'There are two aspects to (defining excellence in teaching) and they both involve engagement beyond private teaching practice and look more towards the public domain.

First, the notion of excellence is a relative one and the re is considerable variation in how this is defined from field to field. It is essential that you are familiar with the practices of others in similar programs of study and the particularities of your own field.

Second, a critical aspect in defining excell ence is the source of the judgement. Although we may feel justified in making judgements about our own practice based on our own professional expertise, there is an increasing requirement across the higher education sector to draw on the views of external experts.

In defining excellence you may want to consider the following:

• What are the kinds of student learning outcomes that would be considered highly desirable? Are there student awards and other public measures of performance?
• Do any professional associations related to your field make judgements about preferred learning outcomes and teaching practices?
• What does the teaching and learning literature in your field say about excellence? ‘

Cornell University make similar points, including this:

A more useful way of thinking about excellence in teaching is in relative terms: to what degree has improvement in practice revealed an individual's capacity for continual growth and development and intrinsic instructional worth to the department and college?

The task now becomes one of determining how capable the individual is of improvement based upon a sufficiently broad range of criteria and data sources. Some people may not require much improvement to function at an exemplary level, yet because of their particular capabilities, they may exceed established expectations. Others will show an even greater degree of improvement, but still not measure up to expectation-in which case they probably should not have been hired in the first place.

So if you are making a case for the excellence of your own teaching in order to gain promotion or some other recognition or reward, you will need to explain and demonstrate how your teaching is exemplary in terms of delivering desired learning outcomes and how it fulfils qualities or criteria identified in the relevant, subject specific literature. You will need to show how your teaching is designed to foster deep learning, and how it has developed and improved over time.

The UK’s Higher Education Academy Framework of Professional Standards now provides guidance on standards expected of excellent teachers.