The effect of pedagogical training on teaching in higher education

This article reports a study on the impact of university teachers' pedagogical training on approaches to teaching and self-efficacy beliefs (measured by Approaches to Teaching Inventory and an additional part measuring motivational strategies). The participants were 200 teachers of the University of Helsinki, who were divided into four groups depending on the amount of pedagogical training they had. The results indicated that pedagogical training had an effect on scales measuring conceptual change/student-focused approach and self-efficacy beliefs. Even when the effect of teaching experience was held constant, in order to find out the unique effect of pedagogical training, the results remained the same. In addition, twenty-three interview transcripts were analysed. The teachers mentioned only positive effects of pedagogical training on teaching. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.