(Source: China Higher Education Research,October 10, 2022)

After more than 30 years of development, teaching academics have made rapid progress in theory. However, the development of theory is one aspect. How to influence the reform of higher education in the system is Boyer's original intention of proposing teaching scholarship.Among various practical experiences, Canada’s approach to promoting teaching academics is typical and has reference significance for the development of teaching academics in my country.

一、Isomorphic system:Selection of legitimacy strategies for Canadian teaching academics

Different from "old institutionalism" which emphasizes the formal system within an organization that emphasizes the interests of actors, the new institutionalism of organizational sociology pays more attention to the legitimacy of the organization and the role of various formal and informal rules in its field. Organizations exist in a field. To gain legitimacy, they need to be structured according to the rules of the field and be adopted by the majority of organizational members. The best way is to use institutional isomorphism. According to the explanations of Paul J. DiMaggio and Walter W. Powell, institutional isomorphism has three forms: coercive isomorphism stemming from political influence and legitimacy issues; mimetic isomorphism stemming from accepted responses to uncertainty; and normative isomorphism related to professionalization. As a new educational concept and tool, the key for teaching scholarship to demonstrate its identity and value in the university field is to obtain legitimacy. Adopting the path of institutional isomorphism and copying the institutional rules of traditional academics has become one of many strategies, and Canada has followed this strategy exactly.

From a macro level, the advancement of teaching academics in Canada is mainly achieved through normative isomorphism and imitative isomorphism. The main organization in Canada that promotes teaching academics is the Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education. The Association organized its first domestic teaching academic conference in 2003, which started the process of normative isomorphism in Canadian teaching academics. This process is mainly about conveying the values ​​and concepts of teaching scholarship, stimulating the teaching academic behavior of university teachers, and ultimately forming an academic tribe of teaching scholarship. The specific approach includes three aspects:

First, establish a specialized organization for teaching and academic studies. In 2012, the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Canada was established, and since then the national action of teaching scholarship has had organizational support.

Second, a professional journal for teaching academics was established. In 2010, the Canadian Higher Education Teaching Association founded The Canadian Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning to disseminate teaching scholarship through electronic and online means. In addition, journals including the International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning have also been introduced into the Canadian higher education system.

Third, establish teaching and academic reward and funding projects. While Canada is reforming the "3M National Teaching Fellowship", the country's highest teaching award, and integrating it into teaching academics, it has also set up a series of awards and funding projects such as the D2L Innovation Award in Teaching and Learning to promote teachers' academic investment in teaching.

In addition to relying on organizations, journals and reward mechanisms to regulate teachers’ teaching and academic behaviors, building professional standards and academic ethics for teaching academics has become the heart of building a teaching academic tribe. Compared with rebuilding a set of standards and value systems, imitating traditional academic practices has become another strategic choice to gain legitimacy in a short period of time. In 2005, Canada's National Teaching Academic Leadership Forum invited three major domestic research committees - The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, The Canadian Institutes of Health Research, and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. The imitation learning process was launched based on the recognition of the three major committees. At the 2009 Teaching Academic Annual Conference, the Higher Education Teaching Association and the Canadian Teaching Academic Association formulated normative standards for teaching academics with reference to the academic ethics and academic ethics of the three major committees.

In general, Canada’s national-level teaching academic legitimation process is full of normative isomorphism and mimetic isomorphism. Through efforts at the national level, teaching scholarship has gradually penetrated into all aspects of higher education. In this context, universities take actions to regulate teachers’ teaching and academic behaviors, in which coercion and regulation have become the two basic forms to promote the development of teaching academics.

二、University of British Columbia:Strategies to promote the institutionalization of teaching academics

The University of British Columbia mainly relies on mandatory isomorphism and normative isomorphism to enhance the legitimacy of teaching academics.

(1) Mandatory regulations: teaching academic rules in professional title promotion

The University of British Columbia is one of the first Canadian universities to reform the professional title system. In the reform actions at the national level, the w88 casino has transmitted institutional pressure to the w88 casino's professional title management department. Through the "persuasion" action of introducing teaching-type professional titles and the mandatory rules for reforming professional title standards, the type and investment of teachers' academic activities have been transformed.

1. The introduction and status of teaching professional titles.In 2010, the University of British Columbia held a collective meeting on revisions to the Faculty Agreement. At the meeting, teacher representatives submitted a proposal to increase the series of teaching professional titles. Regarding this proposal, the negotiation team has different opinions. Opponents believe that teaching-type professional titles will cause this series of teachers to become low-cost teaching machines. Supporters believe that teaching-type professional titles provide a better career development path for teachers who are good at teaching. Finally, the negotiation team reached an opinion that teaching professional titles provide fair promotion opportunities for teachers with teaching leadership and teaching academic abilities, thus revising the teacher collective agreement, and teaching professional titles have officially become a legitimate choice for teacher development. Teaching professional titles are written into teachers’ collective agreements, which indicates that teachers who are good at teaching have legal and institutional protection. It also forces departments and schools to provide guarantees and support for the promotion and development of teaching teachers by providing positions, benefits, vacations, etc. Teaching professional titles mainly include teaching assistant professor, teaching associate professor, and teaching professor. Among them, teaching associate professor and teaching professor can be promoted to the tenure track. Judging from the current situation, the proportion of teaching teachers generally accounts for about 15% to 20% of the total number of teachers. In terms of remuneration, teaching teachers who have received tenure enjoy the same benefits and salary system as research teachers. Although this study did not obtain overall data on teacher salaries, judging from the minimum basic salary for welfare eligibility published by the w88 casino, teaching assistant professors are $2,882 per month and research assistant professors are $2,880, which are basically the same.

2. Teaching academic standards in professional title promotion.After the introduction of teaching scholarship, the University of British Columbia has revised the criteria for professional title promotion.

(1) Teaching academic evaluation standards for research-based teachers.From the perspective of professional title promotion standards, research teachers mainly examine the comprehensive abilities of teachers from three levels: academic, teaching and social services. Among them, academics mainly examine three aspects: professional academics, teaching academics, and professional contributions of teachers. It can be any one of these aspects, or it can be a combination of the three aspects, but it must be negotiated between the professional title applicant and the management department in charge of professional title promotion. Judging from the specific content, teaching scholarship mainly evaluates teachers' innovative teaching research results. The results need to have a clear impact in the subject field, and must be peer-reviewed and published or disseminated in the public domain or used by others substantially or continuously. In order to distinguish the uniqueness of teaching academics, the w88 casino clearly stipulates in the professional title document that "teaching academics is not the same as excellent teaching." It is the innovative academic research carried out by teachers around teaching and is a reflection of the professional level and knowledge level of teachers in specific academic fields. To ensure this, all teaching and academic results must be published publicly and undergo peer review to prove their academic quality. It can be seen that the identification standard for teaching scholarship basically adopts the explanation of teaching scholarship by Schulman, chairman of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, that is, teaching scholarship is an innovative activity that is published publicly, evaluated and shared by peers, and capable of continuous construction. Of course, in addition to adding teaching academics to the requirements for academic evaluation standards, the teaching evaluation standards also increase the requirements for teachers’ academic investment. A basic principle in teaching evaluation is "based on effectiveness, not popularity." In addition to reflecting quantitative data such as student evaluations, indicators of effectiveness also need to judge teachers’ academic teaching methods through various course syllabuses, handouts and other materials submitted by teachers, that is, whether teachers constantly reflect and explore how to increase the impact on students and stimulate students’ awareness of active learning during teaching.

(2) Teaching academic evaluation standards for teaching professional titles.The evaluation of teaching professional titles mainly focuses on three aspects: teaching, educational leadership, and social service. The teaching aspect is obviously more demanding than that of research-based teachers. In addition to quantitative indicators such as basic teaching workload and student evaluation, innovations in teaching methods, curriculum reform, and continuous investment in professional development must also be examined. Educational leadership mainly examines teachers’ achievement and outstanding reputation in teaching. Professional titles at different levels have the same evaluation content of educational leadership, but the achievements achieved are different. The requirement for promotion to teaching assistant professor is to "fulfill commitment to educational leadership", to teaching associate professor is to "demonstrate educational leadership", and to teaching professor is to "achieve outstanding achievements in teaching leadership." Specifically, educational leadership can be demonstrated through three aspects. ①Publicly publish and exchange teaching and academic results. Including teaching research papers published in public journals, teaching research works, teaching materials, and teaching academic results disclosed at teaching academic conferences, etc. These public publications are subject to peer review. ② Obtain teaching academic funding and important teaching awards. Including teaching academic projects and various funding support programs at the national and provincial levels, as well as various important teaching awards inside and outside the w88 casino. ③ Demonstrate sufficient influence and demonstration to the teaching community. This includes organizing domestic and foreign teaching conferences or assuming important roles, assuming formal leadership responsibilities or carrying out activities within and outside the w88 casino or in domestic and foreign institutions, and guiding and motivating colleagues to carry out subject pedagogy research.It can be judged from the above content that the evaluation of educational leadership mainly focuses on the quality and influence of individual teachers’ contributions to teaching, and teaching scholarship is the foundation of all this.

(2) Normative development: shaping of teaching academic ability

Norms are about cultivating shared values and forming routines and responsibilities. According to the research of DiMarzio and Powell, generally speaking, there are two aspects of action to promote the development of organizations or systems with the help of normative isomorphism. One is the legitimation and formal education at the cognitive level, and the other is the growth and improvement of cross-organizational talent networks on which new organizational models depend. Judging from the experience of the University of British Columbia, it is precisely following these two paths to promote the standardized development of teaching academics.

1. Advance the understanding of teaching scholarship based on strategic design.The institutional promotion of teaching academics requires the establishment of a cultural cognitive atmosphere at the macro level of the organization. The premise is to highlight the role and status of teaching academics at the strategic level. The University of British Columbia launched the development of a new version of the w88 casino's strategic plan in 2016 and officially implemented it in 2018. In the new version of the plan, the w88 casino regards "transformative learning" as one of its four major development strategies. "Transformative learning" consists of five parts, among which"Education Innovation Strategy"Part of it is designed to provide teachers with the richest development support to help them grow into better teachers and develop higher-level teaching abilities. Why is this strategy proposed? First, the w88 casino recognized changes in the learning environment. Interdisciplinary learning, active learning, blended learning, evidence-based teaching, etc. have become new concepts and demands for university teaching in the new era. In response to this change, Carl Wieman, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics, Carnegie Professor of the Year, and Yidan Education Research Prize, has implemented the “Science Education Plan” at Stanford, the University of British Columbia and other schools since 2013. This plan advocates extensive assessment of learning outcomes and teaching based on teaching scholarship. Under this plan, Wyman had an important influence on UBC's philosophy of education and teaching and further solidified the importance of the scholarship of teaching, which is fully described in the planning text. Secondly, the global academic market has ushered in new changes and challenges. On the one hand, due to the instability of the job market, more and more doctoral graduates are entering universities to seek academic careers, intensifying competition in the academic market; on the other hand, a consensus on the diversified development of academic careers has basically been reached. In response to new changes in the academic market, the University of British Columbia points out that it will "reimagine and strengthen graduate programs... to support diverse development paths for the teaching profession."This requires adding teaching academic training to the academic abilities of graduate students, and establishing an academic ability evaluation system based on teaching academic foundation.Therefore, in the strategic plan, it is pointed out that two aspects of construction must be strengthened. One is to continue to strengthen support for teaching teachers and encourage teachers to develop multiple academic development paths, among which teaching academics is the basis and evaluation standard for the development of teaching teachers; second, to provide more development support for teachers, including re-planning postgraduate education and strengthening teacher academic training. In order to achieve the strategic planning goals, the w88 casino has launched a series of planning projects such as the "Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Seed Program" and the "Teaching and Learning Enhancement Fund Projects".

2. Improve teaching and academic capabilities with the help of projects and awards.

(1) Establish teaching and academic funding projects. Funding projects for teaching scholarship include capacity development projects and academic research funding projects.First of all, from the perspective of ability development projects, the w88 casino has established diversified teaching academic projects for teachers at different career stages and established a stepped teaching academic ability development framework. First, establish a teaching academic development program for future university teachers. For example, programs established for graduate students include the Certificate Program in Advanced Teaching and Learning and the TA Training Program. From the former point of view, it is mainly to cultivate teaching elites among graduate students. The w88 casino selects graduate teaching assistants and students with outstanding performance in teaching seminars and provides theoretical training. It also arranges teacher mentors to provide practical teaching guidance. Those who pass the exam will be issued a teaching development certificate. From the latter point of view, it mainly refers to mass projects that cultivate the teaching ability of graduate students. These projects are collectively referred to as teaching assistant training projects. Strictly speaking, the teaching assistant training program can be divided into two parts. One part is the teaching ability training before teaching assistants enter the job, and the other part is to develop the teaching academic ability of future university teachers in the form of workshops and seminars. Second, for post-service teachers, the development projects established by the w88 casino include the Educational Leadership Program and the Teaching Development Program (TDP) for New Faculty. The establishment of these two projects is similar to the graduate program. The former aims to cultivate outstanding teachers among new teacher groups. On the basis of providing training in teaching design and other abilities, it focuses on teachers' exploration, dissemination and exchange of teaching research results, and develops teaching leadership among their peer groups; from the latter's point of view, new teachers The teacher development plan is mainly aimed at training all new teachers and postdoctoral fellows within 2 years of joining. It mainly cultivates teachers’ basic abilities such as classroom teaching skills and student group analysis. It also includes how to use evidence-based evaluation, reflective practice, and interdisciplinary knowledge to carry out academic teaching activities. Secondly, from the perspective of academic research funding, the w88 casino realizes that simply cultivating teaching academic abilities is only the first step. For teachers to truly master teaching academic abilities, they need to practice.This requires investing resources to support teachers to carry out teaching and academic activities. Of course, these academic activities must serve the w88 casino and have the w88 casino's teaching improvement as the ultimate goal.Teaching academic funding projects are mainly divided into team cooperation projects and individual development projects. From the perspective of team cooperation projects, they are mainly projects implemented by the w88 casino with relatively large funding amounts, relatively long implementation times, and requiring interdisciplinary teaching and academic cooperation. The w88 casino’s largest single investment is the Teaching and Learning Enhancement Fund. This project mainly supports teachers to carry out activities such as curriculum development and reform and teaching method innovation across colleges and disciplines. From 2019 to 2020, the w88 casino supported a total of 10 large-scale projects and 58 small-scale projects, with a total funding of US$2.1 million. From the perspective of individual development projects, it mainly supports teaching academic projects carried out by individual teachers. Among them, the most influential one is the teaching academic seed plan. The program mainly funds new teachers such as lecturers and assistant professors, and takes basic issues in w88 casino teaching as the research object. The per capita funding amount is US$5,000. To obtain this project, teachers need to submit an application form, including a detailed description of the topic of teaching research and the impact on w88 casino teaching. Those who pass the selection will also need to study academic teaching theories and methods with experts for a period of time, and then enter into project design and implementation, project feedback, conference presentations, etc.

(2) Increase rewards for teaching and academic studies.In addition to competing for teaching academic awards at the government level and subject associations, teachers at the University of British Columbia have also established multiple teaching academic awards within the w88 casino and at the department level. From a w88 casino level perspective, the most influential award is the Killam Teaching Prize. The annual bonus of this award is US$5,000. It mainly rewards teachers who have outstanding performance in the field of teaching on and off campus. The evaluation content includes: promoting and supporting learning activities, curriculum or major reform and design, teaching scholarship, teaching service and impact, and academic reflection and improvement. Compared with the Gillam Award, the Teaching Excellence and Innovation Awards have a slightly lower reward amount, with an annual bonus of US$2,000. The main evaluation content is the same as the Gillam Award, but the relative standards are slightly lower. In addition to these two w88 casino-level awards, various colleges have also established various awards, including the Excellence in Teaching Innovation Award in the w88 casino of Creative Arts, the Teaching Excellence Award in the w88 casino of Engineering, etc.

3. Build a community network for teaching and academics. First, a specialized organization for teaching scholarship—the Institute for Scholarship of Teaching and Learning—was established.The center was established in 2004. Its main goals are to support teachers’ reflective practice and teaching research, strengthen the dissemination of w88 casino teaching research, carry out international cooperation in teaching academics, carry out teaching academic training for teachers, and shape campus teaching academic culture. The person in charge of the center is a teaching professor or associate professor of the w88 casino, and the team members are all teaching professors or associate professors from various colleges, totaling 15 people. At the same time, the center also recruits doctoral or master's students in the fields of psychology, education, sociology, culture, etc. as team members to provide technical and methodological support for teachers to carry out teaching academic projects.Secondly, the w88 casino relies on teaching academic projects, seminars, workshops and various conferences to drive exchanges and cooperation among teachers.As mentioned above, encouraging teachers to carry out interdisciplinary teamwork projects to explore w88 casino education and teaching reform is an important means for schools to promote the construction of a teaching academic community. In addition to projects, the most common way is to build community networks through conferences, seminars and workshops. These meetings and seminars are divided into fixed and non-fixed formats. Fixed conferences and seminars include the Celebrate Scholarship of Teaching and learning, the Center for Teaching, Learning and Technology Institutes, etc. Among them, the annual teaching academic conference is held once a year, mainly for teachers on campus to carry out theme reports and discussions around their own teaching academic achievements, forming a mechanism for sharing and communicating results. "Teaching and Learning Technology Center College" refers to a collective activity that convenes teachers and students to carry out teaching academic seminars. The year is divided into three times, namely Spring College, Summer College and Winter College. The activities of each college are mainly carried out in the form of multiple seminars. Each seminar has a teaching academic theme report, and participants discuss the theme content. In addition, the w88 casino also has seminars on teaching skills for new teachers, graduate teaching ability seminars, curriculum innovation and reform seminars and other themed seminars.

三、University of British Columbia:Enlightenment on promoting the academic development of teaching

As a new concept and tool, teaching academics must be integrated into the conservative organization of universities, and will encounter resistance from many aspects such as the orthodox principles of higher education. Under the influence of imitative isomorphism and normative isomorphism at the national level, the University of British Columbia has established mandatory rules and normative guidance to isomorphize the teaching academic culture and group behavior in the organizational field, breaking through various resistances and promoting the legalization of the teaching academic system. The institutional behavior of the University of British Columbia in developing teaching and academic studies has brought enlightenment to our universities in the following three aspects.

(1) Strengthen teachers’ academic investment in teaching by establishing rules and regulations

The primary task of institutionalizing teaching academics is to establish rules and regulations and regulate the group behavior of homogeneous teachers through policies. From this point of view, on the one hand, we must strengthen the policy design of teaching and academic studies at the national level,Introduce the content and elements of teaching academics into teacher development, evaluation and other policies, and regulate the teaching academic behavior and resource investment of university organizations from the outside;On the other hand, under the pressure of macro policies, schools need to reform relevant policies within the organization,Including adjustments to policies such as teacher classification development and professional title evaluation, increasing behavioral investment in teaching academics, strengthening the evaluation of teaching academic levels in teachers’ academic abilities, and mandating teachers to carry out teaching academic activities.

(2) Standardize teaching academic behavior based on the teaching academic ability development system

In addition to the policy level, colleges and universities must also establish a development system for teaching and academic capabilities. The establishment of this system should focus on three aspects: First,It is necessary to cover multiple stages from the graduate stage to pre-service teachers and career, and set different training contents and methods for teachers in different development stages;Secondly,The cultivation of teaching academic capabilities includes not only training, rewards, funding, etc. in the formal system, but also the support of informal systems such as teaching academic seminars, workshops, and academic conferences;Third,The ultimate goal of teaching academic ability cultivation is to build an academic tribe. Therefore, it not only requires the development of teachers’ teaching academic theoretical knowledge and operational practical abilities, but also includes the shaping of behavioral routines, concepts, responsibilities, etc., so that the behavioral norms and value culture of the teaching academic community can be formed.

(3) Imitate traditional academic rules to enhance the academic legitimacy of teaching

The system construction of teaching academics cannot simply be separated from the institutional rules of traditional academics and reset. On the contrary, it needs to imitate reasonable aspects of traditional academic systems.On the one hand, because the teaching academic system is still in the exploratory period, if you need to gain legitimacy in a short time, imitating traditional academics is the best choice; on the other hand, imitation also prevents teaching academics from becoming the opposite of the traditional academic system. However, we must also avoid over-imitation and complete imitation, thereby becoming a copy of traditional scholarship.Imitation can start from the aspects of cultivating academic abilities, building communities, and academic communication methods. At the same time, it can introduce the participation of traditional academic groups and organizations to gain legitimacy recognition in interaction and learning.