Academics’ expertise development in teacher tasks: a multiple case study

Abstract

To support academics in their professional development as university teachers throughout their careers, a more comprehensive understanding is needed of their expertise development. In this study we therefore explored the order in which academics develop their expertise in various teacher tasks and the interrelatedness between their expertise development in these tasks. We conducted a multiple case study of 18 academics at a Dutch research-intensive university. We found a general pattern for academics’ expertise development in five teacher tasks over time, connectedness as well as distinctness of these tasks, and mutually beneficial relationships between expertise development in all tasks. These findings confirm the need for more holistic academic development, which combines attention for connections between teacher tasks with attention for specific teacher tasks.