Teaching and Learning Methods in Higher Education: a glimpse of the future

The same forces are raising the position of teaching and learning methods on the institutional agendas of most universities and other higher education organisations. A declining unit of teaching resource has put the spotlight on teaching methods because teaching staff costs are a high proportion of total costs within universities. Greater focus on, and publicity about, performance indicators of teaching quality have also increased the attention paid to teaching methods. Developments in technologies for communicating and disseminating information have a large potential impact on the practice of teaching because teaching is an activity in which communicating and disseminating information are significant aspects. None of these factors are likely to go away, so it is unlikely that concern about teaching methods in universities will subside. On the contrary, each is likely to become more compelling and so too, therefore, will concern about teaching methods.