What new lecturers need to develop their teaching

Every year, doctoral students, postdoctoral researchers and professionals from industry take on teaching roles in higher education. Yes, they bring substantial disciplinary expertise, but they can often have limited experience of teaching in university classrooms. Qualifications like the PG Cert in Higher Education provide an essential theoretical and reflective foundation and can support new lecturers. 

However, while these programmes include teaching observations and reflective assignments, they are not usually designed to provide rapid, low-stakes, feed-forward feedback that can be applied immediately in subsequent teaching sessions.

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One way to address this gap is through short, intensive teaching placements that embed developmental feedback directly into teaching practice. At our university, we work with Max Weber Postdoctoral Fellows from the European University Institute, who join us for a one-week teaching placement each year, following a three-month teaching and learning course. 

During the placement, fellows deliver two 60- to 90-minute sessions within live foundation, undergraduate or postgraduate degree programmes. In most cases, they are responsible for developing their own teaching materials, aligned with the curriculum for that week. Crucially, these sessions are fully embedded within existing curricula; they are not micro-teaching simulations.

Each teaching session is observed by two colleagues: a discipline-specific academic and a pedagogic specialist from the Centre for Education and Teaching Innovation. Their observations focus on strengths, areas for development and pedagogic decision-making, and are discussed with fellows through structured, reflective dialogue. 

The feedback they provide is explicitly developmental rather than summative and is designed to feed forward into the second teaching session. This way, fellows can apply insights immediately and refine their practice in real time.

Why dual-perspective feedback matters

The effectiveness of this model lies in the combination of two distinct but complementary forms of feedback. Discipline-specific feedback helps fellows refine the accuracy, framing and pacing of subject content. It also supports their understanding of the field, including expectations around student engagement, assessment and academic discourse. For early-career lecturers, this input is crucial in building credibility with students and developing confidence in their role as disciplinary experts.

At the same time, the feedback from educational developers focuses on how learning is designed and facilitated. This includes inclusive pedagogic approaches and the use of active learning strategies. Pedagogic feedback also foregrounds accessibility and participation, encouraging fellows to reflect on how teaching decisions shape who is able to engage, contribute and succeed. Together, these perspectives ensure that feedback supports not only what is taught, but how and for whom learning takes place.

The fellows’ reflections illustrate the complexity of teaching across levels and contexts. One noted:

“One of the biggest challenges was encouraging undergraduate students to actively participate in discussions, as they tended to be shy. I also had to balance the differing needs of undergraduate and postgraduate students, ensuring that both groups were appropriately challenged and engaged. Adapting to different teaching styles when co-teaching required flexibility and collaboration.”

This highlights how discipline-specific feedback supports decisions around content and academic expectations, while pedagogic feedback enables lecturers to respond flexibly to student engagement and collaborative teaching dynamics.

Feedback as dialogue, not judgement

What’s central to this approach is a reconceptualisation of feedback as dialogue rather than judgement. We offer feedback promptly, while the teaching experience is still fresh, and it’s framed as a two-way conversation that invites fellows to articulate their pedagogic intentions, reflect on their decisions and identify areas for development. 

Rather than focusing on performance against fixed criteria, we shape feedback conversations towards developmental next steps and framed as opportunities for experimentation and growth.

The fellows described how this dialogic approach supported rapid pedagogic adjustment:

“I adapted my approach based on student engagement and feedback. For undergraduate students, I incorporated more interactive activities and small group discussions to boost participation. For postgraduate students, who were more engaged, I facilitated deeper discussions and encouraged more autonomy. I also adjusted my pacing and teaching style to ensure clarity and inclusivity.”

The structure of the placement enables fellows to act on feedback almost immediately, by applying it to their second teaching session. This rapid feedback–practice cycle reduces the anxiety often associated with observed teaching and encourages pedagogic risk-taking in a low-stakes environment. As one fellow reflected on their first session:

“I realised that some students were not comfortable in English. I adapted by asking broader questions, switching to case studies and small group discussions, and later incorporating more images and avoiding specialised language.”

Rather than being framed as shortcomings, we treat moments of uncertainty, improvisation and revision as integral to learning how to teach. We don’t position feedback as a static record to be archived, but as an active process that shapes subsequent teaching practice and supports the development of reflective, inclusive and confident lecturers.

What institutions can learn

• Rethink the role of feedback in teaching development
  Meaningful support for doctoral and early-career teachers does not require large-scale structural change, but a shift from evaluative observation towards developmental, dialogic feedback.
• Use short, intensive placements to accelerate learning
  Concentrated teaching opportunities, where feedback can be applied immediately, allow early-career lecturers to refine their practice in real time rather than retrospectively.
• Combine disciplinary and pedagogic expertise
  Feedback is most effective when it brings together subject-specific insight and educational development expertise, supporting both content credibility and inclusive, engaging teaching design.
• Separate feedback from judgement
  Low-stakes, non-evaluative feedback environments reduce anxiety, encourage pedagogic risk-taking and support reflective professional growth.
• Frame teaching development as a collective endeavour
  Structured feedback conversations signal that learning to teach is not an individual trial-and-error process, but a shared, supported responsibility within the institution.

Katherine Mansfield, Yaz Osho and Richard Paterson work in the Centre for Education and Teaching Innovation at the University of Westminster, where they support inclusive teaching and academic development across the institution.

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