Becoming A Teaching Scholar Concepts Of "Good" Teaching Among Science Teachers Participating In Training Programmes

University teaching is going through a professionalization process as part of a change or reform of the teaching and learning culture. This process builds on the notion that it is no longer sufficient for a university employee to be an excellent researcher; she must also be an excellent teacher. The relation and interaction between research and teaching is of great importance, but it is documented that being a good researcher does not necessarily correlate with being a good teacher (Feldman, 1987; Hattie and Marsh, 1996, 2002) In higher education there is a reinterpretation of academic scholarship including educational/teaching scholarship (Boyer, 1990; Entwistle, 2003; Entwistle et al., 2000; Trigwell et al., 2000). The primary argument for scholarship is that we share common knowledge about good teaching, which is promoted by the community of scholars communicating their concepts, findings, methods, and principles. The idea is that educational scholarship promotes high quality teaching (Shulmann, 1993). So if the aim of teaching is “to make student learning possible” (Ramsden, 1992), the aim of scholarly teaching is “to make it transparent how we have made learning possible” (Healey, 2000, p. 171). In other words, we need theories about teaching. Andresen (2000) points out that educational scholarship is not just about describing what, how and why, but also a term of recommendation or challenge. We are engaged in promoting a set of intellectual values, so teaching scholarship is also a moral discourse. Scholars' communication is also a negotiation of status and power in the establishment of teaching. Boyer (1990) points out that the scholarship of education cannot be isolated from academic scholarship in general. The aim of professionalism is to change the academic culture towards including knowledge about teaching and learning in academic scholarship. Staff development programmes aim to promote this educational scholarship or professionalism. Thus today, university teachers are being educated as educators. In an international context, this professionalization has become one of the most important parameters in the further development of research-based education (Felten and Pingree, 2003; Lauersen, 2003). But why is this professionalization process taking place now?