Out-of-Class Instruction in Higher Education – Impact of Approaches to Teaching and Discipline

Abstract

Many debates in higher education center around the role of approaches to teaching (measured with ATI-R) and impact of academic disciplines (soft vs. hard) on teaching practice, e.g. advice giving. An online study with N = 70 academic teachers was conducted and the advice given was content analyzed. Regression analyses showed that academics with a higher student focus (ATI-R) advised more deep learning strategies. Academics from the soft disciplines wrote longer answers, advised more resource management strategies, and provided more reasons for student self-learning that contained fewer external motivators. Hence, the study supports the role of approaches to teaching and academic disciplines on teaching practice.