International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research

Vol. 20, No. 10, pp. 117-132, October 2021

https://doi.org/10.26803/ijlter.20.10.7
Received Jul 19, 2021; Revised Oct 15, 2021; Accepted Oct 18, 2021

How to Become Experienced? The Practice of

Novice Lecturer Professional Development at A
Public University

Yu Hong, Arnida Abdullah,

Soaib Asimiran and Mohd Mokhtar Muhamad
Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8158-0494
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6593-7310
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2981-9509
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5376-6016

Abstract. Novice lecturer professional development is regarded as a

continuous process that begins during pre-service lecturer training and
continues throughout the academic career. It is focused on enabling and
empowering lecturers by improving their professional confidence,
teaching skills, and classroom management. The purpose of this paper is
to explore the professional development practices of novice lecturers
and to comprehend their situation and feelings about these practices at a
public university in China. Using a qualitative case study, five novice
lecturers were selected to participate in this study. Relevant programs
and activities on professional development are analyzed. Semi-
structured interviews were conducted to explore the perceptions of
novice lecturers. Another data collection method was documentation.
The findings indicate that the professional development practices of
novice lecturers in this selected university were done by organizing
lecturer teaching competitions, teaching ability training, establishing the
mentorship system, information technology application ability training.
Novice lecturers are generally satisfied with the implementation of these
programs and activities and hope that the university could provide
more opportunities to help them grow quickly.

Keywords: professional development; practices; activities; novice

lecturers

1. Introduction
Universities around the world have identified the professional development of
lecturers as a key way to improve the conditions of educational institutions and
meet the educational challenges of the 21st century (Hardy, 2012). In the higher
education field, teaching is an important mission of universities (Zheng, 2017).

©Authors
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0
International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).
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Lecturers, education leaders, and policy makers all play a vital role in higher
education activities and should be central to professional development processes
(Nguyen, 2019). Novice lecturers are academic staff appointed by higher
education institutions for the first time. In the UK and the USA, novice lecturer
is equivalent to early-career or new faculty (Brent & Felder, 2008) and sometimes
novice is used in the literature for lecturers who are young and inexperienced.
For this study, novice lecturers are those with a master's degree or above and a
permanent job in higher education institutions with less than three years of
teaching experience.

As enthusiastic educators, novice lecturers need to develop knowledge of

teaching content, including the basic elements of the teaching process, to
increase the potential of attracting students and improve the quality of teaching
(Yu & Abdullah, 2020). For them, professional development is focused on
improving their professional confidence, learning area knowledge, skills,
teaching, and classroom management (Steyn, 2011). Their quality level and
knowledge reserves will directly affect the teaching work. To grasp the focus of
this study, professional development refers to the process of novice lecturers in
their careers to improve their teaching skills in various ways.

By the year 2019, young lecturers in China under 35 years old accounted for
28.5% of the total, and most of them were novice lecturers. They play an
important role in university teaching (Zheng, 2017). The Chinese government
has recognized the importance of educators in educational development and
quality improvement. In 2020, six departments including the Ministry of
Education in China issued the Guiding Opinions on Strengthening the Development
and Reform of Teaching Staff in Higher Education in the New Era, which emphasized
the important position of teaching staff in higher education institutions and
stated that universities must build strong lecturer development centers and
improve the lecturer development organization system. Therefore, it is necessary
to carry out relevant guidelines and policies to help them grow up quickly and
improve the quality of teaching (Sumarsono, 2016).

Novice lecturers are adult learners and they may have special needs and
requirements. Adult learning theory (Knowles, 1978; Merriam, 2018; Willis,
2021) emphasizes that experience is the most abundant resource for adult
learners; they need personalized learning and have learning motivation when
learning needs to be met. Scholars such as Knowles (1978) summarized that
adult actively learn to meet their own needs in the learning process; adults
greatly need self-direction and adult learners need personalized learning. He
combined the lifelong learning habits with learning theory. For novice lecturers,
professional development policies and programs should take into consideration
the achievement outcomes, motivation, instruction, feedback, and efficiency.
They already have a certain amount of experience, and they need to connect
their learning with previous experience. Moreover, novice lecturers are goal-
oriented; they know what they want to achieve. Learning has to apply to their
work to be valuable to their professional development. The adult learning theory
used in this study can explain the experience of novice lecturers in early teaching

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and their perceptions in professional development practices, and clarify the

importance of policies and programs for the transition of novice lecturers.

2. Literature Review
2.1 Overview of Professional Development
Professional development as a concept in occupation has been used in many
contexts and there are multiple conceptualizations that different scholars use to
refer to professional development. Weir (2017) regards professional
development as a lifelong learning process. One of the hallmarks of
professionals is continuous learning throughout their careers (Weir, 2017).
Wasserman and Migdal (2019) refer to professional development like education
and training. Moreover, they point out that training is a learning activity that
focuses on acquiring skills and knowledge for their duties. Caena (2011) states
that, in addition to initial teacher training, professional development is also
related to various activities, which can improve personal knowledge, skills, and
abilities. Similar to Caena's view, Day (2002) believes that professional
development requires regular and planned-to-learn activities. These activities
enable to enhance personal value and promote organizational development.

Evans (2014) makes a different point. He believes that professional development

is closely related to personal attitude, behavior, and intelligence. Attitude is the
true inner view of personal professional development. Behavior is a concrete
manifestation of promoting professional development and intelligence is
personal learning ability and reflection ability. In this study, it can be considered
that professional development refers to novice lecturers acquiring new
knowledge and teaching skills through training to enhance their ability, which
may take different approaches.

The emphasis over recent years in research on lecturer professional development

has shifted more in the direction of forms of professional development that are
multi-faceted (Harris & Jones, 2019). Lecturer professional development is now
regarded as a continuous process that begins during pre-service lecturer training
and continues throughout an academic career (Harris & Jones, 2019). It is an
ongoing process whereby lecturers acquire new subject knowledge and teaching
method skills (Hallinger & Liu, 2016).

2.2 Challenges Faced by Novice Lecturers

The problems and difficulties that novice lecturers faced in the beginning stage
of work usually make them confused (Jeannin & Hallinger, 2018; Kim & Roth,
2011). Facing a large number of students, they need to stay focused for the next
few hours (Wang, 2011). They often encounter shocks in the first years of
teaching when they realize that the principles they have learned before may not
be conducive to the real class (Wang, 2011). Tlali (2018) took the National
University of Lesotho as a case. Through interviews with several lecturers at the
university, he found that there are many challenges in the professional
development of lecturers, such as lack of recognition, lack of resources, lack of
human resources, delay in policy approval and implementation, and poor
attendance of courses. Jeannin and Hallinger (2018) believe that, for

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inexperienced lecturers, teaching in different classes will make them feel

uncomfortable because they do not understand students’ expectations and
learning styles. They may all be unprepared for a variety of learning needs and
preferences in the classroom (Jeannin & Hallinger, 2018). Ibrahim et al. (2013)
believe that, although novice lecturers have certain content knowledge, they still
lack teaching skills, especially in the first years of work, because the first few
years’ experiences lay the foundation for their professional development and
career planning.

In China, most of these novice lecturers have just graduated from university and
are full of curiosity and fantasies about the profession of lecturers (Zheng, 2017).
Shi (2015) states that the most common challenge of novice lecturers is that they
are difficult to adapt to new roles quickly, such as pressure on work and life,
slow transition from student role to educator role, lack of education and
teaching experience, and insufficient practical ability. They experience
difficulties in adapting to the university culture, either due to the lack of support
of relevant training or by teaching subjects that they did not receive training for
(Ulvik et al., 2009). Boyd and Lawley (2009) explain that, as a newcomer, novice
lecturers need to adapt to many changes, such as new colleagues, new processes,
new skills, and most importantly, how to adapt to the current work. Besides,
some novice lecturers have never received systematic teacher education; they
have limited experience in teaching practice (Shi, 2015). The limitation of
teaching strategies and wisdom will make them puzzled. Good teaching
requires a variety of skills and traits. These skills need to be improved by
participating in various practical activities for training and learning.

2.3 Professional Development Policies and Practices of Novice Lecturers

Various countries in the world adopt different policies to ensure the professional
development of educators (Ajani, 2021). The development of professional
standards frameworks became a trend first in the UK. Different universities have
different policies toward the professional development of their lecturers, but
they are all aimed at helping them. At Oxford University, there is a program
called Preparation for Learning and Teaching Program which consists of half or
full-day seminars and deals with practical teaching within a subject. This is a
prerequisite for teaching in collegiate discipline groups (Fredericks, 2017). For
novice lecturers at the University of Roehampton, the university provides a
program called the University of Roehampton Certificate in Learning and
Teaching in Higher Education. This course is for newly appointed early-career
academics and particular focus is on teaching, learning, and action research. The
program also includes observation of teaching by student consultants (Turner et
al., 2013). In Australia, the University of Melbourne prepares an Induction
Training Program for novice lecturers. They need to attend an online induction
training course, where they can conduct group teaching and assistance in a
laboratory environment. They are also recommended to participate in induction
training provided by the faculties and graduate schools to prepare for a
particular disciplinary setting (Hicks et al., 2010). The Young Lecturer
Development Program of Peking University in China is also a good reference
(PKU, 2016). The purpose of the program is to organize training and research

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activities on pedagogy for novice young lecturers. This program will be

implemented every year, and novice young lecturers can complete the credits
within three years. This program includes four modules with a total of 96
credits.

3. Research Purpose
Current studies on novice lecturer professional development only reveal the
socialization process of novice lecturers and lacked an understanding of the
needs among novice lecturers (Yu & Abdullah, 2020; Sumarsono, 2016). This
topic is crucial since it contributes to encouraging university leaders to design
suitable programs for professional development for novice lecturers. In addition,
for novice lecturers, the findings could help them understand the importance of
professional development policies and practices, especially their contribution to
improving individual capabilities. They could actively participate in
professional development programs and activities organized by the university
according to their actual situation, thereby promoting professional development.
At the institution level, the findings may enable the university management to
rethink and revise some aspects of the existing organizing and managing the
professional development after considering novice lecturers’ perspectives on
training and capability development.

Therefore, based on the above, the main purpose of this study is to explore the
practice of professional development from the perspective of novice lecturers at
a public university in China. Thus, the main questions guiding this study are
what are the feelings and experiences of novice lecturers as they participate
during the professional development practices?

4. Methodology
This study chose to conduct a qualitative case study because it allows
researchers to focus on the meaning that participants give to the phenomenon
under investigation (Marshall & Rossman, 2014; Merriam & Tisdell, 2015).
Merriam and Tisdell (2015) state that qualitative research is to understand how
people interpret their experiences, how they construct their worlds, and what
meaning they attribute to their experiences. The suitability of a qualitative
method is further underscored by the aim of this study which seeks to explore
the feelings of professional development practices among novice lecturers at the
selected public university. The case can be a set of individuals bounded in time
and place (Yin, 2017). A case study research design (Yin, 2017) was used in this
study as an approach to finding out the practices of professional development in
the selected university. In this holistic single case study, the researcher selected a
university to explore the feelings and experiences of novice lecturers which
could provide a detailed understanding of this specific topic. In this section,
sample selection, data collection methods, and data analysis were discussed.

4.1 Sample Selection

This study was conducted at University STN, which is a public university in
Guangxi Province of China. The reason for choosing this university is that
novice lecturers in Chinese public universities could have more development

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opportunities. Another reason is that this university is a newly-built

undergraduate university focusing on teaching. Therefore, selecting this
university will make this study more meaningful. In a qualitative study, the size
of the sample within a case is relevant to the purpose of the study, and the main
factor is not the number of participants, but the ability of each participant to
contribute to the development of insight and understanding of the study
(Merriam & Tisdell, 2015). Therefore, this study used purposive sampling to
select a tentative number of participants from the university. Purposive
sampling is a method whereby the researcher subjectively chooses who to
include in the research based on their experience and ability to provide
necessary data (Merriam & Tisdell, 2015). Thus, five novice lecturers from
different faculties were selected and assigned pseudonyms, Ming, Wei, Song,
Kong, and Wang, instead of their real names. All of them have less than three
years of teaching experience in higher education institutions. Moreover, their
fields are different (Table 1).

Table 1: Background information of participants

Name Ming Kong Wang Wei Song

Age 28 28 27 32 30
Chinese
Preschool Marxist
Research field Linguistic Biology Accounting
Education Philosophy
Literature
Teaching
2 years 1.5 years 2 years 1 year 3 years
experience
Academic
Master Master Master PhD. Master
qualification

4.2 Data Collection Methods

In a qualitative study, the researcher, as the main research tool, plays an
important role in the research process (Marshall & Rossman, 2014; Merriam &
Tisdell, 2015). Thus, the researcher collected the data through documentation
and semi-structured interviews. As the main source of data, documents in this
study are the policies and plans related to professional development, as well as
news report on the participation of novice lecturers in various activities. Policies
and plans are the rules formulated by leaders to promote the professional
development of novice lecturers. The news report about the participation of
novice lecturers is the proof and evidence of their professional development.
Another method of data collection is semi-structured interviews. The interview
questions developed by the researcher are based on the literature (Nguyen, 2019)
and research questions. The duration of each participant interview is 60 to 80
minutes. Through interviews, the researcher could understand the current
situation of novice lecturers and their true feelings about professional
development practices.

4.3 Data Analysis

According to Alhojailan (2012), qualitative research requires understanding and
collecting different aspects and data. As proposed by Clarke and Braun (2013),

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thematic analysis provides researchers flexibility with the type of research

questions; the type of data, such as in-depth interviews, documents and focus
group discussions; the volume of data, and so on. Hence, thematic analysis were
used in the study to analyse data, which is a qualitative analytic method for
identifying, analysing, and reporting themes within data (Braun & Clarke, 2006;
Kiger & Varpio, 2020).

Thematic analysis includes many steps. After the interview, the recorded
materials and documents were organized and transcribed into computer files.
Next, the researcher listened to the interviews several times while transcribing
the recordings of each participant. After that, the researcher read all transcripts
and reviewed the entire record of the recorded interview to verify and match the
true expression of the respondents. After doing the above, coding was
performed. When coding the data, the researcher carefully read the entire
transcripts repeatedly. Similar data, although expressed in different words, was
coded similarly and then grouped. Then, the researcher used codes to mark
important pieces of information related to the research purposes and questions.
After analysing the transcript many times, the themes were established through
units of information consisting of phrases, sentences, and segments of the text.
The researcher determined some broad themes based on these information units
first, then reviewed the transcription and analyzed the data to make specific
themes more obvious. These specific themes are relevant to this study. To
enhance the trustworthiness, peer review and member checks will be used to
make this study more credible. The researcher discussed all aspects of this study
with professors or colleagues and asked them to comment. The transcripts were
sent to participants so that they could verify the contents and give feedback.

5. Findings
In this selected university, all programs and activities related to the professional
development of novice lecturers are organized and managed by the Academic
Affairs Office and the Human Resources Office. In March 2019, the university
issued the Young Lecturers' Teaching Capacity Enhancement Plan, which provides
support and assistance to novice young lecturers through teaching competition,
teaching ability training, establishing a mentorship system, and improving
information technology application ability.

5.1 Teaching Competition

Teaching competition is an important activity to show the teaching ability and
skills of novice lecturers. The purpose of the teaching competition is to promote
interaction and communication between novice lecturers, which helps to create a
good atmosphere for teaching in the whole university. The competition is
organized by the Academic Affairs Office once or twice a year. A faculty-level
competition will be held by each faculty, and then outstanding lecturers will be
selected to participate in the final held by the university. Novice lecturers who
perform well in the finals will be commended and recommended for higher-
level competitions.

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The competition consists of three parts. The first part is teaching design, which
accounts for 20%. Teaching design refers to the assumption and arrangement of
teaching activities. It mainly includes course name, teaching objective, teaching
idea, course resources, teaching content, teaching key and difficult points,
teaching methods and tools, teaching arrangement, teaching evaluation, preview
task, and assignments. Lecturers have to prepare the teaching design of the
course, which will then be graded by the judges. The second part is classroom
teaching, accounting for 75%. Lecturers extract lecture sections in advance and
then conduct a 20-minute lecture. The judges evaluate the teaching content,
teaching organization, teaching language, teaching style, and teaching
characteristics. Lecturers need to prepare the slides of the courses, and the
classroom teaching content should be consistent with the teaching design
content submitted. The third part is teaching reflection. After the end of the
classroom teaching, lecturers combine with the classroom teaching practice of
this section, from the aspects of teaching philosophy, teaching methods, and
teaching process, in the 3-5 minutes given to reflect and make a statement to the
judges; this part accounts for 5%. Finally, the lecturer's total score is based on the
combination of three parts.

Through interviews, Ming and Song, two novice lecturers who have participated
in the competition, state their views:
“The teaching competition for me is like a double-edged sword. It gives
me pressure, but it also encourages me. Through the competition, I could
find my shortcomings and learn the advantages of other excellent
lecturers.” (Ming)

“I won a good place in last year's competition, which builds confidence.

The competition is a platform for lecturers to communicate and learn
from each other.” (Song)

Ming and Song both believed that participating in the teaching competition
helped them. They regard competition as an effective way to evaluate their
professional development. Through the comments of the judges, they can
improve and make themselves more experienced. This is a process of continuous
reflection and continuous improvement (Geng & Yu, 2021; Shu, 2012). The other
three lecturers have not participated in the competition, but they all support this
activity.
“I missed this year's competition, but I am ready for next year.” (Kong)

“The competition is very attractive to me; it can help me adapt to

teaching as soon as possible.” (Wei)

“Although it is a form of competition, its purpose is to help novice

lecturers to develop their professional skills. I didn’t participate this year
because I was not confident enough.” (Wang)

Based on a clear understanding, these three lecturers have not yet participated in
the teaching competition. They know their current shortcomings, but they all say
they will participate once they are ready. In addition, through the news report

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related to the teaching competition for novice lecturers held by the university, it
can be seen that the teaching competition could arouse the enthusiasm of novice
lecturers and the participation of lecturers is very high.

5.2 Teaching Ability Training

The purpose of teaching ability training is to help novice lecturers master the
preparation requirements of teaching plans, syllabus, and teaching design. The
ways of teaching ability training include workshops, seminars, classroom
observation, and so on. Novice lecturers need to grasp the course positioning,
correctly analyze and process the teaching materials, and complete the teaching
design with high quality. In addition, they must be proficient in the basic skills
and teaching methods of classroom teaching and conduct evaluation and
reflection.

At the university level, the Office of Academic Affairs organizes three to four
workshops and seminars every year. The topics of these workshops and
seminars are pedagogy, teaching research, teaching plan writing, teaching
organization, and management. Because the university is a normal university
that focuses on undergraduate teaching, teacher educators must understand all
of these to teach students more effectively. At the faculty level, each lecturer is
obliged to observe at least six other lessons every semester. The contents of the
observation are mainly the lecturer's preparation, teaching plans, use of
multimedia courseware, teaching content, teaching methods, and teaching
attitude. Observation notes are written in a notebook that needs to be submitted
at the end of each semester, which will be archived and managed by the faculty.
Teaching ability training is a basic activity to enhance professional development
and every novice lecturer needs to participate.
“I always participate in these workshops and seminars organized by the
Office of Academic Affairs. The professors who instruct us are all
experienced professors in the field.” (Kong)

“My field is biology. I lack knowledge of pedagogy and educational

psychology; it was quite stressful when I first started teaching. However,
as long as there is a pedagogical workshop, I will participate. This helps
me.” (Wei)

“I hope that the university invites more professors to instruct us because

workshops could really help me.” (Ming)

Kong, Song, and Ming share the same views on workshops and seminars. Both
the workshop and the seminar provided help for their professional
development. The interactive part of the workshop can give them a real sense of
experience, which is the driving force for their progress (Cai et al., 2020).
Regarding classroom observation, lecturers have different views.
“To be frank, I feel that classroom observation is not very useful. Every
time our notebook is submitted to the faculty, there is no feedback. This
is a problem.” (Wei)

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“I think the significance of classroom observation lies in evaluating the

lecturer, although I can learn from some experienced lecturers through
classroom observation.” (Wang)

“It can’t be said that classroom observation is not good, it is helpful. But
I think it is not as helpful as workshop and seminar.” (Song)

“This is a prescribed task; I can only say that I will complete it.” (Kong)

As you can see from what the four lecturers said, they took a neutral attitude
toward classroom observation, which was not fully affirmed like seminar and
workshop. They don't think classroom observation is effective enough to help
their professional development, but they still stick with it.

5.3 Mentorship
University STN strongly encourages the implementation of the mentorship
system, the purpose of which is to help novice lecturers familiarize themselves
with the work as soon as possible and further improve the level of teaching and
scientific research. Every year, the university will issue a notification that
associate professors or above can voluntarily sign up to mentor novice lecturers.
The content of the mentoring includes teaching preparation, writing teaching
plans, lectures, and evaluation. In addition, associate professors or above must
also mentor or cooperate with the novice in applying for scientific research
projects, and guide to write and publish more than one academic or teaching
research paper. Novice lecturers can ask their mentors about teaching plans,
academic and teaching questions. These five novice lecturers are all being
mentored.
“My mentor is a very patient professor, and every time I communicate
with him, I get all inspirations. He declared a project this year, and I
joined in as a member.” (Ming)

“I don't have much communication with my mentor, but whenever I

asked her questions about teaching, she could answer them one by one.
For example, she told me to treat my students as friends so I wouldn't
feel anxious.” (Kong)

“My mentor often listens to my lecture in the classroom and gives me

feedback, then tells me my weaknesses and shortcomings for
improvement. He also guided me on how to apply for the project.”
(Wang)

“I know that I am inexperienced in teaching, so I take the initiative to

communicate with my mentor, and often listen to his lectures. Besides, I
often invite him to listen to my lectures and give me opinions.” (Wei)

“I think this mentoring is not very helpful to me. My mentor hardly

guides me because of her busy work. She sometimes asks me to help her
with trivial things, such as downloading papers.” (Song)

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From the experience of the above five novice lecturers, it is not difficult to see
that the effectiveness of mentoring is inseparable from the interaction between
novice lecturers and their mentors. Active mentors can give lecturers a full range
of guidance and help them grow in a real sense. Some mentors are only nominal
and do not guide the professional development of novice lecturers. Mentoring is
an important approach to help novice employees grow quickly, and it is also
widely used in other fields, such as doctors and technicians (Ramhurry, 2013).
However, how to make full use of the advantages of mentoring needs to be
further explored.

5.4 Information Technology Application Ability Improvement Training

The training of information technology applications aims to improve the ability
of novice lecturers to acquire, communicate, process, and apply teaching
information through the use of information technology. The training content
includes multimedia courseware, micro-lectures, MOOC, etc. The training of
information technology application ability focuses on the development of novice
lecturers' information teaching ability. After each training session, each lecturer
needs to submit excellent courseware or micro-class. The Academic Affairs
Office will evaluate the participating lecturers. Those who fail the assessment
will continue to participate in the next training session. The assessment results
are filed by the Human Resources Office, the Academic Affairs Office, and the
faculty, as one of the references for professional qualification recognition and job
appointment of novice lecturers. Their views on this training are as follows.
“My students are normal students and they will work in kindergartens
in the future. The ability to information technology applications is
important for normal students. So, I have the responsibility to improve
myself to better teach them.” (Ming)

“I was very good at this when I was a student, so there is no challenge

for me now. I will actively participate in the training organized by the
university.” (Kong)

“The training in information technology application is very helpful to

me. I was not good at these at first, but after training, I can do better in
this area.” (Wang)

“I think the application of information technology is a necessary skill for

university lecturers. The university organizes training to promote our
skills, so I do participate.” (Wei)

“I like this training very much. The application of information

technology can be said to be my strong point and I also won a prize in
the MOOC competition held in the province last year.” (Song)

These five lecturers are all in favor of the training of information technology
applications, and they are all willing to participate. The application of
information technology in education adapts to the current trend of the times and
can lay a good foundation for the work of lecturers. The use of information
technology in education can help improve teaching efficiency and promote

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interaction between lecturers and students (Hbaci et al., 2021). Because modern
educational technologies such as micro-lectures and MOOCs (Khalid et al., 2021;
Wang et al., 2020) can display not only text, pictures, but also video and sound,
and can be connected to the internet, they can make teaching content more vivid
and interesting, and make it easier for students to understand (Wang et al.,
2020).

6. Conclusion
Based on the above findings, it can be concluded that the professional
development practices of novice lecturers in this selected university mainly
include teaching competitions, teaching ability training, mentoring, and
information technology application ability training. Novice lecturers support
these activities and believe that these programs and activities have provided
help to their professional development. The teaching competition is a
demonstration of the teaching effect of lecturers. It can not only inspire lecturers
to devote more enthusiasm to teaching, but also improve their abilities by
learning from excellent lecturers. Workshops and seminars in the teaching
ability training are also important ways to help novice lecturers clarify the
teaching tasks and improve their teaching skills. However, lecturers generally
think that classroom observation, which is also one of the teaching ability
trainings, is not very helpful. The consequences resulting from mentorship are
determined by the relationship between the mentor and the novice lecturer.
However, most lecturers still affirm the help of mentoring. The application of
information technology is an indispensable skill for university lecturers, and
enhancing training in this area is of great benefit to novice lecturers.

7. Suggestions
This study explores the professional development practices of novice lecturers at
a selected public university in China, which not only enriches the theoretical
knowledge on the development of novice lecturers’ professional development
but also has practical significance for the management of the novice lecturers in
universities. For theoretical, this study highlights some relevant professional
development concepts from the perspective of novice lecturers, the application
of adult learning theory indicates that professional development is a long
process. For practical, this study is relevant to the management of universities.
Professional development of novice lecturers cannot be conducted without
planning. To achieve the goal of novice lecturer professional development,
universities need to encourage the deans of faculties, heads of units, and experts
in the universities to participate in the process. At the same time, the university
management should pay attention to the novice lecturers' views on professional
development activities, and consider their feedback in the improvement of
relevant policies and training, to formulate plans that meet the characteristics of
novice lecturers and are beneficial to their development.

8. Limitations and Future Work

In addition, this study has a potential weakness or limitations. Firstly, the
researcher purposively sampled participants from one public university in
China. Given the relatively small size of participants, the findings would be

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 129

unique to themselves. Due to the large number of novice lecturers in

universities, there must be more individualized problems. This means the
policies in the university and the characteristics of those participants in this
study are specific, so the findings might not be employed beyond the given
settings. Therefore, the author hopes that future researchers may use other
research designs, for example, use narrative to explore the lived experience of
novice lecturers or use quantitative research to investigate the relationship
between leadership practice and lecturer professional development.

Acknowledgements
The author would like to thank all the participants in this study as well as the
selected university.

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Appendix

Interview Protocol

Thank you for accepting to participate in this study. The purpose of this study is
to explore the practice of professional development from the perspective of
novice lecturers at a public university. During the interview, I want you to talk
about your views and experiences of professional development practices. I have
some broad questions for you but feel free to talk about anything that you want
to about your experience. Thanks.

Background information

Age Degree/Qualification

Teaching subject Years of teaching experience

No. Interview questions

1 What kind of programs and activities in your university?

Have you attended the professional development programs or activities?
2 If yes, tell me some specific actions.
If not, tell me why you didn’t attend.
What motivates you to participate in professional development programs
3
and activities?
Do you feel that participating in programs and activities has improved
your skills as a lecturer?
4 If so, what new knowledge and skills did you acquire from the training?
If not, why do you think these programs and activities do not promote
your professional development?
Is there any follow-up by the organizer when after participating in the
5
professional development programs and activities?
What do you suggest should be improved in the implementation of
6
professional development programs and activities, and why?
In addition to these programs and activities, what other better programs or
7
activities do you hope the university could provide?
Would you like to share anything other than the question we discussed on
8
the topic?

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