Globalisation and massification are creating significant expansion in the higher education sector in Asia and forcing institutions to professionalise their teaching. Merely implementing academic development, however, does not ensure improvement in teaching quality. We report an action research project, which demonstrated that the combination of teaching development through Teaching Advantage Global, alongside professional recognition through fellowship of the Higher Education Academy, significantly improved the teaching self-efficacy of academics in China and Hong Kong SAR. The results of this research demonstrate that professional development and recognition can support and evidence sector-wide strategic change. Copyright © 2021 Routledge.

This paper discusses early-career academics' development at a university in Hong Kong. Reflecting the impact of local context, the paper explores cultural and structural influences that can impinge on teaching and learning strategies for new academics. Barriers such as student learning behaviour and publication pressure may discourage new academics from taking an active interest in ongoing professional development beyond the mandatory component. However, the effect of Chinese culture, which places a strong emphasis on 'face' and harmonious human relationships, and the existence of hidden ('ghost') rules can collectively add pitfalls that inhibit new academics' full engagement in their teaching roles. Local contextual capabilities are identified and implications for the design of professional development programmes for early-career academics are discussed.
[Copyright of Roeper Review is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1360144X.2011.596731]

There is increasing pressure toward professionalisation of university teaching, through the attendance of academic development courses and programmes. This is based on the expectation that such courses lead to more student-focused perspectives on teaching and learning and more effective teaching and learning practices. In this study we interviewed alumni of a Graduate Certificate programme, to explore its effects on teachers' self-reported experiences of teaching and the scholarship of teaching. This suggested that the programme had been successful in fostering the development of more complex experiences for most interviewees.
[Copyright of International Journal for Academic Development is the property of Routledge . Full article may be available at the publisher's website: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13601440802242382]