The pedagogic gap Introduction 7; A problematic concept 8; The impact of massification 9; Professional development 11; The erosion of autonomy 12; The limits of reflective practice 18; The

University lecturers1 are often involved in preparing students for the demands of professional life. This includes the education of future doctors, nurses, engineers, architects, lawyers and school teachers. Hence, it is somewhat ironic that lecturers working in universities have not traditionally been regarded as a distinct profession in their own right. University lecturers, though, have rarely presented an image of a unified and coherent professional group. They are commonly characterized as a disparate community of subject specialists or rival ‘tribes’ (Becher and Trowler, 2001), an insular image of strife within ivory towers that has been well recorded over more than two centuries (eg Kant, 1979).