This project was carried out in the context of the Higher Education Academy (HEA) ‘Staff Transitions’ stream of work with a view to investigating the extent to which activities undertaken under the banner of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) might inform a sector-wide reflection on ways of identifying and recognising excellence in teaching. SoTL is a model that is used in the higher education (HE) sector (particularly in North America Australasia UK South Africa and some European and south-east Asian countries) to reflect on and transform teaching and learning practices. It focuses on teaching and learning strategies underpinning the curriculum and promotes research-informed teaching. Increasingly it also seeks to involve students by providing opportunities to learn in research-mode and to develop undergraduate research. SoTL is a research-led form of professional development and has the potential to inform policy and practice at institutional level for example in career development and in the promotion and recognition of teaching excellence. In today’s increasingly diverse higher education environment with access to state subsidy now being available to private providers and non-HE institutions it is important to provide tools flexible enough to address institutional and disciplinary diversity changing career pathways and varied promotion frameworks in universities.
The executive summary and reports from this project can be downloaded below.
