In response to the increasing and challenging nature of societal demands on universities and the teaching staff within them there is a call for a renewed emphasis on the pedagogies of higher education (Wells and Edwards 2014 p. 2; Nixon 2012). In this report I outline my support for this call and my pedagogical approach to promoting professional dialogue and enquiry-based professional learning in HE.
An enquiry-based professional learning approach can support academic colleagues to respond to the challenges for teaching arising from economic and policy changes in the HE sector. By creating spaces for experimentation reflection and critique I aim to support innovations in teaching and new theorising about practice and to contribute to the dialogue and the evidence base for more coherent conceptualisations of teaching excellence and teacher excellence. I hope to influence how excellence is "defined perceived incentivised and measured" in HE (Gunn and Fisk 2014 p. 7).
References
Wells G. and Edwards W. (2014) The changing face of higher education. In: Wells G. and Edwards A. (eds.) Pedagogy in higher education: a cultural historical approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp 1-18.
Nixon J. (2012) Interpretive pedagogies for higher education: Arendt Berger Said Nussbaum and their legacies. London and New York: Bloomsbury.
Gunn V. and Fisk A. (2013) Considering teaching excellence in higher education: 2007-2013: a literature review since the CHERI Report 2007. Project Report. York: Higher Education Academy.
