Building Capacity for Change in Higher Education: Research on the Scholarship of Teaching

D'andrea's role in this HEFCE (Higher Education Funding Council for England) commissioned scoping study was as co-principal investigator with Professor George Gordon. The aim was to investigate the nature of the provision that supported the development of the scholarship of teaching and ways that the higher education sector could build capacity for this.

The tender invitation specified a state of the art review of the range and depth of pedagogic developments associated with the scholarship of teaching in higher education. The review was expected to explore the relationship between pedagogic development as supported through the various strands of the Teaching Quality Enhancement Fund and pedagogic research as supported through the Research Assessment Exercise and the ESRC Teaching and Learning Research Programme. The review was also expected to indicate how HEFCE, in collaboration with other partners, could best support the relationship between pedagogical development and pedagogic research.

The methodology sought triangulation of evidence from the following sources: a systematic review of the literature on the scholarship of teaching and learning – including views from relevant working groups, policy-statements, conference proceedings, journal articles and web-sites; a series of case-studies of practice drawn from a sample of pre-and-post-1992 institutions; and structured interviews with key individuals in HEIs and the key stakeholders specified in the invitation to tender.

The report focuses on the following: identifying what processes are available allowing academic staff to engage with pedagogical development; identifying mechanisms within these processes by which staff may progress from pedagogical development to pedagogical research; identifying gaps within provision of staff development regarding pedagogical development ; recommendations for processes by which gaps can be addressed; identifying what actions should be taken to support and promote scholarship; and identifying good practice, such as examples of staff development policies that encourage an integrated approach to the development of the teacher/researcher in higher education.