If you wish to publish, you might be interested in submitting a case study to the
Scholarship of learning and teaching
As you move forward in your teaching career, you might find that you are increasingly interested in questions about student learning or about effective learning and teaching practice. These questions can form the basis for a more scholarly approach to teaching, which can in turn enhance your learning and teaching career.
What is the scholarship of learning and teaching?
The scholarship of learning and teaching is based on the idea that, like research, teaching in higher education can and should be a scholarly activity. The scholarship of learning and teaching is often distinguished from scholarly learning and teaching. Scholarly learning and teaching focuses on the learning experience of students in the context of a continual improvement exercise on the part of the teacher. A teacher engaged in scholarly learning and teaching might familiarise her or himself with discipline-specific and pedagogical research that relates to student learning in the discipline. She or he might then use this research to inform her or his approach to enhancing student learning.
The scholarship of learning and teaching goes further than this and might involve asking and answering certain questions about student learning in the discipline. These questions form the basis for research into student learning. The results of this research into student learning might then be communicated through conference papers and publications in scholarly journals and books. The scholarship of learning and teaching emphasises an evidence-based approach to learning and teaching practice as well as a critically reflective stance on practice, evidence, and the scholarly literature. It should be open to review and critique by peers and accessible for exchange and use by members of a scholarly community. The scholarship of learning and teaching always has as its goal the improvement of student learning.
How do I become engaged in the scholarship of learning and teaching?
The first step to becoming engaged in the scholarship of learning and teaching is becoming critically reflective about your learning and teaching practice. This might help you to identify aspects of your practice that you wish to improve or issues in student learning that you wish to investigate. At this point, you could consult the literature in your field and in learning and teaching for its insights. From here, you can be systematic about planning, evaluating, documenting, and communicating innovations and improvements.
It might be helpful to think of the scholarship of learning and teaching as based on a cycle of continual improvement in learning and teaching, which is framed by the aims of inquiry and communication.
As you can see, this model emphasises inquiry and communication, which
take place within a community that might be embodied in the literature,
your students, and your colleagues. There are many opportunities for
communicating your scholarly approach to learning and teaching. At UNSW,
you might wish to hold lunchtime or occasional seminars in your school
or faculty. Some faculties have learning and teaching interest groups.
There are also many learning and teaching conferences at which you could
present your findings. If you wish to publish, you might be interested
in submitting a case study to the UNSW
Compendium of Good Practice in Learning and Teaching. You could
also investigate journals in your discipline or in the field of learning
and teaching.
If you would like help to explore the scholarship of learning and teaching, please contact us by email LT@UNSW or phone 55989.