Promoting excellence through teaching scholarship

This presentation reports on a project that involved 4 main collaborators in research on defining and supporting the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL). The research was funded by the Higher Education Academy and generated a set of data that included: • A literature review • A survey of SoTL practices in 62 UK-based Higher Education Providers (HEP) and 8 interviews with Heads of Educational Development • Three interviews with institutional Student Engagement (SE) leaders ; and 36 students in six focus groups – representing all four UK nations The main findings include: a lack of consensus on what SoTL work is, and how it can be assessed and rewarded; no explicit awareness of how it relates to quality and enhancement of teaching and learning; and very little understanding of the challenges posed by its disciplinary-interdisciplinary make-up. We found that it is possible to define SoTL through a set of characteristics (SoTL generates teaching /curriculum enhancement; change and boundary-crossing; engagement with students; dissemination and impact) and through relating SoTL to the different levels of the HE system (micro level of individuals and departments; institutional level; and the national/international macro level where policy, regulations, and incentives are decided upon that impact on the micro and meso levels). Recommendations for institutions, policy-makers, and researchers will be discussed