Theorising research on approaches to teaching in higher education

Theorising can best be understood as a practical art. It is embodied in the concrete activities of academic publishing that requires researchers to familiarise themselves with the literature in the field before submitting articles for review. Even researchers with a significant body of work tend to be cited for one publication and that publication is largely used to discuss a single concept. This paper reviews the development of two signature concepts by two by highly respected researchers in the field to familiarise potential higher education researchers with some of the approaches to theorising used in higher education research. A detailed analysis of the narrative that surrounds these signature concepts provides two short case studies in what successful researchers do when formulating their ideas. The paper concludes with an overview of strategies researchers might consider incorporating into their own research repertories when explaining the outcomes of their research into higher education teaching and learnin