In today's higher education climate academic staff are encouraged to focus not only on the up-to-date content of their teaching, but also to identify the most effective ways to engage students in learning, often alongside other key transferrable skills. This had led to a growing requirement for staff to adopt a scholarly approach to learning and teaching practice, and to undertake scholarship of learning and teaching as part of ongoing professional development.
This text explores broad best practice approaches to undertaking enquiry into learning and teaching in higher education. It provides an introduction for staff who have been educated within a range of academic disciplines, often with high-level but very focused knowledge about, and understandings of, research processes to the potentially new world of educational enquiry. This is complemented by chapters exploring what educational enquiry means in the context of different academic disciplines, including physical sciences, mathematics, engineering, the life sciences, the arts, the humanities, the health professions, and law.
It also includes:
An overview of research methodology including data collection, literature reviews, good ethical practice, and research dissemination
Case studies of actual research projects to support understanding of how to carry out educational enquiry in practice.