Workshop sponsored by the National Forum for T&L at Trinity College Dublin

1. National Forum Seminar Series: Rewriting the
script about pedagogic research in Higher
Education
Confusion exists about the relationship between the
Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SOTL), pedagogic
research and ‘real’ research. This seminar will enable
participants to wrestle with debates about the merits of each,
underlining the value of systematic ways of examining
teaching. Research and SOTL build confidence and
capability to transform teaching and learning and adopt
educational activities which are at the vanguard of practice.
Pedagogic research has the potential infuse the institutional
pedagogical agenda with dynamism, while providing
mechanisms for reward, recognition and joy in teaching.

2. Rewriting the script about pedagogic
research in higher education
Trinity College Dublin
11 February 2020

3. The plan
• Explore status of pedagogic
research
• Why and how it lags behind
• SOTL as the real poor
relation
• Jigsaw activity
• Strategies to move forward

4. What is the script?
Write down as many phrases or
adjectives as you can think of to
describe how academic colleagues
see pedagogic research

5. Why
bother
with
doing
pedagogic
research?
Less teaching by
trial and error;
more evidence-
based
Encourages risk and
experimentation
Invites students
into a conversation
about education
Develops and
models curious
habits of mind
Interplay teaching
and research –
improves both
Growing research
field brings
credibility as a field
of study

6. What is going on here
with student emotions?
What can we learn from
the Arts to connect with
students better?What happens if
we turn facts-
first on its head
and get students
doing research
from day one?
How can
psychology help
us teach better?
Or is context
more significant?What is going on here?
Why this and not that?
What theories from
elsewhere help?

7. So what has changed about pedagogic
research in HE?

8. Then….
Lord James of Rusholme, 1965
Universities today are homes of
research into almost every
subject save one – themselves.
There are few fields of social
science in which painstaking
investigation is more necessary
and less often pursued.

9. And now…

10. Exponential growth: a snapshot
Tight, M. 2012. Higher education research 2000–2010: changing journal publication patterns. HERD. 31:5, 723-740,

11. But what about books?
HEFCE, 2016.
Publication
patterns in
research
underpinning
impact in REF2014
A report to HEFCE
by Digital Science

13. Journals are #1 currency

14. 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200
Course Design
Student experience
Academic work
System policy
Institutional management
Quality
Teaching/Learning
Knowledge & research
Themes in 567 articles in 15 journals
(2010)

15. Evidence of Cinderella status?
• HE-focused submissions = 9% of the Education UOA 25.
• Majority of HE-related outputs were in sector specific:
• Studies in Higher Education (64)
• Higher Education (28)
• Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education (25)
• Teaching in Higher Education (20)
• British Educational Research Journal (7/155 = HE
focused).
Cotton, D., W. Miller and P. Kneale. 2018. The Cinderella of academia: Is higher education
pedagogic research undervalued in UK research assessment? Studies in Higher Education. Vol.
43, No. 9, 1625–1636

16. So what is the
problem?
• Is it a status problem?
• Or is it a ‘could do better’
problem?
• If so, what could we do
better?

17. What problems have you spotted with
HE pedagogic research?
• Type in your thoughts.
Don’t over think them!
• Go to www.menti.com
and type in the code 99
77 66

18. My stab at common problems
1) Too local problem
2) New kid on the block problem
3) Grand theory problem, with very few detractors
4) Obfuscation in educational jargon problem

19. Problem 1 and 2: Too
local? Too new?
Understanding the
grammar of knowledge
(Karl Maton)

21. Problem 3: The grand theory problem
(Haggis 2003; 2009)
Cognitive psychology
Approaches to learning
Curricular innovation
Social context
Critical perspectives
Discourse/writing
HE – Higher Education; SiHE – Studies in Higher Education; THE – Teaching in Higher Education

22. One of the fundamental problems is that it removes the
individual learner from the richness and complexity of
his/multiple contexts. It also constructs 'the learner' as a
being passively created by experience', and passively
amenable to reconstruction as a 'deep' learner through set of
moulding processes that take place within the university. The
learner, in this model, is a human being without agency.
(Haggis 2003, 98).

23. Problem 4: Inelegant, bland, jargon-
filled writing
Helen Sword (2009)
Writing higher
education differently:
a manifesto on
style, Studies in
Higher Education,
34:3, 319-336

24. If pedagogic
research has low
status next to
‘pure’ research
then SOTL…

25. …has a real status problem…
‘Proper’ researchPedagogic
research?
SOTL

26. Jigsaw Activity: let’s explore why

27. Let’s write
a new
script…

28. Five ways to
do that…
• Read about writing; learn to
write better
• Explore feelings about
writing
• Build a community of
writers
• Do not disturb
• Broaden your methods: be
creative
• Write more, read more;
free-write more

29. Strategy 1: Read about writing

30. Tell everyone the good news!
You can learn
how to write
better!
Very few mega
talented
individuals are
born with a quill in
their hands!

31. Strategy 2:
Explore
feelings about
writing

32. Feelings signify
important things
Writing is difficult, probably the most
difficult aspect of an academic’s work
The struggle is painful and makes
people vulnerable
There is a hint of excitement about
writing
It is an opportunity to build
community

33. Strategy 3:
Build a
community
of writers

34. Writing group for 1 x
day, once a month
• Creative activity
• Peer review activity
• Structured writing retreat – paired objectives
• Silence, no phones, no tablets
• Check in with one another
• Communal lunch
• Celebrate successes
• Pub to relax afterwards

35. Strategy 4: Do not disturb!
Away
with you
emails!
Do not
disturb!
Believe it or
not – this is
real work!
That
meeting
can wait – I
have leaves
to munch!

36. Strategy 5: Encourage inventive
methods
Too much
• Survey/questionnaire
• Interviews
• Focus groups
• Mixed methods
Too little
• Observation
• Ethnographic ‘thick’
description
• Visual methods
• Creative approaches

37. A writing
group
activity
for you!
Line 1: Your Name
Line 2: Four character traits
Line 3: Lover of… (list three things)
Line 4: Who feels… (three items)
Line 5: Who needs…. (three items)
Line 6: Who fears…. (three item)
Line 7: Who hopes for… (three items)
Line 8: And who finds … (three items)
(Adapted from John Bean, 1996, 110)

38. References
Cotton, D. , W. Miller & P. Kneale (2018) The Cinderella of
academia: Is higher education pedagogic research undervalued
in UK research assessment?, Studies in Higher Education, 43:9,
1625-1636
Haggis, T. (2003) Constructing Images of Ourselves? A Critical
Investigation into 'Approaches to Learning‘ Research in Higher
Education. British Educational Research Journal, Vol. 29, No. 1
89-104
Haggis, T. (2009) What have we been thinking of? A critical
overview of 40 years of student learning research in higher
education, Studies in Higher Education, 34:4, 377-390.
HEFCE, (2016) Publication patterns in research underpinning
impact in REF2014. A report to HEFCE by Digital Science.
Macfarlane, B. 2011. “Prizes, Pedagogic Research and Teaching
Professors: Lowering the Status of Teaching and Learning
Through Bifurcation.” Teaching in Higher Education 16 (1): 127–
30.
Sword, H. (2009) Writing higher education differently: a
manifesto on style, Studies in Higher Education, 34:3, 319-336.
Tight, M. 2012. Higher education research 2000–2010: changing
journal publication patterns. HERD. 31:5, 723-740,