About the Project

Project Aims and Objectives

• To improve teaching, and the recognition and reward of teaching, through the development of scholarship in teaching in four universities.
• To improve teaching, and the recognition and reward of teaching, in the United National System in general through the development and dissemination of two self-help modules on scholarship in teaching.

The objectives associated with the first aim are:

• To support innovation and improvement in teaching which is informed and reflective in an area of strategic significance to each university.
• To develop a nucleus of teachers able to demonstrate and further encourage and support good practice.
• To support discussion and debate on aspects of scholarship in teaching between participating universities, via tele-conferencing and e-mail links.
• To support participating staff to prepare two or more of the following: A teaching portfolio; a presentation on teaching to a local audience; a conference presentation; a manuscript to be submitted for publication; an application for a teaching grant or fellowship.
• For each university to prepare a case-study of its involvement and development through the Project and present this at a national conference.
• For the conference proceedings to be collected together and published as an edited publication on the Internet.

The objectives associated with the second aim are:

• To make explicit what constitutes scholarly teaching and to develop and pilot self-help materials on this topic throughout the UNS.
• To develop one teaching/learning module aimed at developing scholarship in teaching in a range of different disciplines and contexts.
• To develop a second teaching/learning module to assist staff to present and communicate aspects of scholarship in teaching through the development of such devices as: teaching portfolios, presentations at conferences and the publication of scholarly articles.
• To assist staff to develop the practice of scholarly teaching and the practice of collecting evidence of good teaching and of writing about teaching.
• To make the two modules available within the UNS by developing a simple Web page on scholarship in teaching accessed through a Clearing House of CUTSD, or another appropriate site.
• To encourage discussion and debate around the area of scholarship in teaching through an e-mail listing linked to the Web page.

Project Context

Teaching and learning is the core business of all Australian universities. In their institutional missions and strategies, over 90 per cent of them make explicit reference to valuing and rewarding the development of teaching (Ramsden & Martin, 1996). Despite this, academic staff habitually identify a mismatch between what they experience and what universities claim when it comes to recognizing and rewarding teaching (Ramsden et al, 1995).

It has been said that teaching will never be properly valued and supported in higher education until it becomes a more scholarly pursuit: until, in other words, it is grounded in research into teaching and learning, based on critical reflection on practice, and more open to investigation by colleagues, and reflects the interplay between investigation, knowing and communicating (see, for example, Boyer, 1990; Gibbs, 1994).

'Scholarship in teaching' implies improving university teaching in a way that takes account of the interplay between disciplinary research and the education of undergraduates; of research into teaching and learning in a specific subject; of research into teaching and learning in higher education in general; and of a need to consider university teaching as a process of critical reflection on practice, open to collegial scrutiny.

The four universities involved in this Project contain significant numbers of staff who have a major commitment to teaching but who did not develop their academic careers through the scholarly apprenticeship associated with research. Each institution declares a commitment to scholarship in teaching in its mission or strategic plan, and each is engaged in pursuing or planning, a project designed to help staff to improve their teaching in ways consistent with the idea of scholarship in teaching.

The present project is relevant to advancing all four universities' goals in learning and teaching. RMIT's Teaching and Learning Strategy emphasizes that it expects teaching staff, at all levels, to improve professional practice through research, reflection, discussion and innovation. Each faculty's Teaching and Learning Strategy makes specific recommendations as to how staff will be supported in this endeavor. One of the goals of the UTS's mission statement is to ensure the highest quality in all teaching activities; its teaching management plan includes the aim: 'to enhance teaching conceptions and skills of academic staff'.

At La Trobe University, two of the mission statement's three goals expresses a concern for scholarship in teaching; at Griffith University, the Teaching and Learning Management Plan stresses the importance of scholarly work and publications based on teaching initiatives.

Expected Outcomes

The Project is initially aimed at academic staff working on strategic teaching initiatives within four universities. Involvement with the Project will help these staff to develop scholarship in teaching, enable them to present evidence of their commitment to improving teaching and learning, and contribute to the outcomes of the strategic initiatives. More broadly, the Project will enable staff throughout the UNS to develop scholarship in teaching through the dissemination of resources which will be made available through a Clearing House of CUTSD.

Expected outcomes include:

• Improved teaching practice - teaching which is more informed and more innovative - amongst staff in each of the four participating universities.
• Increased discussion and debate on aspects of scholarship in teaching both within and between the participating universities.
• Improvements in teaching and learning associated with professional work-based practice, peer review of teaching, large group teaching, and flexible learning.
• Skills for compiling and presenting effective teaching portfolios; for formal presentation of evidence of innovations in teaching, and their effects on student learning; for successful scholarly publishing on aspects of teaching and learning in higher education; and for obtaining financial support for innovation in teaching.
• Advancing the practice and understanding of scholarship in teaching through sharing experiences at the national conference.
• Opportunities for all staff in the UNS to improve their understanding and practice of scholarly teaching through the development and Internet publication of resources and case-studies, and through an e-mail discussion group on aspects of scholarship in teaching.

Evaluation

A report will be prepared and published on the use of the materials within the strategic staff development initiatives. It will include a description of the development of the modules, comments on the experiences of the participants together with recommendations for the development of activities using the modules. It will include the results of a questionnaire administered at the completion of the Project which would collect feedback on the advancement of the desired outcomes of the Project. These would include:

• The development of teaching which is more informed and innovative;
• Increased discussion and debate on aspects of scholarship in teaching, within and between the participating universities;
• Improvements in teaching and learning associated with the institutional programs, that is: professional work-based practice, peer review of teaching, large first-year classes and flexible learning;
• The development of teaching portfolios, scholarly publication or presentation on aspects of teaching or the obtaining of financial support for teaching innovation.
• Information will also be sought on these outcomes from the leaders of the staff involved and from staff developers involved in the programs.

Eighteen months after the launch of the materials nationally, a Report will be published on their use and on the outcomes achieved by the staff accessing them and working with them. Data will be collected during the first quarter of the second year. It will include information on how teaching practice and thinking about teaching has changed for the participants, as well as how many participants have developed teaching portfolios, conference papers, journal articles, etc., and how the modules have helped and how they could be made better.

This evaluation will result in a revision of the two modules which will themselves then be made publicly available.

The Project Team

The team members have between them developed workshops and seminar series and authored significant publications in one or more of the areas being addressed by the Project. Three members have current or past experience as editors of Higher Education Research and Development, the internationally refereed journal of HERDSA (Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australasia). All team members are actively engaged in a variety of academic staff development activities designed to support individual university teachers develop and improve their scholarship in relation to their teaching in their own disciplines.

They would welcome your inquiries about any aspect of the project

Elaine Martin, Project Director, with Joan Benjamin
Educational Program Improvement Group
RMIT University
Telephone: 03 9660 2972
Fax: 03 9639 0439

Michael Prosser
Academic Development Unit
La Trobe University, Bundoora Campus
Telephone: 03 9479 1533
Fax: 03 9479 2996

Linda Conrad
Griffith Centre for Higher Education
Griffith University, Mt Gravatt Campus
Telephone: 07 3875 5985
Fax: 07 3875 5998

Keith Trigwell
Centre for Learning and Teaching
University of Technology, Sydney
Telephone: 02 9514 2196
Fax: 02 9330 2217