Threshold Concepts in Academic Practice: Engagement with the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

Tierney, Anne

Abstract

This paper is an overview of engagement with the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) in the context of Life Sciences. SoTL is increasingly becoming a requirement for UK academics, and includes a range of activities such as reflection on practice (Kreber, 2005; Kreber & Castleden, 2009) systematic study of learning and teaching through practitioner research (Allen & Field, 2005), and dissemination of results among the wider community (Hutchings & Shulman, 1999). Engagement with SoTL may also take the form of a formal qualification in teaching in higher education, or may be a continuing professional development (CPD) requirement, notably for the increasing numbers of “Teaching-only” academics employed by UK institutions to cover undergraduate teaching and course administration. However, engagement with SoTL may be confusing, and present a number of challenges, in addition to those already present in the career of an academic. For Life Scientists in particular, engagement with SoTL may offer particular challenges as individuals tackle material outwith their disciplinary expertise. Language, research methodology, confidence in data gathering, sense of identity, may present barriers to engagement with SoTL, to academics who are more comfortable within a positivist, quantitative paradigm. While Threshold Concepts (Meyer & Land, 2003) are generally associated with student learning within the discipline, if we look on engagement with SoTL and CPD as lifelong learning, and the academic as student, we can explore how academics face the challenges of engagement with the field of SoTL and Pedagogical Research (Ped-R). Indeed, for academics considered to be expert in their field, taking on the role of student may be troublesome in itself, with the individual being required to acknowledge their lack of expertise in the area of educational research.

Citation

Tierney, A. (2014, July). Threshold Concepts in Academic Practice: Engagement with the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. Paper presented at Threshold Concepts in Practice: the 5th Biennial International Threshold Concepts Conference, Durham University, UK

• Presentation Conference Type: Conference Paper (unpublished)
• Conference Name: Threshold Concepts in Practice: the 5th Biennial International Threshold Concepts Conference
• Start Date: Jul 9, 2014
• End Date: Jul 11, 2014
• Deposit Date: Feb 20, 2019
• Publicly Available Date: Mar 6, 2019
• Keywords: SoTL, life sciences, teaching, mixed methods.
• Public URL: http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/Output/1599187