Strathclyde’s Academic Development team is committed to supporting all staff who teach and/or support learning at Strathclyde to engage in, or enhance their engagement with, the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) should they wish to do so. Scholarship in this context can involve several related activities; from reflection and inquiry on learning and teaching practices to developing strategies to enhance teaching and learning, curriculum development, promoting research-informed teaching, and facilitating student engagement in disciplinary research.
The Academic Development Team has created a SoTL information hub and offers regular capacity-building workshops for staff through the Strathclyde Teaching Excellence Programme (STEP). However, one of the hallmarks of SoTL is that the work should be made public. ‘Going public’ with one’s scholarship, has two key benefits. It makes scholarship (in whatever form it is disseminated) available for peer review and critique. And it contributes to an evidence-base that allows others to enhance their own practice by applying approaches, rationale, insights and lessons learned in their own context. Useful pedagogies is one such opportunity for members of Strathclyde’s scholarly community of practice to ‘go public’ with scholarly work.
Useful pedagogies is a curated collection of easy-to-access, bite-sized scholarship outputs that can inspire and assist colleagues to enhance their approach(s) to teaching and learning while, simultaneously, inviting colleagues to engage in discourse and debate around key topics in teaching and learning.
Useful pedagogies evolved from a number of related scholarly and practice-sharing activities including the Sharing Practice in Effective Learning and Teaching (SPELT) website; Micro-CPD Mondays – a weekly CPD programme for Strathclyde staff, that has been running successfully since 2021; Strathclyde’s programme of Staff Peer Support Networks; and the success of Learning and Teaching Improvement Framework forums.
An exploration of useful pedagogies and the role of SoTL in supporting the University of Strathclyde’s founding mission and current educational priorities is offered in the following paper:
Scholarly outputs from Strathclyde’s Collaborative Writing Programme
In 2023/24, the Academic Development Team initiated a new staff development programme to support Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. Collaborative Writing Groups were formed with a total 30 staff members. Each group had a theme (Feedback, Assessment, Resilient Learning Communities, Education for Sustainable Development, Students as Partners, Digital Pedagogies, Entrepreneurial Education) and a group leader.
Following a programme provided by Healey HE Consultants that included mentorship, peer-review and a series of excellent upskilling workshops, and with direct support from Strathclyde’s Academic Development Lead for Teaching and Learning, these Writing Groups successfully produced peer-reviewed literature reviews for publication:
- Dynamics of interactive elements of resilience in HE literature
- Working with students as partners
- Developing skills and competencies through education for SD
- Students as Assessors Peer assessment and the benefits to students and staff
To find out more about Scholarship of Teaching and Learning at Strathclyde visit out SoTL hub.
If you would like to speak to someone about SoTL or contributing to Useful Pedagogies, please email: step@strath.ac.uk