Synopsis

Boyer's (1990) ideas on the scholarships of academia form the basis of recent developments in the scholarship of teaching and learning. He proposed the concept of four scholarships (teaching, integration, discovery and application) to enhance the status of teaching in universities. Yet in many places in the world, research (i.e. the scholarship of discovery) still takes prominence, with the scholarship of teaching and learning seen mainly as research into teaching. What are the consequences of such a viewpoint and does it matter? Are there alternatives and has it enhanced student learning? Finally, have these developments sufficiently considered students’ learning needs? (Trigwell and Shale, 2004) This presentation uses a student-focused approach to address these questions and looks at how more research-teaching combinations, such as research-led teaching, might form new directions for development.

About the Speaker

Professor Keith Trigwell became Director of the Institute of Teaching and Learning (ITL) and Professor of Higher Education at the University of Sydney in October 2006. He was previously Director of the Oxford Centre for Excellence in Preparing for Academic Practice, a Fellow of Kellogg College and Reader in Higher Education at the University of Oxford.

Professor Trigwell holds a PhD in chemistry and has experience teaching university-level chemistry and education. His research interests in Oxford and Sydney include investigating qualitative differences in university teaching and students’ learning experiences, teaching-research relations and the scholarship of teaching. He is also co-president of the International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning and the coordinator for the European Association for Research in Learning and Instruction’s Higher Education Special Interest Group. In recent years, he has also been invited to speak on his research into teaching and learning at conferences in Europe and North America. He has published over 100 journal articles, conference papers and books, including Understanding Learning and Teaching: The Experience in Higher Education, which summarises 10 years of learning and teaching research. He is also the current co-ordinating editor for the international journal Higher Education, a position he has held since 2005.