Educational scholarship is an evolving concept which has been interpreted in multiple ways over the years, since the introduction of the concept by Boyer (1990). It focuses on improving your practice by critical reflection, evaluation of your teaching and analysis to identify how best you can facilitate learning within specific contexts.
Educational Scholarship shifts the focus from teaching to learning, highlighting the reciprocal nature of learning and teaching. Educational scholarship is increasingly considered a collaborative engagement between the learner and the teacher. Active engagement with scholarship brings benefits to the learners, teachers, the discipline, the institution and to the wider higher education sector.
| What is Educational Scholarship and Inquiry? |
Different Purposes |
Impact of the outcome |
- A process that focuses on inquiring into the practice of higher education teaching (Stenhouse, 1985).
- A systematic investigation of questions related to student learning, aimed at improving one’s own practice and advancing practice beyond it. (Hutchings & Shulman, 1999).
- A process that involves a deep knowledge base, an inquiry orientation, critical reflectivity, peer review, as well as sharing/going public with the insights that result from the inquiry process. (Kreber, 2007 p. 4).
- A democratic form of inquiry that includes multiple voices (students, academics and others) (Fanghanel, 2013).
- A hybrid form of inquiry which is aimed at improving practice within disciplines while at the same time performing as an interdisciplinary field of inquiry (Hutchings & Shulman, 1999).
- A process that facilitates inquiry-informed teaching that enhances learning in research-mode.
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To inform one’s own practice, e.g., systematic analysis of practice and or inquiring into practice to investigate teaching practice to identify better ways of enhancing students’ learning.
To inform the teaching practice of a community within a specific context, e.g., inquiry into or analyses of teaching, practice and student learning within disciplines.
To inform a wider community of educational practitioners, e.g., sharing the outcome of educational inquiry with the wider public (conference presentations, journal articles, blogs, book chapters etc)
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Improvement of one’s own personal knowledge and understanding of their own practice
Enhancement of local knowledge of learning and teaching (within disciplines/institutions/specific learning communities)
Extension of or contribution to the wider public knowledge of higher education teaching and learning
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Adapted from Ashwin and Trigwell (2004)
Scholarly Practice and Educational Scholarship & Inquiry
Educational scholarship and inquiry move beyond scholarly, reflective practice or evaluation of your practice. It focuses on identifying specific pedagogic challenge(s) you encounter in your practice, ways of systematically exploring the challenge(s) using relevant research methodologies and methods. The insights/outcomes from your inquiry will be made public through a process of peer review and is aimed at enhancing the teaching community within St George’s and the wider higher education sector (Hutchings & Shulman, 1999).
ESIC focuses on facilitating both scholarly practice and scholarship and inquiry into your practice.
How can you engage in scholarly practice?
Engagement in scholarly activities that help improve teaching practice may not necessarily involve conducting systematic, rigorous research into teaching and learning.
Examples of scholarly activities
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Critical reflection
Reflect on your own practice based on evidence, with the intention of improving the learning experience of your students
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Literature reviews
Consult and review literature to understand more about a pedagogic issue/problem, gain insights into improving your own practice, share knowledge with colleagues and/ or make recommendations for improving practice
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Evaluation of practice
Evaluate various aspects of your practice selecting from a variety of techniques: classroom evaluation techniques (exit tickets, minute paper, stop-start-continue…) and other forms of evaluation (surveys, interviews, focus groups…) to improve your teaching
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Review of practice in partnership with students
Review your practice in partnership with students to identify issues/areas/factors that affect the quality of learning (reviewing curricula/pedagogic approaches/ assessment criteria/inclusive learning approaches etc) and collaboratively improve learning and teaching.
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Adapted from Prosser, (2005).