Where might pedagogic research focus to support students’ education in a REF-TEF world

Abstract

Students in the mid-2010s have grown up with social media and digital research technologies. They have welfare concerns not seen in the past, and know that the workplace is changing and unpredictable as digital solutions and automation increases. A HE teachers role as a collator and interpreter of information from many library based sources into a lecture with supporting Reading List, is overtaken by the Internet making information available to everyone. This technology has potentially transformed the role of the academic, freeing up time for research, co-research and co-production of knowledge with students. Students have the tools to search and collate, to be more active learners, rather than passive receivers of information in lectures. These factors, amongst others, lead to questions about the characteristics of an appropriate and challenging geography higher education (HE) curriculum, and the teaching pedagogies which support students to be excellent in their discipline, develop critical enquiry skills alongside the skills of excellent researchers and workplace professionals. This paper seeks to identify some of these challenges and asks the reader to consider how these circumstances should influence the design of the academic curriculum and broader student experience.

Keywords:

• curriculum design. co-creation
• well-being
• wicked problems
• Teaching Excellence Framework