Collaborative scholarship as a means of improving both university teaching practice and research capability

Abstract

The literature suggests generic workshops on the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) rarely have a lasting impact on teaching. Seeking an alternative approach, academic developers designed a four-stage Collaborative Scholarship Model where they provided individualised SoTL mentoring to academics implementing a teaching innovation. Project outcomes included sustained change to teaching, openness to new ideas, scholarly contributions and peer recognition (through awards, publications or invited presentations). This model had a sustained impact on participants’ teaching and increased research productivity. Although few individuals can be mentored at one time in this labour-intensive model, long-term benefits may still outweigh limitations in scalability.

Keywords:

• academic development
• mentoring
• scholarship of teaching and learning

Acknowledgements

We are very grateful for the input of Kym Fraser, who helped us articulate our approach into the stages in our Collaborative Scholarship Model, and for excellent constructive feedback from three anonymous reviewers.