Undertaking an institutional ‘stock‐take’ of SoTL: New Zealand university case studies

Abstract

A working group was established at AUT University in 2005 with a brief to identify initiatives that might be taken to promote and support staff engagement in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL). The working group recognized that a ‘stock‐taking’ exercise would need to be undertaken before appropriate initiatives could be identified, trialled and evaluated. In this article the methodology and specific methods used for the stock‐take, which included bench‐marking with other New Zealand universities, are outlined and key findings are presented and discussed. These findings provide a helpful snapshot of the presence of SoTL within New Zealand universities and within the everyday lives of New Zealand university teachers. They highlight the complexity of those lives and tertiary institution environments that can make it challenging for teachers to become more scholarly and to engage in SoTL. They also point to ways in which those environments may be made more conducive to the realization of these goals. In this article, the methodology and specific methods used for the stock‐take, which included bench‐marking with other New Zealand universities, are outlined and key findings are presented and discussed.

Keywords:

• case study
• engagement
• evaluation
• influence
• Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL)

Acknowledgements

Funding for this project was made available through the Teaching Matters Forum (Ministry of Education) and administered by Ako Aotearoa: The National Centre for Tertiary Teaching Excellence.

Notes

1. For a copy of a comprehensive report on the project (Gossman, Haigh, & Jiao, 2009), which was funded by the New Zealand Ministry of Education, contact Neil Haigh.

2. Massey University, University of Canterbury. Some additional data was gathered from other New Zealand and Australian Universities.

3. We provide a comprehensive discussion of the concept in the full report on the project (Gossman et al., 2009).

4. PBRF: Performance Based Research Fund. A research assessment scheme that determines allocation of funding to New Zealand tertiary institutions for research activity. For further details of the scheme see Tertiary Education Commission (2006).