Enhancement of learning & teaching practices in a challenging context: Evaluating the outcomes of a refreshed peer supported review process

ABSTRACT

This institutional case study evaluates staff engagement with a rejuvenated Peer Supported Review (PSR) process, which provides a mechanism for staff to review enhancements to practice within the broad arena of learning and teaching activities that impact on the student experience. The process is refreshed with a holistic quality model, which assimilates the typically distinct fields of quality assurance and enhancement, to exploit the power of the increasingly performance driven HE context. Analysis of the resultant PSR reports indicates that the revised process has delivered positive progress in the extent and efficacy of staff engagement with efforts to enhance their learning and teaching practices. The case study also provides important insights into the possibilities for harnessing the power of the market-driven context to bring a new sense of impetus and value to enhancement, which will be of interest to academic developers elsewhere who are grappling with the same difficulties.

KEYWORDS:

• Higher education
• quality enhancement
• metrics
• engagement

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Staff and Educational Development Association (SEDA) Research and Evaluation Small Grant (2017).

Notes on contributors

Amanda Platt

Dr Amanda Platt is a Lecturer in Higher Education Practice in the Centre for Higher Education Research & Practice, Ulster University, Northern Ireland. Her main research interests focus on approaches to and the efficacy of academic development, and the impact of the socio-cultural context on the authenticity of staff engagement with the enhancement of learning and teaching.