Signature concepts of key researchers in higher education teaching and learning

Abstract

Early career university teachers often have limited experience of the higher education literature making it difficult for them to identify what ideas have become central to justifying what university teachers ought to be doing in higher education teaching and learning. A review of the research literature in journals focused on teaching and learning in higher education identified seven researchers who the journals' authors consider skilled at making these kinds of arguments. A second-level analysis of the citations within this literature revealed that these researchers were associated with developing distinctive concepts within the field. This study concludes that some ideas have become strongly associated with certain researchers because they are identified as knowledgeable about important aspects of higher education teaching and learning. It found that authors in the sample used these signature concepts to answer five central questions about higher education teaching and learning.

Signature concepts of women researchers in higher education teaching and learning

“…A recent review of references across four non-North American English language higher education journals in higher education teaching and learning found that a group of male researchers from within a strong psychology tradition have been able to popularise a set of key ideas in higher education teaching and learning (Kandlbinder 2013). This review expanded on earlier studies by Malcolm Tight (2003 who showed that only four journals in the field had a primary focus on teaching and learning.…”

“…Instead, they cited the literature to reinforce their arguments by explaining what has been found, described or concluded by earlier researchers (Kandlbinder 2013). The description of seven principal researchers and five main concepts represent the takenfor-granted position of those who published in the field over that 5-10-year period.…”

“…The expansion of higher education in the 1980s and 1990s have favoured women more than men so that women have lead in terms of participation -as students and academics -for more than 15 years (Higher Education Statistics Agency 1996). Yet, a recent review of references across four higher education journals found only two women among the 24 most referenced researchers in these journals of higher education teaching and learning (Kandlbinder 2013). In one journal, the absence of women in the top five cited researchers has not changed in the past 30 years (Kandlbinder 2012).…”

Evaluating quality learning in higher education: re-examining the evidence

“…Phenomenography is the approach most commonly used to develop an understanding of this experience (Kandlbinder, 2012;Webb, 1997). The controversy surrounding the validity of indicators of quality learning suggests that an over-reliance on phenomenography as a basis for these measures has led to relatively insufficient scientific evidence underpinning the measures of learning outcomes in higher education.…”

Reviving the ancient virtues in the scholarship of teaching, with a slight critical twist

“…This conclusion should be uncontroversial given that the philosophical concept of 'critical being' (e.g., Barnett, 2004) was identified as one of the most influential theoretical constructs developed in the higher education teaching and learning literature, next to the more scientific ones of approaches to learning, conceptions of teaching, constructive alignment and so on (Kandlbinder, 2012).…”