Recognising Pedagogical Research

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Recognising Pedagogical Research

• Virginia King
• Pedagogical Research Fellow
• Centre for Higher Education Development
• Coventry University

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• Will consider both aspects of recognition
• Firstly, the identification of a range of
  activities which could be classified
  appropriately as PedR within academic
  disciplines, using ICS examples.
• Secondly, the encouragement and reward of such
  activity as proposed by academic management both
  within this faculty and within the wider academic
  community.

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The Coventry Context
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PedD versus PedR

• Pedagogical Development
• a new course or module
• a new delivery mode
• a new method of assessment
• a new student profile

• Pedagogical Research
• Documented original work which
• adds to the PedR body of knowledge
• uses a suitable research framework
• draws on established theory
• may draw on PedD

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The PedR Context

• UK Research Assessment Exercise 2008
• increased fragmentation and balkanisation of the
  research communities (NSF 2003 p 2) NSF
  (National Science Foundation) (2003)
  Revolutionizing Science and Engineering through
  Cyberinfrastructure Report obtainable from
  http//www.communitytechnology.org/nsf_ci_report
• hes not that smart, but hes very tough and
  good at promoting himself (informant in Becher
  Trowler 2001 p 80) Becher, Tony Trowler, Paul
  (2001) Academic Tribes and Territories 2nd Ed.
  Buckingham SRHE and Open University Press

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Bottom-up Recognition

• Are you undertaking PedR knowingly and/or
  unknowingly?
• What scope is there for more PedR within your
  sphere of influence?

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Recognising your own PedR

• Your areas of interest
• Questions to which you want answers
• Assumptions you want to challenge
• Solutions you wish to evaluate
• Current debates you wish to extend
• Evaluation of your local context
• Particulars you think could be generalised
• Predictions for the future

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Qualitative data is crucial

• Collect evidence (ethically) through
• interviews
• focus groups
• free text questionnaires
• blogs
• discussion forum entries
• emails
• documentation

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Examples of PedR

• review of current practice
• evaluation of a new approach (case study)
• comparison of two or more
• consideration of an aspect of the educational
  environment
• studies of an evolving situation
• predictions for the future of

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Top-Down Recognition

• Is PedR encouraged and rewarded within the
  discipline?
• If not, how could it be?

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Academic Identity
The dominance of teaching and research in
the discourse of university life manifests itself
in promotion and tenure policies as a
two-dimensional image of the academic role
(Macfarlane, 2005 p26).
Macfarlane, B. (2005) Recovering academic
citizenship? rewarding service and the impact of
culture Presented at New Perspectives on
Research into Higher Education, SRHE Annual
Conference 2005 13-15 December, Edinburgh
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The Balanced ScorecardKaplan Norton (1992)
A multi-dimensional recognition framework
Financial
Learning Growth
Organisations strategic vision translated into
individuals goals, measured annually at
appraisal time.
Customer
Internal /or Business Processes
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Development and Performance Review at Coventry
(proposed)
Criteria
An adaptation of the balanced scorecard.
Teaching performance
Enhancing employability
Reflection on own practice
Use of research-informed approaches
Professional development
Applied Research outputs
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Integrating ICS PedR
As a final demonstration of madness, I am
currently doing a doctorate in Education to
complement the one I already have in CS. The
difference between the expectations of the two is
staggering, and I hope (naively, perhaps!) that
it will help me to work bilingually in the field
of learning technology" (and "learning about
technology"), combining the social aspects of
education with the technological aspects of CS in
a novel way.

• Dr Andrew Young,
• National Teaching Fellow Rising Stars,
• University of Salford
• HEA-ICS Website 05/06/06

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• Recognising Pedagogical Research
• Virginia King
• v.c.king_at_coventry.ac.uk
• iPED Research Network,
• Coventry University, UK
• www.coventry.ac.uk/iped