Communities of Practice

The Inclusive SoTL Educational Enterprise Collective is a staff student collaborative group that works to promote the value of using SoTL as a framework for pedagogical change. The group was developed within our PG programme for staff new to Higher Education teaching. Within the module students (new to teaching in HE) were exposed to the principles and ideologies of SoTL. As a vehicle of continuing important conversations in learning and teaching and connecting our staff and students with international scholars in the field, I-SEEC operates to co-create a community of shared practice. Within the group participants explore connections within and between the disciplines, engage in debates with scholars, and explore how the five pillars of SoTL (Felten, 2013) are used within academic practice. Meetings are held every 6-8 weeks wherein external speakers are invited to contribute to discussions. The group further produces and promotes scholarly outputs such as articles, vlogs and blogs which are often published in our in-house (BLiP and Link) and connected journals (Journal of Impact Cultures (JIC) and Teaching and Learning Inquiry (TLI).

This group provides a space for conversation around topical learning and teaching themes, in an informal setting. It is open to all members of the university who are interested in discussion, facilitated by the Centre for Learning Access and Student (CLASS) Success but with conversations usually started between colleagues from one or more of our academic schools. Any member of the group can propose a topic, which can range from the practical to the philosophical and discussions are typically summarised and posted to the wider community via the Centre’s social media accounts. The Talking Teaching group meets online, monthly.

This is our network for colleagues who hold a recognition award in relation to their teaching excellence; these may be our Professors and Associate Professor who have been awarded through the learning and teaching route, or those whose recognition comes from Advance HE as a Senior Fellow, Principal Fellow, National Teaching Fellow or from a Collaborative Award for Teaching Excellence. Its purpose is to provide support and guidance for other staff applying for recognition, to support Advance HE accredited provision, and to be a consulting group for Institutional policy and practice associated with learning and teaching, It is led by the Director of Learning and Teaching and meets biannually.