Build your Scholarship Practice

Build your Scholarship Practice is a structured development programme enabling staff to conceive and realise their own pedagogic research agenda informed by Curriculum Redefined.  

Building on your disciplinary expertise and passion, the programme will help you to ask questions of your teaching, devise methods for investigation, and identify opportunities to share your research with others. The programme will also address personal and institutional barriers to pedagogic research and connect you with a university-wide cross-disciplinary community of pedagogic researchers. 

The 2022/23 programme runs between November 2022 and September 2023 and is divided into the following four themed blocks. You have the option to attend the full programme or choose the parts of the programme which match your needs and interests. The programme is available for all staff and PGRs who teach.

The University of Leeds has set out a bold agenda to transform university teaching and learning, creating exceptional and inclusive research-based learning experiences. At the heart of this endeavour is a commitment to evidence-based teaching and to research that links our deep disciplinary expertise to pedagogic enquiry through the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL). 

As the University moves forward with the delivery of Curriculum Redefined, we have a tremendous opportunity to build strong, disciplinary-focused pedagogies for the future. Build Your Scholarship Practice is a great way to get involved in this exciting project.  

Laying the foundations…

The first block of events of our 2022/23 programme ran from November-January 2022.

The events consisted of three themed introductory conversations which helped to lay the foundations for scholarship practice at Leeds.

Sessions provided the opportunity to meet Student Education leaders and colleagues with experience of developing scholarship projects and networks together with grounded insights into key supporting practices, such as ethics approval.  In addition to the events within this block, OD&PL produced a guide introducing SoTL at Leeds (PDF).  The three sessions that took place were:

• Launch event - A two-hour on-campus launch event and panel discussion featuring Student Education leaders, such as Jeff Grabill, and experienced SoTL researchers
• Session two – Ethics and working with students as partners
• Session three - Engaging colleagues with SoTL: exploring the work of SoTL communities

Building forward...

Organised in three four-week blocks, these interactive sessions offer the opportunity to learn as a community of practitioners from published and work-in-progress scholarship projects aligned with three broad themes: pedagogies, methods and engagement. We’ll hear from colleagues working across the disciplinary and professional spectrum at the University and at different stages of their career as SoTL researchers.   

Participants will have access to a Microsoft Teams space for Build your Scholarship Practice where readings and/or resources for each session will be made available in advance. For each of the following blocks (pedagogies, methods and engagement), we recommend attending all four sessions, but sessions can be booked individually.

Pedagogies (completed - February/March 2023)

The first of our themes was ‘Pedagogies’. These four sessions lay the foundation for a discipline-informed scholarship practice by offering examples of approaches to describing disciplinary pedagogies and their intersections with key pedagogic themes of Curriculum Redefined such as disciplinary strength and identity, employability and student futures, active learning, critical thinking and assessment and feedback.  Sessions ran between February and March 2023 and covered the following themes: Arts and Humanities Pedagogies, STEM Pedagogies, Legal Pedagogies and Application and Integration.  

Methods (completed - March 2023)

The second of our themes was ‘Methods’. Centred around examples of qualitative methodologies, these four sessions provided an introduction to approaches to choosing a topic of inquiry, formulating a research question and an aligned SoTL methodology. Sessions explored published articles and work-in-progress scholarship projects using a range of qualitative methodologies including integrative review, creative reflexive practices, collaborative research practices and writing and listening rooms. Sessions ran in March 2023.

Engagement (completed - April/May 2023)

The third and final of our themes in this block was ‘Engagement’ and it ran in April and May 2023. It featured a mix of presentations of professional and creative practice, lived experience and published research. There were four sessions which centered on the range of partnerships between academics, professional service teams, students and community organisations through which engagement is realised as both individual and collaborative practice and as institutional strategic commitments. The themes explored included working with students as partners, engagement as social justice and decolonising practice, the role of open educational practice and working with communities.

Moving into writing... 

The SoTL Writing Energiser: Take your SoTL ideas out into the world! (June 2023)

This event was aimed at those who had an idea for a piece of pedagogical research that they wanted to develop for publication or had a defined work-in-progress project which would benefit from some focused time to shape plans for follow-on work.

Whether working with an initial idea or a defined project, this three-hour SoTL Writing Energiser allowed colleagues to carve out time and space to make progress. The session was led by Dr Jennifer Rivas Perez and Dr Eva Sansavior from OD&PL.

Working with a community of peers and tutors, colleagues learnt to apply practical strategies for:

• Exploring your identity as a writer
• Generating ideas for scholarship
• Getting started with writing
• Assessing the viability of ideas

Impact in and through the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) - 18 September 2023, 10am – 12noon 

What is impact in SoTL? And how can it be planned for and evidenced? This final workshop of the 2022/23 Build your Scholarship Practice programme will feature a panel of high-profile University of Leeds SoTL researchers who will share their experiences of planning and delivering impact. Against this backdrop, participants will have the opportunity to ask questions and work with peers to explore practical examples and resources for delivering impact in and through SoTL. Speakers include Professor Bee Bond, Dr Dave Lewis, Dan Trowsdale and Professor Edward Venn. 

Sign up for Impact in and through SoTL

Contact: Dr Eva Sansavior e.sansavior@leeds.ac.uk – Academic Development Consultant – Curriculum Redefined

Our SOTL at Leeds webpage has more information about what SoTL is, the activities of SoTL and the additional support and resources available to colleagues.