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Build your Scholarship Practice

Following the successful launch of Build your Scholarship Practice in 2023, the programme returns in 2024 with tailored scholarship development workshops and community-of-practice meetings.

Build your Scholarship Practice is a university-wide Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) 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 allow you to explore strategies for addressing barriers to pedagogic research and connect you with a university-wide cross-disciplinary community of pedagogic researchers.

The new programme will comprise three strands:

  1. The BYSP Writing Community Group
  2. Themed SoTL Development Workshops
  3. BYSP Reading Group

The following sections outline these strands and how you can sign up for each of them.

BYSP Writing Community Group (March – May 2024)

The group will provide protected time and a supportive interdisciplinary small-group context for developing and making progress on a focused piece of written pedagogic research. The group will meet weekly online for 10 weeks on Mondays (11- 12:30 a.m.) and Tuesdays (2-3:30 p.m.).

Booking arrangements:

The deadline to sign up for this group is 5pm on 12 February 2024. To maximise the benefits of the programme, each group is open to a maximum of 8 participants who are asked to sign up for weekly attendance of one of the two groups. In registering, participants commit to attending at least 80% of the weekly meetings for their specific group.

  • Group 1 (Mondays 11am – 12.30pm): 4 March, 11 March, 18 March, 25 March, 8 April, 15 April, 22 April, 29 April, 13 May, 20 May
  • Group 2 (Tuesdays 2pm – 3.30pm): 5 March, 12 March, 19 March, 26 March, 9 April, 16 April, 23 April, 30 April, 7 May, 14 May
Sign up for Writing Community Group (Deadline 12 February)

Themed SoTL Development Workshops (March 2024 - May 2024).

Featuring insights from experienced SoTL researchers from across the University and its professional alumni, these workshops are centred around themes central to the development of impactful SoTL projects. These workshops will take place online and can be booked individually. The programme is open to all staff and PGR.

Workshop 1: Planning for values-led and impactful SoTL projects – Monday 4 March 2024, 3–4pm

Speakers: Dr Delyth Edwards, Sylvia Ikomi, Dan Trowsdale

How can values and impact be purposively aligned in the planning and delivery of a SoTL project? This first workshop in the series explores approaches to addressing this key orienting question by drawing on a combination of insights from the SoTL literature and the experiences of leading SoTL researchers at the University. Themes for discussion include:

  • Foundations for planning a SoTL project
  • Identifying our values and how they might inform our SoTL practice
  • Centring impact in the development and delivery of SoTL projects
Sign up for Workshop 1 on 4 March

 

Workshop 2: Getting the word out: disseminating SoTL in print and through podcasts – Monday 18 March 2024, 3–4 pm 

Speakers: Dr Milada (Millie) Walkova , Jeanne Godfrey, Dr Madeleine Le Bourdon

Drawing together three perspectives on disseminating SoTL (that of SoTL researcher, editor and podcast developer), this workshop features colleagues’ experiences of:

  • Selecting dissemination contexts and genres
  • Tips for getting published
  • Developing and publicising podcasts
Sign up for Workshop 2 on 18 March

 

Workshop 3: Choosing a SoTL methodology – Monday 8 April 2024, 3–4pm

Speakers: Dr Emma Peasland, Dr Jill Dickinson

This experiential workshop will centre around a published SoTL article by an experienced SoTL researcher. The workshop will cover:

  • An introduction to differences between qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods
  • Choosing between qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods
  • Developing a methods section in a SoTL article
Sign up for Workshop 3 on 8 April

 

Workshop 4:  Developing ethical SoTL projects – Monday 15 April 2024, 3–4pm

Speakers: The University Research Ethics Team

This workshop will introduce participants to the University-wide and Faculty-level processes for the ethical approval of SoTL projects. Against this backdrop, the workshop will explore key principles of ethical SoTL research practice such as informed consent, mitigating risks and avoiding participant harm.

Sign up for Workshop 4 on 15 April

 

Workshop 5: Methodologies for centring student voices – Monday 22 April 2024, 3–4pm

Speakers: Dr Rachael O’Connor, Stacey Mottershaw

Centring student voices is a key strategic aspiration of the Curriculum Redefined project, this experiential workshop will present insights and resources for applying methodologies which promote ethical, inclusive and meaningful engagement with students’ perspectives in SoTL projects.

Sign up for Workshop 5 on 22 April

 

Workshop 6: The Peer Review – Monday 13 May 2024, 3–4pm

Speakers: Professor Edward Venn

Drawing on the experience of published SoTL researchers, this workshop will cover:

  • Contexts for the peer review process such as ‘traditional’ academic journals and open- source publishing
  • Examples of types of feedback
  • Developing effective responses to peer review
Sign up for Workshop 6 on 13 May

BYSP Reading Group

This group will meet monthly online (initially between March and May 2024) to discuss a selection of educational research articles aligned broadly with the themes of Curriculum Redefined. Through themed readings and discussion, the group aims to provide a collegial, multi-disciplinary forum for exploring diverse and nuanced perspectives for engaging reflectively with SoTL and teaching and learning practice more broadly. Open to all staff and PGR who teach. Readings will be circulated in advance of the sessions.

The groups will run on 27 March, 3-4pm, 30 April, 4-5pm, 21 May, 2-3pm, booking links are available below. The theme for the first three meetings is SoTL through the lens of disciplines.

Sign up for the Reading Group session on 27 March (3-4pm)

 

Sign up for the Reading Group session on 30 April (4-5pm)

 

Sign up for the Reading Group session on 21 May (2-3pm)

Further information

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.