Joint SEDA/SRHE Conference 2003

The Scholarship of Academic and Staff Development: research, evaluation and changing practice

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This conference will provide the opportunity for those engaged in research, evaluation and changing practice in further and higher education to explore opportunities for engaging in these activities as well as networking and collaboration. The conference will be of interest to teachers, educational developers, researchers and policy makers with an interest in change in further and higher education, with a particular emphasis on those changes that affect the student learning experience.

As with all SEDA conferences, the emphasis will be on presenters and participants engaging interactively with the themes of the conference as presented through a variety of session formats.

Conference Report by Ranald MacDonald

SEDA Research Committee
Following the setting up of the SEDA/SRHE Educational Development research network in 1998, the SEDA Research Committee was established in October 2002, with an emphasis on promoting research and scholarship in staff and educational development in its widest sense. This conference represents the Committee’s first major event.

Andresen (2000) and others characterise scholarship as follows:

• critical reflectivity as a sensibility, a habit of mind;
• scrutiny by peers as permitted, for example, by publication;
• and inquiry as a motivation and drive.

We anticipate that these scholarly characteristics will be reflected in this conference and hence contribute to The Scholarship of Academic and Staff Development.

Conference Themes

• Developing a scholarship of academic and staff development
• Researching and evaluating educational development practices
• Building capacity for research and evaluation
• Examining the links between research, evaluation, policy and changing practice, including teaching, assessment and supporting learning

Staff and educational development is taken to include: Higher Education development (including HE in further education); changes to learning, teaching and assessment practices and environments; institutional change; the management of educational change; and action research that links development and research outcomes.

Full Conference Presenters

• Professor Liz Beaty, Director (Learning and Teaching), The Higher Education Funding Council for England
• Dr Glynis Cousin, Academic Development Adviser, The Centre for Academic Practice, Warwick University
• Dr Keith Trigwell, Principal Research Fellow, The Institute for the Advancement of University Learning, University of Oxford

Participants
The conference will be of interest to those who are interested in educational developments in further and higher education, including:

• Teachers in further and higher education
• Educational and staff developers
• Researchers, postgraduates and those engaged in evaluations
• Learning support staff such as library and information staff and student support staff
• Academics and managers with responsibility for learning and teaching policy developments
• Staff from LTSN Subject Centres and similar

Venue
The conference is to be held at the University of Bristol, which is situated in the heart of the historic, maritime city of Bristol, in the Wills Hall, Stoke Bishop. Bristol is built on dramatic hills, and Stoke Bishop, 3 miles to the north of the City Centre, offers visitors the calm of park and woodland high above the Avon Gorge. From Sea Walls, on the very cliff edge, there are panoramic views across the Bristol Channel to the Welsh Hills. Fully residential delegates will be accommodated within the Hall of Residences. All rooms have en-suite facilities and meals will be served in the Dining Hall, which is where the Conference Dinner will be held on Thursday 10 April. Social activities will also be arranged for the Thursday evening and finally for your journey home on the Friday a packed lunch will be provided to take with you on your way. Bristol is well served by the motorway network and there is plenty of parking available at the university. Bristol Parkway and Bristol Temple Meads are both equally close and only a short taxi ride away.