Transformative Practice in Higher Education

This insightful book transforms crisis reflections into longer term guidance for a responsive, engaged pedagogy within contemporary higher education (HE). In recent years, HE institutions worldwide have seen a seismic shift that has compelled them to rapidly transition to online and blended learning models. This book captures the ingenuity and resilience of educators who not only weathered the storm but emerged from it with innovative practices that have permanently transformed the landscape of teaching and learning in universities. Through interdisciplinary accounts and scholarly perspectives across diverse disciplines and geographies, it highlights care, creativity, and resilience in practices that build community, support learners, and foster engaged learning. Each chapter offers enduring lessons for learner-centred, responsive pedagogy, detailing innovations that practitioners permanently integrated across delivery formats. This key title is written for HE practitioners across the globe, whether they are teaching in the context of a subject discipline or identify themselves as blended or integrated professionals. Its insights will provide inspiration, guidance, and points for reflection for all those who wish to engage with critical pedagogies and long-term transformation in contemporary HE.

Alicja Syska is a Learning Developer and lecturer in education and history at the University of Plymouth, UK. She is a researcher, podcaster, editor-in-chief of the Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education (JLDHE), and a Senior Fellow of AdvanceHE. Carina Buckley leads the Learning Design team at Solent University, UK. She is a Principal Fellow of AdvanceHE, a member of the JLDHE editorial board, and co-host of the Learning Development Project podcast. Gita Sedghi is a professor of chemistry education at the University of Liverpool, UK. She has received the National Teaching Fellowship, Principal Fellowship of AdvanceHE, and RSC Excellence in Higher Education Award for creating high-quality inclusive resources for a diverse community of students. Nicola Grayson is a senior lecturer in academic development in the Centre for Learning Enhancement and Educational Development at Manchester Metropolitan University, UK. She is a Senior Fellow of AdvanceHE.

Section One: Curating Time and Reflective Space to Transform Practice 1. What Providing Time and Space Taught Us About Fostering Students' Learning 2. What the Medium Of 'Focusing' Taught Me About Mattering, Wellbeing and Belonging for Students 3. What Pivoting Academic Skills Support Online Has Taught Us About the Importance of a Robust Learning Culture 4. What the CHAMELEON Framework Taught Us About Equitable and Adaptable Pedagogy 5. What Designing Accessible Academic Development Provision Taught me about Compassionate Education 6. What a Compassionate Approach to Transforming Practice Taught Me About Driving Institutional Change Section 2: Building Connections to Transform Practice in HE 7. What an Online Tea Break Taught Us About Collaboration 8. What Active Engagement with My Community Taught Me About Driving Professional Scholarship 9. What Personalisation at Scale Taught Us About Student Belonging 10. What Shared Learning Spaces Taught Me About Student Belonging 11. What Podcasting Taught Us About Innovative Pedagogy as Disruption in Higher Education 12. What Podcasting Taught Me About Writing: Revelations from Behind the Mic Section 3: Crossing Boundaries: Individual and Institutional Impact in HE 13. What Advocating for My Expertise Taught Me About Authentic Leadership 14. What Floating in Pandemic Hyper Space Taught Us About Grounding Creative Academic Practice in the Here and Now 15. What a New LMS Adoption Taught Us About the Nature and Range of Supports Needed for Academic Stakeholders 16. What Blended Learning Taught Me About the Strengths of Collaboration for Interdisciplinarity 17. What Co-Design Has Taught Us About Transformative Practice and Academic Development 18. What Democracy in Action Taught Me About Student Empowerment Section 4. Homo Ex Machina: Transforming Practice to Keep Sight of Our Humanity 19. What Digital Confidence Practice and Research Has Taught Us About Supporting Digital Change 20. What a Person-Centred, Values-Based and Blended Approach Taught Us About Transformative Online Pedagogies in Healthcare Disciplines 21. What Blended Learning Taught Us About Supporting the Teaching of an Applied, Practical-Based Degree Course 22. What Educational Participatory Archiving Taught Us About Online Altruism and Collective Knowledge 23. Painting by Numbers? What My Lockdown Teaching Experiments, Followed by Encounters with a New Kind of Unit Design, Taught Me About Fine Art and Its Special Approach to HE Teaching and Learning