Staff Learning for Educational Practice in Higher Education: What Are We Doing?

The purpose of this discussion paper is to explore the current socio-cultural context of university settings in relation to staff learning about ‘educational practice’, a term used here as synonymous with ‘learning and teaching’. There has been an increased emphasis on ‘staff development’ in educational practice and a greater focus on the responsibility of academic staff for creating effective student learning experiences. What impact have these changes had on staff engagement with the teaching aspect of their work? How are universities enhancing staff learning to enable them to meet the challenges of teaching in higher education in the 21st century? As Krause (2014, p. 17) argues: ‘Just as we focus on preparing students for uncertain futures, so we need to prepare academic staff’.