Pedagogy
This thematic group addresses dimensions of research pertaining to pedagogic practice and innovation, and seeks to support the development of pedagogic research as an emerging area of research within the university. Within the context of the larger cluster of related disciplines that make up the Society, Identity, Landscape and Knowledge research cluster this extends to the pedagogical opportunities for communicating education about sustainability studies, and indeed for studying decentralised opportunities for supporting sustainable communities through innovative pedagogy.
Of particular interest within the broader context of the university is how technology can be used to facilitate educational activities between staff and students located across a very wide geographical area, and where ‘alternative solutions’ are often the main, or only, opportunities for many rural communities who are distant from the tutors and other place-based educational resources.
The university is also taking forward a number of major educational research projects in areas that include e-textbook production and research-based learning and teaching. Dimensions of educational research addressed through current PhD projects, and taught postgraduate education programmes, include:
- Participative pedagogies
- Place-based pedagogies
- Cognition and understanding
- Further and higher education contexts
- Technology enhanced learning and social education
- Learning and teaching in schools
- Open education practice including via digital access and community engagement
- The interface between education and digital heritage
Educational research is also central to the work of the university's Learning and Teaching Academy (LTA). The LTA provides opportunitites to engage in, further develop and share educational research, including workshops, short courses and scholarships.