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In defence of SoTL: anchoring educational evaluation and educational research

by Liz Austen

By the end of 2025 I had attended three HE related conferences: Euro SoTL, the Wonkhe Festival of HE and the SRHE Annual Conference. I presented on similar topics at all three events; what evidence do we generate to help us understand and act to enhance student experiences and outcomes in higher education? During the Wonkhe panel and my SRHE session, I defined two approaches at the disposal of HE practitioners:

Higher Education Evaluation: an approach which helps to understand and explore what works and doesn’t work in a given context and is of value to stakeholders. The aim of evaluation is to generate actionable evidence-informed learning, which encourages, informs and supports continuous improvement of process and impact (Evaluation Collective 2025)

Higher Education Research: to extend knowledge and understanding in all areas of educational activity and from a wide range of perspectives, including those of learners, educators, policymakers and the public (adapted from BERA, 2024)

At the Wonkhe panel, Clare Loughlin-Chow (CEO of SRHE) helpfully outlined the higher education research topics that were most prevalent in the SRHE journals. Omar Khan (CEO of TASO) then outlined the scope and priories of TASO, an affiliate member of the government’s What Works Network which focuses on higher education evaluation. My conceptual discussion of evidence generation brought the two together.

At EuroSoTL earlier in the year, my colleagues and I outlined our new institutional approach to the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning:

Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL): to improve student learning through engagement in the existing knowledge of teaching and learning, developing contextual ideas and innovation in practice, reflecting on practice, applying methodological rigour, working in partnership with students, and sharing of scholarship publicly (adapted from Felton (2013))

When I attended SRHE in December 2025, SoTL appeared in only one session I attended and some of this discussion focused on the challenges of bringing SoTL into spaces for educational research. My hand in the air comment – that criticism of SoTL by educational researchers was an example of ‘academic snobbery’ – certainly raised a few eyebrows. This blog post considers the relationship between these three approaches and whether, for the good of our students, it’s time for some reconciliation.

Educational evaluation, SoTL and educational research

Educational research in higher education has developed over the last 60 years. Interestingly, research into teaching and learning is cited as the most theorised by this type of research (Tight, 2012). Higher education evaluation, sometimes considered as applied research, was recently propelled by the Office for Students’ agenda to ‘evaluate, evaluate, evaluate (Office for Students, 2022). SoTL has developed alongside HE research and evaluation, emerging from Boyer’s work in 1990.

The aims of each endeavour are distinct, tied by the notion of ‘enquiry’. Research seeks to build new knowledge, and evaluation seeks to provide judgment on a contextual problem. SoTL has a narrower focus on teaching and learning than the broader scope of research and evaluation but incorporates prior knowledge and contextual problem solving through focused enquiry (Gray, 2025). SoTL builds on the foundation of social sciences methodology and can integrate disciplinary methodology into practitioner’s teaching and learning enquiry (Riddell, 2026). Educational evaluation often asks questions of the effectiveness of interventions, but in some teaching and learning spaces, the evaluative language of ‘intervention’ isn’t appropriate (Austen (2025) in Austen and McCaig (2025)). Exploring what works through SoTL enquiry aligns better. Often the bridging term ‘pedagogic research’ is used as integral to SoTL (close to practice) but distinct from educational research (broader anticipated impact). Our chosen SoTL definition uses neither research nor evaluation terminology, but has component parts – knowledge, innovation, method, dissemination – that are central to all.

The essential agents in educational research, evaluation and SoTL are the same – individual students (as partners, as participants and as voice givers), individual staff (academic and professional services), institutional groups or clusters, collaborating HEIs, and third space organisations. Reasons for enquiry are also similar and include sector expectations and shared learning, the desire for institutional enhancement and impact, personal development and career progression. Or as Ashwin & Trigwell (in Evans et al, 2021) note:  to inform a wider audience; to inform a group within context; to inform oneself. All research, evaluation and SoTL agents must navigate the practical and ethical considerations of ‘insider’ enquiry if they are exploring their own practices or within their institutional contexts (BERA, 2018; Barnett & Camfield, 2016).

Output pathways are also interconnected. The SoTL staircase (Beckingham, 2023) recognised the variety of outputs encouraged by SoTL and includes those traditionally aligned with research and evaluation (reports and journal articles). Research outputs may be guided by REF criteria, and evaluation outputs by readership. The conclusions in research articles frequently state that more research needed, and evaluation reports often sit unread in metaphorical desk draws. In comparison, SoTL practitioners benefit from publications which are close to practice, quicker to publish, and more likely to influence change.

Both educational evaluation and educational research are inherently theoretical, grounded by educational or pedagogic theory or a theory of change. SoTL is more action focused, less theoretical than research yet can be more exploratory than evaluation. In 2011, Kanuka questioned SoTL’s credibility due to the lack of theoretical underpinning or reference to existing scholarship. At times, I suggest that educational research can be positioned too far in the opposite direction. The presentations at SRHE were heavily theoretical and sometimes I was left thinking ‘so how would this work actually improve the learning experiences of students’? In contrast, the breadth of SoTL includes both theory and action, albeit in more pragmatic ways.

There are values and specific skill sets of educational researchers and evaluators (and often epistemological disagreements occur between the two). This commitment to identity can be excluding and may help to understand why SoTL has been challenged. Canning & Masika (2022) caution us on the ‘threat to serious scholarship’ posed by SoTL, which they believe risks devaluing research into higher education learning and teaching. Their criticism of ‘anything goes’ I would frame as an important approach to inclusion. Their criticism of the ‘watered-down version of teaching and learning research’ I frame as SoTL’s recognition of the developmental, particularly in building staff confidence. Where confusion over definitions and scope still occur, I question whether institutional SoTL has been well grounded or well led.

Conclusion

There is clearly a divide between higher education research and SoTL. There are few recent SRHE blog posts which reference SoTL at all and one that does advises against flag-in-the-sand nomenclature (Sheridan, 2019). Having spent a lot of time in these circles, I believe higher education evaluators are more agnostic, but I include them in this discussion as they bring a new dynamic to this debate.

In this blog I have identified the ways in which research, evaluation and SoTL have their own agendas and yet have much in common. I argue that SoTL emerges as a grounding anchor between higher education research and higher education evaluation. SoTL borrows from both. SoTL feeds into both. SoTL is more than both (Potter, 2025). SoTL’s inherent value is the ability to build a community which improves student experiences and outcomes in an enquiry led and timely way.

For more details on the approach to SoTL at Sheffield Hallam University see: https://lta.shu.ac.uk/scholarship

Reference

Riddell, J (2026) ‘Hope circuits in practice: how the scholarship of teaching and learning fuels pedagogical courage and systemic change’ Guest Lecture, Sheffield Hallam University

Liz Austen is Professor of Higher Education Evaluation and Associate Dean Learning, Teaching and Student Success at Sheffield Hallam University. She has worked as an independent Evaluation Consultant on HE sector contracts and is a regular keynote speaker on all things evaluation in HE. Her focus is on evidence informed practice across the student lifecycle. Liz also leads a cross sector HE network called the Evaluation Collective.

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SRHE News on teaching and learning

By Rob Cuthbert

One of the benefits of SRHE membership is exclusive access to the quarterly newsletter, SRHE News, archived at https://www.srhe.ac.uk/publications/. SRHE News typically contains a round-up of recent academic events and conferences, policy developments and new publications, written by editor Rob Cuthbert. To illustrate the contents, here is part of the January 2021 issue which covers Teaching and Learning.

Academic development and Pro VC roles can go together

Fiona Denney (Brunel) reported her research in International Journal of Academic Development (online 13 December 2020) based on interviews with four Pro VCs with academic development backgrounds: “Over the past two years, four research-intensive universities in the UK have appointed senior academic leaders from academic development backgrounds, a new phenomenon in this sector of UK higher education that may suggest a changing pattern. This study interviewed these four leaders to explore what the appointment means for their academic identity. The interviewees identified internal and external drivers for change and noted their backgrounds as academic developers made their routes into these senior roles different from their peers. For this reason, their ‘academic credibility’ was critical in order to implement culture change effectively.”

How metrics are changing academic development

Roni Bamber (Queen Margaret University) blogged for Wonkhe on 18 December 2020 about her monograph for SEDA, Our days are numbered. Great title, good read.

SoTL in action

The 2018 book edited by Nancy Chick was reviewed by Maik Arnold (University of Applied Sciences, Germany) for Arts and Humanities in Education (online 12 October 2020).

Innovations in Active Learning in Higher Education

The new book by SRHE members Simon Pratt-Adams, Uwe Richter and Mark Warnes (all Anglia Ruskin) grew out of an Active Learning conference at Anglia Ruskin University, leading to a book which, in the words of the foreword by Mike Sharples (Open University) “shows how to put active learning into practice with large cohorts of students and how to grow that practice over many years. The authors come from a variety of institutions and discipline areas … What they have in common is a desire to improve student engagement, experience and outcomes, through active learning approaches that work in practice and are scalable and sustainable.” Free to download from the publishers, Fulcrum.

Now that’s what I call a publishing event

The new book by Keith Trigwell (Sydney) and Mike Prosser (Melbourne) Exploring University Teaching and Learning: Experience and Context, was launched on 10 December 2020, more than 20 years since Understanding Learning and Teaching appeared in 1999. The book focuses on university teachers’ experience of teaching and learning, discussing the qualitative variation in approaches to university teaching, the factors associated with that variation, and how different ways of teaching are related to differences in student experiences of teaching and learning. The authors extend the discussions of teaching into new areas, including emotions in teaching, leadership of teaching, growth as a university teacher and the contentious field of relations between teaching and research.

Psychological contract profiling for managing the learning experience of higher education students

László Horváth (ELTE Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest) used a service marketing approach for his article in the European Journal of Higher Education (online 27 January 2020): “Combining … six factors for expectations (personalization, development of soft skills, competent teachers, labour market preparedness, support, flexibility) and three factors of obligations (performance and activity, preciseness and punctuality, obedience and respect), we created Psychological Contract Profile Clusters (outcome-centred, teacher-centred, learner-centred, learning-centred, content-centred and self-centred students).”

“Grade inflation remains ‘a significant and pressing issue’”

That was how the OfS chose to present its analysis of degree outcomes published on 19 November 2020, quoting OfS chief executive Nicola Dandridge. The report itself said the rate of increase in ‘grade inflation’ had slowed in 2018-2019, and buried in the text was this: “It is not possible to deduce from this analysis what factors not included in the modelling (such as improvements in teaching quality, more diligent students or changes to assessment approaches) are driving the observed changes in degree attainment.” No recognition by OfS of the research by Calvin Jephcote (Leicester), SRHE members Emma Medland and Robin Lygo-Baker (both Surrey) published in Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education, which concluded: “The results suggest a much more positive and proactive picture of a higher education system that is engaged in a process of continuous enhancement. The unexplained variables, rather than automatically being labelled as grade inflation, should instead point to a need to investigate further the local institutional contextual factors that inform grade distribution. The deficit lens through which ‘grade inflation’ is often perceived is a damaging and unhelpful distraction.” Perhaps Nicola Dandridge was auditioning for Queen of Hearts in the OfS Christmas panto: “Sentence first, verdict afterwards”.

Jephcote, Medland and Lygo-Baker had also blogged for Wonkhe on 14 October 2020 about their research: “Evidence for why grades are trending upwards, or the less loaded phrase of grade improvement, reveal a complex landscape. According to our recent research, the most influential determinants of grade improvement were shown to be the geographic location of an institution, research output quality and the increasing quality of student cohorts – although even this variable was determined on grade entry points, which the recent A Level debacle in the UK has pulled into question. … What this evidence reveals is that a combination of student aptitude, and changes to the structure and quality of UK higher education, appear to be largely accountable for graduates attaining higher grades. It also, importantly, points to the problems associated with our criterion-referenced approaches to assessment being critiqued using a norm-referenced rationale.”

Peer review of teaching in Australian HE: a systematic review

The article by Alexandra L Johnston, Chi Baik and Andrea Chester (all Melbourne) was in Higher Education Research and Development (online 18 November 2020) “A thematic synthesis revealed teaching development outcomes gained through peer review of teaching span factors at organisational … program … and individual … levels. Organisational factors included disciplinary context, program sustainability, collegiality and leadership. Program factors included framework, program design, basis of participation, observation, feedback and reflective practice. Factors at the individual level included prior experience and participants’ perceived development requirements.”

What do undergraduate students understand by excellent teaching?

SRHE member Mike Mimirinis (West London) published the results of his SRHE-funded research in Higher Education Research and Development (online 21 November 2020): “This article explores undergraduate students’ conceptions of what constitutes excellent teaching. … semi-structured interviews with students at two English universities yields five qualitatively different conceptions of excellent teaching. In contrast to the current intense policy focus on outcome factors (eg graduate employability), students predominantly discern process factors as conducive to excellent teaching: how the subject matter is presented, what the lecturer brings to the teaching process, how students’ personal understanding is supported, and to what extent the questioning and transformation of disciplinary knowledge is facilitated. More importantly, this study demonstrates that an expansion of students’ awareness of the nature of teaching is internally related to the expansion of their awareness of the nature of disciplinary knowledge.”

The German sense of humour

The article in Studies in Higher Education (online 3 June 2019, issue 2020:12) was based on two large surveys of how teachers used humour in their teaching, and how students responded. It seems to come down to what the teachers meant by using humour. The research was by Martin Daumiller and three other colleagues at Augsburg.

Teaching in lifelong learning: A guide to theory and practice

The third edition was published in 2019, edited by James Avis, Roy Fisher and Ron Thompson (all Huddersfield).

A conceptual framework to enhance student learning and engagement

Alice Brown, Jill Lawrence, Marita Basson and Petrea Redmond (all Southern Queensland) had an article in Higher Education Research and Development (online 28 December 2020) about using course learning analytics (CLA) and nudging strategies, based on “a 12-month research project, as well as by the theoretical perspectives presented by communication and critical literacies. These perspectives were applied to develop a conceptual framework which the authors designed to prioritise expectation management and engagement principles for both students and academics. The article explains the development of the framework as well as the elements and key communication strategies it embodies. The framework contributes to practice by explaining and justifying the accessible, time-efficient, student-focused approaches that can be integrated simply into each course’s online learning pedagogy to support both academics’ and students’ engagement.”

Rob Cuthbert is the editor of SRHE News and Blog, emeritus professor of higher education management, Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences and Fellow of SRHE. He is an independent academic consultant whose previous roles include deputy vice-chancellor at the University of the West of England, editor of Higher Education Review, Chair of the Society for Research into Higher Education, and government policy adviser and consultant in the UK/Europe, North America, Africa, and China. He is current chair of the SRHE Publications Committee.