Extend NZ/NZEXT105/Orientation/Overview

“	No research without action. No action without research.	”
—Kurt Lewin

Overview

This module examines how we can use our classroom, our courses and/or our professional area of practice as a research lab, to

• explore how we might improve our teaching practice, and
• positively affect learner outcomes and satisfaction with the overall learning experience.

It invites us to consider research about learning and teaching within our discipline and provides a process to implement a research plan.

This kind of action research is often called the “scholarship of teaching and learning” (SoTL), and it involves an awareness and appreciation of effective, research-based, discipline-appropriate pedagogical approaches for examining your own practice.

“	The scholarship of teaching is not merely teaching our scholarship. Nor is it simply teaching well… The scholarship of teaching means that we invest in our teaching the intellectual powers we practice in our research.	”
—Bender & Gray, 1998