A model that emphasizes practice and student learning

A model for the scholarship of teaching based on teacher engagement with different forms of knowledge that form the basis of teaching is, in a sense, removed from actual teaching practice. Trigwell and Shale (2004) consider the scholarship of teaching as being grounded in teaching itself and therefore requiring direct attention to students and their learning. In their model, there are three components of teaching that constitute a teaching system. The scholarship of teaching is enacted when that teaching system is made public.

Trigwell and Shale also introduce the concept of pedagogic resonance: “the bridge between teacher knowledge and student learning… It is pedagogic resonance that is constituted in the individual acts of teaching, and it is the effect of pedagogic resonance that is experienced by students” (pp. 529, 532). In the teaching system in Trigwell and Shale’s model, knowledge informs practice, which affects outcome. Yet there is also a backward flow of information between the three components. We can think of this bidirectional flow as an important condition for achieving pedagogic resonance. 

Trigwell and Shale's contribution is important in the way it emphasizes student learning and the importance of considering the role students play in academic teaching. A scholarship of teaching that follows this model would be more accurately named a scholarship of teaching and learning.

…surely a good conception of scholarship of teaching would honour and publicly acknowledge the scholarly energy that is creating situations in which students learn, rather than a scholarly energy which creates situations in which teachers instruct. (p. 534)

 

Further reading:
Trigwell, K., and Shale, S. (2004). Student learning and the scholarship of university teaching. Studies in Higher Education, 29(4), 523–536. https://doi.org/10.1080/0307507042000236407 Links to an external site.