International Perspectives on Teaching Excellence in Higher Education

Alan Skelton is Senior Lecturer in the School of Education, University of Sheffield, UK. He undertakes critical research investigations into higher education pedagogy and is the author of Understanding Teaching Excellence in Higher Education, published by Routledge in 2005.

• Introduction Part 1: Conceptual challenges 1. Excellence and the Good Society 2. Braided practice: the place of scholarly inquiry in teaching excellence 3. Beyond performance in teaching excellence 4. Teaching, discipline, net-work 5. Integrating research and teaching: understanding excellence Part 2: Policy and discourse 6. The demotic turn - excellence by fiat 7. Policy discourses about teaching excellence in a transforming South Africa 8. Critiquing excellence: undergraduate research for all students? 9. Tertiary teaching matters: political economy of a New Zealand centre for tertiary teaching excellence 10. Centres for Excellence in Teaching and Learning in England: recognising, celebrating and promoting excellence? Part 3: Development initiatives 11. National strategies for promoting excellence in teaching: a critical review 12. Teaching excellence in higher education in Japan: an evolving agenda 13. Teaching excellence in context: drawing from a socio-cultural approach 14. The National Teaching Fellowship Scheme 2000-2006: Rest In Peace? 15. Exploring teaching excellence in Canada: an interrogation of common practices and policies 16. Exploring and developing excellence: towards a community of praxis Conclusion

"This book makes a very valuable contribution to extending people's understanding of the concept of teaching excellence in higher education. I warmly recommend it to anyone who is in the least bit interested in thinking seriously about this important topic." Professor Roger Murphy Director, Institute for Research into Learning and Teaching, University of Nottingham. 'What, if anything, does 'teaching excellence' mean? Alan Skelton challenges common sense notions of excellence, but rejects the view that we should simply ignore it and hope it will go away. Instead he opens up a much needed and more sustained critique. The book draws upon research from a wide range of contributors who really care about the ways in which the changing context of higher education is shaping our understanding of teaching and learning. Through their writing ideas of excellence in teaching are given substance which is founded upon educational insight rather than bureacratic rhetoric' Professor Stephen Rowland, Centre for the Advancement of Learning and Teaching, UCL