Pedagogical Innovation in Higher Education: Defining What We Mean

Introduction

In recent years quality teaching has become an increasing focus in universities around the world (OECD, 2012). This focus is the result of increased student numbers, higher levels of accountability, the affordances and impact of new technologies, changes in student expectations, and the raised profile of the importance of teaching alongside research (Biggs, 2011). Quality teaching initiatives are also seen to increase student enrolment and engagement, and to improve retention and completion rates in universities (Wyatt, 2011). Innovation in teaching is identified as an important element of quality teaching. For example, an OECD Report (2012) suggested that innovative teaching is often a response to specific situations or problems and can involve all aspects of a programme of study – content, pedagogy, student support, assessment and the learning environment (p. 33). However, it is difficult to establish from the literature what counts as innovative within a teaching and learning context. Pedagogical innovation is frequently either undefined or not clearly defined in the research literature (e.g., Jaskyte, Taylor, & Smariga, 2009; Kivunja, 2014), making it challenging to discuss the nature and range of pedagogies adopted in higher education (HE) that could be identified as innovative. It seems that innovation is an inherently unstable construct when applied in higher education; however, a lack of definitional clarity potentially impedes the development of useful theory and measures of innovative teaching (Johannessen, Olsen, & Lumpkin, 2001), so further development in this area is warranted.

Developing a clear and shared understanding or definition of pedagogical innovation is the focus of this article, which reports a strategic research initiative at the authors’ institution investigating innovative approaches to teaching and learning across the university. A key goal of the initiative was to determine how best to support and facilitate pedagogical innovations that enhance student engagement and learning. In this article we discuss data which contributed to the development of a definition of innovative pedagogies in higher education that informs our further work in this area.

Three key questions guide the investigation reported here:

• 1.

  What are the prevailing themes relating to pedagogical innovation in higher education (HE)?

• 2.

  What are the contradictions and tensions in defining pedagogical innovation in HE?

• 3.

  How can innovative approaches to teaching and learning in HE be defined?

The article begins with an overview of the factors that have led to a focus on innovative teaching in HE and a discussion of prevailing themes about pedagogical innovation in HE. This is followed by a description of the research initiative designed to investigate innovative approaches to teaching in the authors’ institution, and the case studies that formed the foundation for the research. Drawing on data generated from these case studies and wider staff and student online surveys, the contradictions and tensions in defining innovative practices in HE are considered. The article concludes with a discussion of the working definition developed by the authors.