A wiki is able to provide a learning environment which is closely aligned with the social‐constructivist approach and is more natural than many tools where open collaboration and the exchange of ideas are important. This case study analyses and evaluates essential aspects for the successful deployment of a wiki in a higher education setting using Salmon's five‐stage e‐learning framework. Indicators of the learning benefits were determined by qualitative analysis of students' wiki contributions. Students' perceptions were captured through interviews and questionnaires at the start and end of the project, thereby providing indicators of their motivation towards this method of learning. Our results suggest that a wiki can promote effective collaborative learning and confidence in formative self and peer assessment by facilitating rapid feedback, vicarious learning through observing others' contributions and easy navigation and tracking facilities. Student authorship was also encouraged. Issues identified included providing easy access to the wiki, lack of personalisation, possible vandalism and plagiarism. Also, students with learning difficulties might require extra help and take longer to familiarise themselves with this new e‐learning environment

In the context of the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF), we examine academics’ perspectives on the discourse of ‘teaching excellence’ based on an empirical study with 16 participants from five post-1992 universities. The article reports the findings on academics’ views of the term and concept of ‘teaching excellence’, examples of what ‘teaching excellence’ may look like in practice, whether a distinction between ‘good’, ‘good enough’ and ‘excellent teaching’ can be made, and the measurability of ‘teaching excellence’. The research findings suggest we need a more nuanced inclusive interpretation of 'teaching excellence' which recognises the conjoined nature of teaching and research in higher education, and also rebalances a focus on outcome-related measures with understandings of purposes and development of the processes of learning

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to argue that, in order to achieve teaching excellence, student engagement in dialogue on this important matter is needed. Students’ conceptualisations of good teaching are fundamental when building an understanding of what this is and how it can be developed.Design/methodology/approachThis paper reports on findings of a qualitative study of undergraduate students’ perceptions of a good university lecturer. The paper draws on the secondary dataset collected by four subject centres of the Higher Education Academy (HEA).FindingsThe interpretive analysis of the data shows that, from students’ perspectives, a combination of the lecturer's subject knowledge, willingness to help and inspirational teaching methods makes a good university lecturer. Being humorous and able to provide speedy feedback were also perceived as important factors. These findings have some important implications for academic practice.Originality/valueThe key thesis advanced is that definitions of teaching excellence cannot be adequately obtained from typologies and descriptions of techniques and skills. The authors’ contention is that deeper understandings are built through engaging students in meaningful dialogue about pedagogy. This may uncover more profound layers of understanding of what makes good teaching at university and so probe the more elusive aspects which defy measurement via scales or performance indicators.

No abstract

This paper explores narratives as an effective means of capturing multiple identities of research participants in complex social environments in education research. In doing so it explores the role of the narrator in two case studies in two modes of narrative inquiry. Both studies present narratives of young people, focusing on multiple identities which are influenced by a variety of cultural and sub-cultural contexts which the participants inhabit to varying degrees. In the first case study the researcher is the narrator; in the second it is the research participants. The paper uses the two case studies to discuss three challenging areas in narrative research: participant voice, contextual complexities and researcher positionality and how the researcher responds to these challenges through construction and co-construction of the narratives. The authors share their strategies for addressing these three challenges in relation to the role of the narrator.Keywords: narrative; narrator; construction/co-construction of narratives; narrative inquiry; educational research; case studies IntroductionThis paper explores how a narrative approach can be effectively utilized in education research by considering the relationship between the researcher and the narrator in two modes of narrative inquiry. Narratives are a means of as expressing, enacting or enabling changes in life meaning, sense, identity, sociocultural formation and unconscious significance (Phoenix, 2008; Reissman, 1993). This paper uses the definition of "narrative" given by Shacklock and Thorp; "Narrative inquiry is concerned with the production, interpretation and representation of storied accounts of lived experience " (2005:156). This method of data presentation allows the researcher to locate life experience, identity and cultural formation within a narrative frame, Shacklock and Thorp argue. In doing so it allows the writer to "introduce additional anchor points for understanding the subjective and structural as mutual informants in understanding our own and other people 's lives" (156). This provides an effective means of understanding the lives of others through the construction or co-construction and narration of 3 their stories (Phoenix, 2008; Reissman, 2007). In narrative inquiry the narrator of the story may be either the researcher or the research participant.There are two forms of narrative enquiry, epistemological, concerned with the nature of knowledge, often exploring lived experiences, and ontological, which the researcher is not involved in and so which requires a deeper exploration of truth as it is perceived or experienced by those in the narrative. Within these two forms there are many different approaches to narrative research; English (2006) identifies 12 different approaches, such as autobiography, life story, historical accounts, ethnographic fiction and personal diaries. The two studies discussed in this paper are examples of epistemological narratives and the discussion focuses on these. The two case studies illustrate different a...