Indicators of Teaching Excellence in Higher Education: A Critical Approach

Helps higher education leaders to work with existing national and institutional data to produce more nuanced and relational indicators of teaching excellence and convey understandings of teaching excellence that matter to them. An innovative take on the controversial question of teaching excellence in Higher Education (HE). After critiquing the very idea of 'measuring' teaching excellence, Hayes and Garnett offer a critical approach to re-conceptualising and measuring teaching excellence and the controversies surrounding current teaching excellence rankings in the UK and internationally. The book proposes a shift in conceptualising the ways in which ‘evidence’ of teaching excellence can be produced by higher education providers. It suggests that measurement can be approached as developmental and can create agency for university leaders in making decisions about teaching and learning, in contrast to the performativity of current approaches. It emphasises the impact of teaching and learning processes on student outcomes and the skills required. The book guides readers through statistical approaches which allow exploration of the relationality of epistemic frames of teaching excellence in institutions, ie, how it is comprised of relationships an connections of what happens in classrooms and across the institution. Written in an accessible style tailored for HE leaders at all levels, this book is packed with real-world examples and opportunities for critical reflection, and can be understood by readers who have no prior knowledge of statistics.