Unravelling tacit knowledge: Engagement Strategies of Centres for Excellence in Teaching and Learning

Abstract

Centres for Excellence in Teaching and Learning or Centres for Teaching and Learning have become widespread across higher education institutions in Europe. These centres can be defined as nodes of “nodes of teaching and learning-focused activities” (Saunders et al. 2008, p. 28). Recent research has shown that centres frequently face difficulties promoting their enhancement activities (Gosling & Turner, 2014). This is due to a number of reasons, in particular to the low acceptance of the pedagogical knowledge used by the centres among academic staff. It appears that centres often have not developed a strategy to engage academic staff in their enhancement activities. This working paper however investigates the engagement strategies of two Centres for Teaching and Learning, one located at a mono-disciplinary institution in Norway, the other at a research university in Germany. As these centres have been implemented differently, the working paper also discusses how implementation affects the centre’s success. As the cases under review are highly contrasting the comparison singles out facilitators and hindrances to effective engagement strategies.