Exploring Disciplinary Teaching Excellence in Higher Education

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xv

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2. Exploring ‘Excellence’ in Disciplinary Contexts Through Student-Staff Partnerships

   • Sophie Williams, Malina Pricop, Marion Heron, Kieran Balloo, Laura Barnett

   Pages 1-20

3. What Teaching Excellence Means to Undergraduate Students on a STEM Programme

   • Julia Matyjasiak, Alfred Thumser

   Pages 21-37

4. Evaluating Teaching Excellence from a Disciplinary Perspective

   • Charlotte Foreman, Ali Musawi

   Pages 39-55

5. Students as Co-creators of Visual Mnemonics Using LEGO®: An Evaluation of a Higher Education Revision Session Using an Adapted LEGO® Serious Play® (LSP) Methodology

   • Debbie Gooch, Rachel Stead, Daisy Haywood, Lewis Jerrom

   Pages 57-74

6. How Can Mandatory Elements of Moving and Handling Be Delivered to Enhance Student Engagement?

   • Orlando Caetano, Nicola Dallimore

   Pages 75-90

7. Exploring ‘Teaching Excellence’ in Vocational Theatre Training: What Role Does It Play in Enabling Student Success?

   • Jo Franklin, Ryan Anstey

   Pages 91-107

8. An Exploration into Student and Staff Perceptions on the Use of Audio-Visual Content as a Measure of Teaching Excellence

   • Lauren Regan, Iman Ezidy

   Pages 109-125

9. Perceptions of Teaching Excellence and Satisfaction Amongst Chinese-Educated Students at a UK University

   • Xeina Ali, James Tatam, Jiayu Le, Kristy Yeung, Tom Bond

   Pages 127-143

10. International Student Collaborations to Achieve Teaching Excellence in Higher Education

    • Ramsha Saleem, Alireza Behnejad, Nayar Cuitláhuac, Armin Mottaghi Rad

    Pages 145-162

11. Co-Creating Teaching Excellence in Curriculum Design Through Leadership and Entrepreneurship

    • Jashim Khan, Tang Yuqing, Yuan Yue, Zhang Yuheng

    Pages 163-181

12. Towards a Pedagogically Healthy University: The Essential Foundation for Excellence in Student-Staff Partnerships

    • Ian M. Kinchin

    Pages 183-197

13. Creating ‘Excellent’ Partnerships: Reflections on Practice

    • Laura Barnett, Marion Heron, Kieran Balloo

    Pages 199-208

This book explores disciplinary teaching excellence through a diverse range of student-staff partnership research projects. Despite being a highly contested term, ‘teaching excellence’ is something that universities aspire to and are expected to have. However, the editors and contributors argue that not only are definitions of excellence often broad and generic, but they lack nuanced understandings of disciplinary excellence in higher education. This book begins by unpacking some of these contested definitions of teaching excellence, followed by a series of co-authored chapters produced by students and staff who have undertaken research projects where they examine teaching excellence in their respective disciplinary areas. These chapters demonstrate that teaching excellence may be better understood as a process of becoming that is achieved through partnership between teachers and students. This book will be of interest and value to students, educators, and policy-makers concerned about teaching excellence, as well as scholars of student-staff partnerships.

• teaching excellence
• learning excellence
• student-staff partnerships
• students as partners
• teaching excellence framework
• excellence in higher education

• Surrey Institute of Education, University of Surrey, Guildford, UK

  Marion Heron, Laura Barnett, Kieran Balloo

Laura Barnett is Lecturer in the Surrey Institute of Education, University of Surrey, UK. Her disciplinary background is in sociology and her research interests relate to everyday social experiences, inequalities and widening participation linked to learning and teaching in higher education. 



Kieran Balloo was Lecturer in the Surrey Institute of Education, University of Surrey, UK. His disciplinary background is in psychology and his current research broadly explores the impact of students’ backgrounds and the university environment on their experiences of higher education.



Marion Heron is Senior Lecturer in the Surrey Institute of Education, University of Surrey, UK. Her disciplinary background is applied linguistics and she currently researches in the area of educational linguistics. She has worked in a teacher education role in a variety of national and international contexts.