Signature concepts of key researchers in higher education teaching and learning
Early career university teachers often have limited experience of the higher education literature making it difficult for them to identify what ideas have become central to justifying what university teachers ought to be doing in higher education teaching and learning. A review of the research literature in journals focused on teaching and learning in higher education identified seven researchers who the journals' authors consider skilled at making these kinds of arguments. A second-level analysis of the citations within this literature revealed that these researchers were associated with developing distinctive concepts within the field. This study concludes that some ideas have become strongly associated with certain researchers because they are identified as knowledgeable about important aspects of higher education teaching and learning. It found that authors in the sample used these signature concepts to answer five central questions about higher education teaching and learning.
Abstract The results of the Tennessee study and the recent Brookings consensus statement present a moment for the field to reflect collectively on the preschool evidence base writ large and on what should come next. In this brief commentary, I review the broader preschool literature and offer seven specific takeaways regarding what we know about public preschool programs and about how to improve them. I argue that making progress requires a pivot in the field to specifically how to create new high-quality programs and improve existing ones. I offer specific directions for policy, practice, and research aimed at guiding this pivot.