Pedagogy Research Centre

Providing the evidence for learning and teaching development.

The Faculty recognises the importance of pedagogy research as a key factor in underpinning teaching excellence and has a strong commitment to engaging in research and evidence-based practice. Consequently it hosts a dedicated Pedagogy Research Centre which has its origins in a HEFCE funded (2005-10) Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL), ASKe, the Assessment Standards Knowledge exchange.

ASKe's work now continues in conjunction with the Pedagogy Research Centre formed in November 2010. The Centre's director is Margaret Price, Professor of Learning and Assessment whose role involves working with a team of colleagues to build a faculty research community centred on pedagogy relevant to learning and assessment of business related subjects as well as maintaining the work of ASKe to encourage innovation and foster evidence-based assessment practice with in the Higher Education sector.

The Centre is currently interested in the following areas of research:

Peer assessment;
Dialogic feedback;
Use of vivas in business education;
Assessment literacy;
Positionality and assessment;
Good and bad feedback – what are the differences?;
Supporting groupwork;
Student involvement and learning communities; and
Transitions to, within and from HE.

Further pedagogy research being undertaken in the faculty includes:

Technology and learning: using wikis, podcasts, social networks and VLEs;
Teaching models: for academic skills, for A grade students, for reflection;
Learning: using ambiguity, using reflection;
Assessment: using visual representations in business education;
Quality enhancement;
Internationalisation of the curriculum

The Centre has already been successful in attracting funding for a number of research projects that include:

Assessment Literacy and evaluation of the Oxford Brookes Assessment Compact;
A critical review of contemporary assessment feedback process with exemplars of effective and innovative dialogic feedback practices (2011);
Evaluating the implementation of 'lessons from the literature on assessed group work' within the context of business and management education (2011);
PRME – Principles of Responsible Management Education - educating responsible business managers for the future.

In addition the team are developing work on a range of other areas of research and enhancement including working in conjunction with the University of Bradford and six other institutions on Programme Assessment Strategies (PASS).