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SLATE Senior Researcher Kristin Børte, together with Professor Sølvi Lillejord, Director for Teacher Education at the University of Bergen, and Associate Professor Katrine Nesje, University of Oslo, has published a new journal article on barriers to student active learning in  Teaching in Higher Education.

By combining two systematic reviews and reanalysing 66 articles, they review research that consistently, across borders and over time, reveals inertia in Higher Education institutions related to innovation in academic teaching.

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Despite frequent calls for more student-active learning, studies find that teaching remains predominantly traditional and teacher-centred. While research is recognised as continuously developing, border-crossing, investigative and innovative collaborative activities that need an infrastructure to succeed, the need for collaborative development and a supporting infrastructure is rarely mentioned in academic teaching, often described as individual and traditional.

The article identified the following prerequisites for student active learning to succeed: (1) better alignment between research and teaching practices, (2) a supporting infrastructure for research and teaching, and (3) staff professional development and learning designs.

Kristin Børte, Katrine Nesje & Sølvi Lillejord (2020) Barriers tostudent active learning in higher education, Teaching in Higher Education, DOI:10.1080/13562517.2020.1839746

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