Bridging pedagogic gaps: conceptual discontinuities in higher education

This paper presents a critical overview of issues arising from an ESRC-funded research project which focuses on the literature of higher education pedagogy current in the UK, seen from the authors' adult education perspective. Dominant psychological approaches to teaching and learning are identified as promoting a limited conceptualisation of pedagogy as an educational 'transaction' between individual learners and teachers, and an asocial construction of the learner. Certain approaches to the interrelationship of theory, research and practice are criticised for their reduction of pedagogic theory to a set of professional rules for practice, and for their contribution to the isolation of pedagogic theory from the rich literature of higher education policy and purpose. Some of these problems are attributed to the problematic ownership, status and organisational role of 'educational development' for academic work. A 'conversation' across different areas of pedagogic practice may be a constructive way to address these issues.