About

Why does teaching matter?

Teaching Matters is the University of Edinburgh’s website, blog and podcast for debate about learning and teaching, for sharing ideas and approaches to teaching, and for showcasing our successes, including academic colleagues who are leading the way in delivering brilliant teaching.

microscope teaching

The Teaching Matters blog was borne from a strong feeling that, as a University, we have historically not being doing enough to show publicly and overtly how important teaching is to us. Established in January 2016, the blog has steadily built up a community of interest, support and practice around teaching and learning at the University.

By their very nature, the blog posts are short (650-950 words) and informal in tone, with the aim of being accessible to a large audience. Whilst the posts look inwards to specifically showcase University of Edinburgh teaching practice, our readership is increasingly vibrant and international, inspiring innovative practice not only within the University, but also at a global level. In the video below, Dr Jenny Scoles (Chief Editor) introduces Teaching Matters and shares some research about the unexpected benefits of academic blogging [10 mins]:

Publishing Schedule

Teaching Matters’ core blog posts are published every Tuesday and Thursday. These posts are part of two parallel themes we run concurrently: a ‘Hot Topic’ theme and a ‘Teaching and Learning Enhancement’ theme. Both themes run an issue for two months with one blog post published per week. Some of the issues are co-edited by University colleagues or students while others are curated by the Teaching Matters team. Please see the Teaching Matters website for latest publishing schedule and tips for writing. 

  • Hot Topic Theme (every Tuesday): These themes relate to time-sensitive events, conference, anniversaries, all taking place at the University. These are an opportunity to shed light on specific events, initiatives, and important stepping-stones. [This theme replaces the former mini-series theme.]
  • Learning and Teaching Enhancement Theme (every Thursday): This theme addresses a topic relating to pedagogical approaches, programmes, and concepts.

If a submitted post does not fit into one of the current themes, we publish these as ‘extra posts’ on Mondays. 

Other Teaching Matters features

Newsletter

Each theme is summarised by the editor in a newsletter, which is written in the style of ‘Five things we learned/were inspired by/discovered etc’ format. You can subscribe to the newsletter on LinkedIn, and view archived newsletters on the blog.

Collegiate Commentary

Our core values of collegiality and support also extend beyond our institution, inviting a wider, international community to engage in Teaching Matters. In our ‘Collegiate commentary’ feature, colleagues from beyond the University are invited to provide a short commentary on ‘Five things…’, and share their own learning and teaching resource or output, which we can learn from. We encourage anyone who is interested in contributing to get in touch: teachingmatters@ed.ac.uk.

Podcast

The Teaching Matters podcast accompanies and complements the blog, adding another space for student and staff conversations and debates around learning and teaching at The University of Edinburgh. Episodes, released every few weeks, have an average listening time of 10-15 mins.

Student Authors

Teaching Matters is focused on growing a student author base, and are keen to feature posts co/authored by students. There is blog writing and video support/training available for students interested in blogging for Teaching Matters.

Student Illustrator Project

An innovative project showcasing the excellent art work done by students at Edinburgh College of Art, which enables students to gain experience in editorial illustration and learn about teaching and learning issues, whilst also creating original images for Teaching Matters blog posts. You can find out more on the Teaching Matters website.

THE Campus

The University of Edinburgh is a partner of the Times Higher Education blog: THE Campus. We work with their Editor to help contributors publish their Teaching Matters posts on THE Campus. Please get in touch if you are interested in publishing an article (or a podcast episode) for THE Campus. You can also join the THE Campus monthly call for content mlist by emailing a request to Lauren Johnston-Smith lauren.johnston-smith@ed.ac.uk. In the video below, Lauren introduces this partnership and Laura Duckett (THE Campus editor) explains what THE Campus is and how you can contribute [16 mins]:

Spotlight on… series

This series focuses on documenting outcomes from long-term projects or initiatives, which are unfolding across the University. Posts related to these series are published ad hoc throughout the year. Previous ‘Spotlight on…’ series include:

Social media

Teaching Matters promotes content on:

Contributing

If you are interested in contributing, have suggestions for possible hot topic series or future learning and teaching themed topics, or would be interested in hosting a series as a Guest Editor, please do get in touch at teachingmatters@ed.ac.uk.

Many thanks and happy reading!

Dr Jenny Scoles (Teaching Matters Editor)

With thanks to Melanie Grandidge for her icon artwork design.