This book explores disciplinary teaching excellence through a diverse range of student-staff partnership research projects. Despite being a highly contested term, teaching excellence is something that universities aspire to and are expected to have. However, the editors and contributors argue that not only are definitions of excellence often broad and generic, but they lack nuanced understandings of disciplinary excellence in higher education. This book begins by unpacking some of these contested definitions of teaching excellence, followed by a series of co-authored chapters produced by students and staff who have undertaken research projects where they examine teaching excellence in their respective disciplinary areas. These chapters demonstrate that teaching excellence may be better understood as a process of becoming that is achieved through partnership between teachers and students. This book will be of interest and value to students, educators, and policy-makers concerned about teaching excellence, as well as scholars of student-staff partnerships.

Laura Barnett is Lecturer in the Surrey Institute of Education, University of Surrey, UK. Her disciplinary background is in sociology and her research interests relate to everyday social experiences, inequalities and widening participation linked to learning and teaching in higher education. 

Kieran Balloo was Lecturer in the Surrey Institute of Education, University of Surrey, UK. His disciplinary background is in psychology and his current research broadly explores the impact of students backgrounds and the university environment on their experiences of higher education.

Marion Heron is Senior Lecturer in the Surrey Institute of Education, University of Surrey, UK. Her disciplinary background is applied linguistics and she currently researches in the area of educational linguistics. She has worked in a teacher education role in a variety of national and international contexts.

Foreword; Charmagne Barnes.- Chapter 1: Preface Laura Barnett, Kieran Balloo, and Marion Heron.- Chapter 2: Exploring excellence in disciplinary contexts through student-staff partnerships Laura Barnett, Marion Heron, Kieran Balloo, Malina Pricop and Sophie Williams.- Chapter 3: What teaching excellence means to undergraduate students in their discipline Alfred Thumser and Julia Matyjasiak.- Chapter 4: Evaluating teaching excellence from a disciplinary perspective Charlotte Foreman and Ali Musawi.- Chapter 5: Exploring notions of excellence in tutorials and lectures within the discipline Vasco Gabriel and Michelle Ly.- Chapter 6: Students as Co-Creators of Visual Mnemonics using LEGO: an evaluation of revision sessions using an adapted Lego® Serious Play® (LSP) methodology.Debbie Gooch, Rachel Stead, Daisy Haywood and Lewis Jerrom.- Chapter 7: Promoting student engagement with mandatory course requirements Lisa Blazhevski, Orlando Caetano Nicola Dallimore.- Chapter 8: Exploring teaching excellence in vocational training and acting: what role does it play in enabling student success?
Sam Digney and Ryan Anstey.- Chapter 9: Exploring how staff and students perceive captured content as a measure of teaching excellence Lauren Regan, Iman Ezidy and Faiz Addad.- Chapter 10: Improving the satisfaction of Chinese-educated students at a UK university
Tom Bond and Kristy Yeung.- Chapter 11: International student collaborations to achieve teaching excellence in higher education Alireza Behnejad and Ramsha Saleem.- Chapter 12: Student-teacher partnership: a symbiotic co-creation of learning in Surrey International Institute (SII-DUFE)
Jashim Khan, Tang Yuqing, Zhang, Yuheng, Yuan Yue.- Chapter 13: Creating excellent partnerships: reflections from authors working in partnership All Partner Authors, Laura Barnett, Kieran Balloo, and Marion Heron.- Chapter 14: Conclusion: Exploring pedagogic health of the university linked to teaching excellence using student-staff partnerships
Ian Kinchin.