Abstract:

Higher Education Institutions’ academic culture can be quite hierarchical, competitive, and individualist, where the focus for advancement is very much on publishing. For new and relatively new staff, entry into the academic context can be viewed as a highly individualised, and self‐directed. Teaching commitments, committee meetings, workload, and office hours all demand a significant amount of an academic members’ time, with time being required for research and scholarship activities as well. Time available for informal knowledge sharing is severely restricted and opportunities for authentic and open pedagogical conversations is not often created, especially between experienced and less experienced staff members. Higher education institutions need to be agile —which was very dramatically demonstrated by the recent pandemic —requiring academia and academics to be able to adapt to a fast-changing academic landscape. Research suggests that engaging in knowledge sharing activities improves the ability to innovate. A pilot case study was conducted at a Welsh university to implement three Knowledge Cafe’s over a period of 1 ½ years. The aim of the Knowledge Cafés was to bring people together to engage in a shared and purposeful activity (teaching practice in this case), informally over coffee, conversing around a particular topic of interest. It enabled staff members to reflect on their own practice, share their experiences, and evaluate the effectiveness of their own teaching. A specific format for the Knowledge Café was used to encourage engagement and informal conversation, in an environment of openness. Initial outcomes suggest that creating opportunities for the sharing of teaching best practices using a Knowledge Café creates a positive, informal ‘space’ for knowledge sharing. The timing, burning question, leadership support and the ‘lightning’ speaker, however, is critical to its success.

Keywords:

Knowledge Café, Knowledge Management, Knowledge Sharing, Pedagogy, Higher Education, Best practice, Digital technologies, Teaching innovation, conversation.