Domain 4: Description

This domain emphasises the importance of both disciplinary knowledge and disciplinary approaches to
teaching (disciplinary pedagogies), while also drawing on inter-disciplinary experiences and approaches. It
supports an active student role in the learning process, moving toward a partnership in the teaching and
learning process, essential in the higher education environment. It incorporates staff’s capacity to design
and implement innovative and creative teaching and learning approaches at different levels of the curriculum. The
importance of assessment and feedback is emphasised, in particular the move to a more learner-oriented
and dialogic feedback approach for students and balance in the assessment of/for/as learning. The role of
underpinning theories of learning and staff’s knowledge and contribution to teaching and learning policies,
procedures and scholarship is also highlighted.

Domain 4: Elements

4.1 Relevance and currency of disciplinary/subject knowledge, e.g. through research, literature
searches, dialogue with peers, industry/placement experiences, industry projects, professional body
memberships, etc.
4.2 Supportive of active student-centred approaches to learning that engage students and build towards
students as partners in their learning.
4.3 Design and management of sessions, modules and/or curricula (programs) appropriate to the
learning environment.
4.4 Development and application of appropriate teaching and learning approaches and specialist
skills from one’s own discipline and other disciplines that support the development of students’
knowledge, their skills of enquiry and other stated institutional/professional body graduate attributes
(e.g. critical thinking, creative, entrepreneurial, responsible, collaborative, etc.).

4.5 Application of appropriately aligned assessment and learner-oriented feedback approaches from one’s
own discipline and, where relevant, from other disciplines.
4.6 Knowledge of and application of the theories of how students learn within and across disciplines, and
a responsiveness to the needs of diverse cohorts of students.
4.7 Exploration and application of inclusive, innovative, enquiry-based, problem-based and creative
approaches to student learning.
4.8 Knowledge of and contribution to relevant teaching and learning policies and procedures in local,
national and international higher education contexts.

Library 

Staff

Learning

Tools for Enquiring into Domain 4

Reflections on the Value of Domain 4 to the Professional Development of Library Staff