Search

Bringing your SoTL and Development Activity Together: The Pentagon of Practice

SoTL@SHU logo

Introduction

Engaging in SoTL activity and considering the other expectations around staff development can feel exciting whilst at the same time, a little daunting or overwhelming.  You will likely have an array of ideas or activities to develop around your practice but are perhaps unsure where to start.  Here, we demonstrate that through careful planning and design, the various elements of SoTL activity and other areas of your development can be brought together in what we are calling The Pentagon of Practice.  

The Pentagon of Practice

The Pentagon of Practice (See Figure 1) encompasses five elements that all teaching academics will be familiar with in their everyday practice, reflection and development.  In aligning the various activities, it can feel a lot more achievable. For example, looking at evidence to inform practice, designing evaluations and improvements to practice, and then developing these for your own portfolio of impact. 

The five key areas are: Performance and Development Review (PDR), Peer Review and Enhancement (PRE), Evidence, SoTL, and the final category is Recognition including Recognising Teaching Excellence (previously TALENT)/National Teaching Fellow/Associate Professor/Professor.  So how do all of these connect together?  With the support of your line manager and School/Institute Leadership Teams you can be guided to develop your own Pentagon of Practice which can be seen as a complete package.   

How does it work?

In your PDR, discuss and identify priorities for development around learning and teaching as you set your objectives for the academic year.  Take into consideration what evidence tells you about your students – this could be from your own evaluations and course development plans; external quality assurance; the Source; looking at local priorities such as the Access and Participation Plan or this year’s suggested focus of student voice.  This will help you determine a theme for your Pentagon of Practice.   

For your PRE activity, decide with your colleague(s) what you will focus on following a theme identified from the PDR and data gathered so far so you are developing a golden thread to your development.  For your SoTL activity, again this can be connected to the same theme giving you time to undertake your own projects and evaluations.  SoTL activity should align with your choices of developing activity to improve student experience based on evidence.  The final strand to pull together your evidence towards your development is in creating your case studies for recognition at a level of AdvanceHE Fellowship and/or National Teaching Fellow and aligns with the Academic Careers Framework.    

Figure 1: The Pentagon of Practice (Kellock, 2026) 

Pentagon of Practice Purple pentagon diagram labelled with five elements: Evidence, PDR, PRE, SoTL and Recognition.

For example, as Course Leader, BA(Hons) Spells and Potions:

  • Evidence: Source data indicates three-year downward trend in assessment and feedback; student voice indicates assessment briefing could be an impact 
  • PDR: set an objective to improve NSS Assessment and Feedback scores 
  • PRE: review assessment briefing approaches with a peer in the Department of Magic Endeavours; sense check with academic literature (by Dec 26) 
  • SoTL: use your PRE findings and reflections to co-design a project with students redesigning assessment briefings (by Jan 27), gather impact and present at Learning and Teaching (SoTL) Conference July 27 and/or other SoTL outputs (See the SoTL Staircase (Beckingham, 2025) 
  • Recognition: gather staff and student reflections to embed in a case study for Fellowship/other application 

It is important to register your SoTL activity (email: sotl@shu.ac.uk) to support our growing body of evidence for the Teaching Excellence Framework.  Your project may also be eligible for some funding to help you complete it with support from student researchers, or a thank you to your participants.  There is already a wealth of projects and outputs to view on our SoTL@SHU SharePoint site, including a searchable database, that may inspire you for your next SoTL moves and supporting your Pentagon of Practice. 

Authors

Anne Kellock, Associate Head, Sheffield Institute of Education  a.kellock@shu.ac.uk 
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kellock-anne-9b009170/

Liz Austen, Professor and Associate Dean, LTSS  l.austen@shu.ac.uk 
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/prof-liz-austen-booth-59a8b815a/

Reference

Beckingham, S. (2025) The SoTL Staircase. https://blog.shu.ac.uk/sotl/sotl-staircase/