A Futures Perspective on Learning and Teaching in Higher Education: An Essay on Best and Next Practices

Abstract

Higher education is a sector that can be slow to change, yet there are significant pressures on universities and other providers to change. Learning and teaching are central to what higher education does, and pressures, such as the switch to remote learning during the pandemic and the increasing use of generative AI, are causing a reconsideration about good learning and teaching. This essay provides a futures framework to explore best and next practices in learning and teaching in higher education. Four important and influential papers and reviews are used to consider past and current views of good teaching and learning in higher education. From these, six evidence-informed teaching practices are described as examples of current best-practice views, and then these are developed into possible, plausible, probable, and preferred next practices. This essay provides a stimulus for practitioners and researchers to adopt a futures mindset for thinking about the development of teaching and learning in higher education.