Using a Change Laboratory Approach as a Change Tool for Academic Staff Development

Academic development (AD) generally involves attempts to improve and so change academic practices. Various authors have suggested that such improvement and change should also focus on the day-to-day issues and problems faced by staff in different departments. Furthermore, it should involve staff in open discussion while at the same time offering guidance from the AD practitioners. In this way it is likely to have greater potential for take-up and impact. A change laboratory approach to AD focuses in on problems in working life from the practitioners' perspective. Through mobilising an Activity Theory-based methodology, staff are assisted in confronting and understanding problems in working life and seeking possible changes. The authors thus suggest that such a methodological approach is a useful addition to the AD repertoire. As evidence for this suggestion we present a case study of academics' learning within a change laboratory initiative.