Overview

About the Boyer Model

In 1990, Ernest Boyer, the previous president for the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching made a bold proposition to encourage the discussion about higher education faculty priorities, what faculty actually do, and to enlarge the discussion of definitions of scholarship. He asserted the “need for a more inclusive view of what it means to be a scholar of what it means to be a scholar- a recognition that knowledge is acquired through research , through synthesis, through practice and through teaching.” To accomplish this, Boyer developed four domains of scholarship: Discovery, Application, Teaching, and Integration.  This later became known as the Boyer Model.

The Boyer Model at GCU

GCU embraces the Boyer Model of scholarship. In doing so, we embrace a broader definition of scholarship to include: discovery, application (engagement), integration, and teaching. We align these emphases with our institutional mission.

Scholarship of Teaching, which centers on activities designed to improve the teaching and advising of students, the development and publication of materials to use in teaching, and the theoretical and practical works that extend the range of knowledge about the pedagogical process.

Scholarship of Discovery, which encompasses those scholarly activities that extend the stock of human knowledge through the research or collection of new information.

Scholarship of Integration, which involves interdisciplinary or interpretive activities or writing, and research across disciplines into a larger context.

Scholarship of Application, which includes scholarly activities, which attempt to apply one’s content expertise and knowledge to the betterment and service of the academy and society

GCU adds:

Scholarship of Performance, which relates to works of the lively arts (music, visual and plastic arts, speech and theater) created or performance by faculty members as part of the pursuit of their disciplines.