Boyer’s Model of Scholarship

boyer-300x173Introduced in 1990 by Ernest Boyer, the Boyer model of scholarship is an academic model advocating expansion of the traditional definition of scholarship and research into four types of scholarship.

According to Boyer, traditional research, or the scholarship of discovery, had been the center of academic life. His vision was to change the research mission of universities by introducing the idea that scholarship needed to be flexible and  broadened to include  new social and environmental challenges beyond campuses and the realities of contemporary life.

Boyer proposed a redefinition of  scholarship to include these four different categories:

  • The scholarship of discovery that includes original research that advances knowledge;
  • The scholarship of integration that involves synthesis of information across disciplines, across topics within a discipline, or across time;
  • The scholarship of application (also later called the scholarship of engagement) that goes beyond the service duties of a faculty member to those within or outside the University and involves the rigor and application of disciplinary expertise with results that can be shared with and/or evaluated by peers; and
  • The scholarship of teaching and learning that the systematic study of teaching and learning processes. It differs from scholarly teaching in that it requires a format that will allow public sharing and the opportunity for application and evaluation by others.

Since its introduction, Boyer’s model has been embraced across higher education with occasional refinement such as technology enhanced learning. Stetson University embraces the Boyer model of scholarship.