The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

SoTLThe Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

What is it?

"ongoing learning about teaching and the demonstration of such knowledge."

Kreber and Cranton in The Journal of Higher Education 71(4)

"The scholarship of teaching is not merely teaching our scholarship. Nor is it simply

teaching we# .... The scholarship of teaching means that we invest in our teaching the inte#ectual powers we

practice in our research."Bender and Gray in The Scholarship of Teaching

"problem posing about an issue of teaching or learning, study of the problem through methods appropriate to the disciplinary epistemologies, applications of results to practice, communication of results, self-

reflection, and peer review."Cambridge in To Improve The Academy

"engagement with the existing knowledge on teaching and learning, self-reflection

on teaching and learning in one’s discipline, and public sharing of ideas

about teaching and learning within the discipline."

Martin et al in Improving Student Learning

"The scholarship part of the process involves composing selected portions of

the investigation and findings [or integration or reflection] into a

manuscript to be submitted to an appropriate journal or conference venue."

Richlin in Scholarship Revisited

"systematic reflection on teaching and learning made public."

Illinois State University

taking a scholarly approach to teaching

Building On the Past(Pat Hutchings of the Carnegie Foundation)

• Classroom and program assessment

• K-12 action research• The reflective practice

movement• Peer review of teaching • Traditional educational

research• Faculty development

efforts to enhance teaching and learning http://www.flickr.com/photos/14058855@N00/3052908465

So what counts?

Taxonomy of Student Learning from Opening Lines

• "What works?"These are questions that seek "evidence about the relative effectiveness of different [teaching] approaches."

• "What is?" These are questions that seek to describe, but not evaluate the effectiveness of, different teaching approaches. These are also questions that seek to describe how students learn.

• "Visions of the possible"These are questions related to goals for teaching and learning that have yet to be met or are new to the faculty member asking the questions.

• "Theory building" questionsThese are questions designed to build theoretical frameworks for SoTL similar to frameworks used in other disciplines.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/40021607@N00/185508448

Standards of SoTL (from Scholarship Assessed)

• Clear goals

• Adequate preparation

• Appropriate methods

• Significant results

• Effective presentation

• Reflective critique http://blog.bioethics.net/InvitationChecklist.jpg

From the Journal of the SoTL

• Data-driven studies

• Reflective essays

• Reviews

• Case Studies

• Comments and Communications

Teaching as Researchfrom the DELTA Program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison

• Informed by the work of others

• Includes an explicit question or hypothesis about teaching-learning relationships

• Shaped by an explicit design or plan for addressing the question at hand

• Collecting credible data as evidence

• Analyzing evidence and drawing conclusions

• Reflecting and taking action

• Cyclical and ongoing

• Results are documented and disseminated

• The practitioner is principally responsible for the inquiry plan and process

What do I do with it?

Journalshttp://www.flickr.com/photos/63969483@N00/844363451

Conferences

Have you read or used the SoTL in your own

instructional design?

Have you published or presented in the SoTL?

What could you do?