Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

=The SoTL movement=

The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL; pronounced "so'.tl" or "S O T and L") is a growing movement in post-secondary education. SoTL is scholarly inquiry into student learning which advances the practice of teaching by sharing this research publicly.

SoTL necessarily builds on many past traditions in higher education, including classroom and program assessment, K-12 action research, the reflective practice movement, peer review of teaching, traditional educational research, and faculty development efforts to enhance teaching and learning. Terms closely related to the scholarship of teaching and learning are good teaching, that which promotes student learning and desired outcomes and is recognized by student satisfaction, peer review, etc., and scholarly teaching, for which teaching is regarded as a 'second' profession and the teaching and learning knowledge base is regarded as a 'second' discipline in which to develop expertise.

Research methods in SoTL include reflection and analysis, interviews and focus groups, questionnaires and surveys, content analysis of text, secondary analysis of existing data, quasi-experiments (comparison of two sections of the same course), observational research, case studies, among others. Evidence depends not only upon the research method chosen but the relevant disciplinary standards. Dissemination for impact among scholarly teachers may be local within the academic department, college or university, or may be in published, peer-reviewed form. Although few journals exclusively publish SoTL research, there are numerous disciplinary publications that publish such research (e.g., "J. Chem. Educ.", "J. Natural Resour. Life Sci. Educ.", "Research in the Teaching of English", "College English"), as well as a number of [http://www.ilstu.edu/~sknaylor/sotl.htm core SoTL journals and newsletters] .

The International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching & Learning (ISSOTL) was founded in 2004 by a committee of 67 scholars from several countries and serves faculty members, staff, and students who care about teaching and learning as serious intellectual work. ISSOTL has held annual conferences since 2004, attended by scholars from about a dozen nations. The conferences sites include Bloomington, Indiana USA (2004); Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada (2005); Washington, DC, USA(2006); Sydney, Australia (2007); Edmonton, Alberta, Canada (2008); Bloomington, Indiana, USA (2009); Liverpool, UK (2010).

External links

* [http://www.issotl.org/ The International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching & Learning (ISSOTL)]
* [http://academics.georgiasouthern.edu/ijsotl/conference/2009/index.htm SoTL Commons Conference: A Conference for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning]
* [http://Kwantlen.ca/TD.html "Transformative Dialogues:Teaching and Learning Journal"]
* [http://academics.georgiasouthern.edu/ijsotl/index.htm International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching & Learning ]
* [http://scope.lidc.sfu.ca/ "The Role of Online Communities in Developing SOTL"]
* [http://www.sotl.ilstu.edu Illinois State Univ SoTL website]
* [http://www.carnegiefoundation.org/CASTL/highered/index.htm Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching]
* [http://www.carnegiefoundation.org/KML Carnegie Foundation's Knowledge Media Laboratory]
* [http://www.indiana.edu/~sotl/ Indiana Univ SoTL website]
* [http://crossroads.georgetown.edu/vkp Visible Knowledge Project and Index]
* [http://sotl.uwm.edu Univ of Wisconsin System SoTL website]

Readings

* Bass, R. 1999. "The scholarship of teaching: What is the problem?" "Creative Thinking about Learning and Teaching" 1(1). [http://www.doiiit.gmu.edu/Archives/feb98/rbass.htm online]
* Huber, M.T., and P. Hutchings. 2005. "Surveying the scholarship of teaching and learning", Chap. 1, "The Advancement of Learning: Building the Teaching Commons", (ISBN 0-7879-8115-X)
* Hutchings, P. 2000. "Approaching the scholarship of teaching and learning" (Introduction to "Opening Lines: Approaches to the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning"; ISBN 0-931050-68-5) [http://www.carnegiefoundation.org/dynamic/publications/approaching.pdf online]
* Kreber, C. 2002. "Teaching excellence, teaching expertise, and the scholarship of teaching" "Innovative Higher Educ." 27:5-23.
* McKinney, K. 2004. "The scholarship of teaching and learning: Past lessons, current challenges, and future visions." "To Improve the Academy" 22:3-19.
* Shulman, L.S. 1999. "Taking learning seriously" "Change" July/August 1999:11-17.