Volume 20: Scholarly Teaching and Learning

InSight: A Journal of Scholarly Teaching is a scholarly publication designed to highlight the work of postsecondary faculty and graduate students at colleges and universities worldwide. It is a refereed scholarly journal published annually by the Faculty Center for Innovation (FCI) at Park University that features theoretical and empirically-based research articles, critical reflection pieces, case studies, and classroom innovations relevant to teaching, learning, and assessment. Articles will be featured in one of three categories:

1. InSight articles focus broadly on Scholarly Teaching. Faculty are encouraged to submit original manuscripts that showcase scholarly teaching processes or critically discuss the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) as a scholarship paradigm. While reports of scholarly teaching projects are welcome, InSight is also committed to continuing broader conversations about SoTL’s value as a tool for advancing student learning and demonstrating faculty commitment to teaching.
2. InStruct articles focus on practical teaching strategies accompanied by essays associating the instructional material to the SoTL. The purpose of InStruct is to showcase the innovation of all higher education faculty and to provide a repository of research-based teaching and learning materials that could be used or adapted by instructors from a wide array of disciplines. The goal is to provide a space to celebrate and share pedagogical content that demonstrates the practical application of SoTL principles.
3. InSpire articles focus on teaching and learning from the graduate students’ perspective. Graduate students (and their faculty) are encouraged to submit their own research they conducted or an innovative course assignment or activity the graduate student taught. The goal is for graduate students to continue the scholarly conversation by providing evidence-based practices and reflecting upon their scholarly contributions.

For InSight Articles

Faculty are encouraged to submit manuscripts related to:

• Challenges/Responses to the SoTL paradigm
• Developing institution or discipline-specific understandings/definitions of SoTL
• Status reports of SoTL’s role in a particular discipline (and what other disciplines might learn from the report)
• Guidance to faculty new to SoTL (on developing inquiry questions, determining methodologies, making SoTL work public, etc.)
• Examples of SoTL projects at the college/university course or discipline-level
• Intersections of SoTL and service-learning, eLearning, learning communities, and other learning initiatives
• Future directions in SoTL
• Cross-disciplinary and cross-institutional collaborations for promoting SoTL

For InStruct Articles

Pedagogical materials might include but are not limited to innovative assignments, lessons, classroom activities, course designs, or service-learning projects. Submissions should include the relevant teaching artifacts such as prompts, lesson plans, any audiovisual materials, etc.

Teaching and learning content needs to be accompanied by or embedded in an essay that situates the instructional materials in the scholarship on teaching and learning (i.e., include a literature review that grounds the practical teaching strategy). Given InSight’s interdisciplinary audience, teaching material should be useful or easily adaptable to other disciplines.

Any inclusion of student artifacts or examples will require proof of IRB approval or exemption by your institution (and we strongly encourage getting student consent to publish student work).

For InSpire Articles

Graduate students are encouraged to submit research they conducted or an assignment/activity they taught that was meaningful to them. In addition to an abstract, introduction, literature review, and conclusion (and methods, results, and findings for those whom conducted research), graduate students should reflect upon:

• Their thoughts about the research conducted or assignment/activity that was taught (e.g., likes, dislikes, how they overcame unexpected challenges, what they would do differently if repeated);
• What they learned from conducting this research or by teaching the assignment/activity (i.e., How can they use this newfound knowledge/skill/resource in their academic and professional careers or personally?);
• Evidence-based recommendations for instructors interested in replicating or modifying this research or assignment/activity (i.e., What would they modify in their research or assignment/activity – instructions, available resources, rubric, medium choice? Why?).

Note. As manuscripts are accepted under the assumption that they neither have been nor will be published elsewhere, theses and dissertations will not be accepted for publication within InSpire.

Submission Requirements

• IRB – Any studies using human subjects or artifacts as examples should submit Internal Review Board (IRB) approval or exemption.
• DISCLOSURE – Using any form of artificial intelligence during the manuscript writing or preparation process must be disclosed (e.g., producing ideas, modifying text, generating figures, or analyzing data).
• STYLE – All manuscripts must be formatted in APA style.
• LENGTH – Manuscripts may range from 2,000 – 5,000 words (not including abstract, references or appendices). Authors are encouraged to include appendices that promote application and integration of materials (i.e., assignments, rubrics, examples, etc.).
• ABSTRACT – Each manuscript must be summarized in an abstract of 50 – 100 words.
• AUTHOR – Each author should provide their full name, title and departmental affiliation, campus address, telephone number, and email address. Each author must also include a brief biography (no more than 100 words per author). Include contact information only on a separate cover sheet.
• FORMAT – All manuscripts must be submitted in Word or Rich Text Format and follow the journal’s formatting guidelines (single spaced, justified alignment, 9pt. font, Helvetica Neue for headings, and Palatino Linotype for the body). Do not include personal identifiers within the manuscript. Each manuscript will be assigned a unique identifier for blind review processes. For teaching artifacts, examples, or activities, please stick with non-proprietary or easily accessible formats (e.g., mp3/mp4 for audio/video, jpeg, gif, or png for images, PDFs/Word documents). For submission of web or other kinds of digital content, contact the editors to discuss the best form of submission.

Submission Process 

Manuscripts will be submitted via InSight’s updated submission/editorial platform, Scholastica. Click on the “Submit via Scholastica” button, or submit via the Scholastica website at https://submissions.scholasticahq.com

When submitting your manuscript, please place the category (i.e., “InSight,” “InStruct,” or “InSpire”) as your first key word to let us know the submission type.

Submission Deadline

Submissions for all categories (InSight, InStruct, and InSpire) are accepted on a rolling basis. Accepted pieces will be published online as soon as they are prepared for final publication. Articles accepted on or prior to April 30, 2025 will be included in Volume 20 of InSight for the 2024-2025 academic year.

Review Procedures

Submissions will be subject to a double-blind peer review. A manuscript is evaluated based on relevance, practical utility, originality, generalizability, clarity, significance and the extent to which the subject matter contributes to the ongoing development of the scholarship of teaching and learning. Review process and publication decisions will require approximately 12 weeks. Referees’ feedback and editorial comments will be provided to the author when revisions are requested. FCI retains the final authority to accept or reject all submitted manuscripts.

Copyright

Manuscript submissions are accepted with the assumption that they neither have been nor will be published elsewhere. Authors retain the copyright in the article and have explicit rights to use the article in future research, teaching, and other projects.

Contact

All inquiries should be directed to: innovate@park.edu