My departure from traditional methods of teaching and assessment (i.e., lecture and close-ended exams) was prompted years ago by a “gut feeling” that has morphed into an explicit examination of my teaching practice and students’ reactions to it. The scholarly approach and empirical evidence in “Teachers and Learning” (Hutchings, Huber & Ciccone, 2011, Chapter 2) provided me with the scientific and social support I needed to publically challenge existing norms regarding teaching practices, reevaluate my data collection efforts, and advocate for change based on best practices, not on tradition, both inside my classroom and beyond.
Tag: scholarship of teaching and learning
The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning: Help for Academic Tour Guides
The presence of scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL), or its absence, has greatly impacted my undergraduate studies. While professors are experts in their subject matter, they do not always know how to reach students. SoTL provides resources to address such disconnects. Just-in-time teaching (JiTT) is one example of a SoTL-informed teaching assignment that can help students learn more effectively. Because SoTL helps professors understand how students learn, it can encourage excellence in the classroom.
Why Bother with the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning?
This paper argues that the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) matters on at least six interrelated levels. First, SoTL matters because learning matters, and SoTL can help students learn more effectively. Second, it offers professors the tools to more effectively share their disciplinary passions. Third, it offers faculty an avenue for continued intellectual growth. Fourth, SoTL can build strong cross-disciplinary communities that enliven the intellectual climate. Fifth, it can inform institutional policymaking. Finally, SoTL matters even when it does not directly transform institutional policy, because SoTL embodies a spirit of pedagogical innovation that enlivens the quest for learning and reminds us why it is worth pursuing.
Diverse Perspectives, Shared Goals
Leading the Charge for SoTL – Embracing Collaboration
The scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) enables colleges and universities to assess student learning and measure the outcomes by engaging in meaningful research, and to disseminate this research. The objective of this paper is to give a snapshot of and assess the current thinking behind this scholarship by presenting examples of SoTL, and to provide insights into the measurement of SoTL research by faculty members. By presenting a carefully crafted research agenda in SoTL, colleges and universities can disseminate this research as a means of providing useful assessments of student learning and measurements of relevant outcomes.
Coming Home to School: Challenges and Strategies for Effective Teaching with Military Veterans
This article is an analysis of the unique needs of returning service members at the college or university level that impact the teaching decisions made by instructors. The article also discusses the challenges that service members are individually addressing while acclimating themselves to their new environment of learning. With the reduction in forces occurring after the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, many higher level learning institutions are struggling to adequately meet the needs of returning veterans. In turn, veterans often find that the style of instruction and the general college-level universe are difficult to negotiate. The combination of these factors can often result in veteran students performing below expectation or leaving school without finishing. The article proposes a variety of ways to understand and address these challenges including the use of Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) strategies and characteristics.
Why College Faculty Need to Know the Research about Learning
An Assessment of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Public Administration from 2009-2013
The acceptance of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) as a legitimate form of scholarly investigation and the shape that it takes in post-secondary education are inherently discipline-specific. This paper examines how the character and heritage of public administration influence the acceptance of SoTL, and the form that it takes. It argues that the applied nature of public administration and its interdisciplinary character have influenced SoTL in the discipline. This study concludes systematic self-reflection by disciplines may be needed to identify potential factors that limit the acceptance and/or direction of SoTL in a discipline.