The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL)

Writ­ten by: Rose­mary Vogt, Teach­ing and Learn­ing Spe­cial­ist

The Schol­ar­ship of Teach­ing and Learn­ing (SoTL) is like peek­ing behind the cur­tain to see what makes teach­ing effec­tive. Learn more via Teach Any­where resource under Qual­i­ty Learn­ing.

It is a fan­cy way of say­ing that teach­ers are also researchers. Just like sci­en­tists con­duct research to under­stand and devel­op strate­gies for con­trol­ling dis­eases, SoTL researchers study how to teach bet­ter. They ask ques­tions like:

• What teach­ing meth­ods work best?
• How can we make learn­ing more engag­ing?

SoTL is not just about teach­ing; it is about improv­ing teach­ing by gath­er­ing evi­dence, try­ing new ideas, and shar­ing what works.

The Schol­ar­ship of Teach­ing and Learn­ing is impor­tant to fac­ul­ty and North Island Col­lege for sev­er­al rea­sons:

1. Enhanced Teach­ing Effec­tive­ness: SoTL involves the sys­tem­at­ic study of teach­ing prac­tices and their impact on stu­dent learn­ing. By engag­ing in SoTL, edu­ca­tors can gain insights into effec­tive teach­ing meth­ods, ped­a­gog­i­cal strate­gies, and learn­ing out­comes, which ulti­mate­ly leads to improved teach­ing effec­tive­ness.
2. Evi­dence-Based Prac­tices: SoTL encour­ages the use of evi­dence-based prac­tices in teach­ing. Through research and inquiry, edu­ca­tors can iden­ti­fy teach­ing strate­gies that have been shown to be effec­tive in pro­mot­ing stu­dent learn­ing. This evi­dence-based approach helps insti­tu­tions make informed deci­sions about cur­ricu­lum devel­op­ment, instruc­tion­al design, and fac­ul­ty devel­op­ment pro­grams.
3. Fac­ul­ty Devel­op­ment: SoTL pro­vides oppor­tu­ni­ties for fac­ul­ty mem­bers to engage in schol­ar­ly inquiry relat­ed to teach­ing and learn­ing. This pro­motes pro­fes­sion­al devel­op­ment and fos­ters a cul­ture of con­tin­u­ous improve­ment among fac­ul­ty mem­bers. Through SoTL, edu­ca­tors can col­lab­o­rate with col­leagues, share best prac­tices, and stay abreast of devel­op­ments in teach­ing and learn­ing research.
4. Pro­mo­tion of a Cul­ture of Excel­lence: Col­leges strive to main­tain high stan­dards of teach­ing and learn­ing excel­lence. SoTL con­tributes to this goal by encour­ag­ing fac­ul­ty mem­bers to crit­i­cal­ly exam­ine their teach­ing prac­tices, assess stu­dent learn­ing out­comes, and pur­sue inno­va­tion in ped­a­gogy. By pro­mot­ing a cul­ture of excel­lence in teach­ing, SoTL helps insti­tu­tions ful­fil their mis­sion of pro­vid­ing high qual­i­ty edu­ca­tion to stu­dents.
5. Account­abil­i­ty and Accred­i­ta­tion: In an era of increased account­abil­i­ty in high­er edu­ca­tion, SoTL pro­vides evi­dence of insti­tu­tion­al effec­tive­ness in teach­ing and learn­ing. Insti­tu­tions can use SoTL research find­ings to demon­strate their com­mit­ment to con­tin­u­ous improve­ment and stu­dent suc­cess, which is impor­tant for accred­i­ta­tion pur­pos­es and insti­tu­tion­al rank­ings.

The Schol­ar­ship of Teach­ing and Learn­ing dri­ves teach­ing and learn­ing through evi­dence-based prac­tices, fac­ul­ty devel­op­ment, a cul­ture of excel­lence and insti­tu­tion­al effec­tive­ness. By ground­ing teach­ing method­ol­o­gy in the research lit­er­a­ture, SoTL fos­ters inno­va­tion and con­tin­u­ous improve­ment, while also serv­ing as a cat­a­lyst for fac­ul­ty empow­er­ment and pro­fes­sion­al growth.

What’s the dif­fer­ence between schol­ar­ly teach­ing and the Schol­ar­ship of Teach­ing and Learn­ing (SoTL)?

Schol­ar­ly teach­ing is about using, or con­sum­ing and apply­ing schol­ar­ship to the deci­sions you make as a teacher. Those who are engaged in the Schol­ar­ship of Teach­ing and Learn­ing are not so much the con­sumers but the pro­duc­ers of that schol­ar­ship. There are a num­ber of ways you can pro­duce, but pro­duc­ing schol­ar­ship is dis­tinct from using schol­ar­ship.

To pro­duce SoTL research, schol­ars typ­i­cal­ly start by iden­ti­fy­ing a teach­ing or learn­ing issue of inter­est, gath­er­ing rel­e­vant data through meth­ods such as sur­veys, inter­views, or class­room obser­va­tions, ana­lyz­ing the data using appro­pri­ate qual­i­ta­tive or quan­ti­ta­tive tech­niques and final­ly, dis­sem­i­nat­ing the find­ings through schol­ar­ly pub­li­ca­tions or pre­sen­ta­tions to con­tribute to the broad­er under­stand­ing of effec­tive teach­ing and learn­ing strate­gies.

Here is a short video (7:48) pre­sent­ed by the Inter­na­tion­al Soci­ety for the Schol­ar­ship of Teach­ing and Learn­ing (ISSOTL) & The Cen­ter for Engaged Learn­ing at Elon Uni­ver­si­ty. In the video Schol­ar­ship of Teach­ing and Learn­ing (SoTL) Schol­ars Dan Bern­stein, Mary Tay­lor Huber, Pat Hutch­ings, and Gary Poole com­pare Schol­ar­ly Teach­ing and the Schol­ar­ship of Teach­ing and Learn­ing.

If you have any ques­tions or ideas you would like to dis­cuss come see Rose­mary Vogt in the Cen­tre for Teach­ing and Learn­ing Inno­va­tion (CTLI).