Scholarship of Teaching & Learning (SoTL)
What do we mean by the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL)? SoTL research critically examines teaching and learning in order to determine best practices for both. In the same way as we might for our disciplinary research, SoTL research requires us to ask good questions, examine the relevant literature, collect data, analyze that data, and then publicize the results for the benefit of other scholars.
When you make a change to the way you are teaching a class, for example, and want to find out if the change you made is impacting student learning, you are engaging in informal SoTL research. Taking the next steps could turn your classroom experiment into research other instructors could use to improve their own courses.
If you are interested in formally pursuing SoTL research but are not sure how to get started, please come and talk to CETL! We can help you frame your question, find the right literature to consult, and determine the best research design for your project. Or you can try this excellent resource developed by I.M. Jorrin-Abellán and Hilary Steiner to guide you along your SoTL path.
After that, we can also help you scout out possible places for publication, either in a generalist SoTL journal or in one that is more specific to your discipline. A carefully curated list of discipline-specific SoTL journals was developed by Kennesaw State University and can be found here. Check it out—even if you never plan to submit to one of these journals, they are full of great ideas to inspire your teaching!
What Counts as SoTL?
Pat Hutchings (2000) famously categorized SoTL research as follows:
What works? Research of this type collects and examines evidence about the effectiveness of different teaching strategies and interventions. Do changes to our teaching, assignments, or other classroom interventions have any impact? (For example: “Does requiring that students attend peer review session in a math class result in better outcomes on mid-term assessments?”)
What is? Research of this type is more descriptive in nature, describing the classroom practice without evaluting effectiveness. What is happening in the classroom? What are our students doing/thinking? (For example: “When students encounter difficult reading in my political theory course, how are they approaching it? How can I find out?”)