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:
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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).
