SoTL: Scholarship of Teaching and

LearningGetting Started and Formulating the Research

QuestionDr. Staci Trekles, atrekles@pnw.edu

What is SoTL?• The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) is a means to

figure out why certain teaching strategies work or don’t work, and how students learn in your class/program

• SoTL can help you (and your students) reflect, refine, and innovate your teaching in a systematic, reflective way

• Often multidisciplinary and can include classes and colleagues from across departments

• Engaging in SoTL is a scholarly activity that results in publishable articles or presentations

SoTL Basics

• Reflective process, similar to research in any disciplinary field

• Goals typically relate to improving student learning and experiences

• Five primary steps (Bishop-Clark & Dietz-Uhler, 2012):1. Generate the research question and do literature review2. Design the study3. Collect data4. Analyze data5. Present and publish

Conducting SOTL• Work from your question and identify the types of evidence that you

will have to work with in the time that you have, such as:• Student work samples and assessments• Student evaluations• The structure/design of your course

• Do a literature review and see what’s out there on the topic already• The more types of evidence, the better! “Triangulating” the data is a

good idea• Analyze the data in terms of similarities and differences in what you

see, and how it corresponds to the question

What SOTL Isn’t

• Not typically a randomized experimental study• Not always controlled• May not have large sample sizes, pretests, or post-tests• Results are not (necessarily) generalizable• Definitely not limited to certain disciplines or certain forms

of evidence in order to show your results• Definitely NOT inferior to other forms of research

Start with a “Problem”

• What major themes are you facing in your course/teaching/program?

• What are your biggest challenges in your courses? How have you attempted to solve them?

• What has gone well or not-so-well that you’d like to understand better for the future?

• Are there new developments in your discipline that students need to be better prepared for?

Getting More Specific About Your Problem

• Consider your students or groups of students - what are they like? Can they help you in the research?

• Will there be comparison groups?• What types of data will you have available?• How will you analyze the data?• What kind of time do you have to engage in this project?

Formulating the Research Question

• The more specific you can get, the better

• Keywords for finding literature should be available in the research questions

• Is there still some room for new scholarship in this area? Or will your research be the same as previous work?

Genres of SoTL Questions

• What worked – reports from classes on what went well; before-and-after evaluations

• What is – reflections on a period of time in teaching; includes summaries of experimentation, integration of learning theory and frameworks

• What it looks like – descriptions and comparisons of courses in a larger context; across disciplines or within a program

• What is possible – formulating new theories and conceptual frameworks based on practice

(Hutchings, 2000; Nelson, 2003)

Examples

• Is the current attendance policy resulting in higher levels of achievement on course objectives?

• Does the use of clickers (or Think-Pair-Share, or some other strategy) improve performance on exams regarding quadratic equations?

• How can deeper critical thinking be achieved through the use of feedback on essays?

• Will students increase their confidence in public speaking after watching and critiquing videos of themselves giving speeches?

• How does the incorporation of reflective essay assignments in beginning biology influence student learning in upper-level biology coursework?

Your Turn!

• Let’s generate some questions based on the things that interest you about your teaching

• Are there any potential collaborations in the room?

Publishing• Consider conferences with practitioner focus in your field, or in the

education or social science disciplines (i.e., EDUCAUSE, SITE, AACE, Quality Matters, MERLOT, Teaching Professor, Lilly International Conferences)

• Conferences and journals with a education focus in your discipline (i.e., Computer Science Education, Teaching of Psychology, Nurse Education Today, Journal of Research in Mathematics Education)

• Many publications specialize in SOTL research: • http://www.issotl.com/issotl15/node/21 • http://www.fctl.ucf.edu/ResearchAndScholarship/SoTL/journals/

More Resources• Vanderbilt SOTL “getting started” guide: https://

my.vanderbilt.edu/sotl/doing-sotl/getting-started/ • Guidebook to SOTL – thinking of a problem and the questions:

https://my.vanderbilt.edu/sotl/files/2013/09/1SoTLProblem4.pdf • Annual SoTL Conferences:

http://www.washington.edu/teaching/sotl-annual-conferences/ • Faculty Center for Teaching and Learning at Univ. of Central Florida:

http://www.fctl.ucf.edu/ResearchAndScholarship/SoTL/ • Center for Engaged Learning at Elon University videos: https://

www.youtube.com/channel/UCNIm8Apo1feU73SPyxEXXgg

References• Bishop-Clark, C, & Dietz-Uhler, B (2012). Engaging in the

scholarship of teaching and learning. Sterling, VA: Stylus. • Boyer, E.L. (1990). Scholarship reconsidered: Priorities of the

professorate. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.• Hutchings, P. (2000). Opening lines: Approaches to the scholarship

of teaching and learning. Menlo Park, CA: Carnegie.• Nelson, C. (2003). Doing it: Examples of several of the different

genres of the scholarship of teaching and learning. Journal of Excellence in College Teaching, 14(2), 85-94.