Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL)

Integrating your teaching and learning experiences with scholarship and research is at the heart of Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL), which is “evidenced through ongoing and cumulative intellectual inquiry, through systematic observations and ongoing investigations, by faculty into the nature of learning and the impact of teaching upon it” (Hutchings & Shulman, 1999).

The Stearns Center for Teaching and Learning is active in producing and promoting SoTL work. If you would like to discuss a SoTL project you are working on, please do not hesitate to contact us. Be sure to share your SoTL work at the annual Innovations in Teaching & Learning conference. Also, consider joining the SoTL Faculty Learning Community--see their webpage for meeting information and additional resources.

Below are several resources that will be helpful to faculty members wishing to know more about SoTL.

General SoTL Resources

Teaching in the Disciplines – George Mason University Stearns Center for Teaching and Learning
We have collected a number of online teaching resources and websites for professional associations, which we have listed by field. We have tried to include a variety of discipline-specific pedagogical tools, including journals and publications where possible.

The Carnegie Academy for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (CASTL)
A “major initiative of the Carnegie Foundation,” the CASTL program seeks to “support the development of a scholarship of teaching and learning that: fosters significant, long-lasting learning for all students; enhances the practice and profession of teaching; and brings to faculty members’ work as teachers the recognition and reward afforded to other forms of scholarly work” (CASTL website).

The International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching & Learning (ISSOTL)
ISSOTL is a resource network for faculty, administrators, staff, and students who embrace teaching and learning as an intellectual enterprise. ISSOTL’s goal is to “foster inquiry and disseminate findings” about the improvement of teaching and learning in higher education (ISSOTL website).

The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning – Vanderbilt Center for Teaching
Derek Bruff, the Director at the Vanderbilt Center for Teaching, has authored a wonderful web resource for faculty interested in SoTL. In addition to providing definitions and examples of SoTL, the site offers resources pertaining to methodologies, dissemination strategies, and a variety of national and campus initiatives.

Promoting the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning – Michigan State University Office of Faculty & Organizational Development
Michigan State’s Office of Faculty and Organizational Development has collected a wealth of informational and bibliographical resources designed to assist those who are beginning to work with SoTL for the first time.

Teaching Strategies: The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning – University of Michigan Center for Research on Learning and Teaching
The CRTL is the oldest center for teaching and learning in the United States and has catalogued a number of important and insightful SoTL pages.

SoTL Project Design Resources

Looking for a more structured, “how to design a SoTL project” experience? Audit (or take for credit) HE704 at Mason (offered every Spring, usually in the evening, starting at 4:30pm).

**FREE with Faculty Tuition Waiver**

This course explores the study and advancement of teaching and learning in post-secondary education. The class will investigate the current literature on the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) as well as the diverse theories, varied methodologies, conceptual frameworks, and practical application of research into teaching and learning in higher education. The course will examine the practice of SoTL within various disciplines and as an interdisciplinary, institutional, and cross-insitutuaional endeavor. Students will learn about the history of SoTL, diversity in the classroom, current issues and debates, and changes in teaching and learning in light of emerging technologies. Students will gain hands-on practice designing SoTL research projects.

Measuring Teaching Practices Guide from AAAS-provides some key considerations and tips for collecting evidence about teaching practices.

Teaching Blogs

Tomorrow’s Professor Blog
A partnership between the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford University to create a forum for comments and discussion about articles from the Tomorrow’s Professor Mailing List and about general issues concerning higher education.

Teaching Professor Blog
The Teaching Professor Blog features weekly posts from Dr. Maryellen Weimer, professor emeritus at Penn State Berks and one of the nation’s most highly regarded authorities on effective college teaching, regarding topics as: the scholarship of teaching and learning, classroom policies, active learning, assessment, generational differences, and student performance.

The Wired Campus Blog
From the Chronicle of Higher Education

ProfHacker
Delivers tips, tutorials, and commentary on pedagogy, productivity, and technology in higher education.

NspirD2, Kaneb Center, University of Notre Dame
Explore new ways to integrate technology into teaching & learning.

Vanderbilt Center for Teaching Blog

SoTL Journals

The Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (JoSoTL)
JoSoTL is a peer reviewed journal for the “dissemination of the SoTL in higher education for the community of teacher-scholars. JoSoTL’s objective is to publish articles that promote effective practices in teaching and learning and add to the knowledge base” through promoting “SoTL investigations that are theory-based and supported by evidence” (JoSoTL website).

Other:
Journals that Publish the Scholarship of Teaching & Learning and Address General Issues in Higher Education – Kennesaw State University’s Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning
A current and comprehensive list of the vast number of journals in the field. They have divided their list into four subcategories: discipline-specific journals on teaching, general or interdisciplinary journals on teaching, journals addressing general issues in higher education, and teaching with technology journals.

SoTL Showcase

Conferences

Innovations in Teaching & Learning Held at Mason every September. See the conference proceedings.

Lilly Conferences are held several times throughout the year in different locations.