Anyone Here Familiar with the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) Field?
It’s a familiar scene in higher education and beyond: passionate instructors pouring energy into their teaching, trying new approaches, seeing mixed results, and wondering, “Is this really working? Could I be doing it better?” Often, the answers feel anecdotal or elusive. But what if there was a systematic way to not just teach, but to study teaching and learning itself? Enter the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, or SoTL (often pronounced “sottle”).
If you’ve encountered the term but aren’t quite sure what it entails, or if it sounds vaguely academic and detached from the daily realities of the classroom, you’re not alone. Let’s unpack what SoTL really is, why it matters deeply to anyone invested in education, and how it can transform both teaching practice and student outcomes.
Beyond Anecdotes: Defining the SoTL Core
At its heart, SoTL is about taking a scholarly approach to the work of teaching and learning. It moves beyond simply reflecting on what “seemed” to work or relying solely on intuition. Instead, SoTL asks educators to:
1. Formulate Questions: Identify specific, meaningful questions about student learning or teaching effectiveness. (e.g., “How does implementing structured peer review impact the quality of student writing in introductory courses?” or “Does incorporating brief reflective pauses during lectures improve concept retention for first-year students?”)
2. Gather Evidence: Systematically collect data relevant to the question. This isn’t just about final grades! It could involve analyzing student work, surveys, interviews, focus groups, classroom observations, learning analytics, pre/post-tests, or even instructor journals.
3. Analyze and Interpret: Apply appropriate disciplinary or interdisciplinary methods to analyze the evidence collected. What patterns emerge? What do the data actually reveal about the learning process or the impact of a specific teaching strategy?
4. Share Findings: Disseminate the results, interpretations, and implications through presentations, publications, departmental discussions, or other venues accessible to peers. This is crucial – SoTL knowledge is meant to be public and contribute to a collective understanding.
5. Reflect and Iterate: Use the findings to refine teaching practices, inform curriculum design, and often, generate new questions for further investigation.
Think of it as applying the principles of research – curiosity, systematic inquiry, evidence-based conclusions – directly to your own teaching practice and your students’ learning experiences. It’s scholarship about the core activities of academia: teaching and learning.
Why SoTL? The Powerful Rationale
SoTL isn’t just an academic exercise. It serves several critical purposes:
1. Improving Student Learning: This is the ultimate goal. By rigorously examining how learning happens (or doesn’t) in specific contexts, educators can make informed decisions about pedagogy, assignments, assessments, and course design, leading to more effective and impactful learning experiences.
2. Bridging the Theory-Practice Gap: SoTL encourages educators to ground their teaching decisions in evidence gathered from their own contexts. It connects educational theory with the messy, complex realities of actual classrooms, making theory more actionable.
3. Valuing Teaching as Intellectual Work: Traditionally, research (especially discipline-specific discovery research) has often held higher prestige than teaching. SoTL elevates teaching to the level of scholarly inquiry, recognizing the intellectual rigor, creativity, and expertise required for effective pedagogy. It validates teaching as a core professional activity worthy of serious investigation and recognition.
4. Building a Shared Knowledge Base: By sharing their findings, SoTL practitioners contribute to a growing body of knowledge about effective teaching and learning strategies across different disciplines, student populations, and institutional settings. This collective wisdom benefits the entire educational community.
5. Professional Development and Reflection: Engaging in SoTL is profoundly developmental for the educator. It fosters deep reflection, encourages experimentation with new methods, develops research skills applicable to teaching, and ultimately leads to greater confidence and satisfaction in the teaching role.
SoTL in Action: What Does it Look Like?
The scope of SoTL is vast, reflecting the diversity of teaching contexts. Here are a few concrete examples:
The Physics Professor: Wonders if replacing traditional problem-solving homework with collaborative, inquiry-based lab activities improves conceptual understanding and reduces common misconceptions. She designs pre/post-concept tests, analyzes student lab reports, and conducts short interviews.
The Nursing Instructor: Questions whether a new simulation-based module effectively prepares students for critical clinical decision-making compared to traditional case studies. He collects data on student performance in simulations, gathers student feedback through surveys and debriefs, and tracks clinical evaluation scores.
The Literature Lecturer: Wants to know if incorporating digital annotation tools for close reading leads to deeper textual analysis and more engaged class discussions compared to traditional margin notes. She compares student annotations and participation levels across two sections using different approaches.
The First-Year Seminar Coordinator: Investigates the impact of specific meta-cognitive reflection assignments on students’ transition to university, looking at measures like self-reported confidence, study habits, and end-of-term grades. Data comes from reflection journals, surveys, and institutional records.
The Challenges (and Why They’re Worth Tackling)
Engaging in SoTL isn’t always easy. Common hurdles include:
Time: Finding the time for systematic inquiry amidst heavy teaching loads, service commitments, and other research is a significant challenge.
Expertise: Educators may feel they lack formal training in educational research methods or data analysis.
Institutional Support: Lack of recognition in promotion and tenure processes, limited funding for SoTL projects, or insufficient access to research support services can be disincentives.
Scope: Defining a manageable, answerable question within the constraints of a single course or semester requires careful thought.
Ethics: Navigating Institutional Review Board (IRB) requirements for research involving students is essential and sometimes perceived as complex.
Despite these challenges, the potential benefits for both students and educators make SoTL a worthwhile pursuit. Many institutions are increasingly recognizing its value and developing support structures like teaching centers, faculty learning communities focused on SoTL, seed funding, and clearer pathways for recognizing SoTL in faculty review.
Joining the Conversation
You don’t need a PhD in education or a massive research grant to start engaging with SoTL. Here’s how you might dip your toes in:
1. Start Small: Focus on one small aspect of your course. What’s one burning question you have about your students’ learning?
2. Seek Community: Talk to colleagues, join a teaching circle, or connect with your institution’s teaching and learning center. Collaboration is powerful.
3. Leverage Existing Data: Look at your assignments, student work, course evaluations, or LMS analytics with a critical, questioning eye. What patterns do you see?
4. Explore Resources: Numerous journals (Teaching & Learning Inquiry, International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, discipline-specific pedagogical journals), conferences (ISSOTL), and online resources exist.
5. Share Your Insights: Even informal discussions with colleagues about what you’re noticing can be the start of a SoTL journey.
So, anyone here familiar with the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning? Whether you’re a seasoned practitioner or just hearing the term for the first time, understanding SoTL is crucial for anyone committed to truly effective education. It represents a powerful shift: from teaching as transmission to teaching as a dynamic, evidence-informed, scholarly practice focused relentlessly on understanding and enhancing how students learn. It’s about bringing the same curiosity and rigor we apply to our disciplines to the very process of fostering learning itself. The journey into SoTL might just transform not only your students’ experiences but also your own understanding of what it means to be an educator.
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