scholarly journals Constructive friction? Charting the relation between educational research and the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-75
Author(s):  
Maria Larsson ◽  
Katarina Mårtensson ◽  
Linda Price ◽  
Torgny Roxå
Keyword(s):  
Educational Research ◽  
Thematic Analysis ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Scholarship Of Teaching ◽  
Community Membership ◽  
Over Time

While educational research and the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) are overlapping fields, over time there has appeared considerable friction between the two. There are claims that educational research has been tainted by SoTL’s emergence and that those engaged in SoTL lack adequate training. They maintain that those engaged in SoTL would benefit from a better understanding of educational research theories and methods. Some engaged in SoTL perceive educational research as too distanced from practice. What underpins these perceived differences between the two fields? How might this friction be explained? The study described in this article explored empirical, interview-based viewpoints from new and experienced educational researchers and SoTL scholars, respectively. Participants were purposefully drawn from attendees at two European conferences specializing in educational research and SoTL. The data was examined using thematic analysis and focused mainly on the perceived differences between these communities. The central themes that emerged where differences occurred are community membership and governance, scope and purpose of inquiry, and intended recipients of inquiry results. Some differences include what and who determines the value of the contribution to the field and why it is valuable. This article provides an empirically based understanding of the relative attributes of both communities. We hope that it leads to future discussions about further developing fruitful and constructive interrelationships.

Building Faculty SoTL Skills Through a Multi- and Interdisciplinary Writing Community of Practice

2020 ◽  
pp. 78-95
Author(s):  
Sandra Sgoutas-Emch ◽  
Judith Liu ◽  
Moriah Meyskens ◽  
Tara Ceranic Salinas ◽  
Jane Friedman ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Learning Community ◽  
Community Of Practice ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Strategic Plan ◽  
Faculty Members ◽  
Scholarship Of Teaching ◽  
Educational Excellence ◽  
Writing Community ◽  
Over Time

Cultivating a community of faculty to support Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) work at universities can be challenging. There are many obstacles to overcome—obstacles such as how to sustain such efforts over time. The Center for Educational Excellence set out to design a strategic plan designed to address certain barriers to SoTL work and to create a long-standing community of practice for a SoTL group of faculty members—a group that has lasted over nine years to date. This chapter outlines strategies employed over the years and the evolution of the interdisciplinary group from a learning community to community of practice. The stories of past and present members are included along with advice on how others may have successful programs at their universities.

scholarly journals Success in Student-Faculty/Staff SoTL Partnerships: Motivations, Challenges, Power, and Definitions

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anita Acai ◽  
Bree Akesson ◽  
Meghan Allen ◽  
Victoria Chen ◽  
Clarke Mathany ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Graduate Students ◽  
Thematic Analysis ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Faculty Members ◽  
Scholarship Of Teaching ◽  
Self Reflection ◽  
Successful Student

Partnerships with students are considered one of the principles of good Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) practice. However, not all partnerships are equally successful. What characteristics are common to successful partnerships and what preparatory elements can lead toward more successful partnerships? In this article, our team of graduate students, educational developers, and faculty members engage in detailed self-reflection on our past and ongoing SoTL projects as an inquiry into what it means to be in a successful student-faculty/staff partnership. Using thematic analysis, we identify and describe four distinct domains that can shape partnerships: (1) motivations to participate, (2) challenges, (3) power, and (4) definitions of success. The article concludes with a set of questions to stimulate initial and ongoing conversations between partners to guide new partnerships in defining the parameters for success in their proposed collaboration. Les partenariats avec les étudiants sont considérés comme l’un des principes de bonne pratique de l’Avancement des connaissances en enseignement et en apprentissage (ACEA). Toutefois, tous les partenariats ne connaissent pas le même succès. Quelles sont les caractéristiques communes des partenariats réussis et quels sont les éléments préparatoires qui peuvent aboutir à des partenariats mieux réussis? Dans cet article, notre groupe, consistant d’étudiants de cycles supérieurs, de conseillers pédagogiques et de professeurs, se lance dans une auto-réflexion détaillée sur nos projets passés et présents en ACEA qui constitue une enquête sur ce que cela signifie de faire partie d’un partenariat réussi entre étudiants, professeurs et membres du personnel. Par le biais de l’analyse thématique, nous identifions et décrivons quatre domaines distincts qui façonnent les partenariats : 1) la motivation à participer, 2) les défis, 3) le pouvoir et 4) les définitions de la réussite. En conclusion, nous posons un groupe de questions pour stimuler les conversations initiales et continues entre les divers partenaires afin de guider les nouveaux partenariats à définir les paramètres menant à la réussite dans leur collaboration proposée.

Overcoming Challenges to Impactful SoTL

2020 ◽  
pp. 366-387
Author(s):  
Sherry Fukuzawa ◽  
Dianne Ashbourne ◽  
Fiona Rawle
Keyword(s):  
Educational Research ◽  
Research Design ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Institutional Culture ◽  
Faculty Members ◽  
Ethical Considerations ◽  
Scholarship Of Teaching ◽  
Scholarly Identity ◽  
Institutional Challenges

In order for teaching and learning to improve throughout an institution, the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) must be valued within institutional culture and contribute to the scholarly identity of researchers. This chapter emphasizes some of the challenges for SoTL researchers, whether educational developers or faculty members, to consider as they begin their foray into educational research. SoTL challenges are divided into four inter-related themes: (1) scholarly identity, (2) institutional challenges, (3) accessing and searching the SoTL literature, and (4) conducting SoTL research (SoTL research design, methodology, funding and time commitments, and ethical considerations). The chapter includes a series of opportunities and resources to help SoTL researchers reframe these challenges into opportunities for their institutions.

scholarly journals The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning and the Online Classroom

2013 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Carolin Kreber ◽  
Heather Kanuka
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Online Learning ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
Internet Communication ◽  
Reflective Inquiry ◽  
Online Classroom ◽  
Scholarship Of Teaching ◽  
Inquiry Based Learning ◽  
Over Time

This article explores the meaning of the scholarship of teaching and learning and describes how the concept has evolved over time. It then discusses how the scholarship of teaching and learning might contribute to developing effective online learning and, reciprocally, how online learning might change and advance the scholarship of teaching and learning. Through reflective, inquiry-based learning about teaching and the interactive capabilities of Internet communication technologies, higher education teachers can pursue excellence in promoting student learning.

scholarly journals Participant perceptions of the faculty development Educational Research Series

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 221-245
Author(s):  
Nancy Dalgarno ◽  
Corinne Laverty ◽  
Rylan Egan ◽  
Kendall Garton ◽  
Eleftherios Soleas ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Faculty Development ◽  
Educational Research ◽  
Mixed Method ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Adult Learning Theory ◽  
Academic Development ◽  
Development Program ◽  
Faculty Development Program ◽  
Scholarship Of Teaching ◽  
Individual Support

Interest in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) is driven in part by the need to provide systematic academic development for faculty anchored in evidence-based practice such as the introduction of quality assurance frameworks. This article reports on a mixed-method evaluation of one institution’s grassroots multidisciplinary faculty development program, called the Educational Research Series, to determine if it met the needs of its faculty, graduate student, and staff participants. Conducted at one mid-sized university in southern Ontario and framed, as was the program design and implementation, by both adult learning theory and constructivism, the evaluation collected data from session exit surveys, attendee interviews, and facilitator focus groups. The data analysis revealed that reasons for participating included increasing levels of understanding, receiving individual support, and learning about colleagues’ research interests. The major strengths of the program included individual learning, resources, facilitator expertise, interactive sessions, and the multidisciplinary focus. The main challenges centered on depth versus breadth of the sessions, time, and educational language and theory. Participants recommended additional resources, communication among facilitators, institutional recognition, and increased depth of content. As a result of this evaluation, an Advanced Educational Research Series is being offered at the institution. This article will inform other institutions wishing to build SoTL as a field within their institutions.

scholarly journals The use of metadiscourse in academic writing by Malaysian first-year ESL doctoral students

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 271-282
Author(s):  
Yueh Yea Lo ◽  
Juliana Othman ◽  
Jia Wei Lim
Keyword(s):  
Educational Research ◽  
Doctoral Students ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Academic Discourse ◽  
Corpus Analysis ◽  
Three Dimensions ◽  
First Year ◽  
Over Time

Metadiscourse refers to linguistic items, which functions to establish a connection with imagined readers of a text (Hyland, 2004). The use of metadiscourse has received much attention in various contexts, yet, little works are focusing on disciplinary metadiscourse, that has been carried out. To address this gap, this study explored, described, and compared the use of disciplinary metadiscourse by eight Malaysian first-year ESL doctoral students across four areas of study in education. The study reported in this article focuses on development or changes in writing over time. This study is quantitative in nature with a corpus-based approach utilizing AntConc (3.4.4) to examine the frequency of three dimensions of academic discourse in their writing, namely textual, engagement, and evaluative The results of this analysis show that (i) the engagement dimension (3.1%) was the lowest of all three dimensions in written work, reinforcing the argument that first-year ESL doctoral students are less experienced at using textual metadiscourse resources, and (ii) frequency of all three dimensions of academic discourse in their writing differs across time between first written drafts to the final written drafts. These are first-year ESL doctoral students, who are writing in different fields of educational research. The implication is that teaching and learning of disciplinary metadiscourse should involve explicit explanation, demonstration, and practice of its use, and development in the academic writing process.Academic writing; corpus analysis; ESL doctoral students; metadiscourse

Strengthening the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning via Experimentation

2008 ◽  
Vol 35 (4) ◽  
pp. 301-304 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank M. LoSchiavo ◽  
Mark A. Shatz ◽  
Devereaux A. Poling
Keyword(s):  
Educational Research ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
National Policy ◽  
Experimental Designs ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Educational Settings ◽  
Scholarship Of Teaching ◽  
Scientific Methods ◽  
Teaching Of Psychology

In recent years, national policy experts have questioned the overall quality of educational research, and they have suggested that researchers strengthen their scientific methods by maximizing the use of experimental designs. To promote more rigorous methodology, we discuss several new and often-overlooked opportunities for incorporating experimentation into the scholarship of teaching and learning in psychology. Although experiments can be difficult to conduct in educational settings, our methodological suggestions are particularly well-suited for relatively small-scale studies, like those typically published in Teaching of Psychology.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document