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 Building a Community of Scholars in Educational Research: A Case Study for Success

2011 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nancy C. Brahm ◽  
Tamra S. Davis ◽  
Gretchen L. Peirce ◽  
Michelle M. Lamb
Keyword(s):  
Education Research ◽  
Educational Research ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Faculty Members ◽  
Scholarship Of Teaching ◽  
Teaching Community ◽  
Research Scholarship ◽  
Conducting Research

Objective: To present the model of the Education Research/Scholarship of Teaching Community of Scholarship (EdCOS) as one Community of Scholars (COS) within a department of pharmacy. Case Study: A case study describing the Education Research/Scholarship of Teaching Community of Scholars (EdCOS). Faculty members were self-selected into one or more of eight COS. The EdCOS was comprised of 14 members. The EdCOS developed a vision statement to "foster and support a learning culture that enables faculty to capture and evaluate teaching and learning experiences." The process by which the EdCOS set out to initiate this COS will be discussed. Since its inception all members of the EdCOS have become IRB Certified. Through a combined project, members had the opportunity to develop, learn, and acquire experience in areas of conducting research from the conception of a project through final submission of the manuscript. Departmental publications and grant funding increased over the years after the implementation of the COS. Conclusion: Although cause and effect cannot be explicitly determined, the EdCOS has had a positive impact on its members building confidence, experience, and ideas for future projects.   Type: Idea Paper

scholarly journals Developing Faculty Communities of Practice to Expand the Use of Effective Pedagogical Techniques

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Hoyert ◽  
Cynthia O'Dell
Keyword(s):  
Student Success ◽  
Communities Of Practice ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Faculty Members ◽  
Retention Rates ◽  
First Year ◽  
Scholarship Of Teaching ◽  
Pedagogical Techniques ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Faculty Group

The scholarship of teaching and learning literature is replete with examples of pedagogical techniques that have been demonstrated to be effective in improving learning, motivation, and student success. The extension of these techniques beyond the original context has tended to be slow, difficult, and incomplete. The following paper examines an intervention designed to encourage the exploration and use of a variety of pedagogical techniques by faculty in a traditional, four-year college faculty within the context of the AASCU Re-imagining the First Year Initiative. Small groups of six to eight faculty, joined and created communities of practice. The groups were known as Pedagogical Interest Groups, or PIGs for short. The faculty read about and analyzed a series of pedagogical techniques and committed to introducing at least one technique into their courses to further explore the techniques. When the techniques were successful, the faculty members redesigned entire classes to expand the impact. The communities of practice were successful in encouraging faculty to explore a wide variety of techniques. The average faculty group explored eight different pedagogical techniques. Faculty were able to use the opportunity to experiment with techniques with the support from their colleagues in their PIG. A dozen techniques were explored across the PIGs and dozens of class sections have been completely redesigned. To date, over 2000 students have experienced redesigned courses. Measures of student success, satisfaction, and interest in those sections have increased. The effort has been accompanied by a robust increase in the campus-wide retention rates. ​

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 Navigating the Lows to Gain New Heights: Constraints to SoTL Engagement

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea S. Webb
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Educational Leadership ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Educational Leaders ◽  
Academic Culture ◽  
Faculty Members ◽  
Scholarship Of Teaching ◽  
Promotion And Tenure ◽  
Scholarly Teaching ◽  
Canadian Research

Novice Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) leaders making the transition from scholarly teaching to SoTL to SoTL Leadership face many challenges within higher education. Not only does traditional academic culture confine most academics to disciplinary silos, but promotion and tenure requirements encourage faculty members to conduct SoTL work “off the side of their desk,” if at all (Boyer, 1990; Dobbins, 2008; Webb, Wong, & Hubball, 2013). This paper shares some of the findings from a recent study that investigated what constrained educational leaders’ understanding of SoTL while enrolled in a SoTL Leadership program at a Canadian research-intensive university. The paper will also explore implications for the support and enrichment of educational leadership.

scholarly journals 29. Two Models for Introducing Graduate Students to the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

2011 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 177
Author(s):  
Natasha Patrito Hannon ◽  
Svitlana Taraban-Gordon
Keyword(s):  
Student Engagement ◽  
Graduate Students ◽  
Effective Teaching ◽  
Student Learning ◽  
Graduate Student ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Educational Development ◽  
Faculty Members ◽  
Development Programs ◽  
Scholarship Of Teaching

Graduate students aspiring to become faculty members should be provided with meaningful opportunities to explore the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) and to formulate questions about student learning and effective teaching. To this end, teaching and learning centres should incorporate SoTL-oriented components within the framework of educational development programs to prepare our future faculty. This article briefly reviews the emerging literature on graduate student engagement with SoTL and highlights two possible approaches for incorporating SoTL into educational development programs for graduate students.

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.

scholarly journals Reflections of Researchers Involved in the Evaluation of Pedagogical Technological Innovations in a University Setting

2005 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-84
Author(s):  
Cindy Ives ◽  
Katherine McWhaw ◽  
Christina De Simone
Keyword(s):  
Information And Communication Technologies ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
Pilot Project ◽  
Faculty Members ◽  
Scholarship Of Teaching ◽  
Information And Communication ◽  
The One ◽  
University Setting ◽  
Ongoing Evaluation

It is widely assumed that developments in information and communication technologies are fundamentally transforming and improving higher education. As a part of an ongoing evaluation of technology-supported pedagogy in one university, our three-year research project was designed, on the one hand, to determine if and how selected technologies were beneficial for learning and, on the other hand, to offer professional development for faculty members. In this paper, we reflect on our participation in a pedagogy and technology (referred to as PedTech) pilot project, describe some of the relationships that developed between ourselves as researchers and evaluators and our faculty collaborators, and share what we have learned from this experience. We suggest that a scholarship of teaching approach to evaluating innovations in teaching and learning is one way to support institution-wide adoption.

Using Design Thinking to Write and Publish Novel Teaching Cases: Tips From Experienced Case Authors

2017 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 135-160 ◽  
Author(s):  
Norman T. Sheehan ◽  
Mahendra R. Gujarathi ◽  
Joanne C. Jones ◽  
Fred Phillips
Keyword(s):  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Design Thinking ◽  
Management Education ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
Faculty Members ◽  
Wicked Problem ◽  
Scholarship Of Teaching ◽  
Framework Design ◽  
Practice Teaching ◽  
Teaching Cases

With increasing calls for a greater connection between management education and practice, teaching cases play a vital role in the business curriculum. Cases not only allow instructors to expose students to practical problems but also let educators contribute to the scholarship of teaching and learning. An important reason why faculty members may refrain from writing cases is they perceive it is difficult to develop publishable cases that are also novel. Reviewers of the journals that publish teaching cases are increasingly asking authors to place the case in the extant literature and explain what makes their case unique. To overcome some of the challenges encountered when attempting to write and publish novel teaching cases, this article presents a useful framework—Design Thinking—for tackling the “wicked problem” of developing novel cases and provides experience-based tips to implement the framework. By introducing the concepts and language of design thinking, we provide case writers with an iterative approach that leads to the development of novel cases by identifying and innovatively addressing instructors’, students’, and editors’ demands. We argue that by applying a design-thinking approach, case writers can produce novel and publishable instructional cases.

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