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

2021 ◽  
pp. 72-90
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.

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 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. ​

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 #iteachmsu Centering an Educator Learning Community (ELC)

2021 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Erik Skogsberg ◽  
Melissa McDaniels ◽  
Madeline Shellgren ◽  
Patricia Stewart ◽  
Makena Neal
Keyword(s):  
Social Networking ◽  
Learning Communities ◽  
Learning Community ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Teaching Assistants ◽  
Learning Networks ◽  
Scholarship Of Teaching ◽  
Faculty Learning Communities ◽  
K 12

Many scholars recommend preparing faculty for educator roles. Faculty Learning Communities, The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL), and teaching centers represent common preparatory approaches. But faculty and teaching assistants report time, disciplinary disconnects, and lack of incentives as ongoing barriers. Inspired by K-12’s professional learning networks and “hashtag activism,” the authors’ university launched #iteachmsu. #iteachmsu combines practices of social networking with a digital and in-person teaching “commons.” Through #iteachmsu, the authors hope to further shift campus cultures in the age of COVID-19, centering teaching and learning as a valuable and ongoing focus for an educator learning community (ELC).

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.

Toward Communal Negotiation of Meaning in Schools: Principals’ Perceptions of Collective Learning from Success

2011 ◽  
Vol 113 (11) ◽  
pp. 2415-2459 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chen Schechter
Keyword(s):  
Collaborative Learning ◽  
Learning Community ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Collective Learning ◽  
Faculty Members ◽  
Staff Members ◽  
Leadership Strategy ◽  
Need To Evaluate ◽  
Culture Of Inquiry ◽  
Principals Perceptions

Background In light of the growing complexity of schoolwork, it is important that faculty members move away from isolated learning toward a more collective type of thinking regarding teaching and learning issues. Purpose Whereas collective learning has mostly been approached from a deficit-based orientation (finding/solving problems and overcoming failures), this study examines principals’ perceptions (mindscapes) about the notion and strategy of collective learning from faculty members’ successful practices. Research Design The study employed a qualitative topic-oriented methodology to explore principals’ mindscapes concerning collective learning from success in schools. Data Collection and Analysis Data were collected via face-to-face interviews with 65 elementary, middle, and high school principals. The analysis process involved identifying common themes, contrasting patterns, and elucidating the differences among principals’ voices. Findings Principals argued that in contrast to collective learning processes to evaluate failures and problems, collective learning from successful practices requires a deliberate and conscious shift in mindset with regard to collaborative learning in schools. Principals perceived the competitive culture and the comparison of professional abilities among faculty members as major determinants of a productive collective learning from success. Principals envisioned their role in this interactive process as promoting a learning culture of inquiry, openness, and trust. Recommendations As a leadership strategy to foster collective learning in schools, both practitioners and researchers need to evaluate whether a learning community can be developed when staff members are encouraged to collectively analyze their successful practices and receive affirmation for doing so. It is important to further inquire how different stakeholders perceive this collaborative learning from successful practices.

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