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

Author(s):  
Andrea S. Webb

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.

Author(s):  
Ada S. Jaarsma

This essay examines the definitions of the key words of the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL)—scholarship, teaching, and learning—in order to identify the hopes that animate SoTL research and examine these hopes in light of recent critical thinking about the corporatization of higher education. Arguing that Biesta’s (2013b) distinction between “learning from” and “being taught by” offers an important corrective to the prevailing definitions of SoTL, the essay reflects on the tensions between scholarly teaching, as understood by SoTL, and teaching as a contingent and unpredictable event. Cet essai examine la définition des mots-clés de l’avancement des connaissances en enseignement et en apprentissage (ACEA) – avancement des connaissances, enseignement, apprentissage – afin d’identifier les espoirs qui inspirent la recherche en ACEA et d’examiner ces espoirs à la lumière des pensées critiques récentes qui portent sur la tendance de l’enseignement supérieur à fonctionner comme une entreprise. Cet essai présente l’argument selon lequel la distinction faite par Biesta (2013b) entre « apprendre de quelqu’un » et « être enseigné par quelqu’un » constitue une correction importante aux définitions actuelles de l’ACEA. L’essai propose une réflexion sur les tensions qui existent entre l’enseignement intellectuel, tel que compris par l’ACEA, et l’enseignement en tant qu’événement contingent et imprévisible.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anucha Somabut ◽  
Kulthida Tuamsuk

The chapter presents the impact of COVID-19 on Thai higher education the national, and university reactions and policies to cope with the situation. Parallel with the technology disruption, most universities have been attempting to promote online teaching due to the new learning environments and learning style of students, while faculty members are still reluctant. However, the COVID-19 has inevitably changed the ways the faculty members handle their classes. In this chapter, the findings on the components of online teaching and learning ecology (OTLE) in Thai higher education during the COVID-19 is summarized and proposed, covering the following topics: learning and teaching method, technology and learning resources, teacher roles, and student roles and responsibilities. Finally, the key success factors for the development of learning ecology at the higher education level are also covered.


2017 ◽  
Vol 33 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nguyen Duc Huy ◽  
Nguyen Huu Chung ◽  
Nguyen Trung Kien

In order to understanding the increasing number of women leaders in Vietnamese higher education. The research was a qualitative study using a narrative inquiry research design as a means to elicit the lived experience of some respected female educational leaders. However, a higher of males leader than females still fills senior management roles in Vietnamese higher education.  This study explores of perspective the leadership styles of women leaders who want to positions of leadership in higher education. Most of the female leaders have not leadership training at any school, so their leadership and management by experiences.The identification of important factors effect on the educational leadership of these figures will provide insight into the nature of leadership in relation to teaching and learning in Vietnamese higher education. Research will focus on interview as method for exploring thestories offemale educational leaders in Vietnam National University, Hanoi (VNU). The role of female leaders in changing, developing and perfecting valuable structures. Exploring these stories will demonstrate and can be understood the leadership styles of female leader in at VNU.


Author(s):  
Mark Hoyert ◽  
Cynthia O'Dell

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. ​


Author(s):  
David Starr-Glass

Following a critical appraisal of research and teaching in U.S. higher education, Ernest Boyer advocated that teaching should be recognized and rewarded as an activity that was at least as important as traditional disciplinary scholarship. He insisted that teaching had its own scholarly component which deserved fuller recognition, appreciation, and dissemination. This chapter explores Boyer's reconsideration of the activities and priorities of higher education and the emerging history of what would become known as the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL). From an early stage in its historical trajectory, SoTL explorations were linked to a publication imperative. Publication was seen as essential for consolidating the discipline's status and for improving the efficacy of teaching. The chapter reconsiders the publication requirement, its impact on the vision and mission of SoTL, and the degree to which it has repositioned and reprioritized teaching in the academy. It also provides suggestions for furthering SoTL's impact and for new directions for research, practice, and publication.


Author(s):  
Royce Robertson

Today, higher education institutions need to prepare for technology integration into even the most sacred of rituals: promotion and tenure for faculty members. A holistic approach is necessary to extract the practices and dispositions of the faculty and support providers. This chapter aims to define the Electronic Teaching Portfolio and to describe some conditions to satisfy before implementing a support system. Furthermore, the chapter describes the design and content of an ideal support system that is feasible to implement, given that the institution is willing to commit necessary resources.


2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (01) ◽  
pp. 2040023 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mamoun Masoud Abdulqader ◽  
Yousof Zohair Almunsour

This research aims to investigate the effects of social media use on higher education teaching and learning as well as the students’ academic performance. A total of 275 students and faculty members from the College of Computer Science and Information Technology at Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University took part in the study. The participants answered survey questions to analyse information on their use of social media in education and how that has affected their teaching, learning and grades. A majority of the participants reported that they used social media in training. However, they also stated that social media platforms were beneficial in academic matters. The number of participants who stated that the use of social media in learning helped improve their grades was 43%. The other 57% thought that social media had no impact on their grades or had an adverse effect or were undecided.


Author(s):  
Alisa Hutchinson ◽  
Anabel Stoeckle

Mid-Semester Assessment Programs (MAPs) have been successfully utilized as a professional development tool for faculty interested in improving their teaching in the context of higher education by assessing voluntary formative student feedback that guides changes instructors make in the classroom. Faculty centers and educational developers have the unique opportunity to recruit instructors via MAPs who have participated in these programs to promote and support the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) among faculty who already display an innate interest in best teaching practices and are open to advancing their own teaching in order to improve student learning and to propel student success. This chapter provides a guide for educational developers who seek to become active partners for faculty to become interested and engaged in the scholarship of teaching and learning through a unique recruitment mechanism that serves as a natural steppingstone for faculty not having engaged with SoTL yet.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document