Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Subject Guide
Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) is an interdisciplinary academic field that explores and develops evidence-based practices for teaching in higher education. No matter what subject you teach, you can use the methods and frameworks developed in SoTL to undertake research that informs or assesses your own teaching practice or your students’ learning environments.
This guide supports instructors who are interested in applying SoTL tools and frameworks in their classrooms, as well as researchers interested in contributing to the field. You will find definitions and takeaways, common methods and ethical considerations, and links to relevant books, journals, databases, and other resources.
What is SoTL?
Read about what the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning is, what kinds of questions are asked, and who can benefit from it.
How to do SoTL research
Learn about common qualitative and quantitative methods used in SoTL research and important ethical issues to consider when beginning a project.
Where to find SoTL
Find SoTL resources like books, journals, databases, and more.
Understanding Your Students: An Example
SoTL gives instructors an opportunity to inquire, investigate, and learn about students. An understanding of students’ behaviours, values, challenges, and mental models can inform course content and instructional methods. The result can be a classroom environment that meets students where they are while still challenging them to learn and develop.
For example, librarian instructors often engage in SoTL to understand how students find, evaluate, and use information. They might conduct interviews with students to understand how they begin research for an assignment (Thomas, Tewell & Willson, 2017), use digital activities to assess how virtual tools can create active learning experiences (Rodriguez, 2018), or use surveys to analyse how students find and use information in group projects (Saleh & Large, 2011).
Through the application of SoTL in the field of Library and Information Science, you can find plenty of data on the ways that students find and use information for assignments and research, and where they get stuck. This also means that Concordia University Librarians can be a valuable resource if you are trying to better understand your students, many of whom conduct their own research on student learning.
SoTL in Concordia's collection
View custom search results for SoTL books and articlesCentre for Teaching and Learning @ Concordia
View CTL's initiatives and resourcesConcordia Teaching Academy
View professional development resources for instructorsCentre for the Study of Learning and Performance
View examples of SoTL and other Education research happening hereWhere to start
Researching teaching & student outcomes in postsecondary education: An introduction
The scholarship of teaching and learning in and across the disciplines
References used on this page
Rodriguez, E. (2018). Google forms in library instruction: Creating an active learning space and communicating with students. Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, Innovative Pedagogy, 1(7), 70-82.
Saleh, N. & Large, A. (2011). Collaborative information behaviour in undergraduate group projects: A study of engineering students. Proceedings of the American Society of Information Science and Technology, 48(1), 1-10.
Thomas, S., Tewell, E. & Willson, G. (2017). Where students start and what they do when they get stuck: A qualitative inquiry into academic information-seeking and help-seeking practices. The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 43(2017), 224-231.