What is the Scholarship of Teaching & Learning?
Through rigorous and reflective research, SoTL collects and analyzes evidence from the classroom to develop frameworks, tools, and understandings of both teacher and student behaviours, beliefs, and values in educational settings. Equipped with more evidence and strong theoretical foundations, instructors can improve their teaching methods and better support their students across all disciplines.
Evidence-based examples of high-quality education and contributes to the best possible learning experience for students;
Models of excellence in the design of course content and instructional methods;
Reflective practices to help instructors think critically about their classroom environment and student needs;
High-quality, evidence-based methods for teaching assessment, course design, and program review; and
Data which can enhance institutional policies and priorities
(Bernstein, 2013; McKinney, 2013).
SoTL is sometimes divided into studies that investigate what works and studies that investigate what is happening (Hutchings, 2000). Questions often come from the real-word interactions instructors have with students, their learning environments, and the policies that shape them (Elgie, 2014).
Examples of SoTL research questions
What factors influence student engagement in online, asynchronous courses?
How do different assessment methods influence the approaches students take to studying in math courses?
Do group contracts improve the outcomes of group project assignments?
How can the language of a course syllabus impact students’ perceptions and motivations for a course?
SoTL is scholarship – it contributes to a wider community. SoTL research typically goes through research ethics reviews, explicitly builds on and cites other research, and is peer reviewed and published in academic journals.
Educational assessments are done internally to inform individual instructors, departments, or institutions. They may be based on research, but they do not need to directly cite their sources and do not go through ethics or peer review processes (Bradley, Chick & MacMillan, 2017; McKinney, 2015).
Dimensions of activities related to teaching (Adapted from Maheaux-Pelletier & Rush, 2019; Original diagram by Kern et al., 2015: CC-BY 4.0).
An important distinction between SoTL and other forms of scholarly education research is that the latter is done by researchers, while SoTL research is done by instructors, usually in and about that instructor’s unique environment (Frisberg, 2018).
SoTL is also more directly concerned with improving classroom environments and teaching methods to the direct benefit of students, while Education research is more concerned with contributing to a field of scholarly knowledge (Larsson et al., 2017). However, Education research contributes to knowledge about teaching and learning, and SoTL benefits from the analytical, philosophical, and methodological approaches used in education research (Miller-Young & Yeo, 2015).
References used on this page
Bernstein, D. (2013). How SoTL-active faculty members can be cosmopolitan assets to an institution. Teaching & Learning Inquiry, 1(1), 35-40.
Boyer, E. L. (1990). Scholarship reconsidered: Priorities of the professoriate. Princeton, NJ: Jossey-Bass.
Bradley, C., Chick, N., & MacMillan, M. (2017, April 6). Scholarship of teaching & learning discussion forum Part 1 [Zoom recording]. ACRL Student Learning and Information Literacy Committee.
Elgie, S. (2014). Researching teaching and student outcomes in postsecondary education: An introduction. Second edition. Toronto, ON: Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario.
Frisberg, J. (2018, November 27). SoTL, ER, and DBER: Thoughts inspired by a Twitter conversation. The SoTL Advocate. Accessed March 6, 2023.
Healey, R. L., Bass, T., Caulfield, J., Hoffman, A., McGinn, M. K., Miller-Young, J. & Haigh, M. (2013). Being ethically minded: Practising the scholarship of teaching and learning In an ethical manner. Teaching and Learning Inquiry: The ISSOTL Journal, 1(2), 22-33.
Hutchings, P. (2000). Opening lines: Approaches to the scholarship of teaching and learning. Menlo Park, CA: The Carnegie Foundation for the advancement of Teaching.
Kern, B., Mettetal, G., Dixson, M. D. & Morgan, R. K. (2015). The role of SoTL in the academy: Upon the 25th anniversary of Boyer's Scholarship Reconsidered. Journal of the Scholarship for Teaching and Learning, 15(3), 1-14.
Larsson, M., Mårtensson, K., Price, L. & Roxå, T. (2017, June). Constructive friction? Exploring patterns between Educational Research and The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. The 2nd EuroSoTL Concerence 2017, Lund, Sweden.
McKinney, K. (2013). The scholarship of teaching and learning in and across the disciplines. Indiana University Press.
McKinney, K. (2015). SoTL and assessment: Siblings? The SoTL Advocate. Accessed March 1, 2023.
Maheux-Pelletier, G. & Rush, E. (2019). A model for engaged teaching at York University: Moving towards research-informed practice. Associate Deans Teaching and Learning Council Sub-Committee on Research and Innovation in Teaching and Learning.
Miller-Young, J. & Yeo, M. (2015). Conceptualizing and communicating SoTL: A framework for the field. Teaching & Learning Inquiry, 3(2), 37-53.