Introducing the Scholarship
of Teaching and Learning
Peter Felten, Elon University
October 25, 2013
Introducing SoTL
1.
Scholarly teaching and SoTL
2.
Why scholarly teaching?
3.
How to begin?
Scholarship defined - Boyer
“The most important obligation now confronting the nation’s colleges
and universities is to break out of the tired old teaching versus research
debate and define, in more creative ways, what it means to be a scholar.
It’s time to recognize the full range of faculty talent and the great
diversity of functions higher education must perform.”
Scholarship of Discovery
Scholarship of Application
Scholarship of Teaching
Scholarship of Integration
Boyer, 1990.
SoTL defined
“The scholarship of teaching and learning encompasses a broad set
of practices that engage teachers in looking closely and critically at
student learning for the purpose of improving their own courses and
programs. It is perhaps best understood as an approach that marries
scholarly inquiry to any of the intellectual tasks that comprise the work
of teaching.”
Hutchings, Huber, and Ciccone, 2011.
Teaching as a scholarly activity
1. Asking questions about student learning
2. Building on what is known
3. Collecting and analyzing evidence
4. Using and sharing what you have learned

In what ways are you currently a scholarly teacher?

What are some barriers to you being more scholarly in your teaching?
Why scholarly teaching?
Or, but I’m already too busy...
1. To enhance student learning
“Learning results from what the student does and thinks
and only from what the student does and thinks. The
teacher can advance learning only by influencing what the
student does to learn.”
H. Simon, quoted in Ambrose et al., 2010.
Typical students have more
“novice-like” beliefs about
physics after taking a collegelevel introductory physics course and the results are “even worse”
in chemistry.
Carl Wieman, Why Not Try a Scientific Approach to
Science Education? Change (Sept/Oct 2007).
Student learning

Success requires close observation,
careful analysis, effective problemsolving, and meaningful collaboration.

Hours are long.

Failure is frequent.

Rewards are intangible.
What students do matters
Student learning and success in college are linked more closely to
what students do at college than to any other factor.
Student behaviors that contribute most to learning include:

Investing time and effort in meaningful, challenging work

Interacting with faculty and peers about substantive matters

Responding to frequent feedback

Reflecting on and integrating learning
Kuh (2003, 2008)
Why scholarly teaching?
Or, but I’m already too busy...
1. To enhance student learning
2. To improve your own teaching
“Teaching may be the only human
activity which a person can
practice and practice, and actually
get worse at.”
- Nyquist and Wulff, 1996.
Teaching matters
Students’ learning strategies are context-specific, not studentspecific:
Students taught in traditional ways tend to adopt surface learning
strategies;

Students taught in engaging ways tend to adopt deep learning
strategies.

Biggs & Tang (4th ed., 2011)
What the best college teachers do…


Help students to focus their efforts on meaningful challenges
Encourage student practice using, integrating, and transferring
what is being learned

Provide appropriate feedback, guidance, and models

Prompt student reflection on and integration of learning

Adapt teaching and courses based on evidence
Why scholarly teaching?
Or, but I’m already too busy...
1. To enhance student learning
2. To improve your own teaching
3. To deepen faculty community
“Educational innovation today invites, even requires,
levels of preparation, imagination, collaboration, and
support that are not always a good fit (to say the least)
with the inherited routines of academic life.”
Why scholarly teaching?
Or, but I’m already too busy...
1. To enhance student learning
2. To improve your own teaching
3. To deepen faculty community
4. To advance your career
Why scholarly teaching?
Or, but I’m already too busy...


What are one or two
reasons why you might
want to be a more scholarly
teacher?
What are one or two ways
you can be a more scholarly
teacher?
Introducing SoTL
1.
Scholarly teaching and SoTL
2.
Why scholarly teaching?
3.
How to begin?
SoTL questions

What works?

What is?

What is possible?

What’s the theory?
- Hutchings 2000.
SoTL questions

What works?

What is?

What is possible?

What’s the theory?
- Hutchings 2000.
What’s one question you have
about student learning or your
teaching?
Teaching as a scholarly activity
1. Asking questions about student learning
2. Building on what is known
3. Collecting and analyzing evidence
4. Using and sharing what you have learned
SoTL resources
1.
Disciplinary sources
2.
Research on learning
3.
Research on teaching
4.
Practice-based literature
5.
Colleagues
What are one or two places you will look for resources on your question?
What counts as evidence?

Links to your question

Captures student learning, directly or indirectly

Represents student learning as authentically as possible
Papers, lab reports, etc.
In-class presentations
Creative projects
Answers to an exam question
Reflective journals
Surveys
Adapted from Visible Knowledge Project, Georgetown
Linking questions with evidence:
Peter Felten, History
Big Question: Do students learn to become more skilled at
reading and analyzing primary sources in my course?
Subquestion 1: Does one approach to teaching primary sources
work better than another?
Subquestion 2: How do students read and analyze different kinds
of primary sources?
Gathering evidence
Students complete a primary source exercise 4 times during the
semester.
Each student analyzes and writes about 3-4 different but related
primary sources.
“What significant things do you know, and don’t you know, about each
source?”
“Rank order the sources according to the reliability of each as a
historical source, and explain your ranking.”
Coventry et al., Journal of American History (2006)
What resulted from inquiry?
Evidence suggests: Student beliefs about different kinds of sources
lead them to read and analyze different kinds of sources differently.
Implications for my teaching: I developed new assignments designed
to surface and address student beliefs about sources.
Implications beyond teaching: Co-authored publication in the Journal
of American History, and more
Linking questions with evidence:
Dennis Jacobs, Chemistry, Notre Dame
Big question: How can I improve learning and retention in the
general chemistry course?
Subquestion one: Would “peer instruction” increase learning and
retention in my general chemistry course?
Subquestion two: When students debate possible solutions to a
question, does that discussion increase their learning?
Subquestion three: Does that kind of debate leave them more or
less confident in their own understanding?
Gathering evidence:
Peer instruction with clickers
1. Bright
2. Dim
3. Dark
How confident are you that you are correct? (1-3 scale)
What the evidence revealed
Individual Answers
What resulted from this inquiry?



Evidence suggests: The discussion portion of peer instruction
significantly enhances student understanding and confidence.
Implications for teaching: Peer instruction becomes a central
pedagogy in general chemistry at Notre Dame.
Implications beyond teaching: Named U.S. Professor of the Year,
and more
Linking questions with evidence:
Ann Cahill and Stephen Bloch-Schulman,
Philosophy, Elon
Big question: How can we help our students begin to think like
philosophers in an intro courses?
Subquestion one: What kinds of assignments work best?
Subquestion two: Would teaching students how to take notes “like a
philosopher” help?
Subquestion three: How do students read assigned texts?
Gathering evidence:
“Think aloud” interviews
What resulted from the inquiry?
Evidence suggests: Students read in fundamentally different ways
than philosophers do.
Implications for teaching: New ways of teaching students to read and
take notes like a philosopher, including use of “expert” think alouds
to model -- and students doing think alouds in class.
Implications beyond teaching: Disciplinary article, and more
Teaching as a scholarly activity
1. Asking questions about student learning
2. Building on what is known
3. Collecting and analyzing evidence
4. Using and sharing what you have learned
Evidence and analysis
1.
What kinds of evidence might be most helpful to your inquiry?
2.
How and when might you collect that evidence?
3.
How, when, and with whom might you analyze that evidence?
4.
What do you expect will be the implications of your inquiry for
your teaching?
Students consenting to be
subjects of research?
Faculty facing conflicting roles as
teacher and researcher?
Students as partners
“This has really made me feel more responsible
for my own education. I no longer think that
professors are responsible for having all the
answers and making a class perfect and
wonderful to suit my own needs. It is up to the
entire community to make learning spaces
function.” (Bryn Mawr student)
“I think some faculty...are so focused on getting
stuff done that they don’t pay attention to their
students, who I think are the most valuable
resources in a classroom.” (Elon student)
Scholarly teaching,
next steps



How will you be more scholarly in your teaching?
What resources and people can help you do
that?
What questions remain?