Using SoTL to Make Student
Learning Visible
Beth Dietz-Uhler
Cathy Bishop-Clark
© Beth Dietz-Uhler and Cathy Bishop-Clark
33rd Annual Lilly Conference on College Teaching
Oxford Ohio
November 21-24, 2013
Cathy Bishop-Clark
Cathy Bishop-Clark (SoTL Journey)
Assistant
Professor
(SoTL for me)
Associate
Professor
(SoTL with
Beth)
Full Professor
(SoTL for
others)
Administration
(SoTL for
decision
making)
Beth Dietz-Uhler
Beth Dietz-Uhler (SoTL Journey)
Assistant
Professor
(Social Science
Research)
Associate
Professor
(Social Science
Research)
Full Professor
(Mix of Social
Science
Research and
SoTL)
Associate
Chair of
Assessment
(SoTL
Perspective)
Making Student Learning Visible
Using SoTL to Make Student Learning
Visible
“I will never take
another
computer
science class
again!”
“Walk-Away” Goals
• Deeper understanding of SoTL
• Appreciation for the issues involved in making
student learning visible
• Ideas for using SoTL to expand and explore the
visibility of student learning
Definition of SoTL
“An act of intelligence or artistic creation becomes
scholarship when it possesses at least three attributes:
it becomes public, it becomes an object of critical
review and evaluation by members of one’s
community, and members of one’s community begin to
use, build upon, and develop those acts of mind and
creation.” (Shulman, 1999)
Making Student Learning Visible
• Jeff Bernstein
– Cofounder of the SoTL
Academy, EMU Political
Scientist
– “Making student learning
visible is a key element in
this evidence-based
culture”
2008
Making Student Learning Visible
“If a central goal of the scholarship of
teaching and learning becomes making
learning visible, the next question that
arises is visible to whom?”
Bernstein, Jeffrey L. (2008) "Introduction: Making Learning Visible to Whom?,"
The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning at EMU: Vol. 2, Article 2.
Visible to WHOM?
Instructor
Higher Education
SoTL
Students
Discipline
Bernstein, Jeffrey L. (2008) "Introduction: Making Learning Visible to Whom?,"
The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning at EMU: Vol. 2, Article 2.
Visible to the Instructor
• Turning in a working
computer program
(math problem, term
paper)
– What happened in
between the blank
paper and the outcome?
– What is not understood?
Visible to Students
• Experiment this semester with EXAMS
• Make student learning visible to themselves
• Provide opportunities for student to reflect on
their own learning
• Doing research with students!
Visible to the Discipline
• “What are the best ways to help students
understand recursive methods of creating
linked lists?”
Visible to the Higher Education
Community
Educators
Computer
Science
Visible to WHOM
Visible beyond the Higher Education
Community
• Currently, there is
intense interest and
pressure to make
student learning visible
beyond instructor,
students, the discipline,
and higher education
community
Visible beyond the Higher Education
Community
•
Improving Transparency and Accountability (http://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/education/higher-education)
•
College Affordability and Transparency Center (College Scorecard)
(http://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/education/higher-education/college-score-card)
•
What Employers Want (Hart Report: http://www.aacu.org/leap/documents/2009_EmployerSurvey.pdf)
•
Academically Adrift (36% of students did not demonstrate any significant gains in learning)
(http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2011/01/18/study_finds_large_numbers_of_college_students_don_t
_learn_much)
•
Increased pressure for accreditation (http://www.aaup.org/article/accreditation-and-federal-future-highereducation#.USE822fld8E)
•
Increased pressure to retain students (American Graduation Initiative:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Remarks-by-the-President-on-the-American-GraduationInitiative-in-Warren-MI)
•
Pressure from MOOCs and online education in general (http://chronicle.com/article/American-Council-onEducation/137155/)
Activity
• Of the different visibilities, which do you
consider the most important and why?
–
–
–
–
–
Instructor
Students
Discipline
Higher Education Community
Those Outside the Higher Education Community
• Spend two minutes thinking/writing and two
minutes to share with person next to you
A Debate!
Of these Visibilities which is the
MOST IMPORTANT
Instructor
SoTL
Visible Teaching and Learning
Hattie (2012) suggests that visible
teaching and learning occurs
when there are “active, passionate,
and engaging people, including
teachers, students, and peers
participating in the act of learning”
Making Learning “Visible to
Students” is Most Important because
they are the foundation of SoTL work
Dissemination
SoTL Research
Teaching-Learning
(Students)
In order to make learning
“visible to students”
Learning must
occur
Evidence of
learning must
be gathered
Evidence of
learning must
be
communicated
“Learning can’t occur if there aren’t learners” (Flinders, 2013)
Unless it is our priority to make
learning “visible to students”
We may NOT fix what
is broken in our
teaching
Students may NOT
become “better”
(deeper) learners
Students may NOT be
able to communicate
their context to
potential employers
People “out there”
may go on believing
that higher education
is “not worth it”
Finally, All the Cool Professors are
Doing It…
• Meta-cognition is where it’s at
• Brain-based learning matters
• Cognitive approaches to learning
work
• Student Voices should be heard
STUDENTS
Of these Visibilities which is the
MOST IMPORTANT
Instructor
SoTL
“Visible Beyond the Higher Education
Community” is most Important
Visible Beyond Higher Education
Visible Beyond the Higher Education
Community
College is not “worth it”
• Higher Education is expensive
• Student debt is at an all time
high
• Recent data from Census
Bureau & DOL found 54% of
recent college grads
unemployed
.
Visible Beyond the Higher Education
Community
Academically Adrift
• Authors followed 2300
undergraduates at 24
universities
• 45% of students did not
demonstrate significant
improvement in learning
during the 1st two years of
college
• 36% do not show
improvement in 4 years
Visible Beyond Higher Education
Community
• Standardized Tests
– Use of standardized tests has increased
dramatically as a way to measure learning
• Concern that that accountability is “squeezing
out creative and content rich learning”
• Even when test scores rise that does not
always reflect in better or deeper learning.
Krechevsky, Mara, Rivard, Melissa and Burton, Fredrick R.(2010) 'Accountability in Three Realms:
Making Learning Visible Inside and Outside the Classroom', Theory Into Practice, 49: 1, 64 — 71
Visibility of SoTL Beyond the Higher
Education Community” is most
Important
• Why
– Because of the “bad rap” higher education is
getting
– Because the outside is controlling our funding
– Because of accreditation pressures
– Because people criticize what they don’t
understand
– Because standardized tests do not tell the whole
picture
– Because SoTL can improve teaching and learning
Summary: Which visibility is in fact
the most important?
Instructor
SoTL