Documentation of Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Trends at National Council on Family Relations Annual Conferences, 2006-2015

Modalities of Faculty Engagement with the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

“…A compounding factor reducing time for SoTL activities is the absence of SoTL from formal job descriptions, a precarity which has been identified by other groups (DiGregorio et al, 2016;Vander Kloet et al, 2017). At a structural level, the inclusion of SoTL research into formal roles of faculty and staff members would increase individual time for SoTL inquiry.…”

“…Unfortunately, for most faculty and staff, the work involved in keeping up with SoTL literature is often described as "off the side of one's desk," as it is not part of scholars' disciplinary research and often "doesn't count" toward their research portfolio (DiGregorio et al, 2016;Harland et al, 2014). Sometimes this labor is supported by the work of student partners, however, the precarity of faculty members engagement with SoTL can in turn limit opportunities for student participation (Mercer-Mapstone et al, 2017).…”

The past, present, and future of scholarship of teaching and learning in psychology.

“…Other researchers reported that departmental and institutional support for SoTL is high. For example, specific to the family studies discipline, Reinke, Muraco, and Maurer (2016) found that at the departmental level more than 66% supported and encouraged SoTL involvement, and at the institutional level 64% of respondents indicate it is supported and encouraged. These researchers provide some insight into the potential national perception of SoTL; however, the studies are either discipline specific or population specific.…”

“…Advancing the research of Gurung et al (2008), other researchers focused on discipline specific perceptions of SoTL in family studies (e.g., DiGregorio, Maurer, & Pattanaik, 2016; Reinke, Muraco, & Maurer, 2016), dental education (Lanning et al, 2014), health sciences (e.g., Burns, Merchant, & Appelt, 2013), and across academic disciplines but with specific populations (e.g., early career faculty; Matthews, Lodge, & Bosanquet, 2014; within one institution, Secret, Leisey, Lanning, Polich, & Schaub, 2012). In general, these researchers found that individual faculty valued SoTL, but that at the institutional level, there was mixed support.…”

“…We wanted to understand the current state of affairs in SoTL, so first we examined our 2017 sample which included both psychology and nonpsychology faculty. As researchers have focused either on discipline specific perceptions of SoTL (e.g., Buch, 2008; Burns et al, 2013; DiGregorio et al, 2016; Gurung et al, 2008; Reinke et al, 2016) or within special populations across academic disciplines (Matthews et al, 2014; Secret et al, 2012), our first aim was to determine what the current state of SoTL was across diverse academic disciplines and how activities that promote SoTL are evaluated within different settings. As such, we assessed SoTL practices and perceptions among faculty nationwide across diverse academic disciplines, institution type, teaching experience, and academic rank.…”