Sparking SoTL: Triggers and Stories from One Institution

Abstract

With the growing interest in educational research across post-secondary campuses, it is useful to identify the specific supports that best enable Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) initiatives. This paper documents a picture of SoTL interests and supports at one institution through survey and semi-structured collaborative interview data. Both the survey data (289 respondents) and three semi-structured group interviews (8 participants total) provide a picture of participants who have completed or are interested in completing a SoTL study; the events and experiences that triggered an interest in SoTL; and their perceptions of the importance of SoTL in their own teaching, student learning, in their department, and within the institution as a whole. Based on these two datasets, we propose four lenses that are defined in terms of SoTL triggers and which we name a Scholarship Window. We conclude with a number of recommendations as a way to build capacity for SoTL at the institutional level. Suite à l’intérêt grandissant de la recherche dans le domaine de l’éducation sur tous les campus d’enseignement supérieur, il est utile d’identifier les soutiens spécifiques qui favorisent le mieux les initiatives de l’avancement des connaissances en enseignement et en apprentissage (ACEA). Cet article présente un tableau des intérêts et des soutiens en ACEA dans un établissement donné, établi par le biais d’une enquête et d’une série d’entrevues en collaboration semi-structurées. Les données obtenues suite à l’enquête (289 répondants) et celles de trois entrevues semi-structurées (8 participants au total) ont permis d’établir un tableau de participants qui ont complété ou qui s’intéressent à compléter une étude en ACEA, les événements et les expériences qui ont déclenché cet intérêt en ACEA ainsi que les perceptions des répondants de l’importance de l’ACEA pour leur propre enseignement, pour l’apprentissage des étudiants et pour leur département, ainsi qu’au sein de l’établissement dans son ensemble. Sur la base de ces deux groupes de données, nous proposons quatre lentilles qui sont définies en tant que déclencheurs d’ACEA, que nous avons nommées « fenêtre sur l’avancement des connaissances ». En conclusion, nous présentons un certain nombre de recommandations pour renforcer les capacités en ACEA au niveau institutionnel.

Modalities of Faculty Engagement with the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

“…Similar to previous scholarship, we identified a multitude of SoTL engagement possibilities (Kim et al, 2021;Miller-Young et al, 2017;Newton et al, 2019). We also identified familiar hurdles which may impede SoTL participation by faculty and staff members (Kolomitro et al, 2018;Maheux-Pelletier et al, 2019). While these opportunities and challenges for SoTL practitioners echo extant literature, our analysis provides further insight into how these phenomena are related to effective teaching practices.…”

“…However, these types of activities often require a greater time commitment than passive engagement strategies. Similar to other groups, our participants identified a lack of protected time as a barrier to engaging with the literature (Brownell & Tanner, 2012;Kim et al, 2021;Kolomitro et al, 2018), which would explain the level of passive engagement activities. This highlights the need for teaching and learning centers to provide multiple modes of SoTL training and engagement, to provide options for faculty and staff to engage with SoTL in ways that match their interest and time availability.…”

“…SoTL as a field has historically emphasized collaborative inquiry as vital (Chick & Poole, 2013;Elton, 2009). Working in teams has been shown to decrease feelings of invisibility and isolation reported by SoTL practitioners, as well as help scholars acculturate to SoTL norms and develop relevant research skills (Kolomitro et al, 2018;Vander Kloet et al, 2017). Faculty interviewees also brought up the importance of including students in the research process, thus increasing student confidence by becoming producers of knowledge through engaging in scholarly inquiry.…”

“…Whatever the intervention, institutional teaching and learning centers play a vital role in supporting researchers' engagement in SoTL (Kim et al, 2021;Miller-Young et al, 2016). Being that institutional context has been identified as an integral component for the design and delivery of SoTL supports (Kim et al, 2021;Kolomitro et al, 2018), how might a teaching and learning center identify which supports would most benefit its faculty and staff SoTL practitioners? To that end, the objective of this study was to identify modalities of faculty and staff engagement in SoTL.…”

Surfing the fourth wave: An examination of faculty motivation(s) to participate in SoTL

“…In what some scholars have referred to as “meta‐SoTL” studies (Chick and Poole 2014), for example, there has been a tendency to identify enablers of SoTL engagement or those factors that serve to advance the forward momentum of SoTL as a movement and as a catalyst for individual and collective teaching transformation, respectively (Schroeder, 2007). Several influential studies, for instance, have focused on harnessing the intrinsic motivations of faculty and, increasingly, students to engage in work that enhances learning (e.g., Acai et al., 2017; Friberg et al., 2021; Huber & Robinson 2016; Kim et al., 2021; Kolomitro et al., 2018).…”