Conducting Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) in Your Courses

Thursday 1:30pm-4:00pm SERC Building - 210
Afternoon Mini Workshop

Leader

Karen Kortz, Community College of Rhode Island

The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) is the systematic study by instructors of the impact of their teaching on student learning and the sharing of results (e.g. through discussions, department meetings, presentations, and publications). In this workshop, we will discuss the basic steps involved in a SoTL project, identify different types of research questions to answer, and compare strategies of SoTL study design and data collection. Participants will brainstorm ideas, receive feedback, and leave the workshop with their own research questions and an initial plan to answer them.

Goals

By the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:

  • Summarize the steps involved in SoTL
  • Write and review SoTL research questions that span interests and topics
  • Identify and evaluate different strategies of SoTL study design, data collection, and analysis

Program

1:30 Welcome and Introductions (15 minutes)

1:45 Discussion about what is SoTL and its benefits (15 minutes)

2:00 The steps involved in SoTL (10 minutes)

2:10 SoTL research questions (15 minutes)

2:25 Participants brainstorm research questions and discuss them in small groups (25 minutes)

2:50 Break (10 minutes)

3:00 SoTL study design (25 minutes)

3:25 Participants plan a SoTL project and discuss it in small groups (25 minutes)

3:50 Wrap-up and workshop evaluation (10 minutes)

4:00 Adjourn

Resources

Participants are encouraged to review the handouts before the workshop and use them to do some initial brainstorming about potential plans for a SoTL project. Doing so will allow for additional depth in discussions and feedback during the workshop.

SoTL Workshop Handouts (Acrobat (PDF) 235kB May8 24)

SoTL Workshop Slides (Acrobat (PDF) 464kB May8 24)

Engaging in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (2012) by Cathy Bishop-Clark and Beth Dietz-Uhler

Journal of Geoscience Education: specifically Curriculum and Instruction papers