Growing Lemon Trees from Lemons: Lessons Reaped from a SoTL Faculty Learning Community's Research "Failures"

Janet Marshall,Jeff H Kuznekoff,John P Forren,Karen M Brown,Linh Dich,Theresa Conover

doi:10.14434/josotl.v17i4.21377

Janet Marshall, Jeff H Kuznekoff + Show 4 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.14434/josotl.v17i4.21377

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Abstract

Failure can be central to faculty research; however, failure produces a vehicle for learning. Through an interdisciplinary faculty community, the authors supported each other in facing, learning from, and overcoming “failed” aspects of research projects. This article reports obstacles encountered in conducting Scholarship of Teaching and Learning research and the role of a faculty learning community in overcoming these challenges. Research pitfalls included lack of student participants, non-significant findings, expectations for understanding related course content, technology issues, use of deception, determining the research question, and managing bias. Ultimately, the faculty learning community engendered a foundation for successful research projects by shared inquiry into these research “failures.”

Highlights

Failure can be central to faculty research; failure produces a vehicle for learning
As these research vignettes show, failures in research need not mark the discouraging end of once-promising ideas; rather, they can teach us important lessons, give us new insights and lead us down new paths of productive scholarly work
For the authors of this article, this realization -that lemons could produce lemon trees -- was the product of a sustained partnership with colleagues from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds and perspectives. It emerged from a Faculty Learning Communities (FLC) remarkable for its collaborative spirit, its sense of shared purpose and its openness to the sharing of frank but supportive feedback

Summary

Introduction

Failure can be central to faculty research; failure produces a vehicle for learning. This experiential learning project would create opportunities for students to examine the literature related to police-citizen satisfaction, identify the best way to gather the information, determine the methodology, collect and analyze data, and to present findings and recommendations (Conover, 2015a).

Results

Conclusion