Setting the Stage: The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

Abstract

Background and Purpose. The purpose of this article is to provide an overview of the emerging field of the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL); an historic overview of SoTL tracing back to Boyer's landmark book, Scholarship Reconsidered: Priorities of the Professoriate6; a survey of approaches for doing scholarly inquiries into teaching and learning; and an analysis of the scholarship of teaching and learning in physical therapy education from both an historical and an institutional perspective. Position and Rationale. This article provides a theoretical framework with examples from the literature that help conceptualize and contextualize the scholarship of teaching and learning. Describing what SoTL is and is not, distinguishing between scholarly teaching and the scholarship of teaching, discussing a variety of approaches to the scholarship of teaching and learning, and providing future directions for this critical area of scholarship, the authors unveil the breadth and depth of SoTL as a valued and accepted form of critical inquiry. This article also provides a brief historical view of the field in general, and also as it has been unfolding in physical therapist education. Results from a survey distributed to all physical therapist education programs provide insight into how the scholarship of teaching and learning is perceived and valued at institutions across all relevant Carnegie Endowment for the Advancement of Teaching classifications. Discussion and Conclusion. The short history of SoTL in physical therapist education parallels that of other disciplines. There remains confusion about the distinction between scholarly teaching and the scholarship of teaching as well as an inherent lack of understanding or respect for this discipline of inquiry. Physical therapist educators must work with their colleagues across disciplines to advance the important science of teaching and learning. Keywords: Scholarship of teaching and learning, Education, Physical therapy. THE SCHOLARSHIP OF TEACHING AND LEARNING: CHARACTERIZING THE FIELD Introduction Pat Hutchings, vice president of the Carnegie Foundation, gave a talk1 at the 2004 Rockhurst Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) Summer Institute, and stated that the scholarship of teaching and learning is not new, is not only for improving our own teaching, is not the exclusive domain of education, is not dependent on a single method of inquiry, is not a publication machine, is not all figured out, and is not for everyone. She went on to say that SoTL is about bringing the values, habits, and skills of scholarship to the work of teaching and learning. It is about asking questions that we care about regarding what our students are learning. It is about designing a method for researching these questions, and it is about sharing what we learn with our colleagues.1 It is reasonable to ask why we might want to take a more scholarly look into what is occurring in our classrooms. As you might imagine, there is more than 1 answer. Hutchings proposed that we do this work because we want to explore new lines of scholarly work and make a contribution. We do this work because we'd like to find colleagues with whom we can explore questions about our teaching. But primarily, we do this work because teaching is hard and we have questions about our students' learning.1 Lee Shulman suggested that we do this work because it is inherently part of what it means to be a teacher and helps us ensure that, as educators, we are constantly improving and meeting our responsibilities to our students, and as professionals, it helps us address the legitimate questions of our stakeholders in the legislature and on our governing boards.2 This article will provide: (1) an overview of the emerging field of the scholarship of teaching and learning; (2) an historic overview tracing back to Ernest Boyer's landmark book Scholarship Reconsidered: Priorities of the Professoriate6; (3) a survey of approaches for doing scholarly inquiries into teaching and learning; and (4) an analysis of SoTL in physical therapist education from both an historical and institutional perspective. …