SoTL Research Research Articles

Qualitative Inquiry: The Case for the Importance of Considering Student Perspectives in SoTL Research

Qualitative Inquiry: The Case for the Importance of Considering Student Perspectives in SoTL Research

Cultivating a sustained community of teaching and learning scholars across disciplines and institutions

AbstractThis article explores the evolutionary nature of higher education and how it continues to stress the need for the professoriate to be active within scholarly teaching. This qualitative study examines how each author navigates SoTL research and analyzes the authors' reflective journaling for themes and sub‐themes for alignment with Scholarship Reconsidered, Scholarship Assessed and Community of Scholars models. Study findings support the existing literature and showcases the importance of establishing a community of scholars that offers its members a place of psychological safety and support.

Signature Pedagogies -- A Cautionary Tale

The idea that each discipline in higher education has its own unique "signature pedagogy" has gained popularity since Lee Shulman first proposed the idea in 2005. But can the focus on signature pedagogies in SOTL work be a problem as well as a benefit? This essay explores both the history of signature pedagogies and the possible downside of the use of this concept to frame SOTL research and teaching informed by SOTL.

Point of View: Getting Started in SoTL Research: Working as a Team

Point of View: Getting Started in SoTL Research: Working as a Team

Applying Theatre Principles to SoTL Research

The same principles of engagement that actors use to engage deeply with the script and their roles can also be used to more engage deeply SoTL scholars in their lines of inquiry. In this paper, we draw parallels between actors’ approaches to theatre performance and deep engagement with SoTL inquiry. We build on a relational perspective to help others generate SoTL questions about interactions between instructor and students. We describe activities that draw on dramatic arts theory and through a process of “defining the issue, agitating the inquiry, and discerning the questions” (Simmons & Simmons, in press), we outline sample activities to help support others in honing SoTL questions and transforming the questions into successful SoTL project implementation.

Reflective Writing and Self-Regulated Learning in Multidisciplinary Flipped Classrooms

Flipped classes are designed to facilitate self-teaching, self-assessment, and self-regulation (Talbert, 2017). Because flipped classes demand more student responsibility than traditional classes, monitoring their own learning and making adjustments are crucial in helping students perceive this increase as manageable. The current study hypothesized that students in flipped classes would show increases across the semester in their self-regulated learning and that students who engaged in reflective writing tasks (e.g., Nilson, 2013) would show more improvement than those who did not. The full sample consisted of 402 students in courses across multiple disciplines, and there were 26 students in two psychology-specific courses. Contrary to expectations, students’ motivation and learning strategy scores decreased or remained stable across the semester, except for test anxiety and peer learning, which improved. In general, completing reflective writing tasks seemed to attenuate the decline in motivation scores and actually improve some learning strategy scores in the full sample, but not in the psychology-specific courses, except for test anxiety. These results may reflect an overall decrease in motivation due to the approaching end of the school year or more complexity than originally hypothesized. Follow-up analyses are underway to examine possible mediating/moderating factors. Methodological challenges in conducting multidisciplinary SoTL research and implications for future research are discussed.

Learning by Design

This article reports on an application of a SoTL research process for two teacher education instructors in an undergraduate teacher education course, Teaching and Learning in the Digital Age. After engaging in content analysis of student work samples derived from a Digital Sabbath assignment, the instructors asked more questions about how well the assignment aligned to course objectives and intended learning outcomes. Collaboratively, they determined how the Digital Sabbath assignment could be revised to better meet the stated course objective. The authors anticipate that assignment revisions could result in improved student learning outcomes for the teacher education students. Insights from the student responses and course materials are discussed as well as implications for teaching and learning in a teacher education program.

Bridging the Gap between the Research Ethics Board and the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

In 2016, Dalhousie University’s Research Ethics Board created an interdisciplinary working group to identify the key ethical challenges of SoTL research, with the overarching aim of recommending best practices and communicating these to researchers in order to support and expand the conduct of ethically sound SoTL research. This essay reflects on the lessons learned through this process and shines a light on the three most contentious arenas that emerged: using class time to conduct SoTL research, integrating Students Ratings of Instruction (SRI) into SoTL, and incorporating student work as a data source.
 This essay contributes to the emerging conversation around ethical SoTL research in two important ways. First, we argue for more lenient REB protocols that encourage SoTL research by exposing how restrictive interpretations of key issues serve as obstacles for student-centered research. Second, we introduce new tools designed to address these impediments, including the first-ever interactive user guide. The overarching aims of this essay are (a) to help SoTL researchers navigate this complex terrain, and (b) to encourage other Canadian REBs to consider implementing more permissive regimes.

Exploring Impact Metrics Beyond Indices and Citations for SOTL and Applied Educational Research

One of the responsibilities of academic pharmacy faculty is to demonstrate excellence within the tripartite mission of teaching, research and service. Faculty members document their activities and achievements at least annually and periodically for promotion and/or tenure reviews. Demonstrating

Educational Equipoise and the Educational Misconception; Lessons from Bioethics

Some advances in bioethics regarding ethical considerations that arise in the context of medical research can also be relevant when thinking about the ethical considerations that arise in the context of SoTL research. In this article, I aim to bring awareness to two potential ethical challenges SoTL researchers might face when playing a dual role of teacher and researcher that are similar to the challenges physicians face in their dual role of physician and researcher. I argue that two commonly discussed concerns in bioethics—the need for clinical equipoise and the possibility of a therapeutic misconception—have analogies when conducting some types of research on students. I call these counterparts educational equipoise and the educational misconception .

Exploring the Foundations for Student Success: A SoTL Journey

This paper illustrates the chronology of a research project which began in 2010 and continues today. The research has evolved over time from a focus on the phenomenon (developing an understanding of student diversity and its impacts on student success), to experimental research (to learn the impact or benefits derived from the introduction of high impact practices), to a more complex understanding of the foundations for student success. The fourth stage of the research, which is just underway, divides our efforts into two distinct directions. The first is quantitative research utilizing institutional and learning management system data which was previously untracked and untapped. The second is a shift to employing more qualitative research tools aimed at advocacy and institutional change. Through each phase of the research the paper presents two distinct perspectives: First is the perspective of instructors-turned-SoTL-researchers as we muddle our way through understanding our challenges and learning how to use SoTL research methods to help guide the way. The second perspective is that of an established SoTL researcher, who provides commentary and guidance to our journey. Our hope is that the reader finds these two perspectives of a research journey both informative and valuable in providing insights into how a long-term research project might unfold.

SoTL Research Fellows: Collaborative Pathfinding through Uncertain Terrain

From 2014-2016, Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) Research Fellows at a mid-sized Canadian research-intensive, medical-doctoral university undertook to study their own formation as scholars of teaching and learning, as well as benefits and challenges of their cross-appointment to our central teaching and learning institute from their home academic departments. Findings from surveys and focus groups identified themes such as identity, community, access, transfer, and structural elements (each with benefits and challenges to practice). Our autoethnographic work confirms assertions in the literature about the uneasy relation between SoTL and traditional scholarship, while also bearing out the need for departmental support, and for key interventions along the path from novice to practitioner identity. Some discussion of the ambassador or translator role that can flow from such arrangements is included. De 2014 à 2016, les chercheurs en Avancement des connaissances en enseignement et en apprentissage (ACEA) d’une université canadienne médicale-doctorale de taille moyenne ayant un coefficient de recherche élevé ont entrepris une étude portant sur leur propre formation en tant que chercheurs érudits en matière d’enseignement et d’apprentissage, ainsi que sur les avantages et les défis de leur nomination conjointe à notre institut central d’enseignement et d’apprentissage tout en enseignant dans leur propre département universitaire. Les résultats des sondages et des groupes de discussion ont permis d’identifier certains thèmes tels que l’identité, la communauté, l’accès, le transfert, ainsi que des éléments structuraux (chacun présentant des avantages et des défis concernant la pratique). Notre travail autoethnographique confirme les assertions présentes dans la documentation existante concernant la relation difficile qui existe entre l’ACEA et la recherche traditionnelle, tout en tenant compte de la nécessité du soutien départemental ainsi que pour les interventions clés sur la voie qui consiste à passer de l’identité de novice à celle de praticien. L’article contient également des discussions sur le rôle d’ambassadeur ou de traducteur qui peut découler de tels arrangements.

A Theoretically Grounded Framework for Integrating the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

SoTL scholars have written about the importance and utility of teaching from a guiding theoretical framework. In this paper, ecological theory and specifically Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological model, is examined as a potential framework for synthesizing SoTL research findings to inform teaching and learning scholarship at the college level. A general overview of the bioecological model of human development and its application to the SoTL literature are provided. The benefit of adopting an ecologically-based framework to better understand and exploit the interdisciplinary nature of SoTL is discussed.

Decoding and Disclosure in Students-as-Partners Research: A Case Study of the Political Science Literature Review

The Decoding the Disciplines (DtD) methodology has been used to study bottlenecks to student learning in a range of disciplines. The DtD interview process involves conversations between faculty regarding disciplinary practices. This article analyzes the use of the DtD approach in a student-faculty partnership to explore questions about disciplinary learning in political science. The research team compared how faculty and two cohorts of undergraduates decode a specific disciplinary bottleneck—the task of writing a literature review in political science. Results from the interviews reveal fundamental differences in how faculty and undergraduates conduct literature reviews in this discipline, including a troubling disjuncture as undergraduates become more expert in this process. Because the research team included both students and faculty, we also explore issues of disclosure and power in student-faculty partnerships in SoTL research.

Guidelines for Authorship Credit, Order, and Co-Inquirer Learning in Collaborative Faculty-Student SoTL Projects

Determining authorship credit and order in collaborative research projects can be difficult, can introduce or increase conflict in the research environment, and can exacerbate existing inequalities and affect power dynamics between team members. As a result, much disciplinary scholarship has been written to develop potential guidelines for authorship credit and order. However, the collaborative interdisciplinary nature of much SoTL work, along with the increasing focus of SoTL on students as co-inquirers into SoTL research, creates unique issues and challenges in ethically assigning authorship credit on SoTL projects. Informed by seminal disciplinary papers on authorship issues and best practices in undergraduate research, this paper proposes a new model to identify the relative contributions of student collaborators and explicitly incorporate a process-focused approach to collaborative faculty-student SoTL projects.

SoTL2: Inquiring into the Impact of Inquiry

This chapter briefly describes the SoTL research development program and context at Mount Royal University, reports initial results from a study of the program's impact on participants’ teaching and scholarly activities, and situates the findings regarding individual impact, department‐level impact, institution‐level impact, and discipline‐level impact within the current literature and the Canadian context.

A Theoretically Grounded Framework for Integrating the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

SoTL scholars have written about the importance and utility of teaching from a guiding theoretical framework. In this paper, ecological theory and specifically Bronfenbrenner’s Process, Person, Context, Time (PPCT) model, is examined as a potential framework for synthesizing SoTL research findings to inform effective teaching at the college level. A general overview of the PPCT model of human development and its connections to current topics and areas of inquiry in the SoTL literature are provided. The benefit of adopting an ecologically-based framework to better understand and exploit the interdisciplinary nature of SoTL is discussed.

Mapping Advocacy and Outreach for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

From early days, SoTL scholars have documented the “small significant networks” (Roxa and Martensson’s term) in which colleagues discuss teaching in local gatherings, as well as in broadly attended conferences and publications. Recent ISSOTL discussions recognize the significance of efforts at this scale and seek to situate them in a larger SoTL landscape, or SoTLscape, of advocacy and outreach activities in the field. In this essay, we present a matrix of possible audiences as an aid to seeing where scholars of teaching and learning are more—and less—active as advocates for SoTL and for positions on pedagogy, curricula, and student success supported by SoTL research. Beyond mapping current activity and looking for gaps, we suggest that the matrix could also help organize pithy accounts of practice into a resource that would stimulate imagination about how scholars of teaching and learning could be more effective as advocates both near to and far from their campus and disciplinary homes.

Extending Assessment beyond Our Own Programs and Campuses: The National Survey of Student Leaders and the Inter-Campus Consortium for SoTL Research

Extending Assessment beyond Our Own Programs and Campuses: The National Survey of Student Leaders and the Inter-Campus Consortium for SoTL Research

New Resources for Civic Engagement: The National Survey of Student Leaders and the Consortium for Inter-Campus SoTL Research

Given increasing calls for higher education to promote students’ civic and political engagement, the Consortium for Inter-Campus SoTL Research (CISR) was established to facilitate cross-campus data collection for civic engagement and pedagogy research. CISR’s inaugural project, the National Survey of Student Leaders (NSSL), is the first effort to rely on scholarly insights about the role of voluntary associations play in political socialization to systematically assess the quality of the learning experiences provided by student clubs and organizations. The NSSL provides higher education institutions with the means to regularly assess whether civil society on campus promotes the priorities of the civic engagement movement. This article relays findings from the first wave of the NSSL, while increasing familiarity with the type of campus-level data available from this new assessment tool.