This document provides an overview of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL). It defines SoTL as a means to systematically study and improve teaching and learning. The document outlines the basic steps of SoTL, including generating a research question, designing a study, collecting and analyzing data, and presenting findings. It emphasizes starting with a problem from one's own teaching and formulating a specific research question. Examples of SoTL questions are provided. The document also discusses what SoTL is and is not, as well as resources for publishing SoTL research.
Getting Started with SoTL: Formulating Research Questions
1. SoTL: Scholarship of
Teaching and Learning
Getting Started and Formulating the Research Question
Dr. Staci Trekles, atrekles@pnw.edu
2.
3. What is SoTL?
• The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) is a means to figure out why
certain teaching strategies work or don’t work, and how students learn in your
class/program
• SoTL can help you (and your students) reflect, refine, and innovate your teaching in
a systematic, reflective way
• Often multidisciplinary and can include classes and colleagues from across
departments
• Engaging in SoTL is a scholarly activity that results in publishable articles or
presentations
4. SoTL Basics
• Reflective process, similar to research in any disciplinary field
• Goals typically relate to improving student learning and experiences
• Five primary steps (Bishop-Clark & Dietz-Uhler, 2012):
1. Generate the research question and do literature review
2. Design the study
3. Collect data
4. Analyze data
5. Present and publish
5. Conducting SOTL
• Work from your question and identify the types of evidence that you will have to work with
in the time that you have, such as:
• Student work samples and assessments
• Student evaluations
• The structure/design of your course
• Do a literature review and see what’s out there on the topic already
• The more types of evidence, the better! “Triangulating” the data is a good idea
• Analyze the data in terms of similarities and differences in what you see, and how it
corresponds to the question
6. What SOTL Isn’t
• Not typically a randomized experimental study
• Not always controlled
• May not have large sample sizes, pretests, or post-tests
• Results are not (necessarily) generalizable
• Definitely not limited to certain disciplines or certain forms of evidence in
order to show your results
• Definitely NOT inferior to other forms of research
7. Start with a “Problem”
• What major themes are you facing in your course/teaching/program?
• What are your biggest challenges in your courses? How have you attempted
to solve them?
• What has gone well or not-so-well that you’d like to understand better for the
future?
• Are there new developments in your discipline that students need to be
better prepared for?
8. Getting More Specific About Your Problem
• Consider your students or groups of students - what are they like? Can they
help you in the research?
• Will there be comparison groups?
• What types of data will you have available?
• How will you analyze the data?
• What kind of time do you have to engage in this project?
9. Formulating the Research Question
• The more specific you can get, the
better
• Keywords for finding literature should
be available in the research questions
• Is there still some room for new
scholarship in this area? Or will your
research be the same as previous
work?
10. Genres of SoTL Questions
• What worked – reports from
classes on what went well; before-
and-after evaluations
• What is – reflections on a period of
time in teaching; includes
summaries of experimentation,
integration of learning theory and
frameworks
• What it looks like – descriptions
and comparisons of courses in a
larger context; across disciplines or
within a program
• What is possible – formulating new
theories and conceptual
frameworks based on practice
(Hutchings, 2000; Nelson, 2003)
11. Examples
• Is the current attendance policy resulting in higher levels of achievement on
course objectives?
• Does the use of clickers (or Think-Pair-Share, or some other strategy)
improve performance on exams regarding quadratic equations?
• How can deeper critical thinking be achieved through the use of feedback on
essays?
• Will students increase their confidence in public speaking after watching and
critiquing videos of themselves giving speeches?
• How does the incorporation of reflective essay assignments in beginning
biology influence student learning in upper-level biology coursework?
12. Your Turn!
• Let’s generate some questions based on the things that interest you about
your teaching
• Are there any potential collaborations in the room?
13. Publishing
• Consider conferences with practitioner focus in your field, or in the education or
social science disciplines (i.e., EDUCAUSE, SITE, AACE, Quality Matters,
MERLOT, Teaching Professor, Lilly International Conferences)
• Conferences and journals with a education focus in your discipline (i.e., Computer
Science Education, Teaching of Psychology, Nurse Education Today, Journal of Research in
Mathematics Education)
• Many publications specialize in SOTL research:
• http://www.issotl.com/issotl15/node/21
• http://www.fctl.ucf.edu/ResearchAndScholarship/SoTL/journals/
14. More Resources
• Vanderbilt SOTL “getting started” guide: https://my.vanderbilt.edu/sotl/doing-
sotl/getting-started/
• Guidebook to SOTL – thinking of a problem and the questions:
https://my.vanderbilt.edu/sotl/files/2013/09/1SoTLProblem4.pdf
• Annual SoTL Conferences: http://www.washington.edu/teaching/sotl-annual-conferences/
• Faculty Center for Teaching and Learning at Univ. of Central Florida:
http://www.fctl.ucf.edu/ResearchAndScholarship/SoTL/
• Center for Engaged Learning at Elon University videos:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNIm8Apo1feU73SPyxEXXgg
15. References
• Bishop-Clark, C, & Dietz-Uhler, B (2012). Engaging in the scholarship of teaching and
learning. Sterling, VA: Stylus.
• Boyer, E.L. (1990). Scholarship reconsidered: Priorities of the professorate. San Francisco,
CA: Jossey-Bass.
• Hutchings, P. (2000). Opening lines: Approaches to the scholarship of teaching and learning.
Menlo Park, CA: Carnegie.
• Nelson, C. (2003). Doing it: Examples of several of the different genres of the
scholarship of teaching and learning. Journal of Excellence in College Teaching, 14(2), 85-
94.