What is it?
The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) is a growing field in post-secondary education that uses systematic, deliberate, and rigorous inquiry into teaching to improve student learning (Potter & Kustra, 2011). The field of SoTL aims to engage the instructor in careful planning, evaluation and dissemination, and invites a range of methodologies and disciplinary practices and epistemologies.
SoTL’s main objectives are:
- To improve student learning.
- To conduct a scholarly examination of teaching and learning by asking questions and collecting evidence.
- To make the results of this inquiry available to other scholars, inviting comments and review.
Considerations
Novice and experienced SoTL practitioners may find it useful to consider the following before embarking in a SoTL project.
- Understanding SoTL: In SoTL, context is everything! Situating your work in context will allow your audience to gauge the extent to which your findings can inform their own teaching practice. SoTL’s main goal is the improvement of student learning while generalizability and transferability are not typically an objective.
- Defining and scoping research questions: Questions that are too broad or complex are hard to tackle and require more resources (e.g., time, funds). Break down big questions into smaller components and start with the pieces you care about most. SoTL should be an iterative process that invites the exploration of more/new questions in subsequent rounds of inquiry.
- Choosing a method to research behaviours, attitudes and perceptions: There is room for quantitative and qualitative methodologies and methods within SoTL. Seek support from colleagues and experts if your SoTL work is pushing you beyond your disciplinary and methodological expertise.
- Communicating findings: Dissemination of SoTL work can happen in a variety of outlets, from peer-reviewed journals to internal/local meetings to alternative outlets (e.g., social media). Choosing a venue that aligns with your interests, target audience and capacity will allow your findings and experiences to reach the appropriate audience.
Where to Start
If you are interested in engaging with SoTL, collegial support and resources are available through UBC’s Institute for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (ISoTL). Visit our website to learn more about our programs and services and how to access them!
- SoTL Seed Program: Provides those interested in exploring the impact of their pedagogical choices with graduate research specialists, collegial collaborations, and limited funding. The program has two calls for proposals per year, one in Spring and one in Fall.
- ISoTL Newsletter: Sign up for our newsletter featuring UBC ISoTL updates, upcoming calls for proposals and events, and spotlights on SoTL activities at UBC. Our newsletter is released once per term.
- ISoTL Press: Showcases and disseminates the impactful work of UBC’s SoTL community to inform UBC’s teaching and learning practice and scholarship, and delivers these learnings beyond our walls. ISoTL Press has two review cycles per year, with submission deadlines in Spring and Fall.
- SoTL Dissemination Fund: Supports the dissemination of research on teaching and learning in higher education with direct implications for UBC. The Fund receives application on a rolling basis.
- Celebrate SoTL: This annual event is held in October and invites SoTL practitioners across UBC to engage in dialogue around teaching and learning and to advance SoTL work. Our typical program involves a keynote speaker/round table, one interactive workshop, and a poster session.
Go Further
Contact:
- Contact us at ctlt.isotl@ubc.ca to explore how we can support your SoTL interests and needs!
Faculty Story
SoTL Seed Awardee and SoTL Scholar:
Laila Ferreira, Assistant Professor of Teaching
Writing, Research, and Discourse Studies (WRDS)
What was the most valuable lesson you learnt through this SoTL process? How did your engagement with SoTL change your teaching practice?
SoTL has profoundly impacted how I design student learning. My very first SoTL project gathered Vantage college (EAL) student experiences of peer review and peer review feedback using ComPAIR (a peer review tool developed here at UBC), and was supported by a SoTL Specialist. Our findings confirmed and also further informed how I model effective feedback and support students in providing substantial and useful feedback on one another’s assignments.
The SoTL process was so rewarding and beneficial for the students and myself that I have participated in many SoTL projects over the years since. Most recently, colleagues and I in JWAM/WRDS received SoTL seed funding to further develop an online anti-racist toolkit for the teaching of writing, and I am currently both a faculty contributor and lead on TLEF projects to do with AI and writing as well as the piloting of ten characteristics on how to teach writing inclusively.
All of this is to say that SoTL has been fundamental to my practice as an Educational Leader stream faculty including my responsiveness to current pedagogy, ongoing decolonization and reconciliation work, and new developments in technology such as AI. SoTL has helped me in understanding how my teaching can best foster inclusive learning situations for students in my courses as well as how I can apply SoTL findings to the development of resources for colleagues in other teaching contexts. I would encourage everyone to utilize the SoTL resources provided by CTLT in order to learn more about your own teaching practices from students themselves.
