The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Making it Happen

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The Scholarship ofTeaching and LearningMaking
it Happen

• Ryerson University
• 16 November 2006

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The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of
Teaching

• A center for educational research and policy
  studies an operating not a granting foundation
• Our goal is sustainable, long-term educational
  change our programs are designed to foster
  deep, significant, lasting learning for all
  students and to develop students
  understanding, skills and integrity
• SPECC, PPP, MCE, ILP, CID, and CASTL

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The Carnegie Academy for the Scholarship of
Teaching and Learning

• Enhance the practice and profession of teaching
• Bring to faculty inquiry into teaching and
  learning the recognition and reward afforded
  other forms of research
• Make teaching public, subject to critical review,
  and usable to those in the scholarly and general
  community
• Advance a scholarship of teaching and learning
• Scholars, programs, institutions nationally and
  internationally

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Making the Most of the Morning

• Scholarship of teaching and learning revisited
• Starting on the same page
• Challenges and opportunities for lasting change
• Answers in the back of the book
• Institutional cultures, identities, and values
• Moving beyond the footnote

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Principles Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

• One persistent question
• How do you know?
• Three framing problems
• What is, what works, what if?
• Five-part cycles of inquiry
• Observation investigation examination
  application another observation
• Collaborative and collective
• Collegial, disciplinary, institutional, regional,
  cosmopolitan

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Examples Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

• Integrating learning across courses, disciplines,
  and life experiences in a freshman chemistry
  seminar
• Carleton College
• Understanding application scenarios through video
  case-studies in a statistical methods course
• Indiana University
• Exercising and demonstrating free speech
  activities in a pre-law history course
• CSU Monterey Bay

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Features Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

• Building beyond
• Disciplinary knowledge and inquiry
• Pedagogical experience and expertise
• Curricular insight and innovation
• Structured reflections and insight
• Evidence-based, critical refractions
• Strength in numbers
• Students as co-investigators
• Staff and administrative collaborators
• Institutional researchers and the assessment
  community as colleagues

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Next Steps Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

• Questions in your context
• Why does (or should) this form of scholarship
  matter to your institution?
• Who on campus is already interested (or active)
  in this kind of work?
• Where will you find the most, and the least,
  difficulty and resistance?
• How will you identify any allies and associates,
  barriers and roadblocks?
• What are your most intimidating challenges, as
  well as your most promising opportunities?

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Practical ConsiderationsChallenges and
Opportunities

• Challenges
• Learning is hard to see and understand, teaching
  is hard to study and improve
• Scholarship is narrowly defined, teaching and
  learning scholarship requires special mechanisms
  for review and recognition
• Scholarship is often driven by prestige, teaching
  and learning scholarship often highlights the
  need for improvement
• Opportunities
• Better learning via teaching excellence
• Comprehension, critique, and meaning
• Defining culture, identity, value, success

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Familiar ConcernsChallenges and Opportunities

• Awareness and legitimacy
• Knowledge and experience
• Campus conversations
• Respect and recognition
• Impact and influence
• Existence proofs
• Reward and reinforcement
• Profit and mutual benefit
• Learning awards
• Promotion and leadership
• Visibility and authority
• High profile collaboration

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Conceptual shifts Challenges and Opportunities

• The goal of the goal
• Culture of improvement
• Respect for teaching inquiry
• Improved student learning
• The vision of vision
• Seeing the processes
• Recognizing the possibilities
• Moving toward the possible
• The place of place
• Working within campus structures
• Valuing institutional distinctions
• Initiating collective commitments

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Next Steps Challenges and Opportunities

• Questions in your context
• How does your institution currently study and
  improve student learning define and value good
  teaching identify strengths and weaknesses?
• Why is any form of scholarship recognized and
  rewarded, and how is it different from the
  scholarship of teaching and learning?
• Where is the most exciting and original work
  occurring, and how does it impact teaching and
  learning across campus?
• What qualities make your institution distinctive
  or unique, whats your draw?

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Working through Cultures, Identities and Values

• Perception and potential
• Creating anew or contributing to an institutional
  distinction
• Supporting or helping to redirect any ongoing
  initiatives
• Identifying and capitalizing on the internal
  strengths
• Acknowledging and embracing the external
  influences
• Influencing and helping to realize the five year
  plan
• Articulating and addressing needs of the
  community and the greater good

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Working with Cultures, Identities and Values

• Colleagues and constituencies
• Campus leaders, official and unofficial, and
  others who have to be at the table
• Individuals, factions, and groups known for
  initiating or obstructing change
• The old guard, the young Turks, and anyone who
  speaks for either
• Part-time faculty, graduate students, others who
  fall between the cracks
• Those who share perceived needs and visions, and
  those to be convinced
• Whoever will benefit the most, as well as those
  who will be left behind

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Working on Cultures, Identities and Values

• Making it happen
• Shifting the perception of learning, teaching,
  and scholarship
• Building on the potential for concern, curiosity,
  and change
• Cultivating the trust and good will in those who
  matter and care
• Addressing the needs of students and faculty,
  teaching and learning, mission and mandate,
  vision and value
• Weaving a commitment to scholarship of teaching
  and learning into the fabric of your institution

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Sidebar What Educational Developers Know

• Prominent individuals in the community who are
  committed to improvement and open to new ideas
• Campus and programmatic push points and
  tipping points ready for influence and not
  resistant to change
• Institutional adjustments and transformations
  already in the works but in need of direction and
  clear impact
• Regional, national, and international
  opportunities for visibility, promotion, and
  subtle persuasion

not to scale
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Sidebar What Educational Developers Do

• Individual instruction - in the know, with the
  know-how
• Disciplinary orchestration - working with
  departments
• Collaborative matchmaking - connected and
  connecting
• Institutional guidance - seeing the big picture
• Institutional representation - speaking for your
  campus
• Regional cooperation - connecting good
  initiatives
• National coordination - aligning process and
  priorities
• International affiliation - being part of the
  bigger picture

not to scale
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Next Steps Cultures, Identities and Values

• Questions in your context
• What makes your institution distinctive?
• What initiatives are currently underway?
• What are your strengths and influences?
• What is your plan for a better future?
• Who will be your most important colleagues and
  constituencies?
• What will you turn to for assistance, support,
  and collaboration?
• How will you make it happen and make it work?

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Paddling Faster than the Current

• Understanding and improving how students learn
  and faculty teach
• Recognizing faculty roles and updating the system
  of rewards
• Creating scholarly communities dedicated to
  teaching and learning
• Influencing institutional culture, identity, and
  value from the inside
• Changing the way we think about assessment and
  accountability

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Acknowledgements and Connections

• Ryerson University
• The Learning and Teaching Office

• The Carnegie Foundation
• The Carnegie Academy for the Scholarship of
  Teaching and Learning (CASTL)