Introduction to SoTL

1
Introduction to SoTL

• Patrick Ashton
• Yvonne Zubovic
• September 23, 2005

2
The Continuum

• Scholarly Scholarship
• Teaching of Teaching
• and Learning

3
Shulman (1998)

• A scholarship of teaching will entail a public
  account of some or all of the full act of
  teaching vision, design, enactment, outcomes,
  and analysis in a manner susceptible to
  critical review by the teachers professional
  peers and amenable to productive employment in
  future work by members of the same community.

4
Hutchings and Shulman (1999)

• In a scholarship of teaching faculty frame and
  systematically investigate questions related to
  student learning the conditions under which it
  occurs, what it looks like, how to deepen it, and
  so forth and do so with an eye not only to
  improving their own classroom but to advancing
  practice beyond it.

5
Characteristics of SoTL

• Public (community property)
• Open to Critical Peer Review and Evaluation
• Capable of being adapted and used by others
• Involves question-asking, inquiry, and
  investigation around student learning issues
• i.e., Public, Professional, Peer-reviewed

6
Standards for Assessing Scholarly Work

• Clear Goals
• Adequate Preparation (literature review)
• Appropriate Methods
• Significant Results
• Effective Presentation
• Reflective Critique

7
What is daunting about doing this work?

• Theory and literature
• Methodology
• Resources
• Handout
• Mack Center www.facet.iupui.edu/activities/MackCen
  ter
• clues, samples, resources, fellowships

8
Overview of Research Process

• Begin with a problem (Randy Bass)
• Review the Literature
• Formulate a research hypothesis
• Design a study to answer the question
• Collect evidence
• Analyze the data
• Draw conclusions about specific question
• Generalize results to other disciplines

9
Designing the Study

• Feasibility rigor versus practicality?
• How long?
• Ethical constraints?
• IRB approval for use of human subjects?
• www.irb.purdue.edu/
• Costs?
• Resources?

10
Other Design Issues

• Random or other sampling technique?
• Experimental, quasi-experimental, observational?
• Treatments, interventions?
• Outcomes or measures?
• Groups of Subjects?
• Pre-testing versus post-testing?

11
Analysis Issues

• Qualitative versus quantitative research?
• Appropriate methods of analysis?
• Statistical versus practical significance?

12
Your SoTL Ideas?