What is the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) in Higher Education?

Kathleen McKinney, Cross Endowed Chair in the Scholarship in Teaching and Learning

Illinois State University

• At Illinois State University, we have agreed to conceptualize SoTL as “systematic reflection on teaching and learning made public.”
• In work at the Carnegie Foundation, the following definition has been used: “problem posing about an issue of teaching or learning, study of the problem through methods appropriate to the disciplinary epistemologies, applications of results to practice, communication of results, self-reflection, and peer review” (Cambridge, 2001).
• Kreber and Cranton (2000) view SoTL as “ongoing learning about teaching and the demonstration of such knowledge.”
• While Richlin (2001) argues, “The scholarship part of the process involves composing selected portions of the investigation and findings [or integration or reflection] into a manuscript to be submitted to an appropriate journal or conference venue.”
• Martin, Benjamin, Prosser, and Trigwell (1999) argue that the scholarship of teaching is three related activities: engagement with the existing knowledge on teaching and learning, self-reflection on teaching and learning in ones discipline, and public sharing of ideas about teaching and learning within the discipline.
• Pat Hutchings (2002), senior scholar at the Carnegie Foundation, reminds us that SoTL builds on many past traditions in higher education including classroom and program assessment, K-12 action research, the reflective practice movement, peer review of teaching, traditional educational research, and faculty development efforts to enhance teaching and learning.