1.
Scholarship of
Teaching & Learning
Workshop
Christina Hendricks
University of British Columbia, Vancouver
Lakehead University, November 2019

2.
Agenda
□ What is SoTL?
□ Getting started with SoTL
■ Defining a question (activity)
■ Identifying evidence (activity)
■ Other considerations
Slides & worksheets:
is.gd/sotlworkshop2019
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3.
1. What is SoTL?
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4.
A definition
of SoTL
The “systematic study of teaching and
learning and the public sharing and
review of such work through live or
virtual presentations, performances, or
publications”
(McKinney 2006, p. 39).
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5.
At the
intersection
5
Researc
h
Discipline
Teaching
practice
SoTL

6.
SoTL & Scholarly
Teaching
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Using teaching
methods that
support student
learning
Grounding
teaching in
scholarly research
on T&L
(consumption)
Creation &
dissemination of
scholarly work
on T&L
(production)
Effective
Teaching
Scholarly
Teaching
SoTL

7.
Dimensions of teaching practice
7 (Kern et al., 2015)

8.
Developing a teaching
commons through SoTL
“Moving teaching from a mostly
private enterprise … to teaching
as ‘community property,’ which is
documented, shared, and built
upon,” for the sake of ongoing
improvement.
(Huber & Hutchings, 2005, p. 19)
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9.
2. Getting started:
Defining a question
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10.
SoTL process
10
Define
questions
Identify
evidence
Create a
detailed plan
Prepare and
pilot
Collect data
and analyze
Disseminate
Apply to
teaching

11.
Some types of SoTL questions
□ What works?
■ Seek evidence of the relative effectiveness of particular
teaching approaches (evaluative)
□ What/how is…?
■ Seek to describe, but not evaluate, a phenomenon
observed in the classroom or the consequences of
particular teaching approaches (descriptive, exploratory)
□ Theory building
■ Seek to build theoretical frameworks
Hutchings, “Introduction” in Hutchings (2000)
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12.
Factors in
defining
questions
Practice:
What want to
evaluate?
12
Define
questions
Identify
evidence
Create a
detailed plan
Prepare and
pilot
Collect data
and analyze
Lit review:
What have
others said?
Impact:
What effect
hope to achieve?
Context:
Where does it
take place?

13.
Research question
templates
□ What/how is …?
■ What are the factors that influence
_something_ in the context of _context_?
■ How does _something_ look in the context of
_context_?
□ What works?
■ What is the impact of _practice_ on _area of
impact_ in the context of _context_?
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14.
Examples: What/how is..?
□ How do the students in a 100 level philosophy
course at [institution] approach reading a
philosophy text? How does that differ from the
approach of professional philosophers reading
the same text?
□ What factors influence the decision of students at
[institution] to major in computer science or not,
and is there a difference based on gender?
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15.
Examples: What works?
□ What is the impact of pre-lecture videos on students’
understanding of concepts in research methods in a
100-level Sociology class at a large, public university?
□ What is the impact of a “productive failure” method
of instruction vs a traditional active learning method
on student performance on exams in a large
enrollment, first year, cell biology course at a large,
public university?
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16.
Activity 1: Research questions
Practice
□ What ignites your
curiosity about your
teaching? Is there a
particular problem
you’d like to address?
□ What area of your
teaching will you focus
on? What practice
might you try?
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Impact
□ What effect do you
hope to achieve?
□ What impact
might the practice
have that you
could measure?
Context
□ In what context
do the practice
and desired
impact take
place?
is.gd/sotlworkshop_nov2019

17.
3. Getting started:
Identifying evidence
17

18.
Next step:
evidence
18
Define
questions
Identify
evidence
Create a
detailed plan
Prepare and
pilot
Collect data
and analyze

19.
Example
19
Research
question
What do you
want to
evaluate?
How will you
evaluate?
What is the
impact of pre-
class videos on
students’
knowledge?
Conceptual
understanding
Students’
confidence
Concept
inventories,
reflective writing
Surveys, interviews
A Compendium of Data Sources for Use in SOTL-Based Inquiries –Doug Hamilton, Royal Roads University

20.
Disciplinary approaches
(Philosophy)
Fairness — in grading (Close, 2009); in
two-stage exams (Chan, in process)
Think-alouds — how are students
thinking as they read? (Bloch-
Schulman, 2016)
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21.
Mixed methods
Qualitative Quantitative
Rich data, small N Limited data, large N
People image from pixabay.com, used according to pixabay license
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22.
Activity 2:
evidence
What will you be
evaluating?
How will you do so?
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23.
4. Other considerations
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24.
Think about:
□ “It’s interesting” ≠ good SoTL research
question
□ “I understand” ≠ participants understand
■ Importance of doing pilot
□ Timing & integration of data collection into
(or outside of) course
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25.
Ethics & Equity
□ Ethics: informed consent, fairness, power
relationships, confidentiality, data security,
etc.
■ Taylor Institute Guide to ethics & SoTL
□ Equity & inclusion in data collection
■ UBC Guide on collecting demographic info
■ UBC Guide on asking about gender
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26.
Thank you!
Christina Hendricks
christina.hendricks@ubc.ca
@clhendricksbc (Twitter)
Slides & Worksheets:
is.gd/sotlworkshop2019
Except where noted otherwise, these slides are licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
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27.
Credits
Special thanks to the people who made and released
these awesome resources:
□ Presentation template by SlidesCarnival
□ Icons purchased with a subscription to The Noun
Project
□ Slides 5, 10-13, 18-19, 21 & 24 are adapted from slides
created by the Institute for the Scholarship of Teaching
and Learning at University of British Columbia,
Vancouver.
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28.
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