2012 Georgia Scholarship of STEM Teaching and Learning Conference Program

Conference Progra

Development of a Faculty Learning Community to support Scholarship and Feedback

In an effort to explore the ideas of Scholarship of Learning and Teaching, and to comply with Glasgow’s University’s career development programme, a small group of academics from the College of Medicine, Veterinary and Life Sciences established a Learning Community. The LC has several aims: • To create and design a Learning Community to support scholarship and progression for lecturers on learning & teaching track • To understand how a Learning Community can be used to support staff on career development pathways • To empower participants to engage in the University’s career development programme through peer support and peer mentorship within the Learning Community • provide practical support for scholarship projects (it is hoped that all members will be supported to drive their scholarship ‘from idea to manuscript’) It is hoped that through the sharing of ideas, and collaboration between schools, the LC hope to publish and disseminate scholarship, and provide a series of recommendations regarding scholarship support. Planned scholarship outputs include papers in educational journals, conference abstracts and presentations, and a significant ambition to influence policy within the university regarding scholarship and career development

Scholarship of teaching: what does it mean for Deakin University?

This short paper explores the relevance of the scholarship of teaching to advancing Deakin University’s mission and core commitments, to teaching and learning and to its staff. The concept of the scholarship of teaching is defined and a discussion of the relevance of the concept to Deakin is then presented. Some broad guiding principles for implementation are offered

Changing academic practice at a UK research-intensive university through supporting the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL)

Over the past decade, there have been many changes in Higher Education in the UK. Alongside increased student participation and widening access, the government has called for universities to professionally develop teachers in Higher Education and recognise the role of learning and teaching in the sector. The University of Glasgow has responded to this changing agenda in a number of ways. At the institutional level, the University launched its first comprehensive Learning and Teaching Strategy in 2006. At the same time it also appointed Associate Deans of Learning and Teaching in each Faculty. Another initiative has been the introduction of a ‘teaching’ career track, through the establishment of a new category of academic staff, the University Teacher, with promotion procedures supporting career development up to Professorial level. Rather than engaging in research (one of the main academic roles of the lecturer, associate professor in US terms), University Teachers must engage in scholarship, in addition to their teaching and administration duties. The establishment of a Learning and Teaching Centre responsible for supporting the University in the implementation of its Learning and Teaching Strategy has also consolidated and initiated a number of activities that all aim to enhance the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning at Glasgow. These initiatives have wrought changes at an institutional level and are contributing to changing academic practice. In particular, the term ‘Scholarship of Teaching and Learning’, once unheard of at the institution is increasingly being recognised as a valid form of academic activity and increasing numbers of academic staff are engaging in it. This paper will outline some of these changes and offer reflections on their impact on SoTL and academic practice

Supporting and Enabling Scholarship: Developing and Sharing Expertise in Online Learning and Teaching

In a highly competitive, rapidly changing higher education market, universities need to be able to generate pedagogical expertise quickly and ensure that it is applied to practice. Since teaching approaches are constantly evolving, partly responding to emerging learning technologies, there is a need to foster ways to keep abreast on an ongoing basis. This paper explores how a small-scale project, the Teaching Online Panel (TOP), used scholarship investigations and a bottom-up approach to enhance one particular aspect of academic practice – online learning and teaching. The experiences of TOP are useful for identifying: - how a scholarship approach can help develop academic expertise - its contribution to enhancing understanding of staff’s different roles in the University - ways of developing the necessary supportive network for those undertaking such scholarship - the effectiveness of staff development which is peer-led rather than imposed from above - how practical examples can stimulate practice development - the relevance of literature on communities of practice and landscapes of practice for scholarship - the important role of ‘brokers’ to facilitate the dissemination of scholarship findings - the benefits to the brokers’ own professional roles - the challenges of sustaining such an approach and lessons learnt. This study has relevance for those involved in supporting scholarship or delivering staff development in Higher Education

Reconceptualizing participant vulnerability in Scholarship of Teaching and Learning research: exploring the perspectives of health faculty students in Aotearoa New Zealand

© 2023 The Author(s). This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC), https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/While the need to protect vulnerable research participants is universal, conceptual challenges with the notion of vulnerability may result in the under or over-protection of participants. Ethics review bodies making assumptions about who is vulnerable and in what circumstance can be viewed as paternalistic if they do not consider participant viewpoints. Our study focuses on participant vulnerability in Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) research. We aim to illuminate students’ views on participant vulnerability to contribute to critical analysis of the role and processes of ethics review. Additionally, we aim to highlight the importance of seeking the views of participant communities, especially in research environments beyond ethics review’s medical origins. Thirty-four students from a health-related faculty at a university in Aotearoa New Zealand, participated in five focus groups. Participants discussed factors affecting their potential participation in research drawing upon a series of vignettes based on examples of published SoTL projects. Themes, generated using reflexive thematic analysis, built a participant-informed picture of vulnerability. Findings indicate that students do not generally consider themselves vulnerable and instead consider participation in SoTL research through an agentic lens. Students expect that participation will be voluntary, not negatively impact their grades, and not single them out so that others could judge them. Our study also highlights the value students place on relationships with one another and teaching staff and the implications these have for SoTL research participation and future professional practice. This research challenges research ethics committees to think further about vulnerability in the context of SoTL whilst highlighting the importance of providing opportunities for research participants more broadly to explore and vocalize their views as members of participant communities.Peer reviewe

Unearthing the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Self and Practice

Bringing the principles and characteristics of the scholarship of teaching and learning into my university classroom has helped me support the development of teaching as scholarly activity for my students while cementing my own commitment in this regard. These students are preservice teachers, who have the opportunity to conduct peer observations and provide feedback to one another establishing a learning commons of sort. While engaged in an initial practicum experience, preservice elementary teachers observe and provide feedback on each other’s teaching. This paper will describe and analyze this peer observation and feedback activity as part of the cycle of the scholarship of teaching and learning. My engagement in the scholarship of teaching and learning has also stimulated further research in this area among my peers. Establishing praxis in the scholarship of teaching and learning is beneficial at all levels of teaching and learning

Examining the Focus of SoTL Literature—Teaching and Learning?

Although the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) claims to focus on student learning, some have argued that SoTL studies often adopt a narrow view of learning and focus more on teaching than on learning. In this paper, we explore whether teaching is the primary focus of recent articles published from 2013-2017 in three international, self-identified SoTL journals: Teaching and Learning Inquiry: The ISSOTL Journal (TLI), The International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (ijSOTL), and The Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (JoSoTL). Based on our analysis of the 299 empirical articles, we argue that they portray SoTL as a field focused primarily on teacher activity rather than student learning, despite efforts to broaden its scope