Why do we bother? Exploring biologists' motivations to share the details of their teaching practice

There exists in the UK (and across the global HE sector) a community of practitioners who define themselves as biologists but who are more than that. They are reflective educators involving themselves in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL). In this paper I explore the motivations of these individuals to disseminate the detail of their teaching practice. I reflect upon my own experience and my observations of the experiences of others and in doing so I explore common enablers/disablers to engagement with SoTL. I discuss the prime importance of a supportive disciplinary SoTL community and of inspirational individuals (peers and managers alike). I reflect upon the tensions that exist between teaching and research focused career paths and I consider the possibility that this tension is of variable significance. I conclude that the barriers to individual engagement with SoTL can be overcome and that the individual drive to do so is a powerful one

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

Exploring the feasibility of international collaboration and relationship building through a virtual partnership scheme

International collaboration is an under-studied component of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL). This study sheds light on the process of international collaboration by illustrating an exploratory approach to the process of forming and maintaining collaborative partnerships. Participants in this study were put into pairs (each one comprised of one individual from the University of Glasgow and another from the University of Wisconsin System) and asked to participate in email correspondence over the course of one year. The text of participants’ emails was pooled and analyzed through a general inductive approach using NVivo software. The study, though small in nature, helps to illustrate and further understand international collaborative relationships. We offer suggestions for future international collaborations and discuss the implications of emphasizing such partnerships within SoTL

Traffic flow on realistic road networks with adaptive traffic lights

We present a model of traffic flow on generic urban road networks based on cellular automata. We apply this model to an existing road network in the Australian city of Melbourne, using empirical data as input. For comparison, we also apply this model to a square-grid network using hypothetical input data. On both networks we compare the effects of non-adaptive vs adaptive traffic lights, in which instantaneous traffic state information feeds back into the traffic signal schedule. We observe that not only do adaptive traffic lights result in better averages of network observables, they also lead to significantly smaller fluctuations in these observables. We furthermore compare two different systems of adaptive traffic signals, one which is informed by the traffic state on both upstream and downstream links, and one which is informed by upstream links only. We find that, in general, both the mean and the fluctuation of the travel time are smallest when using the joint upstream-downstream control strategy.Comment: 41 pages, pdflate

The Scholarship of Teaching & Learning: Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How?

This session will present a panel discussion of the Scholarship of Teaching & Learning [SoTL]. Panelists include: scholars new to SoTL and those with over a decade’s experience with it, the editor of a pre-eminent international SoTL journal, the chair of a pre-eminent international SoTL conference, and a University System of Georgia SoTL Award winner. The panel will discuss what SoTL is (and is not), the value of SoTL, how to get started with SoTL research projects, how to contextualize and theoretically ground SoTL research, how SoTL both informs and dovetails with teaching, and will provide examples of SoTL projects at both the undergraduate and graduate level

Student-faculty Co-inquiry Into Student Reading: Recognising SoTL as Pedagogic Practice

This paper reports the evaluation of a student-faculty collaborative study investigating international students’ perceptions of the role of reading in higher education. The study examined the academic reading and source-use practices of ten undergraduate students in a range of disciplines in one UK university. In previous research on student literacy practices, students are often positioned as research “objects” rather than as active participants with an investment in enhancing the student experience through engagement in pedagogic research. In this paper we present a case study of student faculty collaboration in the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL). Drawing on the analysis of student and lecturer accounts of the collaborative research experience, we identify the benefits and challenges of student-faculty partnership approaches. We conclude by arguing that conceptualising SOTL as pedagogy may facilitate the engagement of students as co-researchers and expose to scrutiny a “hidden curriculum” of current approaches to SoTL

The Scholarship of Teaching & Learning: Who, what, when, where, why, and how?

Panel symposium presented at the 2014 Georgia Educational Research Association Conference, Savannah, GA. This session will present a panel discussion of the Scholarship of Teaching & Learning [SoTL]. Panelists include: scholars new to SoTL and those with over a decade’s experience with it, the editor of a pre-eminent international SoTL journal, the chair of a pre-eminent international SoTL conference, and a University System of Georgia SoTL Award winner. The panel will discuss what SoTL is (and is not), the value of SoTL, how to get started with SoTL research projects, how to contextualize and theoretically ground SoTL research, how SoTL both informs and dovetails with teaching, and will provide examples of SoTL projects at both the undergraduate and graduate level