The term 'Scholarship of teaching and learning,' otherwise known as SoTL, was popularised largely by the work of prominent teaching scholar Ernest Boyer in the 1990s.
While there is no single definition, generally the term refers to a sustained inquiry into teaching and learning approaches and outcomes.
Implied in this definition is a reciprocal relationship between the research and practice of teaching. This definition also necessarily includes an accompanying body of published SoTL research.
Boyer (1990) argued there are four scholarships:
The study that underpins good teaching is understood to include not just knowledge of good principles within a discipline, but also the latest ideas about teaching and learning. Teachers are reflecting on their teaching in ways that can be shared with a wider community of educators, and, using a variety of evidence-gathering and documentation strategies, making their students’ learning more visible.
Scholars of teaching and learning:
The learning & teaching repository contains a collection of higher education learning and teaching materials flowing from projects funded by the Australian Government from 1994-2018.
Victoria University and the Connected Learning team encourage educators to share their teaching and learning research and achievements with a wider community of scholars. Below is a wide range of SoTL outlets.
There are many non-discipline specific tertiary learning and teaching journals. Below is a small sample. If you would like to explore further possibilities to publish your learning and teaching research, please contact the CCLT Educational Developer who liaises with your College.
There are many discipline specific tertiary learning and teaching journals. Below is a small sample. Most disciplines have an associated education journal.
There are many conferences devoted to SoTL. Visit the the Conal site for a comprehensive list of global SoTL conferences. Below are a few SoTL conferences which are prominent in Australia:
A range of other SoTL resources can be equally useful depending on your purpose. Below is a list of blogs, databanks, email lists and organisations which commonly publish SoTL material.
The University has purchased a site-wide licence for the HERDSA SoTL modules. Please note VU staff will need to login.
Lots of excellent practical tips can be found at the Faculty Focus blog.
The Carnegie Foundation and its Resources/Academy collection is a good source of validated research by discipline scholars into curriculum design to improve learning.
JISC is a UK further education research group that has a wide range of university resources.
Advance HE (UK) is also a great source for teaching resources and education research. They have an amazing range of free online journals that cover many professional areas.
Another databank of materials that are (mostly) freely available is Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching (MERLOT), a US based collection. MERLOT is particularly useful because you can search by ‘type’ of learning materials, such as quizzes, assessment tools, animations and so on. Many of the materials have been peer-reviewed for their usefulness, so you have a sense of whether they ‘worked’ to help student learning.
