Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

Scholarship of Teaching & Learning (SoTL)

How does A&M-Central Texas define Scholarship?

In the Provost Faculty Resources community in Canvas, you will find the Promotion & Tenure module, with information including the SAP 12.02.00.D0.01 on Institutional Procedures for Implementing Tenure and Promotion. On page 14, in item 4.3 Scholarly or Artistic Endeavor, you will find this section:

"Scholarship at A&M-Central Texas can be defined as those activities that systematically advance the teaching, research, and knowledge of academic disciplines through rigorous inquiry that:

1) is significant to the discipline, 2) is made public, 3) is creative, 4) can be documented, 5) can be replicated or built on by other scholars, and 6) is available for peer review and critique according to accepted standards.

Furthermore, scholarship at A&M-Central encompasses four possible areas critical of academic work, including the scholarship of:

discovery, where new and unique knowledge is generated;
teaching, where the professor creatively builds bridges between his or her own understanding and the student's learning;
application, where the emphasis is on the use of new knowledge to solve society’s problems; and
integration, where new relationships among disciplines are discovered.

A faculty member’s scholarly work should both contribute to his or her discipline and serve as an indication of professional competence and development. It should serve as a vehicle to enrich and inform the faculty member’s teaching. To qualify as scholarship or creative work, the results of a scholarly or artistic endeavor must be disseminated and subject to critical peer evaluation in a manner appropriate to the field in question. However, scholarship and artistic endeavor can take many forms, and the criteria for judging the original or imaginative nature of the research or creative work must derive from current and generally accepted standards in the applicable discipline or professional area, as reflected in each College’s performance criteria and standards document (see Section 3.6)."

For our SoTL efforts, we will focus on scholarship pertaining to and about teaching!

Photo attribution: http://www.thebluediamondgallery.com/handwriting/s/scholarship.html

White Papers On Academic Rigor

Science Board

Authored by Dr. Andria F. Schwegler, Associate Professor of Psychology and Chair of the Counseling and Psychology Department at Texas A&M University-Central Texas

Part 1

Academic Rigor: A Comprehensive Definition
Academic rigor is a term used by many and desired by all, but what does it really mean? And how do you know if the rigor of your course supports learner success?

Ask five people and you will most likely get five different responses. Without a clear or correct definition, it can be difficult to support student learning, growth and success. To address this issue, QM has published the first white paper. In a three-part series that presents a deeper look at academic rigor based on research, analysis and best practices.

In this first white paper, Andria F. Schwegler, Associate Professor of Psychology at Texas A&M University – Central Texas, presents research on and analyzes the topic of academic rigor to produce a clear and comprehensive definition. If you feel unclear about what this term means or equate academic rigor to a course being “too hard” for students to complete, you’ll want to download this white paper.

The paper addresses key challenges for educators, including:
*Improving course quality to help students meet learning standards and successfully complete courses

*Increasing the academic rigor of the curriculum within a department or institution using a research-based definition

*Challenging students so they are more engaged and learn at a deeper level

Part 2

Contextualizing Academic Rigor
Now that you have a clear and comprehensive definition of academic rigor from our first white paper, it’s time to put this information into context.

In part two of our three-part series on the topic of academic rigor, Dr. Schwegler deconstructs the various contexts associated with this term as well as what is needed to put academic rigor into practice.

After reading part two, you will:
*Understand how certain elements — such as course design, course delivery and the real world — affect academic rigor

*Gain a deeper understanding of how to improve academic rigor and support higher-level learning

*Apply what you have learned so you can put academic rigor into practice

Part 3

Aligning Institutional Processes to Support Academic Rigor
Our third and final white paper. In the three-part series on the topic of academic rigor is ready for you to download! If you still need to catch up, make sure to read part 1 and part 2 before the conclusion of this series.

In part three, Dr. Schwegler explores the research related to how processes and support at the institutional level can assist instructors and faculty members in creating rigorous academic experiences that facilitate student learning.

As Dr. Schwegler states, “Considering that a research basis was not available decades ago when traditions were established, this research-based perspective provides a lens to critically evaluate existing procedures and assumptions so they can be revised as needed to better align with supporting student learning.”

After reading part three, you will know:
*What you need to investigate and evaluate within your institution to expand understanding and implementation of academic rigor

*How faculty behaviors, expectations, and interactions with students can impact student experiences and academic performance

*What faculty can do to support academic rigor with regards to evaluating instruction and student assessment, institutional procedures, and documentation

*How institutional and program marketing can impact the perception of a higher education

*The implications of an observable definition of academic rigor plus next steps for additional research that is needed

SoTL Journals

College Teaching is an interdisciplinary academic forum on issues in teaching and learning at the undergraduate or graduate level. This is a double-blind peer-reviewed journal, published by Taylor & Francis.

Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (JoSoTL) is a forum for the dissemination of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in higher education for the community of teacher-scholars. Open, editorial peer review.

International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching & Learning (ISOTL) is an open, double-blind peer-reviewed electronic journal published twice per year by the Centers for Teaching & Technology at Georgia Southern University. The journal is an international forum for research and information about the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) and its applications in higher/tertiary education.

Journal on Excellence in College Teaching is a peer a peer-reviewed journal published at Miami University by and for faculty at universities and two- and four-year colleges to increase student learning through effective teaching, interest in and enthusiasm for the profession of teaching, and communication among faculty about their classroom experiences.

See also, Insight: A Journal of Scholarly Teaching for the past nine years. In 2013, they published a volume in response to the book, The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Reconsidered: Institutional Integration and Impact, by Hutchings, Huber, and Ciccone (2011). Paired essays, written by faculty members and students examined each chapter in the book. Essays addressing Chapter 2 on Teachers and Learning, were written by A&M-Central Texas faculty member Dr. Andria Schwegler, and student Kristin Atkinson.

Also, note - Kennesaw State University has a great resource for locating discipline-specific SoTL journals

You may also want to look at The Chronicle of Higher Education, Teaching and Learning page (sign up for the newsletter).

SoTL blog

Dr. Katie Linder (Oregon State University) hosts a great podcast series, Research in Action. In the episode linked here, she speaks with Dr. Peter Felten, assistant provost for teaching and learning, executive director of the Center for Engaged Learning, and professor of history, about the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. Listen to their conversation and check other clips of their conversation as well as the others on the site.

Research in Action · Ep 19: Dr. Peter Felten on Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

Center for Faculty Engagement (CFE): Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

Scholarship of Teaching & Learning (SoTL)

How does A&M-Central Texas define Scholarship?

SoTL Journals

**Be sure to scroll through the site for other relevant topics!