Advancing Your Scholarly Teaching into the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL)

Scholarly teaching focuses on student learning and is grounded in the subject matter being taught, and in the implementation of effective pedagogies. The scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) on the other hand is research focused on teaching and learning.  SoTL involves framing a research question related to student learning and systematically investigating it. The research methodology may include qualitative and quantitative data collection as well as direct and indirect measures. Data analysis may take multiple forms as well. The final step is to make the research public through peer-review and critique. Similar to disciplinary focused research, an important end goal of SoTL is to communicate research findings with members of the professional community so they in turn can build on the work and advance the practice of teaching beyond an individual classroom. Many faculty with teaching appointments are interested in completing and publishing SoTL projects. And although faculty are well-versed in conducting and publishing horticulture based research, many are unfamiliar with how to effectively conduct SoTL. The objective of this session is to outline a framework and provide a stepwise process to guide faculty in developing a publishable scholarship of teaching project related to horticulture.