From Ideas to Action: the emergence and development of the International Society for the Scholarship

of Teaching and Learning

Dr. Bettie HiggsUniversity College Cork

Ireland

Ideas to Actions

• ISSOTL Conference Melbourne 2015

• EuroSoTL 2015 • www.nairtl.ie

Ideas to Actions

• Introduction and some context• The development and work of ISSOTL • Examples of outputs and outcomes• What is happening in Europe?• Case studies Ireland, Sweden, UK, Spain• Next steps?

Intuition

“The assumption has been that the possession of a Ph.D degree was all that an aspiring lecturer needed in order to be able to teach in a university. The rest one imbibed through osmosis.”

Matiru, et al, 1995. Teach your best: A handbook for University lecturers

Excellence

“Excellence is not a product, but a process of continual development”

“Excellence in teaching requires nurturing”

Ideas to Actions: Boyer(1990)

Scholarship of DiscoveryScholarship of ApplicationScholarship of Integration

Scholarship of Teaching

“a big tent where there is space for small-scale efforts aimed mostly at local improvement as well as more

ambitious sustained work of a larger scale” Pat Hutchings and Mary Huber (2005)

Ideas to actions: Question

If you were to publish a paper, or an article, on teaching and learning in your discipline what

would your colleagues say?

“Well done !”or

“You should be concentrating on your disciplinary research”

Ideas to actions: Question

Does SoTL (as described) occur in your institution?

Is it solo or Institution-wide?

Is it institutional policy?

The Emergence of ISSOTLThe Carnegie Foundation for the

Advancement of Teaching

Pat Hutchings and Mary Taylor Huber at Carnegie Foundation

Leadership• Improve student learning• Stimulate classroom

discussion• Value scholarly work on

teaching• Support cross-disciplinary

collaboration• Revitalise teaching and

learning

Integrative learners

Carnegie Academy for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

CASTL Local - small scale SoTL projects

Example 1. Laura Green. ‘12 levels of questioning’Example 2. Jack Mino. ‘Link aloud’Example 3. Jeff BernsteinSimulation Larry Malone‘Gifting the learning to the Learner’

Ideas to Actions Scale No extra resources

requiredExtra resources

requiredLocal Local Discipline Discipline Institutional Institutional National National International International

Institutional Strategic Plans

• Question: If you could insert something into your institution’s strategic plan, to encourage the scholarship of teaching and learning – what would it be?

Ideas to Actions

• Question: Do you have such a body in Spain?

• How are national funds acquired?

• What other sources of funding are there to advance scholarship in teaching and learning?

Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

For an activity to be designated as scholarship:

It should be public

It should be susceptible to critical review and evaluation

It should be accessible for exchange and use by other members of one’s community

Trading zone

How to translate SOTL in your context?

Scholarhip: Levels of investigation(Ashwin & Trigwell, 2004)

Level Purpose of investigation

Evidence gathering methods and

conclusions will beInvestigation

results in

1 To inform oneself Verified by self Personal knowledge

2To inform a group

within a shared context

Verified by those within the same context

Local knowledge

3 To inform a wider audience

Verified by those outside of that context

Public knowledge

National/international conference on Teaching & Learning

Trajectory 1

Engage in discussionswith colleagues in othercontexts

Trajectory 2

Engage in discussionswith colleagues sharing the same context

Scholarship of Teaching and Learning – effect on the local context

(Roxå, et.al. 2008)

From individual, formal learning to collegial, informal learning– SoTL as a strategy to strenghten strong and weak ties (Granovetter, 1973)

(Mårtensson, 2014)

StructureFormal organisation

Importance of arenas, artefacts and brokers

Iated Digital lIbraryISI Conference procedings

A word of caution……

• Irish findings

• Teacher practice is impacted by national and European reports, institutional reports, and professional body reports

• Most reports are informed by scholarship

• Practice is informed by experience, by colleagues, conference attendance, etc.

• Participants are aware of scholarship in their discipline - which influences their approach, attitudes and practice

• revealed that much of what we know amongst ourselves to be valuable scholarship is in danger of being a blind spot both to our national community and to the wider international teaching and learning community

• Recommendations for greater visibility and impact were made under four themes: publication and systems, staff development, curriculum design and pedagogy.

Focus group insights

Snapshot of Irish-based scholarship

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 160

20

40

60

80

100

120

number of publications/presentations by year

number of publications/presentations

• Investment in teaching and learning activity in higher education

• An increased number of conferences and opportunities to engage (due to the former)

• Improved technology for searching, facilitating and encouraging open access publication.

Reasons?

The snapshot indicates scholarship is:

• Conference based (e.g. oral presentations, published abstracts and conference proceedings)

• Publications in a variety of written formats (e.g. reports; national and institutional themed publications and peer-reviewed journals)

• Other dissemination channels (e.g. seminars, workshops)

Nature of Scholarship dissemination?

Method of dissemination?

conf presen-tations

seminars Journals books reports0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

180

200

Times Higher Education Nov. 19th

Sarah Churchwell: Opening the doors to the ivory tower

“Don’t claim you are changing the world if only four people are reading your article” says new chair in public understanding of the humanities, Sarah Churchwell

Tony Bryk – improvement Science

https://www.google.ie/search?q=Carnegie+Foundation+for+the+Advancement+of+Teaching&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&gws_rd=cr&ei=_vhUVqCjFcXQPKHbnJgB

Next steps?

Challenge:

What will you do on your own campus when you return?

What is one step you will take? When will you take it? What will be the purpose, and the expected outputs or outcomes?

Next steps ISSOTLQuestions: Do you feel you are leading or are you following?Individuals can make a difference.

• ISSOTL Melbourne 2015• ISSOTL Los Angeles 2016• ISSOTL Calgary 2017• ISSOTL ?? Europe ?? 2018• Put in a proposal to host this in Spain in 2018.• Eurosotl 2017 • Put in a proposal to host this in 2019

Conclusions

• We need to work at several levels• LOCAL: changing the culture • POLITICAL: providing the infrastructure to pull

together all of the experience and expertise, the “collective wisdom” to benefit the sector

• INTERNATIONAL: