Engaging in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) is the systematic study of teaching and learning made public, such as through publication in an education research journal or at a conference. This collection will introduce you to this type of classroom-based research.

Discipline-based education research (DBER) is the scientific study of teaching and learning via a combination of disciplinary expertise and social sciences methodology. Use this guide for help getting started with DBER. Some resources also cite the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL).

Developing a strong research question is a critical first step in conducting a Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) project. This collection offers guiding frameworks and practical strategies to help you move from a general topic of interest to a well-defined SoTL inquiry.

Designing a SoTL study requires thoughtful decisions about study design, methods, and disciplinary approaches to inquiry. This collection introduces a range of accessible resources to help you choose a study design that aligns with your research questions and scholarly goals.

Gathering evidence in SoTL requires careful choices about what kinds of student learning to make visible. This collection offers practical resources—from survey design tips to a compendium of validated scales—to help you plan for and collect the right data to answer your SoTL research questions.

Navigating ethical considerations and institutional review board (IRB) processes is a critical part of SoTL. This collection offers practical guidance and examples on what qualifies as research, how to prepare an IRB application, and how to uphold ethical standards in classroom-based research.

Conducting a literature review is essential to any SoTL project, but it can be challenging to know where to begin. This collection offers practical tools and strategies to help you search for, organize, and engage with SoTL literature—whether you're using traditional methods, AI tools, or both.

Reflection is valued in teaching practice, so it should come as no surprise that reflective writing is valued in the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL). Learn more about reflective writing in SoTL and peruse a few of my favorite examples from a range of approaches and perspectives.

Effective data management is essential to your SoTL project’s organization, reproducibility, and meaningful dissemination of findings. This collection provides guidance and practical tools for organizing your data, creating documentation, and avoiding common pitfalls.

This collection provides an overview of qualitative analysis, guidance for selecting and conducting qualitative analysis, including thematic analysis and constant comparative analysis, and the role of validity and reliability in qualitative research.

Analyzing SoTL data requires the appropriate methods. This collection provides guidance for quantitative analysis, including tools for selecting statistical tests, step-by-step instructions for conducting analyses, and examples from common SoTL study designs.

These resources support faculty interested in writing and publishing SoTL, from getting started to preparing a manuscript for submission. They offer practical guidance, examples, and insights into developing a strong SoTL story, finding publication venues, and structuring articles.

Whether you're new to SoTL co-authorship or refining your approach, this collection offers resources to help you navigate collaborative writing. You'll find resources on authorship expectations, productive workflows, and models for structuring your work together.

This collection contains resources for educational developers interested in supporting faculty engagement in Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL).