Though faculty understand research in their field, teach it, and often undertake it themselves, they do not typically apply these same methods of systematic inquiry to student learning in their courses. This is what the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) is all about: Asking questions, formulating hypotheses, designing experiments, interpreting data, and publishing results about student learning.
What conditions optimize student learning? What teaching methods work best? How can you apply evidence-based insights to your discipline or class?
“The scholarship of teaching and learning encompasses a broad set of practices that engage teachers in looking closely and critically at student learning for the purpose of improving their own courses and programs” (Hutchings, Huber, & Ciccone, 2011).
