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Center for Teaching, Learning, and Assessment
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Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

What is Scholarship of Teaching and Learning?

Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) refers to a diverse set of activities and methodologies exploring and promoting teaching and learning. It arises from the questions instructors naturally ask about the work they are doing in the classroom, such as:

  • Did this particular teaching strategy work? Why or why not?
  • Is the way I’m teaching helping my students learn better?
  • What evidence is there to help me understand what students are learning?
  • What evidence is there to connect their learning to my teaching?
  • How can I share what I learn with my colleagues in my discipline and more broadly?

SoTL focuses on learning experiences, learning contexts and institutional policies and processes that support teaching excellence. When specific concerns of a discipline, its methodologies, and generalizabitliy are considered, instructors may be involved in Discipline-based Educational Research (DBER), which is most often associated with science and engineering.

Both SoTL and DBER move beyond scholarly teaching to the production of evidence for specific teaching and learning practices through findings that are peer reviewed and publicly disseminated. This research involves assessment of student learning.

Recent Workshop -- Doing SoTL or DBER: Some Examples from Introductory Physics

Graph Illustrating Student Stress over Semester

Part of doing Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) or Discipline-based Educational Research  (DBER) is gathering and analyzing student data. In this CTLA workshop, Ohio State University Professor of Physics Andrew Heckler, who also serves as vice chair for administration, provided examples of teaching and learning research projects he has conducted in introductory physics.

Heckler highlighted ways of looking at student data that can answer interesting and important questions about student learning and achievement in STEM courses.

He encouraged participants to consider questions such as: Is student speed in answering questions related to their overall course performance? Is the presentation quality of show-work problems related to overall course performance? How does student psychological stress evolve over the semester? 

View session

CTLA Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Support

The CTLA supports SoTL through books groups, a SoTL Scholars in Practice Seminar and a SoTL Scholars Network. OHIO instructors engaging in SoTL are encouraged to contact the CTLA so that their scholarship is recognized both among network members and the broader teaching and learning community.

 

SoTL Activities and Resources

  • From Scholarly Teaching to Research Certification

    This SoTL certification, launched in spring 2025, recognizes faculty engaging in a structured process for examining instructional strategies to support students learning in a classroom or in a discipline. Those completing the certification connect scholarly teaching to “teaching problems” or potential SoTL topics; navigate the IRB system toward successful exemption or approval (human subjects) of a research question; identify the research methodology or methodologies most applicable to the teaching problem; implement a plan through collection of data and data analysis; and disseminate findings through CTLA website, teaching and learning publications, discipline-based pedagogical journals or at conferences.

  • IRB Human Subject Research Information

    The IRB has been charged with reviewing and monitoring human subjects' research conducted under the auspices of Ohio University. Human subjects research is any project that meets both the federal definitions of "research" and "human subjects." SoTL may or may not involve human subject research, and most SoTL projects tend to be minimal risk with regard to participation for human subjects. For more information, visit this IRB resource.  For general information about SoTL, CTLA recommends this website from our teaching and learning colleagues at Elon University.

  • CITI Training

    Faculty interested in research must complete the CITI Human Subject Research Training and create a Cayuse account in order to submit their study protocols. The Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative (CITI Program) is dedicated to serving the training needs of colleges and universities, healthcare institutions, technology and research organizations, and governmental agencies, as they foster integrity and professional advancement of their learners. CITI is a web-based program that teaches research ethics. It offers courses on human and animal research, as well as the responsible conduct of research.  Visit the CITI training page. Sign up for Cayuse.

  • Additional SoTL Resources

    Our colleagues at Wright State University have provided faculty with an excellent guide on Faculty Use of Students in their Classes as Research Subjects. 

    If you have heard the terms, Scholarship of Teaching and Learning and Discipline-based Education Research, used in the same sentence, this primer will assist in differentiating the two.

    For those new to SoTL or who are interested in a valuable refresher, Peter Felton's Principles of Good Practice in SoTL provides five principles as a heuristic for assessing work in the field: (1) inquiry into student learning, (2) grounded in context, (3) methodologically sound, (4) conducted in partnership with students and (5) appropriately public.