The Scholarship Of Teaching And Learning (SoTL): Transforming Classroom Practice Into Academic Research
The landscape of higher education is undergoing a profound paradigm shift. For decades, academic institutions maintained a rigid dichotomy between "research" and "teaching," often valuing the former over the latter in tenure and promotion decisions. This historical imbalance began to shift in 1990 when Ernest Boyer, then president of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, published his seminal report, Scholarship Reconsidered: Priorities of the Professoriate. Boyer argued that scholarship must be defined more broadly, introducing four distinct yet overlapping dimensions: the scholarship of discovery, integration, application, and teaching.
Out of this visionary framework emerged the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL). Rather than viewing teaching as a routine task or an innate, unexaminable talent, SoTL treats the classroom as a laboratory for intellectual inquiry. It invites educators from all academic disciplines to systematically study their own teaching practices and their students' learning processes. By applying the same rigorous research standards to teaching as they do to their primary disciplinary fields, faculty members can contribute to a growing, peer-reviewed body of knowledge that elevates the quality of higher education globally.
Today, SoTL is not merely an academic trend; it is a vital, global movement. It bridges the gap between educational theory and real-world classroom dynamics. As universities face mounting pressure to demonstrate student retention, equity, and measurable learning outcomes, engaging in SoTL provides faculty with the tools and credentials needed to drive institutional change while advancing their own professional trajectories.
Understanding the Conceptual Foundations of SoTL
To fully appreciate the scope of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, one must distinguish it from related but distinct concepts, specifically "excellent teaching" and "scholarly teaching." While excellent teaching focus on achieving high student evaluations and content mastery, scholarly teaching goes a step further by using evidence-based, peer-reviewed pedagogical strategies to design courses. SoTL advances even further by transforming that classroom design into a formal inquiry project, analyzing the results, and subjecting those findings to external peer review.
This progression requires a unique dual-identity. A biochemistry professor conducting SoTL research must step outside their primary disciplinary methodology and adopt social science, qualitative, or mixed-methods research designs. This interdisciplinary leap allows the educator to examine critical questions: How do students construct mental models of molecular structures? What specific barriers prevent first-generation college students from mastering complex metabolic pathways? How does collaborative peer-review affect writing quality in lab reports?
Furthermore, SoTL is deeply rooted in reflective practice. It demands that instructors interrogate their own assumptions about student learning. Rather than relying on anecdotal evidence or gut feelings about whether a lecture went well, SoTL researchers gather empirical data—such as student work, survey responses, focus group transcripts, and pre- and post-test scores—to draw validated, actionable conclusions.
Scholarly Teaching vs. SoTL: A Comparative Analysis
Engaging in pedagogical inquiry requires understanding where your work falls on the academic spectrum. The table below outlines the critical distinctions between standard instruction, scholarly teaching, SoTL, and traditional educational research.
| Dimension | Scholarly Teaching | Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) | Traditional Educational Research |
|---|---|---|---|
| Primary Goal | Optimize immediate classroom instruction and student learning outcomes. | Systematically study teaching/learning, peer-review, and share publicly. | Generate generalizable theories about education, psychology, or policy. |
| Methods Used | Applying evidence-based pedagogies (e.g., active learning, scaffolding). | Action research, mixed-methods classroom inquiry, reflective inquiry. | Large-scale randomized controlled trials, statistical modeling, ethnographies. |
| Audience | The instructor's own students and immediate departmental colleagues. | Disciplinary colleagues, pedagogical communities, and higher education. | Education researchers, policymakers, and curriculum designers. |
| Institutional Value | Highly valued for teaching evaluations and annual performance reviews. | Contributes directly to the scholarship requirement for tenure and promotion. | Commands high prestige and significant grant funding in Schools of Education. |
The Pros and Cons of Engaging in SoTL
Engaging in SoTL offers significant professional advantages. First and foremost, it directly improves student learning by identifying which instructional interventions are genuinely effective. Second, it provides a pathway for teaching-focused faculty (such as lecturers or clinical professors) to satisfy institutional research requirements, making them more competitive for tenure and promotion. Third, it fosters a vibrant, cross-disciplinary community on college campuses, breaking down academic silos as faculty from engineering, humanities, and business collaborate on pedagogical inquiries.
However, the field is not without its challenges. Because SoTL is inherently interdisciplinary, faculty often struggle with methodological dissonance, feeling ill-equipped to use qualitative research methods if their primary training is in the hard sciences. Additionally, institutional recognition remains uneven; some traditional research-intensive universities still undervalue SoTL publications compared to pure disciplinary research. Finally, balancing classroom teaching, grading, disciplinary research, and a secondary research agenda in SoTL can lead to faculty burnout if not supported by administrative resources.
Good Teaching, Scholarly Teaching, Scholarship of Teaching & Learning ...
How to Get Started with SoTL: A Step-by-Step Guide for Educators
Embarking on a SoTL project does not require a formal degree in education. By following a structured research process, any faculty member can design and execute a high-quality pedagogical inquiry.
Step 1: Identify a Classroom Problem or "Hot Spot"
Begin by reflecting on your teaching experiences. What concepts consistently confuse your students? What assignments result in the lowest performance year after year? These points of friction, often called "bottlenecks," are prime candidates for a SoTL inquiry. Frame this challenge as a research question. For example: “Does the introduction of weekly low-stakes quizzes improve student performance on the high-stakes cumulative midterm exam?”
Step 2: Conduct a Targeted Literature Review
Just as you would in your primary discipline, find out what other scholars have already published about your question. Search specialized databases like ERIC, Google Scholar, or journals dedicated to your specific discipline's pedagogy (e.g., Journal of Chemical Education, Teaching Sociology). Understanding the existing literature ensures you are building upon established frameworks rather than reinventing the wheel.
Step 3: Select Your Methodology and Obtain IRB Approval
Determine what data will best answer your research question. You might use quantitative data (exam scores, clicker data, retention rates) or qualitative data (reflective journals, open-ended survey responses, focus group interviews). Because your research involves human subjects (your students), you must consult your institution’s Institutional Review Board (IRB). Obtaining IRB approval is a critical step to ensure ethical compliance, especially since there is an inherent power dynamic between instructors and students.
Step 4: Implement the Intervention and Collect Data
Run your pedagogical intervention during the academic term. Ensure your data collection processes are rigorous and systematic. If you are comparing two sections of a course—one using a traditional lecture and one using a flipped classroom model—keep all other variables (such as exam formats and grading rubrics) as consistent as possible to ensure the validity of your comparative analysis.
Step 5: Analyze, Reflect, and Disseminate
Once the semester concludes, analyze your findings. Did the intervention yield the expected results? If so, why? If not, what unexpected variables interfered? The final step of the SoTL process is making your work public. Write up your findings for submission to a peer-reviewed SoTL journal, or present your data at local, national, or international pedagogical conferences.
Current Trends and Future Outlook in SoTL
The landscape of SoTL is evolving rapidly, driven by technological breakthroughs and shifting institutional priorities. The most prominent trend is the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in education. Researchers are actively investigating how generative AI tools like ChatGPT affect student writing, critical thinking, and coding skills, as well as how instructors can ethically leverage AI to personalize learning pathways. SoTL studies in this domain are crucial for establishing academic integrity policies that are evidence-based rather than reactive.
Another critical trend is the focus on Equity-Minded and Inclusive Pedagogy. Recent SoTL literature heavily emphasizes culturally responsive teaching, universal design for learning (UDL), and decolonizing the curriculum. Researchers are moving beyond aggregate student performance data to disaggregate findings by demographic factors, ensuring that pedagogical interventions do not unintentionally disadvantage historically marginalized student populations.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need to be in an Education department to conduct SoTL?
No. SoTL is designed for educators across all disciplines—including the hard sciences, humanities, fine arts, engineering, and business. In fact, some of the most impactful SoTL research is disciplinary-specific, focusing on how students learn to think like a historian, write like a journalist, or solve problems like a software engineer.
How do I navigate IRB requirements when my students are my research subjects?
Navigating the Institutional Review Board (IRB) is a standard part of SoTL. Because of the power dynamic between instructors and students, you must demonstrate how you will protect student privacy and ensure that participation (or non-participation) in your study does not impact their final course grade. Many SoTL researchers use third-party data collectors or analyze de-identified, aggregated data retroactively to address these ethical concerns.
What are some highly regarded peer-reviewed journals for publishing SoTL?
There are excellent general SoTL journals, including:
- International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (IJ-SoTL)
- Teaching & Learning Inquiry (the official journal of ISSOTL)
- Journal on Excellence in College Teaching
Additionally, almost every academic discipline has its own specialized pedagogical journal, such as Advances in Physiology Education or the Journal of Marketing Education.
Does my institution recognize SoTL for tenure and promotion?
Institutional recognition varies, but the trend is shifting positively. Many universities now explicitly include SoTL under their definition of acceptable scholarship for tenure, promotion, and post-tenure review. To protect your career progression, it is essential to consult your department chair, review your institutional handbook, and clearly articulate the impact, peer-review status, and rigor of your SoTL publications in your promotional dossier.
Join the SoTL Movement
Transforming your classroom into a site of scholarly inquiry is one of the most rewarding endeavors an educator can undertake. By documenting what works, what fails, and why, you contribute to a global community dedicated to student success and academic excellence.
Ready to elevate your teaching practice from excellent to scholarly? Start today by identifying a single learning bottleneck in your upcoming syllabus, reviewing the pedagogical literature, and connecting with your campus Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) to design your very first Scholarship of Teaching and Learning project.
