Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) | Center for Teaching & Learning

As defined by the Center for Engaged Learning at Elon University, the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) is the “systematic inquiry about student learning – informed by prior scholarship on teaching and learning – and going public with the results.”

Much like other research endeavors, SoTL reflects a level of intentionality and rigor in its design, approach, and analysis to contribute to our understanding of higher education. Individuals engaged in SoTL must build on existing SoTL research, in the same way that researchers in other fields would draw on the scholarly work, frameworks, and findings of others, recent and seminal, to be able to do pioneering work in their field.

SoTL in All Disciplines

SoTL attracts scholars who come from multiple backgrounds, from natural or physical sciences to arts, from engineering to humanities. In the PCF program, we embrace a diversity of ways of thinking/ways of doing when it comes to SoTL research in particular to reflect the diversity of disciplinary canons that will shape how Fellows approach the work.

In Enhancing Learning Through the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning published in 2007, author McKinney outlines nine categories of SoTL research, including interviews/focus groups, case studies, reflections, course portfolios, observational research, and more in addition to the typical “experimental” or “quasi-experimental” projects that have previously been favored. Qualitative (big Q) and interpretive research may be a particularly good fit for individuals coming from fields in arts & humanities. All types of SoTL research/inquiry are welcome and eligible for grant funding in the PCF program.

Getting Started in SoTL

If you are new to SoTL research and interested in how you might design a possible project, we share two ways to explore the possibilities: one broken down by different types of research questions and the other broken down by different types of research methodologies

Note for the sake of providing applied and concrete examples, we have used fictional/hypothetical examples of Berkeley courses below.

SoTL by Question Type

Question Type	Description	Examples
“What is” questions	Descriptive inquiry about students’ learning or knowledge, a pedagogical approach, a teaching challenge, and more	What prior experiences in writing do my students bring to my Writing 101 course? What issues arise for student engagement during lab sessions in my Bio 101 course?
“What works” questions	Inquiry into the effectiveness of teaching practices and pedagogical approaches	In my Engineering 101 course, do students learn more when they have to teach the content to their peers than not? In my History 101 course, do students learn more when they watch videos than when they read textbooks?
Visions of the possible	Inquiry focused on what might be	How might using alternative grading in my Spanish 101 class affect student motivation? How might structured student-led discussions during my Literature 101 course affect their leadership development?
Formulating new conceptual frameworks	Models and frameworks that lead to new inquiry questions	What are “threshold concepts” in students’ understanding of physical systems? How do students develop and approach emotional regulation during their learning?

SoTL by Methodology

Method Type	Possible Data	Description	Example Study
Quantitative	Questionnaires or surveys, numerical measures of student engagement or outcomes (e.g. test scores, exams)	“What is” characterization Deductive, testing a hypothesis / intervention	Does assigning students to study groups in my Chemistry 101 course increase self-reported sense of belonging?
Qualitative Empirical (small q)	Focus groups and interviews focused on a specific inquiry, think-aloud interviews	Inductive, may be precursor to quantitative study (i.e. informs intervention or hypothesis)	What kinds of challenges arise during the final group project in my Journalism 101 course?
Mixed Methods	Combinations of the latter two data sources	Leverage data types for their strengths and sense-making, may be sequential or convergent efforts	How does a flipped-classroom model impact students in Math 101, both in terms of grades and perceptions of engagement?
Qualitative (big Q)	Course portfolios or other exemplars, observations, interviews, archival materials	Rich or “thick description” where the researcher makes sense of an observed reality	How do co-instructors of Physics 101 decide how to teach their shared course?