Resources

Since I first heard about the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL), I’ve been intrigued by this area of research.

I was copied on a Tweet this week from Nick Byrd, asking about where to find empirical studies and experiments about education practices/outcomes.

Tweet from Nick Byrd regarding his search for empirical studies and experiments about education practices/outcomes.

Someone replied to his request with this article from The Association for Psychological Science, which seems like a helpful resource.

However, I had a much longer reply that has been formulating in my mind since he first inquired. In this post, I’ll explore the broad area of study surrounding the effectiveness of education, as well as some of the subdomains under the broader research area that I find particularly interesting.

The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

The broad area of this kind of research tends to fit under the domain of The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (or #SoTL on Twitter).

In researching items for this blog post, it would seem that #SoTL also has something to do with cigars (unrelated to our discussion of #SoTL). It can be unfortunate when a hashtag gets some overlap like that, but it was easy enough to skip over to focus on items of particular interest to me. To skip over any cigar references, the newly-established #SoTLchat hashtag is solely focused on conversations around the scholarship of teaching and learning.

Anyone interested in pursuing this research area may benefit from this article with “Advice for New SoTL Researchers” from the International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (ISSOTL). Another good starting point is this related discussion on Good Practices in SoTL.

Getting a background on the ethics involved in conducting this form of research is also important. The University of Calgary provided this overview of their ethical review of their research on teaching and learning.

In attempting to answer Nick’s question, I knew that I would be insufficient to address the wide-ranging areas that this body of research explores.

I’m going to discuss some of the parts of the scholarship of teaching and learning that I’ve read the most about. I also encourage you to browse the current and past issues of the Journal of Teaching and Learning Inquiry to find those topics that provide the most interest for you.

Research on Learning

At the risk of oversimplification, most of us want to know whether or not what we are attempting to do in our teaching is actually going to work. Or, if we’re already convinced of the benefits to our experimentation, we may come across skeptics who want to know the efficacy of our recommendations.

Past episodes of the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast that most relate to these questions are:

1. Episode #094 with Pooja Agarwal on retrieval practice. “When we think about learning, we typically focus on getting information into students’ heads. What if, instead, we focus on getting information out of students’ heads?” The Retrieval Practice website is full of resources for exploring the research behind this approach to teaching.
2. Episode #072 with Robert Bjork on cognitive psychology also emphasizes retrieval practice, as well as the role that forgetting plays in our learning.
3. Episode #132 with Saundra McGuire on how to teach students how to learn. Her background as a chemistry professor had her continually seeking ways to support her students in their learning. Her interview with ACUE helps us understand “what changed the trajectory of her research and scholarship.”
4. Episode #069 with Meg Urry on correcting mental models shares approaches we can use to help our students grasp complex information. As a professor of physics and astronomy, she recognizes that “real learning takes time,” and offers a prescriptive checklist for solving problems to help students think more critically.
5. Episode #135 with Sarah Rose Cavanagh on her book, The Spark of Learning: Energizing the College Classroom with the Science of Emotion discusses the role that emotions play in learning.
6. Episode #062 with Rebecca Campbell on the power of mindset. She shares on the episode, “It isn’t about teaching differently, but about framing the conversation differently.” She also describes ways to help students achieve more of a growth mindset, based on the research.
7. Episode #047 with Todd Zakrajsek provides similar information as the episode with Rebecca, only this time regarding metacognition. He describes it as “thinking about thinking; knowing when you know.”
8. Espidoes #037 with Tine Reimers did a deep dive on the research that explores approaches to developing critical thinking skills. The show notes include Tine’s taxonomy of some of the critical thinking theories and suggestions for how to grow critical thinking in our students.
9. Episode #016 with Josh Eyler looks at biology, the brain, and learning. On the episode, he provide a framework for a biological basis of learning and recommends resources from Harvard’s graduate school of education on the mind, the brain, and education.

Books Worth Reading on Related Topics

In addition to the books that were highlighted in the episodes, above, I also must mention two of my favorite reads related to teaching and learning.

• What the Best College Teachers Do, by Ken Bain
• Small Teaching, by James Lang

While both books are written in a less-formal tone than an academic journal article would be, they are based on extensive research on teaching and learning and have references to their primary sources, should you want to dive deeper than they do on any approach.

Your Turn

I know I have just skimmed the surface with this post, but it is time to get back to the writing I’m doing on my book. Now you probably know why I didn’t feel I could tackle this in 140 characters on Twitter, though.

What are others exploring about the scholarship of teaching and learning? How do you address those who are skeptical as to the effectiveness of some of our teaching methods? What resources did I miss that can help Nick familiarize himself more with this body of research?

As I've written about previously, I am writing a book this summer. It's my first book. I've written a dissertation, before, and there are certainly parallels. But, it's my first time having such a strict timeline to get it done, and to have my work be a part of a series of books.

Our academic year is over, and I'm officially into summer. While I find such joy in teaching, it is always a relief to have a break and be renewed for the next season of teaching.

In my process of conducting a monthly review, I always select a theme for the coming month. In May, it was writing. For June, I had also selected writing.

However, I am reconsidering.

As overused as the concept is, I'm starting to think that my theme should be balance. Yes, I need to write a book. And I want to write a book. But, I also realize this is a precious season for our children and I am fortunate to be able to spend a bit more time with them during the summer than I can during the academic year.

I write all of this to explain why I am working at not feeling guilty when I get distracted by something fun. I don't have to be constantly focused in order to achieve my goals for this season. The pace of my days doesn't have to be as relentless as it can often be during the academic year.

To that end, here are some wonderful distractions I've been experiencing in recent weeks. When I wasn't writing, of course…

Doodling for Academics

All the way back on Episode 17, Janine Utell recommended a wonderful book called a Dear Committee Members: A Novel, by Julie Schumacher. I devoured it right away and have since bought copies for multiple colleagues who I thought could use a more humorous look at parts of our work.

It made me all that much more excited that the author was coming out with an adult coloring book. Doodling for Academics: A Coloring and Activity Book allows Julie Schumacher to continue to keep us laughing and not taking ourselves too seriously. My mom bought me a copy and I have been enjoying leafing through the pages and chuckling over the common dysfunctional ways of our own institutions and of higher ed, in general.

HubSpot’s HTML Email Signature Creator

Another recent find involves less laughter and more beautiful design. I found HubSpot, a website that allows you to build a gorgeous HTML signature for your email for free. There are some paid services that do this for you, but I'm reluctant to pay a monthly subscription fee for something like this.

I wanted a signature that could live inside my email client and not on someone else's servers. One of the important questions to ask whenever something is supposedly free, is what am I giving up and exchange for this benefit I'm looking to receive.

I was asked to give up some demographic information and my email address in exchange for my new signatures. The company sells website and marketing services and I know I am potentially going to be marketed to in the future. They have sent one email over the course of the last few days with a link to a white paper. They do provide an easy way to unsubscribe from their emails and seem to comply with the Can-Spam Act properly.

If you have some basic HTML skills, you can make modifications to their code in your email client. In fact, you may be able to achieve the desired result us by typing directly in to the signatures text editor of your email client, after you copy and paste your signature.

Using a Different Email Client: In My Case – AirMail 3

When it comes to email, most people either stick with whatever email client their institution uses (such as Microsoft Outlook), or whichever one is the default on their computer (such as mail, on the Mac).

After listening to Katie Floyd and David Sparks talk about alternatives to email clients on Episode #303 of the Mac Power Users, I decided to finally take the plunge. I read a lot of articles, and finally landed on that using Airmail on both my Mac and on my iOS devices.

Forbes’ Anthony Karcz makes the case for why Mac users should consider using Airmail 3 as our email client of choice. I’ve been delighted at the gorgeous user interface and some of the small touches, like being able to send an email later (only works on certain email services, like gmail or Office 365), and the integration with my task manager of choice: OmniFocus.

NPR's Wow in the World Podcast

Dave (my husband) and I frequently joke that our kids are going to grow up thinking that every adult in the world has a podcast.

• Daddy has Coaching for Leaders…
• Mommy has Teaching in Higher Ed…
• Mrs. Sandie has Ending Human Trafficking…
• Mr. Stephen has Stephen Explains the News…

While the kids do get to listen to their fair share of music in the car, until now, they never knew of the existence of a kid-oriented podcast.

NPR launched their Wow in the World podcast about a month ago. It is entertaining for kids and adults and is a big hit for our family. They describe Wow in the world as:

…a new way for families to connect, look up and discover the wonders in the world around them. Every episode, hosts Mindy and Guy guide curious kids and their grown-ups away from their screens and on a journey. Through a combination of careful scientific research and fun, we'll go inside our brains, out into space, and deep into the coolest new stories in science and technology.” -NPR

Here is our son’s review of the Wow in the World podcast, in his own words:

He sounds like he is making a paid endorsement for Wow in the World. Trust me. NPR doesn't know we're doing this and with how good it is, they don't need our help.

Your Turn

What have been some fruitful distractions for you, as we head into summer? 

When I was preparing my promotion and tenure portfolio in 2010, the resource I used more than any other was the book:

The Academic Portfolio: A Practical Guide to Documenting Teaching, Research, and Service, by Peter Seldin and J. Elizabeth Miller*.

The first half of the book lays out a structure for how to approach documenting one's development in higher education, while the second half contains samples of portfolios from faculty in various disciplines.

While I am not actively working on a portfolio at this time, I have enjoyed continuing to read teaching philosophies that various faculty include on their websites/blogs.

Teaching Philosophy Inspiration

Ryan Cordell's teaching philosophy is inspirational, both in the way he describes his approaches and also from the examples he links to of how his teaching philosophy gets realized.

Jeffrey W. Murray asserts that we should consider non-traditional ways of developing a teaching philosophy, if we find ourselves too constrained by the standard format.

Adam Croom's talk on Openness Without Penalty cautions us to avoid thinking of every possible educational technology as a prescription for effective teaching. He states:

In fact, I would go further and say that not every technology is congruent with every teaching philosophy. As an instructor I’m not a neutral entity; I teach my subjects the way I want to teach them. Similarly, technologies are not neutral as they, too, have biases that have been implicitly or explicitly built into them and their uses.”

Elizabeth (Betsy) Barre takes the courageous route of articulating how love may even enter into our teaching philosophies. She also describes the ultimate benefit of a liberal arts education as she writes:

A truly liberal education, on the other hand, provides students the motivation, information, and tools necessary to “liberate” themselves from the dictates of authoritative truth—academic or otherwise. This means, incidentally, that I am just as concerned about avoiding proselytization as my colleagues. If my teaching philosophy prioritizes any values, they are the values that provide the foundation for intellectual diversity. Thus, the primary goal of normative debate in my classroom is to encourage students to learn how to think for themselves. In the end, they may accept the value of authority and continue to hold the positions they held when they entered the classroom. The hope, however, is that they will have secured better reasons for doing so. Put simply, my central concern is not what my students think, but whether and how they do so.”

Jeffrey Wiese describes in his statement of teaching philosophy how he went through four phases of a teacher, from trying to show medical students how much he knew to when he was able to follow his father's example and become more of a coach (which he describes further on episode #096 of the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast: The Clinical Coach).

Finally, one area of content that I didn't explore in my first academic portfolio that I hope to include in my one for full professor is regarding how my teaching philosophy has been shaped by others who have taught me. Gardner Campbell has modified his recent syllabi by adding a dedication. This is the way he acknowledges those who have been what he calls “a cloud of witnesses” around him in his teaching.

Gardner shares:

These are the people whose work has shaped me, and who have shaped my work. In the most intimate cases, these are people with whom I’ve broken bread. People with whom I’ve fought, and cried. People who’ve believed in me when I didn’t believe in myself, people who’ve encouraged me, people who’ve intervened at key moments. People who are with me as I think and write and teach and learn.

I have always felt that the courses I design and lead, at their best, do not deliver content so much as they mingle souls, as John Donne said letters do.

Your Turn

I know I have missed a plethora of wonderful examples of teaching philosophy statements that faculty have placed online. If you have links to share of other teaching philosophies that have resonated with you, please share them in the comments or via email.