The article, published in Teaching and Learning Inquiry, makes the case for a set of principles that distinguish high quality Scholarship of Teaching and Learning.
For the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) to be understood as significant intellectual work in the academy, Peter Felten argues in his latest article, SoTL practitioners need to identify shared principles of good practice.
While honoring the diversity of SoTL in its many forms across the globe, such principles can serve as a heuristic for assessing work in the field. These principles include (1) inquiry into student learning, (2) grounded in context, (3) methodologically sound, (4) conducted in partnership with students, and (5) appropriately public.
Taken together, these five principles can be guideposts for developing and refining individual SoTL inquiries and larger SoTL initiatives. These principles also can clarify and demystify SoTL to those on campuses who evaluate such work, helping to make the case for institutional resources and support for SoTL. Finally, these principles articulate a vision of a scholarship that enhances, perhaps even transforms, teaching and learning in higher education.
Felten’s article appears in the inagural issue of Teaching and Learning Inquiry, the journal of the International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. The journal’s editor’s selected this article as the free download for this issue; the remainder of the journal is available in print or through JSTOR.
Felten is assistant provost, director of both the Center for the Advancement of Teaching & Learning and the Center for Engaged Learning, and associate professor of history.