Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL)

In The Contemplative Mind in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, Patricia Owen-Smith considers how contemplative practices may find a place in higher education. By creating a bridge between contemplative practices and the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL), Owen-Smith brings awareness of contemplative pedagogy to a larger audience of college instructors, while also offering classroom models and outlining the ongoing challenges of both defining these practices and assessing their impact in education. Ultimately, Owen-Smith asserts that such practices have the potential to deepen a student's development and understanding of the self as a learner, knower, and citizen of the world.

How can education become a transformative experience for all learners and teachers? The contributors to this volume contend that the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) can provide a strong foundation for the role of education in promoting social justice. The collection features contributions by an array of educators and scholars, highlighting the various ways that learners and teachers can prepare for and engage with social justice concerns. The essays offer reflections on the value of SoTL in relation to educational ethics, marginalized groups, community service and activism, counter narratives, and a range of classroom practices. Although the contributors work in a variety of disciplines and employ different theoretical frameworks, they are united by the conviction that education should improve our lives by promoting equity and social justice.

The scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) began primarily as a discipline-based movement, committed to exploring the signature pedagogical and learning styles of each discipline within higher education, with little exchange across disciplines. As the field has developed, new questions have arisen concerning cross-disciplinary comparison and learning in multidisciplinary settings This volume by a stellar group of experts provides a state-of-the-field review of recent SoTL scholarship within a range of disciplines and offers a stimulating discussion of critical issues related to interdisciplinarity in teaching, learning, and SoTL research.

This book is designed for lecturers on a wide range of professional courses.

Colleges and universities across the US have created special initiatives to promote faculty development, but to date there has been little research to determine whether such programs have an impact on students' learning. Faculty Development and Student Learning reports the results of a multi-year study undertaken by faculty at Carleton College and Washington State University to assess how students' learning is affected by faculty members' efforts to become better teachers. Extending recent research in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) to assessment of faculty development and its effectiveness, the authors show that faculty participation in professional development activities positively affects classroom pedagogy, student learning, and the overall culture of teaching and learning in a college or university.