Future of the Field: A SoTL Agenda

​One of my favorite talks at ACT was by Regan Gurung, Andrew Christopher, and Georjeanna Wilson-Doenges. The talk was called “Inquiring Minds Want to Know: A Research Agenda for Scholarship of Teaching and Learning.” It was aptly named as they did indeed provide us a much needed SoTL research agenda. 

Here is what they said we should be doing in future SoTL studies:

1. Ground SoTL studies in current theories and past research
2. Focus on individual differences
3. Use longitudinal designs (not just cross-sectional)
4. Measure rentention over time – even after the class is over
5. Identify and study bottlenecks (concepts where students struggle)
6. Collect large and diverse samples
7. Use mixed-methods approach (qualitative and quantitative measures)
8. Use true experimental design

 
Obviously, we don’t have to incorporate all of these points in each new study we conduct. As every mentor has inevitably said, not each single study has to answer all of the world’s questions. That still applies here. Even incorporating one or two of these points would strengthen the quality of the research being conducted. One of the presenters mentioned that SoTL research is not regarded as highly as more traditional research stating that it’s been described as “just teaching.” This is sad, upsetting, infuriating… (I could go on), but if something can be done to change these incorrect views, we should do it! And I think that addressing these points will help us do that.
 
This talk was especially inspiring for me, and I hope it was for others as well. I already have a new idea in the works…
 
Now go forth and conduct SoTL research! There’s always more to learn.
 
written by Jen Blush