Moving SoTL Projects Forward: Methodologies and Literature Searches

1. Moving SoTL Projects Forward:Methodologies and Literature Searches Mary E. Burman Dean and Professor Fay W. Whitney School of Nursing University of Wyoming

2. Outline • Sources of literature for SoTL • Inquiry methods to evaluate teaching and student learning • Ethical issues in SoTL • Case studies • Lots of discussion and questions

3. SoTL defined The systematic reflection/study of teaching and learning made public McKinney, 2007

4. Inquiry Process • What is the “problem?” • Refining the question(s) • Searching the literature • Consider ethical issues • Design the study • Collect and analyze the data • Disseminate the findings McKinney (2007) is a good primer on SoTL

5. SoTL Starts with questions…. Thinking about teaching begins where all intellectual inquiry begins, with questions about what is going on and how to explain, support, and replicate answers that satisfy us. Bender & Gray, 1999

6. Searching the literature…. • Practitioner pedagogical literature vs. • Educational literature • Separate and distinct, but related Weimer (2006)

7. Sources of literature • Disciplinary-based pedagogical journals, e.g, Journal of Nursing Education • SoTL Journals, e.g., International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning • Educational journals, e.g., The Journal of Higher Education • Focused educational journals, e.g., Active Learning in Higher Education McKinney, 2007

8. SoTL Journals • MountainRise • Journal of Cognitive and Affecting Learning • International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning • International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education • Inventio • The Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Available on-line

9. Other sources • Knowledge Media Lab (Carnegie Foundation for Advancement Teaching) • Visible Knowledge Project (Georgetown University)

10. Bibliographic Search Engines • ERIC • EBSCO Academic Search Premier • Others, e.g., PubMed • But… none of these is comprehensive of journals focusing on education and/or SoTL • Key words?? SoTL…. College Teaching…

11. “The key to successful literature reviews involves combining traditional techniques with mining information compiled by researchers familiar with the literature.” Naylor as cited in McKinney (2007)

12. Types of SoTL literature • Wisdom of practice • Personal accounts of change • Recommended practices • Recommended content • Research Scholarship • Quantitative • Qualitative • Descriptive Weimer (2006)

13. Inquiry Methods • Interviews and focus groups • Observational research • Questionnaires • Content analysis • Secondary analysis • Experiments and quasi-experiments • Case studies • Multimethod studies • Portfolios McKinney (2007)

14. Disciplines and Methodologies “Clearly, disciplinary styles empower the scholarship of teaching, not only by giving scholars a ready made way to imagine and present their work but also by giving shape to the problems they choose and the methods of inquiry they use” (pg. 32). Huber (2002)

15. Rigor in SoTL • Clear goals • Adequate preparation • Appropriate methods • Significant results • Effective presentation • Reflective critique Glassick, Huber & Maeroff (1997)

16. Ethical issues • Use of student work • How to obtain permission • Is informed consent really possible • Student role in SoTL • Choice of research design • Harm to participants • Going public with research • Damage to reputation of institution • Role of Institutional Review Board (IRB) • Overlapping roles of researcher and teacher

17. Principles for Ethical Decision-making in SoTL • Identify SoTL projects as inquiry or research projects • Projects need to be planned • Design an informed consent process • Seek external review • Inform students at regular junctures of project Burman & Kleinsasser (2004)

18. Principles (cont.) • Acknowledge that students control way their work is used • Proceed very carefully if using data from previous classes without student consent • Consider ways to involve students • Share findings with students. Burman & Kleinsasser (2004)

19. Case Studies • What is the question? • What sources of literature were used? • What methods were employed? • How were ethical issues handled?

20. References Boyer, EL (1990). Scholarship Reconsidered: Priorities for the professoriate. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Burman, M. E., & Kleinsasser, A. (2004). Ethical guidelines for the use of student work: Moving from teaching’s invisibility to inquiry’s visibility in the scholarship of teaching and learning. The Journal of General Education, 53, 59-79. Glassick, CE, Huber, M T, & Maeroff, GI (1997). Scholarship Assessed: Evaluation of the professoriate. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Huber, MT & Morreale, SP (Eds.) (2002). Disciplinary styles in the scholarship of teaching and learning. Washington DC: American Associate of Higher Education and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. Huber, MT & Hutchings, P (2005). The advancement of learning: Building the teaching commons. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Hutchings, P (Ed.) (2000). Opening lines: Approaches to the scholarship of teaching and learning. Menlo Park, CA: The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. Hutchings, P (Ed.) (2002). Ethics of inquiry: Issues in the scholarship of teaching and learning. Menlo Park, CA: The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. McKinney, K (2007). Enhancing learning through the scholarship of teaching and learning. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Weimer, M (2006). Enhancing scholarly work on teaching & learning: Professional literature that makes a difference. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

21. Questions…… Mary E. Burman mburman@uwyo.edu 307-766-4291