Frequently Asked Questions about the Scholarship of Teaching

1.) What is scholarship of teaching?
2.) Why would I want to try a scholarshop of teaching project?
3.) What do scholarship of teaching projects look like?
4.) What research skills are required?
5.) What help can Carol Holder provide?
6.) Is this educational research? Assessment?
7.) Do I need campus approval since this is research involving human subjects?

What is scholarship of teaching?

Faculty routinely monitor student learning to understand what works, how well, for whom, and in what context. In the last decade, a more systematic, formal version of these efforts has become recognized as the "scholarship of teaching." As with traditional disciplinary research, the scholarship of teaching takes time and careful planning, includes publishing or otherwise making findings public, benefits from collaboration with colleagues and peer review, informs the teaching of other faculty, and brings a variety of rewards. The scholarship of teaching is characterized by critical analysis, an expectation of evidence (and honesty about the limitations of available evidence), ethical research methods, careful and clear reporting, and links to the work of others.

Scholarship of teaching projects investigate, for example, the impact of an innovation such as service learning or WebCT on students in a course. Or such projects may try to uncover factors that are associated with success in a given course. The focus of the project usually stems from a significant issue or question that an individual professor finds intriguing, meaningful. The time and resources a faculty member has to devote to the project may determine how elaborate or narrow the focus.

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Why would I want to try a scholarship of teaching project?

Faculty engage in the scholarship of teaching because it is stimulating, interesting work, allowing us to learn more about both our discipline and our students. Some are curious about the impact of new approaches to teaching that they are trying. Others who are convinced of the success of their instruction want to document the results to encourage others to consider adopting similar approaches, or to have better evidence of teaching effectiveness for things like RTP and salary advances. Another reason to engage in scholarship of teaching is to publish and thereby contribute to a growing body of knowledge about teaching and learning in higher education, especially that which is discipline-specific.

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What do scholarship of teaching projects look like?

Some projects are quasi-experimental or comparative, and they may use quantitative or qualitative research methods (or a mix of both). With these, faculty compare different instructional approaches that they have tried or are trying in different sections of the same course – online vs. face-to-face, small sections vs. large, or using different assignments, examination schedules, or class activities. They may analyze and compare performance on exams or assignments, participation in class, attrition rates, success in subsequent courses, results of attitudinal surveys or focus groups, etc. When faculty don't have a situation that lends itself to a comparative study, they can focus on a single course, studying, for example, how students' attitudes, skills, knowledge change from the start to the end of the quarter.

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What research skills are required?

Faculty in any discipline may engage in the scholarship of teaching, using research methods with which they are already familiar or collaborating with others who bring knowledge of other investigative approaches. In CLASS, we are fortunate to have colleagues with expertise in a number of research areas we might like help with, and these colleagues are eager to serve as consultants or advisors to projects. They can help with design and interpretation of results of surveys and questionnaires, analysis of student papers and presentations, ethnographic (observational) studies, quasi-experimental studies, reviews of the literature, etc.

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What help can Carol Holder provide?

Carol Holder is working with CLASS faculty at all stages of project design and implementation. Contact her if you³d like to talk about project ideas, finding a manageable focus or research question, reviewing related literature, options in research design, tapping into expert assistance on campus, interpreting results, and writing and publishing reports of your work. You³ll find her in 1-225b, at ext. 2897 and at cholder@csupomona.edu. She can meet with you at your convenience, and would be pleased to collaborate in whatever ways work best for you.

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What's the connection with educational research? Assessment?

Unlike most educational research, scholarship of teaching projects are context-specific, addressing teaching and learning in a particular course at a particular university, and are conducted by a faculty member teaching that course, not by someone trained in educational research methods. Despite the highly contextualized nature of scholarship of teaching, the results of a study may be of interest to others teaching the same or similar courses who struggle with some of the same problems. Also results are often useful to faculty in other disciplines, especially those who are looking for models of faculty-designed and conducted course-based studies of learning.

Scholarship of teaching is a direct descendent of classroom research and classroom assessment, especially as those have been advanced by Patricia Cross and Tom Angelo in a number of books, articles, and presentations. Faculty who seek information from students periodically throughout a course to make changes as they go are engaged in classroom assessment. They look at student performance on exams and assignments, give mid-course anonymous surveys, assign "one-minute papers" at the end of class meetings, or in other ways determine what students are learning while a course is in progress. However, faculty don't write research reports on what they learn; the purpose of the assessment is immediate improvement based on analysis of feedback.

Throughout the CSU faculty are also engaged in another kind of assessment: assessment of learning outcomes of programs. This kind of assessment asks us as colleagues in a department or program to plan modifications of our curricula and/or instruction based on analysis of what our students know or are able to do, usually at the point of completion or graduation. Again the purpose is improvement (but at a program level, not course level), and publishing the results of such assessment is not required or even expected. We are asked to report to the campus and system office on the nature of the assessment activities and show that we are using the results to improve our programs, but we do not have to share the assessment data. That said, it is important to note that what we learn about investigating student learning as we engage in scholarship of teaching has direct application to our work in assessment at the program level, giving us experience with different approaches to evaluating effectiveness of our teaching.

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