In 1998 the Carnegie foundation launched the Carnegie Academy for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (CASTL) Higher Education program with the goal to “render teaching public, subject to critical evaluation, and usable by others in both the scholarly and the general community.” It was through this program that the International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (ISSOTL) was established six years later at the inaugural conference on October 21-24, 2004. This conference was held in the Indiana Memorial Union on the Bloomington campus with sessions addressing the theme: The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning: Perspectives, Intersections, and Directions.
Throughout 2024, ISSOTL will celebrate this milestone anniversary kicking off with the first emerging International Collaborative Writing Group (ICWG) to document the history of ISSOTL and culminating with the annual conference. Even more exciting for the IU community, this 20th anniversary conference will be hosted by the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) Program within the Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning (CITL) from October 28-31, 2024 at French Lick Resort in French Lick, Indiana.
Over the next 12 months, we will be reflecting on and celebrating the longitudinal commitment the IU community has shown to SoTL. This commitment formally began with eight IU faculty (George Walker, Carnegie & VP Research, Graduate School Dean, Physics; Craig Nelson, Biology; David Pace, History; Jennifer Robinson, Anthropology; Whitney Schlegel, Biology; Bernice Pescosolido, Sociology; Randy Isaacson, IU South Bend and Nancy Chism, IUPUI) who are founding members of ISSOTL. These individuals make up 12% of founding membership, accounting for the highest level of participation by institutions in the US, Canada, Australia, and the UK at the time.
Beyond their roles as founding members both Craig Nelson and Jennifer Robinson served as ISSOTL president; Craig as the inaugural president from 2004-2006 and Jennifer serving during the 2009-2010 AY. This commitment continues today in activities both seen and unseen among members of the IU community across all ranks.
At the heart of ISSOTL, is the commitment to teaching and learning as serious intellectual work. This commitment is made tangible through the following:
- recognizing and encouraging scholarly work on teaching and learning in each discipline, within scholarly societies and across educational levels,
- promoting cross-disciplinary conversations to create synergy and prompt new lines of inquiry,
- facilitating the collaboration of scholars in different countries and the flow of new findings and applications across national boundaries,
- encouraging the integration of discovery, learning, and public engagement, and
- advocating for support, review, recognition, and appropriate uses of the scholarship of teaching and learning.
To learn more about ISSOTL, become a member, or explore their open access SoTL journal visit https://issotl.com/. To learn more about SoTL at IU, follow the blog and CITL Friends newsletter. You can also reach out to either of the conference co-chairs (Shannon Sipes and Greg Siering) or the SoTL graduate student, J.T. Cornelius with questions.
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