But, I Don’t Know HOW To Do SoTL Research.

Undertaking a Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) project is much like undertaking disciplinary research. Like other forms of research, SoTL follows the broad steps of the scientific method. Applied to SoTL, these steps are as follows:

1. Identify the research question
2. Design the study
3. Collect the data
4. Analyze the data and draw conclusions
5. Present and publish your SoTL project

Variations arise in the applied rather than empirical nature of SoTL work and the disciplinary perspective of the researcher. Both of these influence what the details of each step look like in any given project. The accompanying infographic provides a sample of questions to consider at each step to help you think through your project.

Let’s explore an example of what this variation might look like. Consider two faculty members who independently ask “Can student engagement in class be raised by requiring pre-class reading responses on the discussion board in Canvas?” One faculty member from English may do a thematic analysis of the discussion responses and have an graduate assistant code the in-class discussion using the same themes. The second faculty member from Statistics may count the number of times a student asks a question or volunteers an answer to large class problems and then compare those responses between students who complete the discussion post versus those who do not. In both of these cases, the research question is the same, but the approach to answer the question is directly impacted by the researcher’s disciplinary research methods and instructional strategies.

So most instructors really do know how to do SoTL research, since the methods grow out of your own discipline. It just takes some time to transfer those methods to the study of your students’ learning.

If you would like to talk through your own SoTL idea or need additional SoTL support, please contact the CITL for an individual consultation. Subscribe to the blog to be sure you don’t miss the next post in this SoTL series. As always, if you have suggestions for SoTL topics you would like to see discussed in the blog, please leave a comment below.