This interactive panel and discussion addresses the follow question: How can we encourage the application of SoTL research by adapting or developing institutional processes to increase SoTL use. Support for creative and scholarly work on teaching and learning has evolved in parallel with a growing emphasis in the wider research community on the complimentary activity of knowledge mobilization and the use of research by practitioners. While we have made significant progress in supporting the ‘supply’ side of SoTL research, we have not had the same success in cultivating the ‘demand’ side. The goal of this session is to explore ideas on how institutions can better support the application of existing SoTL research to advance teaching and leaning. In the first half of the session panel members will initiate the discussion by summarizing recent pilot studies, from three Canadian universities, where SoTL knowledge mobilization was imbedded in institutional processes. Panelists will report from the perspectives of multiple roles (as faculty, students, educational developer and institutional executive). These examples are at early stages of evaluation and institutional integration. At the end of the session participants will: have shared and discussed institutional examples of knowledge mobilization practice; considered how current practice at their institution might be further integrate existing SoTL research to enhance institutional processes (beyond individual faculty work); identified potential steps to further this approach at their institutions to enhance institutional planning and goal setting. We look forward to learning from others about their interests, ideas and progress in this area.
References:
Haigh, N., Gossman, P., & Jiao, X. (2011). Undertaking an institutional ‘stock-take’of SoTL: New Zealand university case studies. Higher Education Research & Development, 30 (1), 9-23.
Hutchings, P., Borin, P., Keesing-Styles, L., Martin, L., Michael, R., Scharff, L., Simpkins, S. & Ismail, A. (2013). The scholarship of teaching and learning in an age of accountability: building bridges. Teaching and Learning Inquiry: The ISSOTL Journal, 1(2), 35-47.
McKinney, K. (2003). Applying the scholarship of teaching and learning: How can we do better? The Teaching Professor, August-September: 1,5,8.
Wright, M. C., Finelli, C. J., Meizlish, D., & Bergom, I. (2011). Facilitating the scholarship of teaching and learning at a research university. Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning, 43 (2), 50-56.
