Defining the "Scholarship of Teaching"
To begin your conversations about the scholarship of teaching,
you might use the draft definition and set of questions below.
The object of answering these and your own questions is to
test the definition statement. Do you agree sufficiently with
the definition to use it as the point of departure for looking
at campus practices, policies, and conditions that work for
or against the scholarship of teaching? If you do, you may
want to proceed to the next step: identification and examination
of those practices, policies, and conditions. If you modify
the definition after your discussion, be sure to capture your
reasons to report out with your revised definition.
The scholarship of teaching is problem posing about an issue
of teaching or learning, study of the problem through methods
appropriate to disciplinary epistemologies, application of
results to practice, communication of results, self-reflection,
and peer review.
Questions:
- Is there a difference between excellence in teaching
and the scholarship of teaching?
- What do different disciplines contribute to the scholarship
of teaching? To what extent is the scholarship of teaching
discipline-based?
- In which contexts and for what purposes do faculty members
do scholarly work about teaching? Is the scholarship of
teaching the responsibility of all faculty members?
- What questions about student learning can be explored through the scholarship
of teaching?
- What practices, policies, and structures can support
the scholarship of teaching?
- What practices, policies, and structures can inhibit
the scholarship of teaching?
Stocktaking:
When you have achieved consensus on a definition of the "scholarship
of teaching" to use for the present, next look at the
practices, policies, and structures on your campus that support
and that inhibit the scholarship of teaching there. You might
want to rank-order the supports and inhibitors to self-assess
the state of the scholarship of teaching at your institution.
[This stocktaking -- if it's occurring as part of a Campus
Conversations process -- will help you identify a focus area
for study and action during Part Two.]
The following is from the Carnegie Teaching Academy Campus
Program literature.
The Carnegie Teaching Academy's draft definition of the
"scholarship of teaching" is your starting point
for a campus conversation of ways that the definition is enacted
on your campus, conditions there that support the scholarship
of teaching, and conditions that inhibit it. This discussion
and environmental scan of your campus are most effective if
focused and consequential.
The character of this conversation will depend on local culture
and prior work. It will need to engage a broad cross section
of campus constituents. You might situate your discussion
in the work of an ongoing group, or your college might constitute
a cross-functional group specifically for the Campus Conversations
process. (To facilitate group discussion, you may want to
consider distributing copies of the "Starting the Conversation"
handout that follows.) Soliciting ideas from multiple constituencies
will enrich the fullness of the discussion and the accuracy
of your read of campus conditions. Your campus might take
a short, intense look, or use a longer-term process. To further
facilitate your conversations, a variety of tools and models
is provided via the Teaching Initiatives page.
Your campus will generate its own questions to consider,
but questions central to the draft definition and conditions
for the scholarship of teaching might include these:
- Does our campus have a definition of the "scholarship
of teaching" that helps faculty form and characterize
their work? How does that definition correspond to or differ
from the draft definition?
- What lines of work on our campus contribute to the scholarship of teaching?
- How many campus constituents do that work? How are the
outcomes communicated?
- Are faculty members rewarded for doing the scholarship
of teaching? Why or why not? How?
- Do hiring and orienting practices locate and support
faculty members committed to the scholarship of teaching?
- What are the most central teaching issues on our campus?
How is the campus addressing those issues?
- How does our campus culture discourage the scholarship
of teaching? What specific steps could the campus take to
improve these conditions?
- How does our campus culture affirm the scholarship of
teaching? What specific steps could the campus take to sustain
these conditions?
Reporting Outcomes of Part 1
You should report your outcomes as responses to the seven
items below. Please provide your responses by number, in the
following order. Limit your report to 750 words total, distributed
over the seven items:
- Name of your college, and your contact person.
- What definition of "scholarship of teaching"
your college accepted (not more than one sentence). If you
revised the draft definition provided, briefly explain your
reasons.
- The structures, policies, and practices in your college
that support the scholarship of teaching.
- The structures, policies, and practices in your college
that inhibit the scholarship of teaching.
- The issue your college proposes to study and act on during
Part Two of the Campus Conversations process, and your plan
for that study.
- Key words that point toward your supports, inhibitors,
or Part Two work (such as faculty rewards, faculty development,
assessment of student learning, team-teaching, problem-based
learning, student portfolios, service-learning, etc.).
- Senior college administrator(s) supporting the stocktaking
work (name, title, address, phone, email).
|
