The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) is at the centre of all that we do as educators and as learners. The SoTL drives innovation in curriculum development and delivery, as well as student engagement in applied, collaborative learning. Centennial College’s integrated approach to SoTL captures the richness and complexity of academic scholarship in a global context, reflecting Centennial’s emphasis on internationalization, equity, inclusion, and valuing of multiple ways of knowing, being and learning.
"GOOD TEACHING"
Good teaching is seen as teaching those results in enhanced student learning and other desired student outcomes that would not have occurred in the absence of good teaching. Good teaching has been defined and operationalized in various ways (i.e., student satisfaction ratings, peer observations judgements self-reflective portfolios) and usually supports department, college, and institutional missions and objectives (Ruutmann & Saar 2017, 213).
"SCHOLARLY TEACHING"
Scholarly teaching goes further than what is required for good teaching. It involves taking a scholarly approach to teaching as is done in other areas of knowledge and practice. Scholarly teachers see teaching as a profession and the knowledge upon which teaching, and learning is grounded as a discipline in which to develop expertise. Scholarly teachers reflect on their teaching, read, and apply the literature on teaching and learning in their discipline and/or more generally, use assessments techniques to evaluate their classroom, and discuss teaching issues with colleagues. The conception of scholarly teaching is related to what Boyer (1990) labeled the Scholarship of Teaching (Ruutmann & Saar 2017, 213). Scholarly teaching is the foundation of SoTL –particularly scholarly teaching that focuses on the individual’s own classroom practice and experience (Potter & Kustra, 2011; Healey, Bass, Caulfield, Hoffman, McGinn, Miller-Young, Haigh 2013) Diamond (2002) argued that SoTL’s concerns extend beyond scholarly teaching toward wider issues of institutional practice and educational issues that affect human society at all levels.
Scholarship of Teaching and Learning vs. Scholarly Teaching
“The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning is the development of scholarly knowledge about teaching through reflection, conducting research and sharing expertise; not only in order to improve practice within one’s own classroom, but also beyond, to the institution and the field” (Evers et al., 2010, 31).
In general, SoTL includes rigorous, systematic, and evidence-based study of student learning; the understanding and improvement of student learning and/or teaching practice; commitment to disciplinary and/or interdisciplinary peer review and appropriate public dissemination; impact beyond a single course, program or institution; andadvancing the field of teaching and learning to build collective knowledge and ongoing improvement (Ruutmann & Saar 2017, 214) The central objective of SoTL is to add to the teaching and learning literature so that this shared knowledge can lead to improvement in teaching and ultimately enhance learning for students (Ruutmann & Saar, 2017).