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Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in STEM
Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in STEM

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Session 1: Engaging with SoTL

Introduction

This session will introduce you to foundational aspects of engaging with Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL). The session starts with defining SoTL research and how it is different from educational research, scholarly teaching and discipline-based research. SoTL research is a focused and systematic inquiry into learning and teaching, with one or more research questions guiding the research, the outcomes of which are made public.

In this session, you will learn six principles of SoTL that will guide the design, development and evaluation of a SoTL inquiry. You will learn how reflection, critical reflection and reflexivity are integral to conducting a SoTL inquiry. To facilitate and guide your reflection during a SoTL inquiry, several models of reflection will be described. Finally, the stages of a SoTL inquiry will be outlined. This course is designed around these stages of a SoTL inquiry, and you will visit each of these stages as you progress through this course.

By the end of this session, you should be able to:

  • explain the meaning of SoTL and how it differs from scholarly teaching and discipline-based education research
  • state the principles that guide SoTL
  • describe the role of reflection, critical reflection and reflexivity in SoTL
  • apply one or more models of reflection for reflective practice
  • list the stages of a SoTL inquiry.

The Open University would really appreciate a few minutes of your time to tell us about yourself and your expectations for the course before you begin, in our optional start-of-course survey [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] . Participation will be completely confidential and we will not pass on your details to others.