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SCHOLARSHIP OF TEACHING & LEARNING (SoTL)
In Scholarship Reconsidered: Priorities of the Professoriate(1990), Ernest L. Boyer proposed a conception of multiple scholarships: Scholarship of Discovery, of Integration, of Application, and of Teaching. Boyer’s concept was refined over time, particularly by Glassick, Huber, and Maeroff, in Scholarship Assessed (1997) and Laurie Richline in Scholarly Teaching & the Scholarship of Teaching, (1995, 2001) as cited above. More recently, Huber and Hutchings (2005) explore the progress of SoTL work in changing the university in The Advancement of Learning:Building the Teaching Commons.
Briefly, the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) is currently conceived of as structured inquiry into our own teaching and our students learning, leading to dissemination of findings.While not every university teacher will want to do SoTL, many at Ohio State have chosen to do so. In 2003, several Ohio State faculty from diverse fields joined to support their own SoTL efforts and to advocate for SoTL with colleagues. This group was originally a Faculty Learning Community (FLC) sponsored by FTAD. After meeting for a year, the community chose to continue and expand their group.
The organization, The Ohio State Association for the Scholarship of Teaching (TOAST) meets regularly, discussing teaching and initiating and supporting SoTL projects. Although they are an independent faculty group, they have backing from both FTAD and Academic Affairs.
Embracing SoTL in community has been energizing for these faculty; this enthusiasm can enhance teaching and student learning. Developing a strong, interdisciplinary learning community has been an effective means to build the capacity for SoTL, creating the "teaching commons" (Huber & Hutchings 2005) to make a greater difference than individual efforts could.
TOAST was selected by the Carnegie Academy for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (CASTL) as lead institution for an international group on "Building Scholarly Communities." Locally, they sponsor events to share work in progress and to develop the skills and knowledge needed to do this work. Each quarter, TOAST and FTAD present a seminar of SoTL work in progress and a workshop on a tool for doing SoTL.
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