Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL)

Classrooms and other learning environments provide a rich source of data for scholarly inquiry. The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning is an opportunity for faculty to explore the effectiveness of various teaching and learning strategies in a manner that is often consistent with their disciplinary training--employing academic curiosity, systematic investigation and analysis, and the publication of results. Engaging in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning can benefit your students and renew your passion for teaching.

RIT recognizes the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) as one of the four types of peer-reviewed scholarship that count in the tenure and review process (the other types are Discovery, Integration, and Application). Not surprisingly, RIT has a long history of involvement with SoTL, one that ranges from the Provost’s Learning Innovations Grants to informal college committees to the Faculty Learning Communities sponsored by TLS.

RIT faculty publications

Some of the many RIT faculty publications in the SoTL include:

Garrick, Robert, Larry Villasmil, Elizabeth Dell, and Rhiannon Hart. "Creating Technology Rich Learning Environments for the Classroom." Edited by Charles Wankel and Patrick Blessinger. Cutting Edge Technologies in Higher Education (Emerald Group Publishing Limited) 6, no. E (2013): 263-306.
Szczepanek, Kathleen M. "Business Ethics: How to Develop Ethical Awareness and Introspection in Our Students." RIT Scholarworks. 2009. (accessed October 6, 2014).
Wright, Kate L. "Online Reading Informs Classroom Instruction and Promotes Collaborative Learning." Journal of College Science Teaching 43, no. 2 (2013): 44-53.

Resources

Reading the SoTL literature can provide you with models for approaching your teaching in a more systematic way; contributing to the SoTL literature will enable you to share your discoveries about effective teaching and student success. The following three resources provide an excellent entree into this literature.

Vanderbilt University
SoTL site

The Center for Teaching at Vanderbilt University has created an introduction to and overview of SoTL that takes faculty step by step through the process of conducting SoTL research.

Michigan State University SoTL resource page

The Office of Faculty and Organizational Development has gathered a wide variety of resources on the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, including a bibliography, links to journals, and other materials.

RIT library guide on deaf education

Joan Naturale created this guide to resources on deaf and hard-of-hearing education.

SoTL Journals

Literature on the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning can be divided into two categories: those journals devoted to discipline-specific investigations and those that provide a more universal approach. On this page, you’ll find a brief list of general SoTL journals. You’ll find information about discipline-specific SoTL journals in the links on the websites at Vanderbilt University and Michigan State University.

Journals focused on teaching deaf and hard-of-hearing students

Active Learning in
Higher Education

“Active Learning in Higher Education is an international, refereed publication for all those who teach and support learning in higher education and those who undertake or use research into effective learning, teaching, and assessment in universities and colleges.”

International Journal for the Scholarship of
Teaching and Learning

“International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching & Learning is an open, double-blind peer reviewed electronic journal published twice per year by the Centers for Teaching & Technology at Georgia Southern University. The journal is an international forum for information and research about the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) and its implications for higher/tertiary education.”

International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education

“The International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education provides a forum for higher education faculty, staff, administrators, researchers, and students who are interested in improving post-secondary instruction. The IJTLHE provides broad coverage of higher education pedagogy and the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) across diverse content areas, educational institutions, and levels of instructional expertise.”

International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning

“The International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning . . . is a refereed, open access e-journal that disseminates original research, theory, and best practice in open and distance learning worldwide.”

The Internet and Higher Education

“The Internet and Higher Education is a quarterly journal devoted to addressing contemporary issues and future developments related to online learning, teaching, and administration on the Internet in post-secondary settings. It is a peer-reviewed journal intended to be a vehicle for scholarly presentation and dissemination of contributions, theoretical and applied, significantly addressing innovative deployments of Internet technology in instruction and reporting on research to demonstrate the effects of the Internet and information technology (IT) on instruction in various contexts in higher education.”

The Journal of Educators Online

“Journal of Educators Online is an online double-blind peer review scholarly journal in the broad area of Computer Mediated Learning (CML) which includes distance, online, electronic, virtual, distributed, blended, and mobile learning. Computer-mediated learning occurs when an individual interactively learns (formally or informally, synchronously or asynchronously) about material via computer means where the learning materials and pedagogy are developed to take advantage of the available technologies.”

Journal of Interactive Media in Education

“JIME is an open access online journal in educational technology that focuses on the implications and use of digital media in education. It aims to foster a multidisciplinary and intellectually rigorous debate on both the theory and practice of interactive media in education. JIME was launched in September 1996.”

Journal of Online Learning and Teaching

“The MERLOT Journal of Online Learning and Teaching (JOLT) is a peer-reviewed, open-access, online publication that aims to promote scholarship in the use of the Internet and web-based multimedia resources in higher education The journal is . . . published quarterly in March, June, September, and December."

Journal of the Scholarship of
Teaching and Learning

"The Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (JoSoTL) is a forum for the dissemination of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in higher education for the community of teacher-scholars. Our peer-reviewed Journal promotes SoTL investigations that are theory-based and supported by evidence. JoSoTL's objective is to publish articles that promote effective practices in teaching and learning and add to the knowledge base. The themes of the Journal reflect the breadth of interest in the pedagogy forum."

Journal of University Teaching and
Learning Practice

“The Journal of University Teaching and Learning Practice is a tri-annual, peer-reviewed journal publishing papers that add significantly to the body of knowledge describing effective and innovative teaching and learning practice in the higher education environment. The Journal aims to provide a forum for educational practitioners in a wide range of disciplines to communicate their teaching and learning outcomes in a scholarly way. Its purpose is to bridge the gap between journals covering purely academic research and more pragmatic articles and opinions published elsewhere.”

SoTL focusing on deaf and hard-of-hearing students

Deaf Studies Digital Journal

This multimedia journal features creative and academic works in American and other sign languages.

Sign Language Studies

Sign Language Studies is a peer-reviewed academic journal that publishes a range of articles and essays on sign languages and signing communities.

Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education

“Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education is a peer-reviewed scholarly journal integrating and coordinating basic and applied research relating to individuals who are deaf, including cultural, developmental, linguistic, and educational topics.

JDSDE addresses issues of current and future concern to allied fields, encouraging interdisciplinary discussion.”

American Annals of the Deaf

"The American Annals of the Deaf is a professional journal dedicated to quality in education and related services for deaf or hard of hearing children and adults… For more than 150 years the Annals has focused primarily on the education of deaf students and on information for professionals associated with the educational development of these students. At the same time, the Annals historically has extended its range of topics beyond education and incorporated the broad interests of educators in the general welfare of deaf children and adults to represent the diversity of its professional readership."