The Birth of a Notion: The Windfalls and Pitfalls of Tailoring an SoTL-like Concept to Scientists, Mathematicians, and Engineers

Despite calls for greater agreement in defining the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL), terms that resemble SoTL are proliferating. An NSF-sponsored center for teaching and learning coined its own term, teaching-as-research (TAR), believing it would resonate better with research-active scientists, engineers, and mathematicians. To understand whether this was a wise strategy, we interviewed 43 participants from courses that sought to explain and demonstrate TAR. Our study found that participants defined TAR with varying complexity and that disciplinary concepts generally provided “conceptual handles” for making sense of TAR. However, tailoring a term to particular disciplines entails several challenging tradeoffs.

Mark R. ConnollyEmail:

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Mark Connolly   is a Researcher who studies STEM education reform efforts, postsecondary teaching, graduate education, and practitioner theorizing Jana Bouwma-Gearhart   is an Assistant Researcher whose interests include STEM K-16 educators’ teaching professional development and science learning through inquiry Matthew Clifford   is an Associate Researcher who studies the practice of instructional leadership and change in the sciences, with particular attention to the potentialities of secondary and post-secondary faculty collaboration and curriculum design.