Positioning the scholarship of teaching and learning in the academic arena

Abstract

This paper begins by indicating the differences in perception of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. The paper underscores the need to further operationalise the term ‘SOTL’ for it to be fully embraced by higher education institutions. The paper then discusses the challenges faced by SOTL as an emerging discipline within the traditionally research oriented higher education institutions. The presentation particularly focuses on the challenges of evaluating the SOTL by identifying some of the complexities involved. The paper highlights some of the currently suggested evaluation criteria for the SOTL work and their shortcomings and makes suggestions on what else could be included in order to standardize SOTL work. The paper then explores some of the strategies that could be used to address the challenges faced by the scholarship of teaching and learning. A proposal on some form of acceptable criteria for evaluating the SOTL work to help distinguish SOTL from past traditions in higher education such as classroom assessment is then made. The presentation ends by making suggestions on some standard procedures and practices that could be incorporated into SOTL work for it to be embraced world wide.