Reflecting on the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

The most recent white paper on the scholarship of teaching and learning by the UW Colleges Virtual Teaching and Learning Center.  After reading the white paper, consider the following questions.

What statement best describes your SoTL experience on your campus or in your department?

• I am personally interested/engaged in SoTL, but I have not found a colleague group or other support for my work.
• There are faculty and instructors who are engaged in SoTL, but they do not work together and there is no organized approach or coordination of efforts.
• There is a small but lively SoTL initiativ, but both grassroots and top-down support.
• We have been part of the larger national and international SoTL movements.
• The principles and practices of SoTL are woven through many campus initiatives and agendas.

How might SoTL be better supported?

How would you describe the impact of engagement with the scholarship of teaching and learning on with the practice of teaching at your campus or in your department?

What initiatives could SoTL help to advance at your campus, in your department, or across the UW Colleges or UW System?

A broader version of these questions were presented at the UW Colleges Deans and Chairs meeting in  October 2013 by Tony Ciccone (Director of the Center for Instructional and Professional Development at UW Milwaukeee) and La Vonne Cornell-Swanson (Director of the Office of Professional and Instructional Development, UW System). Questions adapted from the appendix to The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Reconsidered, (Hutchings, Huber and Ciccone, 2011).

VTLC Reading Circle 2012 (part 3 of 7)

This post is the third in the series on the 2012 VTLC Reading Circle on How Learning Works by Ambrose, Bridges, DiPietro, Lovett, and Norman.  There are several ways to participate, including reading and reflecting on this series of blog posts.  For more details, see our website.

The previous post asked reflective questions about students' knowledge organizations.  The third concept in the book is "Students' motivation generates, directs, and sustains what they to do learn" (69).

The authors state, "if we want our students to gain the deep understanding that comes from exploration and intellectual risk-taking (a learning goal) but they want only to do what is necessary to get a good grade (a performance goal), we may not obtain the kinds of learning behaviors and outcomes that we desire" (72).

Questions for Reflection

• What goals do you have for student learning?
• What performance (or performance-avoidance) goals do your students have?  What affective and social goals do your students have?
• In what ways are student goals aligned or misaligned with your goals for student learning? 
• What "outcome expectancies" do your students have?  How do you address these in your course?
• What strategies to "establish value" and "build positive expectancies" are you using?  Which ones would best address differences between your goals and those of your students?
• Finally, in what ways have you created a "supportive environment"?  Are there ways in which the learning context (environment) can be improved?  

UWC VTLC Podcast 2 (10/17/11): Conversation with Dr. Joe Foy

Hi, colleagues.  Welcome to the first UWC VTLC podcast of the 2011-12 academic year.    You can listen on your computer by clicking here or always on the title above, or you can subscribe via iTunes and listen there or on your MP3 player.