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from the issue of March 3, 2005
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Scholarship of teaching, learning full-fledged movement
KIM HACHIYA, UNIVERSITY COMMUNICATIONS
Describing UNL as a "bit of a hotbed on the scholarship of teaching and learning," Pat Hutchings of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, said the university is poised to continue its national leadership.
Hutchings visited UNL Feb. 28 with Barbara Cambridge of the American Association for Higher Education. The two gave a series of workshops on the scholarship of teaching and learning, sponsored by the Office of Academic Affairs.
The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning movement started about 1990, Hutchings said, in response to a Carnegie report calling for greater recognition and reward for teaching to achieve the varied purposes of higher education. Many campuses began to explore the ideas, Cambridge said. Simultaneously, she said, there was a "burst of knowledge" about learning and a call from the public and government to "prove" that students were learning. Changes in pedagogy, driven in part by technology, and changes in student demographics also forced educators to develop new strategies for teaching.
The SOTL movement, Cambridge said, helps faculty gauge, document and assess whether those strategies are successful. And it helps faculty feel they belong to a community of serious scholars and are not working in isolation.
Most faculty in most disciplines have no formal training in the scholarship of teaching and learning, Hutchings said. "We try to get them to start where they are in their own fields and disciplines. The work is by its very nature cross disciplinary; it requires them to seek out others."
Since 1990, Cambridge said, models have developed to help universities implement SOTL programs. UNL's course-portfolio project, which recently was honored by TIAA-CREF as an honorable mention Hesburgh Award winner, is an example, she said. "Campuses need to put up the structures to help faculty take this step," she said.
Originally, the movement's focus was on teaching, Cambridge said. But it became apparent that the outcome of teaching -- learning -- was the key measurable concept.
Students have a role to play, she said, because they must become aware of and take control and responsibility for their learning. And faculty need to be aware of their own learning as well and not be alarmed by that need, she said.
"It's scary to admit you are not an expert and need to learn more," she said.
GO TO: ISSUE OF MARCH 3
NEWS HEADLINES FOR MARCH 3
2005 NU teaching and research awards announced
Research Fair March 8-10 features workshops, book display
Sneak Peek - Frontier University screens March 6 at Ross
A Piece of University History
Scholarship of teaching, learning full-fledged movement
UNL events to celebrate Women's History Month in March
732008S34340X
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