Practical Approaches to Improve Student Learning
On 18 November 2019, the Centre for Teaching Excellence (CTE) organised the inaugural SMU Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) Seminar. It featured Professor Linda Price, who has close to 30 years of experience in education spanning a range of national and international contexts and is the current Director of Academic and Organisational Development at the University of Bedfordshire. At the seminar, Professor Price drew upon Boyer’s model of scholarship, shared a set of SoTL principles at the seminar and emphasised that teaching and learning problems are at the heart of the investigative process in scholarship and research. Professor Price went on to conduct small group discussions that got participants thinking about “problems” they want to investigate or explore, and provided suggestions on how to scope the research questions for these SoTL projects.
Please click here to download a copy of Professor Price’s presentation slides.
Have an idea for a SoTL project? Come talk to us!
SoTL projects are grounded in specific disciplines, and the skills you bring from your specific discipline can be applied to SoTL. A key to working in SoTL is an intention to grow and develop knowledge about your own teaching that in turn has a significant impact on how we deliver education at SMU.
You may want to consider the following:
- Is there a learning or teaching “problem” you would like to investigate?
- What is the evidence that you need to answer your research question? How do you plan to collect the evidence and from whom? Do you already have existing evidence or do you need to collect more?
- What do you think about designing learning environments that are fit for the future?
CTE can provide resources and support you in defining your research question, considering the evidence to gather or analyse, and even ways to partner with colleagues or students to do so. You may also want to apply for funding through the SMU Educational Research Fellowship (awarded on a competitive basis). If you have questions about the Fellowship, please contact dnlew [at] smu.edu.sg (Magdeleine).
Let us work together to enhance educational practice at SMU. cte [at] smu.edu.sg (Contact CTE) if you have an idea for a SoTL project. Thank you once again for your support of the SoTL Seminar and we look forward to seeing you at our future events!