Exploring SoTL literature
“We do not learn from experience; we learn from reflecting on experience."
John Dewey (1922)
Exploring contemporary SoTL
The rise of educational psychology in Europe and the United States during the late 19th century influenced how institutional learning and teaching was perceived. John Dewey was one of the early reformers in educational psychology (1920s-1940s) and his work gave rise to the concept that students became better learners when teachers engaged in new methods of teaching, such as experiential learning and social learning through discussion.
This doesn’t sound so remarkable now, but consider that before then European/Western cultures had a largely singular approach: behaviouralist/rote. However, Dewey’s work (and other educational psychologists at the time) was focused on how children learn. Ernest Boyer (1990) wrote about the equivalence of good teaching practice with scholarly Discipline research. This doesn’t sound like an epiphany, but it had an impact that helped shape the work of university academics since that time.
Why was Ernest Boyer important to SoTL in universities?
In 1990, Boyer wrote about four ways universities enacted scholarship. These were:
- Discovery - Research into/publish about your Discipline.
- Integration - Interpret research for your Discipline.
- Application - Applying Discipline research for the good of society.
- Teaching - Having scholarly knowledge about the practice of teaching (and using the first three scholarships in teaching).
What was transformative about Boyer’s work was the inclusion of teaching as a scholarly activity in universities. Boyer put the case that teaching in universities was of equal significance as research-related scholarship. Teaching as a ‘priority’ in universities was a significant shift in stance.
Over time, Boyer’s language of ‘scholarship of university teaching’ has also come to mean undertaking research about university teaching itself.
The term ‘Scholarship of Teaching and Learning’ became synonymous with educational research in universities.
Influential theorists: a very short list from a very long list
We have put together a curated bibliography of influential researchers and writers who have shaped learning and teaching in educational settings. It includes theorists like Vygotsky and Laurillard, and is a starting point to SoTL literature.
Browse the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Reading List and explore particular SoTL resources that suits your research.
SoTL journals to explore
This curated list of journals is designed to support the development of your scholarly knowledge in SoTL. Additionally, it’s a good idea to become familiar with different SoTL journals’ format, style and tone from a writer’s perspective.
SoTL ready-to-run searches
The resources shared in this guide are just a sampler of SoTL. To explore emergent and more current resources we have some ready to run SoTL Library searches. These are broad searches that you can refine further or apply filters to.
Click on Run this Library Search button to view results in the different categories.
SoTL International
This broad search will return results that cover the breadth of international SoTL research and resources.
SoTL in Australia
This broad search will return results that cover the breadth of Australian SoTL research and resources.
SoTL in Arts and Education
This broad search will return results that cover Arts and Education discipline specific teaching research.
SoTL in Business and Law
This broad search will return results that cover Business and Law discipline specific teaching research.
SoTL in Health
This broad search will return results that cover Health discipline specific teaching research.
SoTL in SEBE
This broad search will return results that cover SEBE discipline specific teaching research.