1 - Understanding SoTL and Its Potential Benefits

Summary

Introduction

Scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) is a scholarly activity whose history is generally not well known to teaching or research mathematicians. Many activities are labeled SoTL, some appropriately and others not. In light of this, Chapter 1 has several goals. It aims to inform the reader about the origins of the scholarship of teaching and learning, the efforts to forge connections between SoTL and academic disciplines, and the emergence of SoTL within mathematics. It attempts to set SoTL apart from good teaching, scholarly teaching, and, to the extent possible, research in undergraduate mathematics education (RUME). The chapter addresses the issue of evaluating and valuing this work for tenure and promotion, a matter of great concern for junior faculty members. It closes with a brief discussion of the benefits of SoTL, a topic that we revisit in the Epilogue, Chapter 20, where we present a synthesis of the benefits our authors experienced from participating in SoTL.

The Origins of SoTL in Higher Education

In 1990, Ernest Boyer, President of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, introduced the expression “scholarship of teaching” into the vocabulary of higher education. His book, Scholarship Reconsidered (Boyer, 1990), called for colleges and universities to embrace a broader vision of scholarship in order to tap the full range of faculty talents across their entire careers and to foster vital connections between academic institutions and their surrounding communities. Boyer argued for the recognition of four types of scholarship: discovery, application, integration, and teaching. The scholarship of discovery refers to what is traditionally called research in most disciplines. The scholarship of application, now frequently called scholarship of engagement, refers to applying knowledge to consequential problems, often conducted with and for community partners. The scholarship of integration makes connections between disciplines. More and more, interdisciplinary work is being recognized as essential to solving complex real world problems. These scholarships may have different interpretations depending on the discipline and type of institution. For example, for engineers, consulting work is often considered scholarship of application.