EXTAFR100/EXTAFR105/The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning/Scholarly teaching
| “ | Who questions shall learn much and retain much. | ” |
| —Francis Bacon | ||
The Scholarly Teacher applies evidence-based practice to enrich student learning. Have a look at this message from the Editor on the Scholarly Teacher website, and consider signing up to receive new blog posts.
When teaching and learning are grounded in the scholarship of teaching and learning, we:
- treat our classrooms and programmes as a source of interesting questions about learning,
- find ways to explore and shed light on these questions,
- use this evidence to design and refine new activities, assignments, and assessments, and
- share what we have found with colleagues who can comment, critique, and build on new insights (Huber & Hutchings, 2005).
Scholarly Teaching studies "what has been done, look[s] for opportunities to use empirical work completed by others, and then make[s] adjustments according to current demands" [1].
Important to this process is considering what existing empirical work is exclusionary, one dimensional, and/or dated before building your pedagogy upon it. Consider researching pedagogical practices, attaining resources, and collecting empirical date that are decolonial, intersectional, inclusive, and diverse.
Here are some links that might help you think through these ideas:
Scholarly teaching is, at its core, an approach to teaching that is informed by inquiry and evidence (both one’s own, and that of others) about student learning. It focuses on examining the ways in which we construct the learning environments that we offer students, and the attention we pay to students and their learning.
In the book, Making Teaching and Learning Visible (Bernstein, Burnett, Goodburn, & Savory, 2006), the authors make the point that, “An excellent teacher is one who is engaged in a well-prepared and intentional ongoing investigation of the best ways to promote a deep understanding on the part of as many students as possible” (2006, p. 215).
That is what Scholarly Teaching is all about. It is about
- seeking evidence that what we are doing is getting at the heart of learning, and
- sharing what we know and the evidence that we have with our colleagues.
