Scholarship at SPSU

1
Scholarship at SPSU

• Implementing Boyers
• Scholarship Reconsidered

2
A Little History

• Colonial Period
• Teaching leads to intellectual and moral
  development
• Late 1800s
• Teaching leads to an educated citizenryServe
  and Reshape Society
• Post-WWII
• Teaching excellence is informed by research

3
The Problem

• As usual in academia, things are constantly
  being added to the faculty members plate, but
  nothing is ever removed.
• The Inevitable Result
• The job gets harder and harder...

4
Boyer to the Rescue

• Scholarship Reconsidered published in 1960.
• Scholarship consists of four areas
• Scholarship of Discovery
• Scholarship of Integration
• Scholarship of Application
• Scholarship of Teaching

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Scholarship of Discovery

• What is it?
• Increasing the number of bricks in the wall
  of human knowledge
• How do we know when we see it?
• This is what is normally called research
• Published in research journals, presented at
  research conferences
• How is it valued?
• Area IIThis is most strongly valued at research
  universities, but increasingly so at teaching
  universities Princeton Envy

6
Scholarship of Integration

• What is it?
• Interpreting research and placing it in context
• How do we know when we see it?
• This is what is normally called synthesis
• Published in textbooks or review journals,
  presented at education conferences
• How is it valued?
• Area IIThis is the most common type of
  research that is valued at teaching
  universities.

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Scholarship of Application

• What is it?
• Applying research to societys needs
• Tends to be highly disciplinary
• How do we know when we see it?
• This is what is normally called consulting or
  advocacy
• Published in reports or articles in the
  non-scholarly press, presented at workshops
• How is it valued?
• Not always counted as researchsometimes as
  service.
• Tends to be more valued by small liberal arts
  (advocacy) or science/technology (consulting)
  departments
• Faculty in opposite area have suspicions about
  it

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Scholarship of Teaching

• What is it?
• Educates and entices future scholars
• Transforming and extending knowledge
• How do we know when we see it?
• Through papers that are reflective about pedagogy
• Published in reports or articles about pedagogy
  and outcomes assessment.
• How is it valued?
• Many places do not view this as scholarship
• Often not counted as researchoften as part of
  teaching effectiveness
• Tends to be more valued by small liberal arts
  colleges

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What Does It Mean for SPSU?

• What is it?
• SPSU should value all four Boyer forms of
  scholarship
• Key questionDo all chairs, deans, etc. see it
  this way?
• How do we know Scholarship of Application and
  Teaching when we see them?
• Key questionwe can document them, but how do
  they cross the line from well-documented routine
  work to scholarship?
• How is it valued?
• Key questionshould Scholarship of Application
  and Teaching be on a par with more traditional
  scholarship?

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A Good Resource

• Scholarship of Teaching A Model
• by Keith Trigwell, Elaine Martin, Joan Benjamin
  and Michael Prosser
• Available online at www.clt.uts.edu.au/A.Model.h
  tml

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Some Ideas on Scholarship of Teaching

• the aim of scholarly teaching is also simple
  It is to make transparent how we have made
  learning possible.
• Faculty must be well informed about the
  theoretical perspectives and literature of
  teaching and learning in their discipline
• They must be able to collect and present rigorous
  evidence of their effectiveness from these
  perspectives
• This involves reflection, inquiry, evaluating,
  documenting and communicating.
• P. Ramsden, Learning to Teach in Higher
  Education (London Routledge, 1992)

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Some Ideas on Scholarship of Teaching

• Scholars are members of active communities
• Scholarship entails an artifactsome form of
  community property that can be shared, discussed,
  critiqued, exchanged, built on.
• Peer review is a critical element
• L.S. Shulman, Teaching as Community Property.
  Change, November-December 1993.

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Some Ideas on Scholarship of Teaching

• The Scholarship of Teaching has Three Distinct
  Elements
• Synoptic CapacityAbility to draw strands of a
  field together to provide coherence, context, and
  meaning
• Pedagogical Content KnowledgeA way of
  representing the subject that transcends
  intellectual substance and teaching
• Knowledge About LearningInquiry on how students
  make meaning out of what the teacher says
• R.E. Rice, Towards a Broader
  Conception of Scholarship The American Context
  in Research and Higher Education The United
  Kingdom and the United States, Buckingham SRHE
  and Open University Press, 1992.

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Assessing the Scholarship of Teaching

• Clear GoalsAre the basic purposes of the work
  stated clearly?
• Adequate PreparationIs the existing scholarship
  in the field understood and applied?
• Appropriate MethodsAre the methods used
  appropriate to the desired goals?
• Significant ResultsDid the work add to the
  field?
• Effective PresentationIs the work organized and
  presented in a way that is helpful to the
  audience?
• Reflective CritiqueDid the scholar critically
  evaluate their own work?
• C. Glassick, M. Huber and G. Maeroff,
  Scholarship Assessed Evaluation of the
  Professoriate, Jossey Bass San Francisco, 1997

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The Scholarship of Teaching

• is about improving my teaching through reading
  and applying the literature about teaching.
  Goal To improve teaching.
• is about improving my students learning by
  integrating the literature on teaching to my
  disciplines literature and knowledge and
  investigating how my teaching affects it. Goal
  To improve student learning at SPSU.
• is about improving student learning by
  reflecting on and communicating the results of my
  work on teaching and learning. Goal To improve
  student learning in general.
• Which is it?

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Summing it Up

• Using informal theories of teaching to inform how
  I teach. Teacher-focused. Reflection on what I
  am doing, not on what my students are
  experiencing. Keeping my ideas about teaching
  and learning as a personal, private activity.
• Applying the literature on teaching and learning.
  Student focused. Reflection on what my students
  are experiencing as a guide to what I should be
  doing. Communicating my ideas about teaching and
  learning within my department and to outside
  peers.
• Which is it?

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Nothing New Here

• Scholarship of Teaching
• You investigate your fields literature about
  teaching and learning
• You research what others are doing and have done
• You plan your teaching program and gather data
• You reflect on the results and improve whats not
  working
• You draw conclusions based on your work
• You communicate the results

• Normal Research
• You investigate your fields literature on topic
  to be investigated
• You research what others are doing and have done
• You plan your experiment and gather data
• You analyze the results and optimize the process
• You draw conclusions based on your work
• You communicate the results