1. Finding New Paths: Leveraging the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning for Enhanced Librarianship
Lauren Hays
MidAmerica Nazarene University
@Lib_Lauren
Margy MacMillan Mount Royal

2. Introduction Have you SoTLed? 1) _____ I have and I’m proud of it
2) _____ I might have but don’t know
3) _____ No, but I am SoTL curious
4) _____ What is SoTL?
Will open with a knowledge survey/show of hands
Put up hand showing number of fingers corresponding to response you feel closest to

3. Understanding learning
Introduction
SoTL – a brief definition
How we came to SoTL
Understanding learning
Threshold concepts
Assessment
Micro to macro
Research design
Challenges
SOTL IL
Definition (will put this on handout)
focused on student learning, grounded in context, methodologically sound, conducted in partnership with students, and publicly disseminated (Felten, 2013);
inclusive and unified by its potential to have impact in the classroom and to contribute to the production of knowledge and ongoing improvement in teaching and learning;
diverse in discipline, theory, methodology, and method. (MRU SoTL Institute)
Our stories
Lauren and then me
Intersection
Actually hard to think of anything IL that might not apply to SoTL and vice versa
Concerns (learning, teaching), tools (assessment), challenges – individual (time, access, ethics, expertise) and institutional (recognition, value, implementation of results)

4. SoTL Questions What is? What works? Visions of the possible
New Conceptual Framework
(Hutchings, 2000) p. 4-5

5. SoTL Compass What will my students learn and why is it worth learning?
How do I know if my teaching and my students’ learning have been effective?
Who are my students and how do students learn effectively?
O’Brien
What can I do to support students to learn effectively?

6. What’s in it for Librarians?
Useful information on Research questions, research methods, pedagogical theories, teaching techniques, assessment, LEARNING…
Finding SoTL work
Adapting SoTL work to your needs
Conducting SoTL
Finding SoTL work – briefly – lives everywhere – discipline journals, institutional sites – best tools are google scholar and regular google
Adapting SoTL work to your needs – approach with openness – look for methods, markers(evidence used), motivation
Conducting SoTL - potential for funding, other support, partnership,

7. Faculty Development
SoTL has had significant influence on faculty development programs :
Scholarly teaching vs. teaching as scholarship
Growth in teacher identity
Why is this important for librarians?
Focus is on STUDENT LEARNING
SHARING findings is key
CROSS-DISCIPLINE conversations
Researchers have claimed that participation with SoTL is evidence of a growth in teacher identity among university professors (Mårtensson, Roxå, & Olsson, 2011)
Fanghanel, J. (2013). Going Public with Pedagogical Inquiries: SoTL as a Methodology for Faculty Professional Development. Teaching & Learning Inquiry: The ISSOTL Journal, 1(1), 59–70.

8. Faculty and Librarian Partnerships
Centers for Teaching and Learning
Communities of practice/Faculty learning communities
Build on previous SoTL studies
Room for many new studies
Ideas suggested for SoTL studies in the Expanded Edition of Scholarship Reconsidered are:
Studies on diverse learners
Students on improving undergraduate STEM education
Fanghanel, J. (2013). Going Public with Pedagogical Inquiries: SoTL as a Methodology for Faculty Professional Development. Teaching & Learning Inquiry: The ISSOTL Journal, 1(1), 59–70.

9. Librarians as SoTL Researchers
Strengths
Opportunities
Rewards
Strengths – multidisciplinary by nature – addresses knock on SoTL of poor literature reviews, comfortable in the inbetween spaces, in working at micro level of indivdual sessions and macro level of program/institution initiatives
Opportunities – funding, support, dissemination, collaboration, novelty/revitalization, depth
Rewards – broader recognition(maybe) both inside and outside of institution, going beyond preaching to the choir, depth, engagement

10. Activity You have some abstracts from recent SoTL articles …
Choose one (or more) that might apply to your work
Develop a SoTL question or an idea for future research
Tweet it or write it on the notecard #liwsotl

11. What’s next?
We’ll post these ideas to help you get started in SoTL along with a reading list of key SoTL works Homework: Connect with at least one other SoTL researcher on or near your campus, online, etc.

12. Thank you!
Questions? Connections? Applause?