1. Getting Your SoTL Research Published: An Editor’s Perspective Liz Grauerholz Professor of Sociology Editor, Teaching Sociology University of Central Florida grauer@mail.ucf.edu

2. Teaching Sociology Published by the American Sociological Association  Mission: Teaching Sociology publishes articles, notes, applications, and reviews intended to be helpful to the discipline’s teachers. Articles range from experimental studies of teaching and learning to broad, synthetic essays on pedagogically important issues. The general intent is to share theoretically stimulating and practically useful information and advice with teachers.

3. Types of SoTL work  Assessment of teaching approach or method on student learning  Comparative analysis of teaching strategies, goals, philosophies  Examination of strategies students use to learn  Analysis of how SoTL is treated within the process of faculty assessment

4. Manuscripts processed  Between 100-125 new submissions per year  90% report classroom-based research for which assessment data are appropriate  16% acceptance rate

5. 10-year averages for Teaching Sociology  New manuscripts submitted 97.1  Acceptance rate21.43  Acceptance rate21.43  Editorial decisions  Total number decisions made148.1  Rejected without peer review10.7  Rejected after review44.4  Invited to revise and resubmit46.4  Conditional acceptance11.9  Accepted31.4

6. Editorial Decisions 7% rejected outright: inappropriate for journalinappropriate for journal not SoTLnot SoTL not ready for submissionnot ready for submission

7. Editorial Decisions 30% Rejected after review No stated goals No stated goals “I tried it and liked it” “I tried it and liked it” Lack of (appropriate) assessment Lack of (appropriate) assessment data data

8. The “I tried it and liked it” paper  “This project has been a successful strategy in teaching and learning. When students present their projects they can see all the hard work of their fellow students and I can see that they have put much time into them. Students seem to enjoy the project a lot and it was rewarding for me to see students’ enthusiasm and interest in the subject matter.”

9. Incomplete Assessment: Lack of concrete data  “I have received many positive remarks from students about the assignment. Although initial reactions are sometimes mixed, by the end of the project, students usually report that they found it helpful.”

10. Incomplete Assessment: Assesses students’ enjoyment/satisfaction  Students’ level of enthusiasm for taking this course was initially high but increased significantly after taking the course. On the first day of class, 71% said they were enthusiastic about taking the course, by the conclusion on the course, 100% reported being enthusiastic about the course. In addition, 100% said they would recommend the course to other students.”

11. Incomplete Assessment: Assessment of instructor  “The success of this strategy is evident through student evaluations. Teacher ratings for the course averaged 3.7 on a 5 point scale prior to the exercise. This rating increased to a 4.1 average the first year and to 4.6 the third year. Students also demonstrate high interest in taking the course. The last time I taught it, the class filled long before registration closed.”

12. Editorial Decisions 31% Revise & Resubmit Not well grounded in appropriate literature Not well grounded in appropriate literature Doesn’t clearly explicate pedagogy Doesn’t clearly explicate pedagogy Disconnect between goals and outcomes Disconnect between goals and outcomes Weak assessment Weak assessment

13. Disconnect between stated learning goals and learning outcomes  Stated learning goals: Apply concepts and theories learned in class  Exercise: Survey students’ about family life and present data to class:  Assessment (students’ comments): “I like the class activity because it enabled the students to be honest and we got good results.” “The way the survey was done, I felt like I could say what I really felt and that no one would know what I personally had said.” “The survey made me more interested in family sociology because it asked questions related to our lives.”

14. Weak Assessment  No pre-test of students’ knowledge/skill  Inability to account for other factors  No control group or lack of comparability in control groups  Small sample size  One course/one time  Lack of information—generalizable?  Not well grounded in literature

15. Accepted manuscripts  Use pre-post tests  Control groups  Control for other factors  Multiple courses or large N  Different institutional settings  Multi-methods  Direct measures of learning outcomes