Accessibility Navigation:

Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

The scholarship of teaching and learning involves the disciplinary, cross-disciplinary, and inter-disciplinary study of teaching practice and student learning. SoTL has an impact beyond the individual teacher, classroom, department, and university. The aim of SoTL scholars is to engage in a rigorous and systematic inquiry process in order to critique, improve, enhance, and develop multiple perspectives that can help inform the teaching and learning process and enrich higher education in the 21st century.

In 2008, the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching explored SoTL's influence on broad issues in higher education. They identified the following areas of impact:

  • Contributes to important agendas and initiatives in higher education
  • Changes how teachers teach and contributes to our knowledge of the factors that make change happen
  • Changes how we understand and talk about learning
  • Has direct and indirect effects on student learning and success
  • Contributes to our knowledge of the conditions that affect the exchange and improvement of pedagogy
  • Strengthens development programs for higher education professionals
  • Informs changes in the policies and procedures of the institution
  • Affects the culture of academic life
  • Leads to changes in how we define and evaluate scholarship
  • Is growing and evolving as a movement

SoTL Lifecycle

SoTL projects generally consist of the following phases: 

  1. Getting started with SoTL
  2. Conducting SoTL research
  3. Sharing SoTL knowledge

Another way to conceptualize this cycle is proposed by Mary Taylor Huber and Pat Hutchings in "The Advancement of Learning: Building the Teaching Commons":

  1. Questioning
  2. Gathering and exploring evidence
  3. Trying out and refining new insights
  4. Going public

At the institutional level, SoTL can be viewed as an ongoing program with all four practices occurring simultaneously. [For further information about the SoTL process and lifecycle, view the What Is SoTL? page.]

Grants & Funding

NOTE: FUNDING FOR 2011-2012 HAS NOT YET BEEN PROVIDED [as of 8/15/2011]. A CALL FOR PROPOSALS WILL BE SENT TO THE CAMPUS IF/WHEN FUNDING BECOMES AVAILABLE. The Faculty Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Grants Committee at UNC Charlotte awards grants to individual faculty members, departments, colleges, programs, academies, or standing committees to support projects that examine and reflect upon the teaching and learning practices in their discipline. Projects are expected to follow a systematic approach using scholarly research methods and make their results known to the campus community and beyond.

For more information about internal SoTL grants available at UNC Charlotte, view the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Grants and Budget Guidelines for SoTL Grants pages.

For information about external funding opportunities, view the Illinois State External Funding Opportunities page.

Examples of SoTL

SoTL programs at other institutions:

Proposals, reports, and published literature:

For information about previous SoTL grant recipients at UNC Charlotte, view the Past SoTL Grant Winners page.

Other SoTL Resources

Academies, associations, institutes, organizations, societies, articles, and books: