The University of Iowa’s expertise in teaching and learning was well represented at a national conference focused on scholarly inquiry into pedagogy and student learning.
Four UI faculty members presented at the 30th annual Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) Summit, which was hosted virtually on Sept. 21-22, 2023:
- Kelly Danaher, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences. “Fostering feedback uptake: Techniques to encourage students to access, understand, and use instructor feedback on writing assignment.”
- Kellsie Busho, Department of Communications Sciences and Disorders, and Danielle Kelsey, Department of Communications Sciences and Disorders. “Leveling up Patient Simulations using SoTL.”
- Maricelle Pinto-Tomas, Department of Spanish and Portuguese. “TICA TALK: Fostering Non-native Spanish Speakers’ Communication Skills.”
Dr. Sara Nasrollahian, Associate Director of the Center for Teaching and affiliate faculty in the College of Education's Learning Sciences and Educational Psychology Program, was a keynote speaker at the event. The faculty members engaged in scholarship and developed their presentations with guidance and support from Nasrollahian, who runs the Center for Teaching’s SoTL programming, in collaboration with the Office of Teaching, Learning & Technology (OTLT) Research & Analytics.
Sharing peer-reviewed work at the summit was an impactful experience for the UI faculty members, who also were able to connect with other presenters from across the country and engage in national conversations about teaching and learning.
"This conference has opened my eyes to the world of SoTL on a broader range and I learned a lot."
- Kellsie Busho
“I shared some ideas with my colleagues already.”
- Danielle Kelsey
The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, or SoTL, is a systemic inquiry in which instructors synthesize their research expertise with teaching and learning to study how their teaching strategies facilitate or don't facilitate students' learning in the classroom. The instructors then share their work in scholarly communities.
The Center for Teaching’s SoTL Faculty Learning Community provided support for the four faculty members to attend the summit. UI faculty sharing expertise at the conference further supports the strategic plan goal of excellence in teaching and learning by promoting an institutional culture that elevates the value of teaching excellence.
“Scholarship of teaching and learning is such an integral part of our journey as educators, because it gives us the chance to reflect on our own teaching practice to improve our students’ learning,” says Dr. Alexandra Nica, who co-chairs the SoTL Faculty Learning Community. “[Sharing] ideas with faculty from academic areas that are different from my own generates such unique perspectives and different ways of approaching a particular topic or project.”
“There is excellent evidence that supporting faculty to engage with such scholarly communities improves their experience with conducting their SoTL studies and boosts their confidence as a member of their teaching professional communities,” says Nasrollahian. “Research tells us that promoting scholarship on teaching is a vehicle for improving student outcomes.”
Interested in learning more about SoTL? Email teaching@uiowa.edu.