Thinking About Your SoTL Project
When starting (or continuing) your SoTL journey, think of it as solving a puzzle about teaching and learning – but one where you need both the right questions and the right approach.
Hutchings (2000) gives us four types of questions you might ask:
- “What works?” when you want to test teaching methods,
- “What is?” when you want to understand how students learn,
- “What could be?” when you want to innovate, and
- Theory-building questions when you want to understand the bigger picture of teaching and learning in your field.
These question types have become foundational in how we approach SoTL research (McKinney, 2007).
But asking good questions is just the start. Felten’s (2013) five principles remind us that good SoTL research needs to be:
- Focused on student learning (not just what we do as teachers)
- Grounded in your specific context (what works in physics might not work in literature
- Methodologically sound (matching your approach to your question)
- Conducted in partnership with students (they’re not just subjects – they’re collaborators)
- Appropriately public (so others can learn from your work).
As Healey et al. (2019) note, these principles have become essential guidelines for ensuring quality in SoTL research.
Not only do we need solid principles and guidelines, but we should also consider ways we approach our SoTL research. There are a lot of different models and examples out there (see our Resources page), but we really appreciate the Hopscotch 4-SoTL model.
Jorrín-Abellán, I.M. & Steiner. H. (2021). Hopscotch 4-SoTL (Version 1.0) [Computer Software].
If you are looking for motivation and encouragement, you have come to the right place. To explore ways to join in, please visit our Getting Involved page. For an added source of inspiration, please access the video featuring the words of Gary Poole, Emeritus Scholar from the University of British Columbia and past-President of ISSoTL.
