The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Reconsidered: Institutional Integration and Impact

Printer-friendly version

Following two decades of involvement by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching in the scholarship of teaching and learning, a new book examines the movement’s impact, challenges and promise for institutions of higher education.

The authors, all of whom continue to be involved in this work, imagine a future “where the scholarship of teaching and learning is not seen as the discrete project or special initiative, but as a set of practices that are critical to achieving the institution’s core goals for student learning and success.”

Faculty involved in the scholarship of teaching and learning treat their classrooms and programs as a source of interesting questions about learning; find ways to explore and shed light on these questions; use this evidence in designing and refining new activities, assignments, and assessments; and share what they’ve found with colleagues who can comment, critique, and build on new insights. Increasingly, they are bringing these habits of inquiry to bear on a variety of institutional initiatives and agendas.

The authors examine what it takes to develop faculty who are engaged as learners in their own classrooms and programs, and make a case for accountability based on an “integrated web of evidence for improvement.”

The authors offer recommendations for leaders eager to support a transformation in the intellectual culture of higher education.

• Understand and communicate an integrated vision of the scholarship of teaching and learning across the institution so that its practices can be applied broadly in course design, curricular development, professional development, and assessment.
• Foster an exchange between leaders from the assessment and institutional research community and those involved in the scholarship of teaching and learning to establish a system of evidence gathering that can be used for internal improvement and external reporting.
• Work to bring tenure and promotion decisions into alignment with a view of teaching as scholarly work.
• Recognize that institutionalization of the scholarship of teaching and learning is a long process that requires sustained leadership and creativity.

The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Reconsidered: Institutional Integration and Impact is published by Jossey-Bass.

Authors

Pat Hutchings was the vice president of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching from 2001 to 2009, and senior scholar there beginning in 1998, when she assumed the role of inaugural director of the Carnegie Academy for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. She is currently a consulting scholar with the Foundation.

Mary Taylor Huber is senior scholar emerita and consulting scholar the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. Involved in research at the Foundation since 1985, Huber has directed projects on Cultures of Teaching in Higher Education, led Carnegie’s roles in the Integrative Learning Project and the U.S. Professors of the Year; and worked closely with the Carnegie Academy for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning.

Anthony (Tony) Ciccone is professor of French and director of the Center for Instructional and Professional Development at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He was senior scholar and director of the Carnegie Academy for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning from 2007-2010.