Scholarship of Teaching and Learning
Progress Report
UW-Stout
Project
January
25, 2004
Dan
Riordan
Principle
Investigator
This report explains the progress of the
2003-04 UW-Stout Scholarship of Teaching and Learning project. Fifteen
participants are pursuing projects in their classes, dealing with questions of
student learning. The following paragraphs report the progress to date. One
particularly intriguing aspect of the project, explained under "Project
Goals," is the unanticipated developments occurring on campus.
Summary Evaluation
This project has successfully introduced the
concept of scholarship of teaching and learning to the campus. Current
participants want to continue next year as mentors to a "new class"
of teachers engaged in this type of work. Across campus
the concept of learning is receiving more attention as more teachers try to
enact the concept in their courses and discuss it with their peers. This
project will produce a series of reports that significantly
enhance that campus-wide discussion.
Narrative of Progress
The project began in Fall
2004 with a series of meetings/workshops in which participants worked with
issues of action research and questions of learning. The
action research workshop, led by an on-campus expert in that strategy,
introduced participants to methods for collecting and evaluating data.
The two workshops on questions of learning, led by one of the UW-Stout
Wisconsin Teaching Scholars, discussed in depth Randy Bass's article "The
Scholarship of Teaching: What is the Problem?" and then focused on each
participant's project. After each participant listed his or her project's
question, the group helped refine how that question could be a question of learning
and what kind of evidence would best support conclusions related to the
question.
Throughout the fall semester participants
met in collaborative groups, assigned on the basis of
their project emphasis, for instance, use of small groups. A copy of Action
Research for Teachers: Following the Yellow Brick Road, by Joanne M. Arhar, was distributed to each
group for their use.
Individual work developed at different
rates. During the Fall semester several members
completed their project. Most members, however, spent that time reading and
networking, preparing to enact their project during the Spring
semester. A number of the participants have made the project a two-semester
project, doing initial work with classes in the Fall
and final work in the Spring.
During mid-January 2004
participants met to plan the events of the spring semester.
Barriers
The two barriers that we have encountered
are time and conceptualization. The teaching load at UW-Stout is four courses
per semester, plus committee work. Often faculty members have had difficulty
arranging to meet one another. Conceptually we have had to help participants
deal with the notion of learning as opposed to teaching--what it means to ask a "learning" as opposed to a
"teaching" question.
To solve the first issue we have created a
calendar of meetings for the Spring 04 semester. These meetings will deal with
readings taken from our website and with issues arising as projects develop. To
solve the second we had the initial workshops mentioned above (we had an extra
one at the request of the participants) and the PI has circulated many urls that contain information on the concept of learning.
Use of SOTL Principles and Practices
Significant
questions. The UW-Stout
project has spent considerable time reflecting on this issue. Each participant
reworked his or her question a number of times, under the guidance of mentors
and peers. The questions, which can be found on the web site listed below, all
deal with issues that teachers find hinder students
from grasping course material.
Systematic
Investigation. At the
initial workshops we discussed appropriateness of
evidence. For each project the group reviewed the
participant's proposed type of evidence. Often as a result
of these discussions participants changed their approach so that they found
"learning" as opposed to "teaching" evidence.
Building on the work of others is more
difficult, given Stout's disciplines. While much work exists in education and
the humanities relatively less exists in the
technological fields.
The participants have used or are using a
variety of investigative methods: experimental/control groups, pre/post
surveys, and student evaluations of methods. This topic has generated
considerable discussion as we try to find an appropriate methodology. Books
such as "Opening Lines" (which the participants read) indicate no
common methodology to SOTL projects.
The meetings in the spring will focus on
peer review of projects and on reflection leading to meaningful reports.
Members will report progress and will read assigned articles.
Participants have been
directed to the reports produced for the Visible Knowledge Project to
see a template for and final versions of SOTL reports. These reports, posted on
the project's web site, will be the most visible products of the project.
Currently at least one project will become the basis for a journal article.
Project Goals
The key goals for the spring are to complete
all the work, to develop communities of practice, and to introduce the concept
of learning more broadly to the campus.
In terms of the first goal, all participants
have either completed their in-class project, or have
begun it this semester.
However, the second two goals are rapidly and excitingly developing on campus.
We will, of course, follow
the calendar of meetings that we have scheduled. The participants are eager to
have these meetings, so that they can exchange views about these ideas.
However, the project has developed spin-offs
unforeseen in the original concept/proposal. A change in culture is tentativley emerging. Small groups are beginning to meet
around campus. For instance in the Math department and in the
Other developments include a speaker and
various all-campus meetings. The Provost and the Teaching and
In short the actions that we have planned,
both the meeting for the participants and the events for the campus will help
us develop communities of practice and introduce the concept of learning to a
wider spectrum on campus. (Note--"learning" in this usage means
conceptualizing a course as a learning experience for students, and making
pedagogical decisions aimed to problematize and
foster that experience.)
Public Dissemination
The participants will make the results of
their projects public in a number of forums. Several of our members will
present the results of their studies to national conferences or state
conferences; the first of those will occur this spring. All of our participants
will present to a forum at the university during the Spring 04 semester. Some
will present at poster sessions at the university-sponsored Research Day,
others will give "brown bag" presentations, and others will present
to departmental (e.g. Math) or college-level (e.g.
Products
The project has a website at which progress
and final reports are posted The reports available at this site range from brief
comments from those who are only this semester beginning their work to final
reports from those who have completed a study.
In addition the UW-Stout Teaching and