Adopting a Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Mindset at the College Level
A Structured Approach for Reflecting on One’s Teaching Practices
The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL), a movement that has been making inroads in higher education for some 30 years (Boyer, 1990), is particularly dynamic in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and Western Canada, but still quite new to Quebec, particularly at the college level. Teachers who engage in a SoTL approach rigorously and systematically study a perceived concern or dissatisfaction in one of their courses, in order to improve or facilitate learning among their students. For the process to be complete, it is important to share the results with disciplinary or pedagogical peers. It is a form of professional development focused on an individual project that leads to the consolidation or renewal of pedagogical practices and, eventually, to the enrichment of educational-based knowledge through the sharing of information.
With the goal of promoting the SoTL mindset at the college level through sustained support, a project was set up at Cegep Champlain – St. Lawrence, in collaboration with the Association québécoise de pédagogie collégiale (AQPC) and the Association pour la recherche au collégial (ARC).1 This pilot project provided a framework and a support team that allowed five selected teachers to develop, validate or update a teaching practice by addressing a pedagogical or techno-pedagogical issue they had encountered in their respective courses.
From: Pédagogie collégiale vol. 32, no 2 winter 2019
