"Changing the status of the problem in teaching from terminal remediation to ongoing investigation is precisely what the movement for a scholarship of teaching is all about." (Bass, 1999: 1).
A: From "scholarly teaching" to "scholarship of teaching (and learning)"
Ernest L. Boyer (1990), advocated that the idea of scholarship in higher education needed to be broadened to include teaching as well as the dimensions of discovery, integration (later changed to engagement), and application. Boyer made a strong case for a “scholarship of teaching”, but he never clearly defined the term. Pat Hutchings and Lee Shulman (1999) made the following distinctions:
1. Excellent Teaching: involves teaching well, engaging students, and fostering important forms of student learning.
2. Scholarly Teaching: in addition to the characterises of excellent teaching, scholarly teaching entails practices of formative assessment and evidence gathering, is informed not only by the latest ideas in the field but by current ideas about teaching the field, and invites peer collaboration and review.
3. The Scholarship of Teaching (and Learning): requires a kind of “going meta” in which staff who teach frame and systematically investigate questions related to student learning such as the conditions under which it occurs, what it looks like, how to deepen it, and do so not only to improving their own practice but to advance wider practice.
Boyer and Hutchins maintained that a scholarship of teaching (and learning) had the following defining characteristics:
1. Being public.
2. Open to critique and evaluation by peers.
3. In a form that others can build on.
B: From "remediation" to "investigation" as SoTL (Bass)
The portfolio genre (teaching portfolio, course portfolio, inquiry portfolio and benchmark portfolio) captures a mode of practice and framework to structure practice that represents the "going meta" characteristics of SoTL.
1. A teaching portfolio documents pedagogy (the method, and practice, of teaching and student learning).
2. A course portfolio is a variation of a teaching portfolio. The course portfolio examines teaching and learning of a specific course within memos of design, enactment, and results.
3. A benchmark portfolio presents a snapshot of students' learning that occurs in a course. This portfolio enables instructors to document their current teaching practices and to generate questions about their teaching that you would like to investigate further.
4. An inquiry portfolio is useful for documenting improvement in teaching a course over time and for assessing the long-term impact of teaching changes, the success of teaching approaches, and the improvement in student learning. This inquiry process often moves teachers toward scholarship-of-teaching questions in their disciplines.
A teaching portfolio is typically composed of the following elements:
1. Statement of Teaching Philosophy: the teaching statement summarises the experience of teaching and provides detailed examples of practice. The teaching philosophy statement provides a description of the author’s view as to the underlying principles upon which their approaches to teaching and learning are based; giving appropriate reference to conceptual frameworks or theoretical perspectives if appropriate. Consider the statement of teaching philosophy as a succinct way to capture values and beliefs about teaching and student learning.
2. Summary of Teaching Experience & Responsibilities: this indicates the author's range of experience, levels of courses, and teaching & learning scenarios (e.g. project supervision, large and small class teaching, blended learning, postgraduate and undergraduate, etc). Experience of thesis examination, both internal and external and other similar assessment responsibilities. Consider that the summary of teaching experience as a way to provide the evidence that expands the teaching philosophy statement by exemplifying the practices that make visible values and beliefs about teaching and learning.
3. Teaching Skills & Approach: this provides an indication of the author's level of skill, confidence and commitment to teaching; the selection of appropriate methods; the setting of expectations and challenges; the provision of formative feedback; coping with particular challenges; etc. Any Teaching Awards obtained by the author are a means of demonstrating this accomplishment as validated by professional peers.
4. Curriculum & Course Design/Development: this is an opportunity for the author to include experience in the reviewing and revision of existing programmes & modules and the design of new modules and programmes. Examples may include the incorporation of active learning methods and formative feedback; ensuring disciplinary currency; close alignment with Learning, Teaching & Assessment Strategies; new modes of delivery (such as part-time, online, blended, etc.) and the use of accepted good practice within the discipline. A variation of the teaching portfolio is the course portfolio that isolates one course for analysis. Three common elements of a course portfolio: 1. explanation of the course design, 2. description of the enactment or implementation of the design, 3. analysis of student learning resulting from the first two dimensions. Typically, the course portfolio emerges through the aggregation of three memos about goals, methods, and learning. The instructor’s reflection on the interrelationship between those three elements is what connects the memos and holds the portfolio as a narrative whole.
5. Student Support & Facilitation: formal learning is always situated within a knowledge domain such as an academic discipline and/or professional practice. It is this social context of formal learning that gives the learning process its specific disciplinary character, so that learning is contextual, relational, and purposeful. The role of the teacher here, is to be a steward of the the discipline who is able to support the student to becoming a member of this disciplinary community of practice through the facilitation of learning that models disciplinary practice and which is authentic to the context in which the discipline and/or professional practice operates. Universities manifest their academic integrity by recognising that students need to be supported in order to develop and demonstrate academic skills and professional practice with their relevant disciplinary domain and professional practice.
6. Innovation & Leadership in Teaching & Learning: this is where the author indicates a leadership role within the development of new programmes (and their subsequent implementation); leading in the review of existing course offerings (sustainability, refining portfolio of offerings, etc); leading in the innovation of teaching and assessment approaches (including technologies and flexible learning programmes); ability to seek resources, collaboration and participation of colleagues and partners; special project funding or grants; active contribution to teaching committees; etc.
7. Professional Development & Scholarship: this places emphasis on the attainment of appropriate professional qualifications (such as the PgCert in Teaching & Learning in HE, PgDip/MA in Academic Practice); publications and conference papers on teaching & learning (including textbooks); research or scholarship in teaching, in the discipline or higher education in general; dissemination of ideas nationally or internationally; mentoring and supporting colleagues; linking teaching and research. Increasing, the scholarship of teaching and learning advocates for the documentation of teaching practice to make the shift from remediation to investigation of teaching and student learning.
8. Appendices: this is an opportunity for the author to include a summary of key pieces of evidence and samples of work. Examples may include the teacher's empathy for students as demonstrated by being available and approachable to students, providing advice, dealing with particular needs, mentoring and supervision, support of students on placement and in fieldwork and a clear commitment to student retention and success. This section should also include items related to the supervision and development of postgraduate research students.
Research by van der Gulden, Heeneman, Kramer, et al. (2020) on the application of portfolios in medical education highlights the tensions between the aspiration of the portfolio in principle and how it plays out in practice as an artefact of Self-Regulated Learning (SRL) within professional practice. This research shows that documenting SRL processes such as reflection, feedback, goal-setting, planning, and monitoring had limitations if it was mandatory. Task orientated activities that were not adequately scaffolded by mentors and facilitators resulted in surface reflection, whereas, a more sustained engagement with the reflective process over time that was also adequately supported by mentors and scaffolded over time did have value when applied to the authentic context of disciplinary practice. The value of the portfolio as a learning process depends on how the process and rationale for engaging in the activity is being supported by mentors as well as being acknowledged and validated within an institutional context. This reminds us that the portfolio is a dynamic dossier that is individually crafted by the instructor, but also reflects a wider disciplinary and institutional context that reflects, in turn, the educational ecosystem.
Further Reading
Bass, R. (1999) The scholarship of teaching: What’s the problem? Inventio: Creative Thinking about Learning and Teaching, 1 Download Bass, R. (1999) The scholarship of teaching: What’s the problem? Inventio: Creative Thinking about Learning and Teaching, (1):1-10. [Online] Available at https://my.vanderbilt.edu/sotl/files/2013/08/Bass-Problem1.pdf
Hutchings, Pat; Shulman, Lee S. (1999) “The Scholarship of Teaching: New Elaborations, New Developments.” Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning. 31 (5): 10–15. [Online] Available at https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00091389909604218
Schön, D. (2000) The new scholarship requires a new epistemology: Knowing in action. In Dezure (ed.) (2000) Learning from Change: Landmarks in Teaching and Learning in Higher Education from Change Magazine 1969-1999 (pp. 32-34). Sterling, Virginia: Stylus. [Online]. Available at http://bonner.pbworks.com/w/file/fetch/110068087/Schon%20New%20Epistemology.pdf
Shulman, L. (1993) Teaching as community property: putting an end to pedagogical solitude. Change, 25 (6): 6-7. [Online] Available at https://my.vanderbilt.edu/sotl/files/2013/08/Bass-Problem1.pdf.
van der Gulden, R., Heeneman, S., Kramer, A.W.M.
et al. (2020) How is self-regulated learning documented in e-portfolios of trainees? A content analysis.
BMC Medical Education 20 (1). [Online] Available at
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-020-02114-4.
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