THE PURSUIT OF PEDAGOGICAL RESEARCH IN THE DISCIPLINES

CUNY Community College Research Grant Workshop

10 January 2019

Tara Coleman, Maria Entezari, Eric Hofmann, and Michele Piso Manoukian

LaGuardia Community College, CUNY

AGENDA

I. Introductions and Acknowledgements

II. Workshop Goals and SoTL Context, Michele Piso Manoukian

III. SoTL Examples and Experiences, Tara Coleman and Maria Entezari

IV. Breakout SessionsFraming SoTL Questions and the Lit Review, Tara Coleman, EnglishFraming SoTL Questions and Evidence, Maria Entezari, Biology; Eric Hofmann, The LaGuardia Center for Teaching and Learning

V. Questions and Observations; Resources

3.THE PITH OF SOTL

SoTL is a process that engages “what we need to know and be able to do in order to teach what we know to someone who does not. (Shulman, 2002)

SoTL assumes dynamic attention to the relation/gap between disciplinary content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge

4.MINDING THE GAP(S) DISCIPLINARY CONTENT KNOWLEDGE (DCK)

+PEDAGOGICAL CONTENT KNOWLEDGE (PCK)

Why do we teach (the new wave, Middlemarch, chemistry, research methods) the way we do (discussion, lecture, problem-based, project-based, etc.)? What is my rationale? Is my way effective in improving learning? • What am I doing now that I would like us (teacher and students) to do

better? • What pedagogical issues haunt me? What are my compelling questions,

researchable ideas? (For example, “concept development” may be a topic to be revised into a line of more closely defined inquiry.

• What can we, my students and I, practice more often or differently? (Example, defining/questioning concepts).

5.STEPPING BACKSOTL AS MISSION AND PRACTICE

In Scholarship Reconsidered, 1990, Ernest Boyer identified four distinct areas of scholarship in higher education:

• scholarship of discovery (new knowledge in the disciplines),

• scholarship of integration (research connecting disciplines),

• scholarship of application (research applied to needs/problem).

6.BOYER’S FOURTH AND SHULMAN’S FIFTH

Boyer added a fourth category: "the scholarship of teaching,” which is complementary to traditional forms of scholarship; worthy of reward and recognition: focuses on improving teaching and learning through systematic and reflective study and analysis (Boyer, 1990, p. 24). Boyer leaves vague the process of such scholarship.

Shulman extends Boyer: focuses on scholarship of teaching and learning and provides a definition:• systematic, critically reflective,• informed by relevant literature, • open to external review and critique• aimed at improving student learning and constructing verifiable and shared

knowledge of the same. (Shulman, Huber, Hutchings; distinct from good teaching, scholarly teaching)

7.HISTORICAL EXPLOSIONS

• Knowledge: advances in technology, the sciences, and neurology

• Data-driven instruction: accountability and assessment

• Demographics: diversity of individuals, experiences, and ways of knowing

• Justice in education: equitable educational environment; decentered classrooms and hierarchies; collaborative student/faculty research projects;

GETTING STARTED

• Explore a worthy t/l issue problem, question related to your course, discipline, assignment, students, program, etc. Frame the issue or problem as a question.

• Identify who will be studied.

• Review your knowledge, the direct or indirect experiences shaping context.

• Identify at-hand information/artifacts that can help to answer your question.

• Identify additional information necessary to answer your question.

• Research strategy: portfolios, focus groups, interviews, experiment, etc.

• Identify logistical constraints: Time frame, challenges, resources, IRB,

• Identify outlets for critical review.

(P)METHOD AND

(R)METHOD

Ask

• What is my pedagogical method for teaching content (discussion, lecture, performance, computer-based interactions, project-based, problem-based, etc.)? How do I represent content?

Clarify

• Personal teaching and learning objectives (passion)

• Disciplinary substance, its issues and topics, the animating concepts and principles to be grasped, practiced, applied, transferred

• Disciplinary/departmental objectives

Identify

• The point at which you or your students falter or fly: the bottleneck or ah ha moment

• The research method deployed to capture the effects of your pedagogy

HUTCHINGS’ TAXONOMY: ASKING QUESTIONS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCxPttq_e_Y

SOME EXAMPLES: QUANTITATIVE/MIXED

• Question: To what extent does student involvement in co-curricular experiences affect retention: (number of students/hours, value attributed; gender, race, employment, immigrant, major, etc.): method: questionnaire

• How do students read literary texts in a literature course? Method: Exams and interviews, focus groups, discussion blogs; attitude survey.

ANOTHER EXAMPLEQUALITATIVE

• McKinney’s problem: Observed graduating majors lacked the desired level of “sociological imagination” and of sociological research skills

• Sought literature on how students learn sociology and found little literature

• Decided to uncover how her own students learn sociology; and what factors are statistically associated with learning or success in the discipline?

• Question: What are senior sociology majors’ beliefs about how they best learn sociology, and 2) What factors relate to learning or success (op. def.) in the discipline?

• Verbal, textual, visual; voice of participant

SOME SOTL EXAMPLES

• How does enrollment in LaGuardia’s first year seminar affect GPA?

• How does class size affect student learning?

• What Is: a picture of the problem: how do my students understand this key disciplinary concept (close reading, film grammar)?

• What Works: evidence for the effectiveness of certain strategies. Example: to what extent has “flipping learning” in my physics class affected student attitudes toward chemistry?

KEY TERMINOLOGY

• Pedagogy: Processes and relationships of learning and teaching (Stierer and Anioniou, 2004) (distinct from “education”)

• Research: Systematic, evidence-informed, critical, self-critical inquiry; advances knowledge, (Bassey, 1989); finding out something. making it public

• SoTL: All of the above; its particular focus on practices of teaching and learning is also systematic, critically reflective, informed by relevant literature, open to external review and critique, and aimed at improving student learning and constructing verifiable and shared knowledge of the same. (Shulman, et al; distinct from good teaching, scholarly teaching

• Pedagogical research methods: Qualitative (interviews, focus groups, case studies, content analysis) or quantitative (questionnaires, comparisons, etc.), or mixed.

S O T L I S T H E S T U D Y O F T H E E F F E C T I V E N E S S O F T H E W A Y S W E T E A C H D I S C I P L I N A R Y C O N T E N T T O S T U D E N T S D I S P O S E D O R O B L I G E D T O L E A R N I T ; O U R P E D A G O G I C A L R E S E A R C H I S T H E S T U D Y O F T H E R E C I P R O C A L R E L A T I O N B E T W E E N I N D I V I D U A L S E N G A G E D I N C L A S S R O O M T E A C H I N G A N D L E A R N I N G .

S O T L O R ( P E D A G O G I C A L R E S E A R C H ) I N T U R N A F F E C T S M U L T I P L E F U T U R E P O I N T S I N T H E L E A R N I N G E N V I R O N M E N T . ( C O N V E X M I R R O R , V I R T U O U S C I R C L E , T H E W I D E N I N G G Y R E )

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CUNY Community College Research Grant Program “The Pursuit of Research in Disciplinary Teaching and Learning,” Faculty Development Workshop, Thursday, January 10, 2019

SoTl Resources (selected); compiled by Michele Piso Manoukian and Patricia Sokolski, facilitators, The

Carnegie Seminar on the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, LaGuardia Community College, CUNY (mpisomanoukian@lagcc.cuny.edu)

I. Foundational Texts; Current Explorations and Examples

Angelo, Thomas, A., and Patricia Cross. Classroom Assessment Techniques: A Handbook For College Teachers. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 1993.

Bass, Randy. “The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning: What’s the Problem?” Inventio: Creative Thinging about Learning and Teaching. 1(1) 1-10, 1999.

Bernstein, Dan. "Finding Your Place in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning." International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 4 (2): Article 4, 2010. https://doi.org/10.20429/ijsotl.2010.040204

Bishop-Clark, Cathy, and Beth Dietz-Uhler. Engaging in th Scholarship of Teaching and Learning: A Guide to the Process and How to Develop a Project from Start to Finish. Sterling, VA: Stylus Publishing, 2012.

Boyer, Ernest L. Scholarship Reconsidered: Priorities of the Professoriate. The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, 1997.

Dille, B. “The Impact of Community-Based Research on Student Learning” S.K. Miller & J.Moore, (eds). Transforming Practice Through Refelctive Scholarship. Tempe, AZ: Maricopa Center for Learning and Instruction, 2005.

Felten, Peter. "Principles of Good Practice in SoTL." Teaching & Learning Inquiry, 1 (1): 121-125, 2013.

Galle, Jeffery and Rebecca L. Harrison (eds). Teaching, Pedagogy, and Learning. Fertile Ground for Campus and Community Innovations. London: Rowman & Littlefield, 2017.

Gurung, Regan, A.R., Nancy L. Chick, and Aeron Haynie. Exploring Signature Pedagogies. Approaches to Teaching Disciplinary Habits of Mind. Stylus Publishing, 2009.

Huber, Mary Taylor, and Sherwyn P. Morreale (eds). Disciplinary Styles in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning: Exploring Common Ground, 2002.

Hutchings, Pat. Opening Lines: Approaches to the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. Stanford, CA: Carnegie Foundation, 2000.

Hutching, Pat, Mary Taylor Huber, and Anthony Ciccone. Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Reconsidered. The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching

Kuh, George, D., Jillian Kinzie, John H. Schuh, and Elizabeth J. Whitt. “Student Success in College: Creating Conditions That Matter. San Francisco, CA. Jossey-Bass, 2005.

McKinney, Kathleen. Enhancing Learning Through the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. The Challenges and Joys of Juggling. San Franciso CA. Jossey-Bass, 2007.

Morón-García, and Liz Willis. Introduction to the Pedagogic research Tool Kit, 2009. Shulman, Lee S. "From Idea to Prototype: Three Exercises in the Peer Review of

Teaching." In Teaching as Community Property: Essays on Higher Education, 175-184. Jossey-Bass, 2004.

Shulman, Lee S. "The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning: A Personal Account and Reflection." International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 5 (1): Article 30, 2011. https://doi.org/10.20429/ijsotl.2011.050130

Schwartz, Beth, and Regan A.R. Gurung. Evidence-Based Teaching for Higher Education. Washington D.C. American Psychological Association, 2012.

Williams, K.M. Doing Research to Improve Teaching and Learning: A Guide for College and University. New York, NY: Routledge, 2015.

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II. Centers for Teaching and Learning • Bergen Community College, Center for Innovation in Teaching and Learning

• Carnegie Mellon University, Eberly Center, Teaching Excellence and Educational Innovation

• Columbia Center for Teaching and Learning

• CUNY Graduate Center Teaching and Learning

• Durham Technical College, Teaching-Learning Center

• Elon University, Center for Engaged Learning

• Indiana University Bloomington, Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning

• Michigan State University, Academic Advancement Network

• Rochester Institute of Technology, Innovative Learning Institute

• University of California, Berkeley, Center for Teaching and Learning

• University of Edinburgh, Institure for Academic Development

• University of Virginia, CASTL, Center for Advanced Study of Teaching and Learning

• University of Central Florida, Faculty Center for Teaching and Learning

• Vanderbilt University, Center for Teaching

III. Conferences ISSOTL 2019

List of SoTL Conferences Illinois State University

IV. Resources: A SoTL Primer General Resources

Faculty Center for Teaching and Learning, University of Central Florida Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning Kennesaw University Center for Innovation in Teaching and Learning University of Illinois International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning MinneSotl, Documenting and Advancing the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Research Guide Vanderbilt University The SoTL Advocate

Journals: Disciplinary

ISSOTL International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning SoTL Journals with Acceptance Rates University of North Carolina, Greensboro, Hosted Online Journals

Journals: Topic Specific

International Journal Scholarship of Teaching and Learning International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education Journal on Excellence in College Teaching In Transit The LaGuardia Journal on Teaching and Learning Learning Communities Journal The International Journal of ePortfolio

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Literature Review

Chick, Nancy. Conducting a Lit Review Vanderbilt University. Accessed January 8, 2019.

https://my.vanderbilt.edu/sotl/doing-sotl/conducting-a-lit-review/

Olivares, Olivia. Researching and Writing Literature Reviews. Accessed January 8, 2019. http://www.library.arizona.edu/help/tutorials/litreviews/whatis.html

Montuori, Alfonso. “Literature Review As Creative Inquiry: Reframing Scholarship As a Creative Process.” Journal of Transformative Education 3:4 2005:374-393. Ridley, Diana. The Literature Review: A Step-by-Step Guide for Students. Sage, 2011.

Research Methodologies

Booth, Wayne, Gregory G. Colomb, and Joseph M. Williams. The Craft of Research, 2nd Edition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003.

Cousin, Glynis. Researching Learning in Higher Education: An Introduction to Contemporary Methods and Approaches. New York: Routledge, 2009.

Creswell, John W. Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches, 4th Edition. Sage, 2014.

Creswell, John W. Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design: Choosing among Five Approaches. 3rd Edition. Sage, 2013.

Eliot & Associates. "Guidelines for Conducting a Focus Group" https://datainnovationproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/4_How to_Conduct_a_Focus_Group-2-1.pdf 2005.

Krueger, Richard A. Developing Questions for Focus Groups. Sage Publications Inc., 1998. McKinley, Kathleen. "Research Method for Doing the Scholarship of Teaching and

Learning" https://sotl.illinoisstate.edu/downloads/materials/sotl_research.pdf Patton, Michael Quinn. Qualitative Research & Evaluation Methods. 4th Edition. Sage, 2015. Richards, Lyn A. and Janice M. Morse. User's Guide to Qualitative Methods. Second

Edition. Sage Publications, 2007.

Project Design

Eisner, Caroline. Academic Writing Blog. Accessed January 9, 2019. https://academiccoachingandwriting.org/academic-writing/academic-writing-blog/i-understanding-the-scholarship-of-teaching-and-learning

SoTL Writing

Alishahi, Ali, Stevenson, Suzanne. "Anatomy of a Scholarly Article." Shared under Creative Commons. Last Updated 7/13/2009.

Belcher, Wendy, Laura. Writing your Article in Twelve Weeks. SAGE Publications, Inc. 2009. Vonnegut, Kurt. Transactions on Professional Communications IEEE PC-24.2 1981: 64-65.

SoTL Videos

Scholars on Scholarly Teaching vs SoTL What is SoTL? Which SoTL books to read?

V Links to Data Coding These are links to free coding software:

• http://www.umass.edu/qdap/

• http://provalisresearch.com/products/qualitative-data-analysis- software/freeware/

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• http://www.butleranalytics.com/10-qualitative-data-analysis-software-free/