Irma Meijerman
An important aspect of making SoTL an integral part of a learning culture within universities is a sustainable change owned by the teachers. Engaging teachers in SoTL, making SoTL an integral part of their approach to teaching, often means that they have to move beyond disciplinary research boundaries and get familiar with more social science research methods. SoTL- communities, where teachers collaborate with colleagues, and peer review each other’s projects, can be a driving force to support teachers in getting familiar with the approaches and methods of SoTL. Within Utrecht University, until now, very few teachers are involved in SoTL, and no institutional support or teacher development programs involving SoTL are offered. To engage teachers in SoTL in this exploratory pilot, two interdisciplinary communities of practitioners were formed. In the first community teachers from the whole university could get involved on a voluntary basis. The second community consisted of teachers from different disciplines of the Faculty of Science and was part of a wider project on teaching innovations. Teachers met on a monthly basis to get instruction about methods of SoTL, and the opportunity to exchange experiences with their peers. The participants received a questionnaire at the beginning and the end of their SoTL-project (about 1.5 years) with questions about their views, behaviour and attitude towards SoTL. In addition, several participants were interviewed at the end of their SoTL-projects. Based on the first explorative results conclusions can be drawn for future SoTL-communities and teacher development activities that are related to many of the current SoTL-discussions. The participants enjoyed being part of the community. Most of them managed to make scholarly changes in their teaching, and showed changes in their views on teaching and learning. However, only few of them managed to share or publish their results. Participants expressed a general feeling that they had to do it ‘all alone’ in their own time, making them feel extra workload. In addition, they felt that the time spend on the project was not rewarded, and appreciated, within their own department. Especially in the voluntary group this lead to a drop out of more than half of the participants. The first experiences of this pilot emphasise the importance of support structures, especially the support of the institute and the appreciation of teachers engaged in SoTL. Giving dedicated time for SoTL and valuing their contribution to teaching and learning seems the most important.
