Do you speak SoTL?

I'm writing this in the air over Savannah, on my way back from a great SoTL conference.  For those who don't know, SoTL stands for "Scholarship of Teaching and Learning" (the title of this blog is the motto on  the conference t-shirts) and is a great organization to explore. 

After two days of 9 - 5 conference sessions I have amassed lots to think about and hopefully share with you in future blogs.  While all that new info is being digested, though, I will just share a list one of the speakers presented to answer the question, "Why SoTL?"

1. SoTL fosters student learning:  Teachers who ask "What works?" are more likely to be using activities that do. 
2. SoTL bridges the gap between teaching and research: It's a false dichotomy to separate teaching and research.
3. SoTL benefits SoTL-active faculty, helps them fight classroom inertia and invites them to change and improve their teaching:  It helps teachers grow, change, be more interested, stop being complacent.
4. SoTL benefits other students and faculty:  Teachers can share the findings across disciplines, breaking down some of the silos.
5. SoTL benefits the institution:  It helps to generate visible analyses of student learning--assessment at course and program level, models of practice for local colleagues, high-quality evidence for internal/external assessment and accessible examples of quality education for prospective students.
6. SoTL is a model of faculty development:  It provides a space for dialogue about practices that contribute to advancing knowledge
7. SoTL increases faculty credentials for professional rewards such as tenure and promotion.
8. SoTL lets us follow our passion:  It helps us learn from our students and learn who our students are, what it is that we are doing, and how we can do it even better.

SoTL starts with a question: Is there any teaching/learning-related question that has been nagging at you that you might begin to explore, either individually or collaboratively?