ISSOTL 2016 Elections – Candidate Bios and Statements
Regional Vice Presidents: Regional vice presidents represent their respective regions on the Board of Directors. Regions include Asia Pacific, Canada, Europe, and the United States. Each region has two Vice Presidents who serve staggered terms. The Board of Directors has authority to add regions if the number of ISSOTL members from a potential region reaches fifty. When that number is reached and after the Board votes to add a region, a regional vice president will be elected in the subsequent election. The Board of Directors has the authority to delete a region if the number of ISSOTL members from a region dips under fifty. Regional vice presidents serve for three years and may serve only two consecutive terms.
United States Vice President
Candidates:
A. Stephen Bloch-Schulman, Elon University
B. Aimee Knupsky, Allegheny College
C. Jessie Moore, Elon University
D. Lauren Scharff, U.S. Air Force Academy
Stephen Bloch-Schulman; Associate Professor of Philosophy, Elon University; North Carolina, USA
I have been involved with SoTL projects since 2005, when I was introduced to it through a Lumina Foundation for Education project. I have attended and presented at 7 ISSoTL conferences since 2007, and was on the planning committee for the 2013 meeting. I have also been active in the Arts and Humanities and Student Co-Inquiry groups, and have often co-presented with members of these groups. I am on the editorial board of Teaching and Learning Inquiry, and will have my first article in TLI out any day now, in a special section that I co-edited with Sherry Linkon on arts and humanities methods in SoTL which emerged from conversations in the Arts and Humanities IG. I have also served on the board and on multiple committees of the American Association of Philosophy teachers. My SoTL research is focused on the intersection of democratic political theory and pedagogy.
I am deeply committed to the careful study of teaching and learning, and have learned and benefitted greatly by my engagement with ISSoTL. I am also very committed to the Big Tent model that ISSoTL holds as its vision. I therefore strive to bring particular attention to those people and ideas that are underrepresented in SoTL spaces. For example, I have co-presented with students at several ISSoTL meetings, as well at many other SoTL conferences, and have regularly advocated for the inclusion of students in SoTL in my writing and research. I would strive, as the US VP, to further its mission, and its openness to diverse peoples and ideas.
Aimee Knupsky; Associate Professor of Psychology, Allegheny College; Pennsylvania, USA
Aimee Knupsky is Associate Professor of Psychology at Allegheny College, the psychology department chair, and the Director of Undergraduate Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activities. My PhD in experimental psychology focused on cognitive psychology. My past research has examined how students convey politeness in email, how the testing effect differs across instructor versus student generated questions, and the benefits of interdisciplinary courses and collaborations for students and faculty scholarship. I am a Great Lakes Colleges Association Pedagogy Fellow and in that capacity have facilitated colloquies, presented at the Association of American Colleges and Universities conference, and contributed to the consortial Teaching and Learning Center. At Allegheny, I have coordinated workshops and brown bags focused on the scholarship of teaching and learning at the departmental and institutional level. I am the chair for the Western Pennsylvania Undergraduate Psychology Conference and am a Council on Undergraduate Research Councilor for the Psychology Division.
Serving as a Vice President of ISSoTL would be a natural progression of work I have pursued as a Pedagogy Fellow and CUR Councilor. I am eager to contribute to the work of ISSoTL by sharing my perspective on the intersection of undergraduate research, interdisciplinarity, and the scholarship of teaching and learning. For example, I am a co-coordinator of a multi-institutional project focused on assessing the impact of team-taught interdisciplinary courses across the arts/humanities and sciences. As Director of URSCA, I am creating positions for students to examine the effectiveness of curricular and co-curricular programs at Allegheny. I recently submitted an interdisciplinary proposal to apply the principle of organization in a museum setting and to coordinate a symposium on teaching and learning for museum professionals. I envision providing guidance and support to implement similar interdisciplinary investigations of teaching and learning and to encourage the inclusion of students in this work.
Jessie L. Moore; Associate Director of the Center for Engaged Learning and Associate Professor of English; Elon University; North Carolina, USA
Jessie L. Moore, Associate Director of the Center for Engaged Learning and Associate Professor of English at Elon University, currently chairs the ISSOTL Communications Committee. Her teaching, scholarship, and service move between and blend professional writing and rhetoric, high-impact pedagogies, transfer of learning, writing studies, and faculty development. She regularly presents at ISSOTL and has published in Computers and Composition, Written Communication, Journal of Faculty Development, and Journal on Centers for Teaching & Learning. At Elon, Jessie coordinates multi-institutional SoTL research projects on high-impact pedagogies and previously directed the university’s first-year writing program. She has served on the Executive Committee for the Conference on College Composition and Communication and on the Board for the Carolinas Writing Program Administrators. She co-hosted ISSOTL 2013 with Peter Felten and developed ISSOTL Online 2013, which featured strands on SoTL foundations, studying and designing for transfer, and student voices in SoTL.
ISSOTL strives to build “intellectual and collaborative infrastructure… that fosters scholarly work about teaching and learning” (ISSOTL Mission). The Society meets that goal through its annual conferences and by building spaces and resources for members to connect around SoTL in-between conferences. If elected Vice President-USA, I will focus on deepening these efforts. In December 2014, the Communications Committee relaunched the Society’s website to make it more functional and flexible. As committee chair, I collaborated with members to restore the Society’s access to its social media accounts, develop monthly e-newsletters, and establish our new email discussion list. We still have work to do to enhance these communication tools, but the Society is moving towards its goals of generating web resources that increase the value of ISSOTL membership and of facilitating collaboration among members. I look forward to extending ISSOTL’s collaborative infrastructure and fostering cross-disciplinary and international partnerships around SoTL.
Lauren Scharff; Director, Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Program; Professor of Behavioral Sciences; U.S. Air Force Academy; USA
I have been personally engaged in SoTL scholarship and faculty development for 20 years. I have also served in a variety of leadership roles, including founding director of two centers and officer positions for disciplinary organizations. As Director for SoTL at the U. S. Air Force Academy, I mentor, supervise, and personally conduct SoTL research across a wide variety of topics (e.g. JiTT, metacognition, respect for human dignity, critical thinking, novel uses of instructional technology, etc.). My organizational leadership experience includes serving as President of the Southwestern Psychological Association, as co-webmaster for that organization, as part of the inaugural board of the Texas Faculty Developers Network, and on the Psi Chi Advisory Committee for the southwestern region. I also serve as a reviewer for several SoTL and educational research journals, am a member of the ISSoTL Advocacy Committee, and am co-creator of the collaborative website, Improve with Metacognition.
If given the opportunity to serve ISSoTL as VP for the United States, I would actively engage in work to help grow and strengthen ISSoTL as an organization and community, as well as broadly promote application of SoTL research. Sharing and applying SoTL research both within and beyond our institutions is nontrivial and key to really making meaningful and broadly impactful changes in education. My creation of the Improve with Metacognition site and participation with the ISSoTL Advocacy Committee indicate my commitment to serving those larger goals. I believe that my scholarship background and leadership experience in other professional organizations will enable me to help serve our organization.
Asia Pacific Vice President
Candidates:
A. Chng Huang Hoon, National University of Singapore
B. Kelly Matthews, University of Queensland
C. Robyn Nash, Queensland Institute of Technology
Chng Huang Hoon; Associate Professor (English Language & Literature) and Associate Provost (Undergraduate Education, Office of the Provost, National University of Singapore (NUS), Singapore
I have extensive experience in organizational/academic leadership in Higher Education (see attached for past experiences).
My SoTL work is however just beginning – I am currently undertaking three major SoTL initiatives –
- to build institutional capacity in SoTL – providing NUS colleagues with relevant SoTL exposure, funding avenues and support for projects, building up and sustaining SoTL internal SoTL dialogues;
- to provide leadership institutionally and for Asia, starting with fostering an informal Asia-SoTL network. Four external Asian partners to foster Asia-SoTL have been identified: University of Kyoto, University of Hong Kong, Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and Singapore Management University, with the National University of Singapore leading this effort;
- to develop AJSoTL into a SoTL journal with an Asia focus, starting with a multi-institutional editorial board from Asian institutions. This board is now made up of 5 institutions across 3 Asian countries (Hong Kong, Japan, and Singapore). One plan is to provide some translation assistance for colleagues in Japan who are more comfortable reading about SoTL in Japanese.
In the TLI (2012) article that Peter Looker and I wrote, we lamented the absence of Asian voices and an Asia perspective in (IS)SOTL. Rather than lamenting, I wish to take steps in helping to shape a perspective from Asia, and in time, to have this new voice join the SoTL conversation on the international stage. This perspective has been articulated in both the TLI paper and in my recent keynote lecture in ISSOTL-Melbourne in October 2015.
My vision is simple: to broaden the reach of the ISSOTL community and in the process to enrich its perspective such that ISSOTL may more truly be said to embrace an inclusive ‘big tent’ approach. Putting Asia on the ISSOTL map is a first step I plan to take, though I would not stop at Asia as there are vast regions in the world where ISSOTL has not reached, including India (a big sub-continent to be taken on its own terms), Africa, the Middle East and South America. I hope that ISSOTL will find ways to reach non-traditional/non-English speaking regions that are equally invested in (and in greater need for) education excellence, and my proposed involvement in ISSOTL as Regional VP for Asia-Pacific is my own way of serving the grander ISSOTL outreach and education missions.
Kelly Matthews, Senior Lecturer in Higher Education, The University of Queensland; Australia
Kelly Matthews is a Senior Lecturer in Higher Education at The University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia. In 2015 she was awarded a National Australian Learning and Teaching Fellowship. She is currently a co-chair for the ISSOTL SIG on Students as Co-inquirers, is co-leading the International Collaborative Writing Groups (ICWG) initiative with Mick Healey (2015 ISSOTL Distinguished Service Award), and will be facilitating workshops at the 2016 Summer Institute on Students as Partners with Peter Felten and Beth Marquis. A theme of her research explores students’ experiences of learning across degree programs, and increasingly involves students as co-researchers. Kelly develops, and teaches into, preparation programs for new tutors (teaching assistants) and instructors. Kelly has collaborated on 22 funded teaching and learning projects worth $2 million (AUD), received five awards (four for teaching; one for research), published extensively in high impact journals, and is a contributor to blogs and media outlets.
Since my first ISSOTL conference in 2008 (Edmonton, Canada), I have become more engaged as a member – from giving presentations, arranging symposia, facilitating a collaborative writing group (2012) to now co-leading the whole international collaborative writing groups (ICWG) initiative, and becoming co-chair for an ISSOTL SIG. As an active ISSOTL member, I have an established network of peers across the higher education sector with a solid base in Australasia. I believe that SoTL is a creative endeavour enhanced through collaborative approaches that link scholars from across the globe. As VP, I will continue to build strong networks amongst ISSOTL members within the Asia-Pacific region that connect internationally so that like-minded scholars are supported in their SoTL practices with an avenue to share, collaborate, and influence positive change in teaching and learning across the sector.
Robyn Nash; Assistant Dean (Learning and Teaching) in the Faculty of Health at Queensland Institute of Technology; Australia
In my role as Assistant Dean (Learning and Teaching) in the Faculty of Health at QUT, I held overall responsibility for the quality of programs offered by the Faculty involving a comprehensive suite of undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in a wide range of disciplines including nursing, nutrition and dietetics, exercise physiology, medical imaging, optometry, paramedicine, pharmacy, podiatry, psychology and social work. My role included responsibilities for contemporary curriculum design, evaluation and review, and innovation in learning and teaching. I have been involved in a range of internally and externally funded projects related to the improvement of learning and teaching totalling more than $5M since 2000. I am regularly called on to provide expert advice regarding learning and teaching to academic groups both internal and external to the University, and have been appointed to a number of State and National Committees. I have received several national Teaching Awards for Excellence in Learning and Teaching and, in 2015, was made a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
Even though I have now been teaching for more than 30 years, I never cease to feel excited about facilitating the creation of learning environments that ‘turn the light bulb on’ for students and inspire them to achieve their personal and professional aspirations. Throughout my career I have had benefited greatly from the experiences I have shared with colleagues, and I now relish the opportunity to share the lessons that I continue to learn through mentoring and supporting others. I have enormous respect for the major advances ISSOTL has made in profiling learning and teaching as a scholarly endeavour in the higher education context. I would therefore value the opportunity to contribute to ISSOTL’s ongoing mission through supporting the work of the Leadership and Selections Committee.
Europe Vice President
Candidate:
A. Idoia Fernández, University of the Basque Country, UPV/EHU (Spanish State)
Idoia Fernández, Professor of Learning Sciences, University of the Basque Country; Spain
Idoia Fernández is Professor of Learning Sciences at the University of the Basque Country in Spain, a public and bilingual university with over 5,000 teachers and 60,000 students. Since 2009 she has been Director of the Service of Educational Advising, where she oversees the university’s teaching and learning policies (program management, policy development and monitoring, development and implementation of new faculty mentoring programs, strategic planning and budget preparation, development of collaborative agreements with academic leaders, quality enhancement). She also leads numerous seminars for staff development in university teaching. She is a member of the executive committee of REDU (Red Estatal de Docencia Universitaria), a national network for university teaching in Spain, and she sits on the editorial board of REDU’s journal (currently the only publication in Spain dedicated to Higher Education). She is principal investigator of the IkasGura Research Group, which focuses on educational change in Higher Education. She is author of numerous publications and studies in this area.
I discovered ISSoTL three years ago, and in 2014 I had the opportunity to attend the conference in Quebec, where a group of people from various European countries first came together. Since then I have followed the initial stages of the European network, as I believe it is very important that ISSOTL transcend the borders of English-speaking countries and be more in touch with the realities that have emerged in other cultural and linguistic contexts that also believe that teaching and learning should be subjects of scholarship. As a member of the REDU executive committee, I have leadership experience within the Basque and Spanish contexts, and I also have close ties to AIDU (Ibero-American Society for University Teaching) and numerous universities in Latin America. My primary goal is to build bridges between communities that are not able to come together easily because of cultural and linguistic differences, helping universities to grow and become more multicultural at the European level.
Canada Vice President
Candidate:
A. Heather Smith, University of Northern British Columbia
Heather Smith, Director of the Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology, University of Northern British Columbia; Canada
Dr. Heather Smith is the Director of the Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology at the University of Northern British Columbia in Prince George, British Columbia, Canada. She is Professor of International Studies and a 3M National Teaching Fellow. She has published extensively on the scholarship of teaching and learning, particularly in the field of International Studies. Current SOTL work focuses on the students-as-partners model. Her organizational leadership experience is extensive and is informed by values of collaboration and community creation. She has lead teams to organize annual teaching conferences at UNBC, chaired the committee that created a national teaching prize for the Canadian Political Science Association, chaired the governance committee that created the British Columbia Teaching and Learning Council, and is the founding chair of the International Studies Association-Canada Professional Development committee. She has also been active in the Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, Educational Developers’ Caucus.
When I attended the 2014 International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning meeting in Quebec City I felt I found an intellectual and pedagogical home. Certainly, part of that feeling had to do with the people I met who were uniformly welcoming. But there was something more. Given my background in International Studies, there was something about the diverse perspectives represented in the sessions that left me feeling invigorated. It truly felt like a scholarly community. It is because of this experience that I am putting my name forward for the position of Vice-President-Canada.
My vision of what I would like to achieve, if chosen to serve, is to promote ISSOTL as home for a diverse group of scholars. Using my national and international connections, I want to help build networks that foster the creation of cross-national SOTL collaborations that include students, graduate students and faculty.
President Elect: The President Elect serves on the Conferences and Convenings Committee, the Budget and Finance Committee, and the Leadership and Elections Committee. The President Elect provides counsel and service to the President and other members of the Board of Directors. The President Elect commits to three years of service, one year each as President Elect, President, and Past President
Candidates:
A. Co-Presidents Elect Katarina Mårtensson & Beth Marquis, Lund and McMaster Universities
Co-Presidents Elect:
Katarina Mårtensson; Academic Developer, Division for Higher Educational Development, Lund University; Sweden
Beth Marquis; Assistant Professor, Arts & Science Program and Associate Director (Research), Institute for Teaching and Learning; McMaster University; Canada
Katarina Mårtensson
I have been an academic developer at the Division for Higher Educational Development at Lund University in Sweden for more than 15 years. In that capacity, I support organisational development through academic development, scholarship of teaching and learning, and leadership. I currently serve as one of two regional Vice-Presidents for Europe on the ISSOTL Board, and co-initiated the Scholarship of Leading Special Interest Group. My research focuses on social networks, academic microcultures, and academic leadership, and has been recognized nationally and internationally (including in a well-received keynote at the 2015 ISSOTL conference in Melbourne). I am currently one of the co-editors of the International Journal for Academic Development, and I serve on the editorial board of Teaching and Learning Inquiry. I am well known for being a good communicator and team member.
Beth Marquis
I am an Assistant Professor in the Arts & Science Program and Associate Director (Research) at the Institute for Teaching and Learning at McMaster University, Canada. Since 2014, I have served as ISSOTL Treasurer and as a member of the ISSOTL Budget & Finance, Conferences & Convenings, and Communication committees. I have also held leadership roles within the Canadian SoTL community, and currently serve as Treasurer for the Society for Teaching & Learning in Higher Education’s SoTL Interest Group, and as Senior Editor of The Canadian Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. My own SoTL interests focus on the intersections between teaching and learning and questions of equity and justice, and on film and media texts as public pedagogy. I’m also committed to supporting and researching student-staff partnerships in higher education, and currently oversee McMaster’s unique Student Scholars Program.
Candidates’ statement
We consider SoTL a vital part of higher education, mainly because of its potential to advance academics’ knowledge about their teaching, support high quality student learning, and contribute to improved institutional teaching and learning cultures. As longstanding ISSOTL members, we also believe the work of the Society is fundamental to encouraging, supporting and disseminating teaching and learning scholarship. As such, we would welcome the opportunity to contribute further to this work as co-Presidents elect. Our central goals for the position concern the encouragement and promotion of the international aspects of ISSOTL, as well as the further growth and development of the Society’s efforts to encourage student-staff partnerships in teaching, learning, and SoTL. Both of these goals overlap with our shared sense of the importance of collaboration in SoTL work—a value we hope to both enact and support through our work together and with the ISSOTL Board and membership.
Treasurer Elect: The Treasurer is responsible for the Society’s financial transactions and records. The Treasurer advises the Board of Directors about financial feasibility of Society activities. The treasurer sees that financial reports, annual budgets and audits are prepared as requested by the Board and assumes responsibilities for signing checks as one of two designated persons. The Treasurer serves on the Budget and Finance Committee, the Membership Committee and on the Conferences and Convenings Committee. The Treasurer serves for three years and may be re-elected.
Candidate:
A. Sarah Bunnell, Ohio Wesleyan University
Sarah L. Bunnell, Assistant Professor of Psychology, Ohio Wesleyan University, and Great Lakes Colleges Association Teagle Pedagogy Scholar
I am currently an ISSoTL US Regional Vice-President, as well as a member of the Budget and Finance and Conferences and Convenings Committees. I am also the liaison between the Budget and Finance Committee and the 2016 ISSoTL Conference Committee. I am a Teagle Pedagogical Scholar for the Great Lakes Colleges Association; in this role, I support faculty in the design, implementation, and evaluation of teaching and learning inquiries while also increasing the profile of teaching and learning on our campuses. My pedagogical research has explored the development of metacognitive reasoning, how to help students view their peers as important contributors to their own learning, and how best to help faculty in their own pedagogical pursuits. I have written about this work in several venues, including Teaching and Learning Together in Higher Education and The Journal of Faculty Development, I have presented my research at each ISSoTL conference since 2007.
I am standing for election as ISSoTL Treasurer due to my growing involvement in the budget and planning processes on the ISSoTL Board (as US VP, a member of the Budget and Finance Committee, and a member of the Conferences and Convenings Committee), as well as my interest in expanding my contributions to the organization. This is a very exciting time for ISSoTL, thanks to the excellent leadership, budget planning, and big-picture thinking of those on the Board and across our committees. Responsible oversight of the budget will be critical in facilitating both the continued health of the organization as well as future initiatives. As someone with a strong attention to detail, advanced statistical and mathematical training, and organizational skills, I am well-prepared to serve ISSoTL in this role.
Student Representative: Two student members of the board represent the interests and perspectives of student members of the Society, and they are full voting members of the Board of Directors. They can serve on all Society Committees and participate in all activities of the Board of Directors. Student representatives serve for two years, and their terms are staggered. Representatives can complete their term even if they graduate, but representatives must be student members of the Society when they stand for election. Candidates are put on the ballot in the same manner as other members of the Board and are voted upon by the entire electorate.
Candidate:
A. Aaron Long, University of Kansas
Aaron Long, Ph.D. Candidate in English, University of Kansas, USA
Aaron Long is a Ph.D. Candidate in the English Department at the University of Kansas (KU), where he teaches undergraduate Composition and Literature courses. As a Graduate Assistant at KU’s Center for Teaching Excellence he does faculty development, helps train KU’s Graduate Teaching Assistants, and occasionally co-teaches a graduate seminar called Becoming an Effective College Instructor. Aaron is a Student Representative to the Executive Board of the International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (ISSOTL) and a co-chair of ISSOTL’s Students & SoTL Committee. His SoTL research focuses on evidence of student learning, learning through games, and working with students as co-researchers. His dissertation research focuses on 19th- and early-20th-century British literature, science, and technology, with particular interest in mechanical bodies.
I am grateful to many of you for involving me in ISSOTL when I joined in fall 2012. Since joining I have served on the Communications Committee, which was then updating the Society’s web presence. Through this work I became aware of ISSOTL’s public image and how members want to present it to prospective members, the universities and governments of our members’ home countries, and the global media. It was a natural step to join the Advocacy Committee in fall 2014. Also, in spring 2015 Roselynn Verwoord and I proposed the Students and SoTL Committee, which we now co-chair. This committee represents the Society’s student members and the three SIGs that address students’ role in SoTL research. In addition to representing student concerns to the Board, one of our visions for this committee is that it will help welcome and engage younger SoTL scholars, sustaining the Society’s membership for the long term and enriching conference conversations and the discourse in Teaching & Learning Inquiry. The Students & SoTL Committee’s charter stipulates that its co-chairs are the Student Representatives to the Board. One reason I am standing for re-election is to help this new committee establish itself, define its vision and responsibilities, and explore its relationship to the rest of ISSOTL.
