Experiences with Supporting Teachers with Scholarship of Teaching and Learning at a Research-Intensive University: Lessons Learned

By Irma Meijerman, Femke Kirschner and Frans Prins

Many faculty members struggle with how to start with SoTL, especially at research-
intensive universities. What challenges do they face? What hurdles are there to be taken?
But mainly, how can we support those new to SoTL with overcoming these challenges and
hurdles and develop themselves as SoTL-scholars? When we were looking for answers in
academic literature, we did not find the solution. A more rigorous description of specific
SoTL-supportive initiatives and their effect was lacking. We therefore took the initiative and
started two SoTL-supportive pilots at our own university, a research-intensive university
where SoTL was virtually unknown when the projects were conducted. The two pilots were
performed in two different contexts. One was teacher-led, interdisciplinary and voluntary,
the other one faculty-led, STEM-oriented, and supported by a faculty grant. Both pilots
provided us with a wealth of information and lessons learned about successfully supporting
SoTL at our university. However, these lessons can also be relevant for all other (research-
intensive) universities at the beginning of their journey to embrace, encourage, and support
SoTL. In our case, these pioneering pilots proved to be the start of the development of a real
SoTL-culture and have now culminated in our university organizing ISSOTL23. So, are you at
the start of your own SoTL-journey at your university? If so, do you want to support and
inspire more faculty to become SoTL-scholars? Then don’t miss a chance to read our article
and learn from our experiences.

Read the TLI article here.