Keynote Speakers
Opening Panel
The Next Twenty Years: A Discussion to Reflect on and Invigorate ISSOTL’s Future
Four ISSOTL members, representative of the Society’s four originating countries, set the stage for the 20th-anniversary conference. The panel will discuss the history, present, and future of the scholarship of teaching and learning. From early debates about the viability of a “scholarship of teaching,” to peer review, multimodal dissemination, and international adaptation, to today’s renewed concerns about inclusivity, generative artificial intelligence, and fallout from the long pandemic, the four plenary panelists will engage with SOTL’s major moves theoretically and pragmatically. The discussion will take on ideas that have come and gone, those that continue to resonate, and, most importantly, those that may shape the future of SOTL and ISSOTL.
Facilitated by: Professor Michael Morrone
Panel Speakers: Professor Dawne Irving-Bell, Professor Jennifer Meta Robinson, Professor Pat Maher, Holly Capocchiano
Michael C. Morrone, J.D., is a Teaching Professor of Business Communication at the Kelley School of Business and Director of Indiana University’s Faculty Academy on Excellence in Teaching (FACET). Morrone is the editor-in-chief of the Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning and the Journal of Teaching and Learning with Technology. He is co-editor of Quick Hits Teaching with the Digital Humanities (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2020), Quick Hits Teaching and Learning with Technology (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2012), and Quick Hits Creativity in the Classroom (Indiana University Press, forthcoming 2025). He is co-author of Strategic Business Writing (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2021), currently in its 7th edition. He has received numerous grants and awards for teaching excellence, innovative uses of technology in teaching and learning, and course development.
Professor Dawne Irving-Bell, PhD, is a Professor of Learning and Teaching at BPP University, UK, where she leads on scholarship. With extensive experience working in secondary, further, and Higher Education settings as a teacher, Dawne is passionate about inspiring students, enabling them to achieve their full potential. Dawne’s experiences shape her values, and she believes that effective learning is cultivated from positive relationships with students, which starts with excellent teaching. Dedicated to raising the profile of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL), and passionate about creating opportunities for others, Dawne established The National Teaching Repository, an Open Educational Resource with proven reach and impact across the global Higher Education community. A platform where colleagues can share interventions that lead to real improvements in teaching and learning in a way that secures recognition for their practice, making it citable, sharable, and discoverable.
Dawne is a National Teaching Fellow (NTF), Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (PFHEA), holds a Collaborative Award for Teaching Excellence (CATE), and received a National Award in recognition of her outstanding contribution to teacher education.
Jennifer Meta Robinson is professor of practice in the Indiana University Anthropology Department.
She maintains a research agenda that interweaves anthropologies of pedagogy and food. Jennifer’s research, teaching, and service on college pedagogy is dedicated to shaping an equitable future for higher education. Her latest book, Teaching as if Learning Matters: Pedagogies of Becoming by Next Generation Faculty (2022) develops narratives of how new college teachers learn to teach and become members of teaching communities and won an outstanding book award from the Society for Professors of Education. Jennifer was president of the International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (ISSOTL) and edits the Indiana University Press book series on Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. At IU, she was a long-time Student Learning Analytics Fellow, a Mack Center Fellow, and an Association of American Universities grant recipient for research on teaching and learning. She teaches graduate courses on college pedagogy and co-directs IU’s Graduate Certificate on College Pedagogy. She won Distinguished Service Awards from ISSOTL and IU’s Faculty Academy on Excellence in Teaching as well as three teaching awards from Indiana University. Other grants and recognitions have come from the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Teagle Foundation.
Her food research explores intersections pragmatics and epistemology through food, agriculture, and community. In “Selling Local: Why Local Food Movements Matter” (2017) and “The Farmers’ Market Book: Growing Food, Cultivating Community” (2007) she unpacks how small-scale American farmers navigate the food industry while establishing identities and fostering connections within their communities. She continues to investigate local food movements both domestically and internationally.
Jennifer’s food research dovetails with her research on learning and teaching through several current projects. In a USDA-funded collaboration on the impact of multiple shocks to the Midwest food system, Jennifer leads a team that translates basic research for higher education students. At the Felege Hiywot Center, she and a graduate student team use anthropological methods to assess the social impact of an urban farming education initiative for low-income and minoritized high schoolers in Indianapolis, funded by the Lilly Foundation.
Jennifer is an affiliated faculty member with the Ostrom Workshop, Sustainable Food Systems Science, and the Integrated Program on the Environment at IU. Her research has been funded by grants from the US Department of Agriculture, the Lilly Foundation, Association of American Universities, Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Teagle Foundation, Indiana Arts Commission, and Indiana University.
Patrick Maher, Ph.D. is a Full Professor in the School of Physical and Health Education at Nipissing University (North Bay, Canada). Pat was Nipissing’s inaugural Dean of Teaching (2019-2023) and he is an award-wining educator, having received a 3M National Teaching Fellowship in 2014. Within the International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, Pat was named a Fellow in 2020, and has been one of its Canadian Vice-Presidents since 2023. Pat also sits on the Board of Directors of Canada’s Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education and has held various editorial roles with the Canadian Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning since 2016. He is an interdisciplinary scholar, working in the areas of outdoor/experiential learning, nature-based tourism, sustainability, higher education leadership and Polar geography. Pat’s most recent work is co-editing the Routledge Handbook on Mobile Technology, Social Media and the Outdoors.
Holly Capocchiano is a PhD student at the University of Wollongong, Australia, with a Bachelor of Primary Education. Holly has worked as a research assistant on a wide variety of projects that sparked her passion in research. Holly’s research interests include the wellbeing of higher education students and quality education. Holly is currently serving as one of the Student Vice Presidents (2023-2025) for the International Society of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (ISSOTL).
Plenary Session
Let’s Be Grand Together
Effective and equitable education is crucial for healthy local and global societies. Unfortunately, providing such experiences in higher education is a “grand challenge” or wicked problem with no single, simple solution because local contexts and the individuals within them encompass different characteristics, resources, and constraints, all of which change over time. More positively, evidence from other disciplines suggests that identifying their grand challenges can promote powerful collaborations and the successful adaptation and transfer of local solutions into new contexts. This talk will explore the current efforts and opportunities emerging from ISSOTL’s five-year project to identify the Grand Challenges for SoTL.
Presenter: Lauren Scharff
Lauren Scharff is the inaugural Director for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Program and Professor of Behavioral Sciences at the U.S. Air Force Academy, where she has worked since 2008. Prior to that she was a professor of Psychology at Stephen F. Austin State University and the inaugural co-director for their Teaching Excellence Center. Her SoTL research has investigated a variety of topics, with current focuses on metacognitive instruction and the Grand Challenges for SoTL. Dr. Scharff is past president of the Southwestern Psychological Association and served as the United States Regional Vice President for the ISSOTL (2016-2019). Her awards include the Florence L. Denmark Psi Chi National Faculty Advisor Award (2007) and the Gary Poole Distinguished Reviewer Award for ISSOTL’s journal, Teaching and Learning Inquiry (2021). She is co-creator of the award-winning Improve with Metacognition website.
Closing Keynote
SoTL in Latin America: Bridging Cultures, Transforming Teaching and Learning
We will explore the future ‘international’ potential of SoTL in emerging regions, with a focus on Latin America. We analyze how SoTL practices and theories have been adopted, adapted and reinterpreted in these contexts, highlighting unique challenges and opportunities. Through an analysis, differences in the implementation of SoTL are discussed, highlighting innovative contributions from Latin America. Strategies are proposed to foster international cooperation and strengthen the global SoTL network, with a focus on inclusion, diversity and cultural adaptability. This approach reflects a commitment to expanding the “I” in ISSOTL, promoting a rich intercultural dialogue that nourishes both theory and practice in higher education.
Presenter: Oscar Jerez
Oscar Jerez, PhD in Psychology and Education, academic of the Department of Health Sciences Education, Faculty of Medicine, University of Chile, leads his faculty’s Center for Teaching and Learning. He is a consultant to higher education institutions worldwide. Co-created Teaching and Learning Centers in more than 40 universities, more than 20 countries. Founded LatinSoTL, directs the International School of University Management of the Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, and is part of the Board of STHEM in Brazil with more than 66 institutions in the country. He advises the Innovation Evaluation Commission of the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana. He focuses on faculty and student development in SoTL, innovation and quality assurance in health education.