Georgia Institute of TechnologyCETL

Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

Do you have an interest in creating and sustaining learning for your students? Have you ever wondered if the activities you pursue in the classroom are producing higher order thinking skills within your subject domain? Are student misconceptions about the course content or the subject in general getting in the way of continued learning? How will you know?

Faculty and staff with interests in these types of questions often have the opportunity to conduct research within their own classrooms and labs and thus contribute to the scholarship of teaching and learning in their academic discipline.

Resources exist in CETL to assist the scholarship of teaching and learning through:

Current articles/books on learning theory

The CETL resource library contains many, many books regarding teaching, learning, and assessment. Two online journals/publications that often report on the scholarship of teaching and learning are also available. If you are just beginning to explore the scholarship of learning in depth, two very good books to begin your journey are "How People Learn" by the National Research Council, JD Bransford, AL Brown and RR Cocking, Eds. and "Learning and Motivation in the Postsecondary Classroom" by MD Svinicki.

If you have the desire to conduct your own literature search, below is a link to the library contact list of individuals to help you with your discipline specific needs.

http://www.library.gatech.edu/services/subject_librarians.php

Individual consultations and group sessions

We are also available to have lunch discussions, attend department meetings, or interact one-on-one to discuss possible research interests. Just as students have different styles of learning, faculty and staff have different approaches to gathering new information. We would be happy to hold lunch sessions to discuss teaching and learning articles, attend department meetings to review the scholarship of teaching and learning or perhaps one key aspect of learning theory, or spend one-on-one time to assist in framing a research project related to teaching and learning.

One example of a recent request was to assist in conducting an analysis of the introductory programs for a discipline. This was to give an overview of the current pedagogical procedures utilized within the department. Research questions can then be posed to address specific proposed changes within the curriculum.

Support in grant writing

CETL can assist you in identifying potential grants for such research as well as incorporating recent learning theory in preparing the grants. Some of the many grants related to education and the scholarship of teaching and learning at a national level are as follows:

National Science Foundation Grant Opportunities

(only a few of the 56 listed under Education)

Department of Education Grant Opportunities

Should you desire to pursue a grant opportunity related to teaching and learning, it is best to request CETL input at the planning stage. Most of these grant opportunities related to teaching and learning require that you have a solid foundation in learning theory throughout the proposal. The evaluation of the proposal also needs to be grounded in assessment instruments that are linked to learning outcomes. For additional information/support in grant writing opportunities contact CETL at cetlhelp@gatech.edu or 404-894-4474.

Development of assessment strategy

Research has shown that the form of assessment that professors use in their classes impacts how students will approach the learning process. Assessment indicates to professors whether the students are learning subject content in their classes (through tests, quizzes, projects, etc.). However, assessment also can include informal feedback during the learning process to allow readjustment and redirection (formative assessment) as well as students' understanding of the content at the end of the course (summative assessment).

CETL can assist you in developing assessment tools which are appropriate for your courses and overall curriculum. Research on the particular tools utilized in assessment is also considered an integral part of the scholarship of teaching and learning.

For additional information or assistance regarding the scholarship of teaching and learning, please contact cetlhelp@gatech.edu or call 404-894-4474.

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