Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL)

The Carnegie Academy of Teaching and Learning defines four outcomes of SoTL study:

• Fosters significant, long lasting student learning
• Enhances the practice and profession of teaching
• Brings to faculty members' work as teachers the recognition and reward afforded to other forms of scholarly work
• Seeks to render teaching public, subject to critical evaluation, and usable by others in both the scholarly and the general community

RUCASTL

The University of Wyoming is a core member of RUCASTL, the Research University Consortium for the Advancement of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning.

    Consortium Goals

• A Scholarly and Collaborative Community

• Transferable Models for Change including scholarly works, programs, and processes

• Global Context for Change in which high-quality works are shared and valued

• Sustained Leadership for Change by research universities that embrace the
  scholarship of teaching and learning

Senior Scholars and inVISIBLE College--inVISIBLEcollege is a long-term personal and professional development opportunity in a cohort structure.  Although the group’s primary focus is to learn more about the scholarship of teaching and learning by engaging in it, participants will be encouraged to think about their work as part of a much larger conversation. That conversation is anchored in what it means to be a scholar.

CLAAS--Connecting Learning Across Academic Settings (CLAAS) is a three-year scholarship of teaching and learning project funded by FIPSE.  UW faculty teaching general education science and humanities courses are using the concept of working literacies to restructure their courses and prepare students for their roles as citizens in a complex, global society.

Warming Up the Chill--This website features the results of a two-year project at the University of Wyoming on issues of diversity in the classroom. The project is also featured in a book, entitled Warming Up the Chill:  Teaching Against the Structures published by the University of Wyoming in 2003.  The research was guided by principles related to the scholarship of teaching and learning.

WAG (Writers in Agriculture Guild)--Writers in Agriculture Guild (WAG) is a group of faculty in the College of Agriculture committed to the teaching of writing and critical thinking in their disciplines. WAG began with an ECTL-sponsored innovative teaching grant and has since grown to include many assessment and SoTL initiatives. With the assistance of a USDA grant, the group has sponsored a national conference.  Members of the group have also published an award-winning article in the June 2003 issue of NACTA Journal.

Program in College Teaching--For graduate student teaching assistants, the Graduate School and the Ellbogen Center offer an individualized program leading to a certificate that reflects completion of a broad range of documented experiences in scholarly teaching and learning.  The program typically takes at least a year to complete.

UW Assessment Grants--For the past two years, the ECTL, in conjunction with Academic Affairs and the University Assessment Coordinators, awarded $60,000 to 22 recipients to advance assessment efforts on campus.  Several of the grant recipients have designed projects that involve research in teaching and learning, with the potential for publishing their results.

Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Incentive Grants--As a way to encourage faculty participation in the scholarship of teaching and learning, the ECTL has created an incentive grants program.  Periodically, we will announce grant opportunities to UW faculty.  We encourage faculty to contact us with potential grant opportunities.