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2005—2006 SOTL Introductory Messages
A Message from Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Dean of the Faculties Jeanne Sept
I am pleased to send to you the schedule for the seventh year of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Program at Indiana University Bloomington. Both through the presentations of exceptional visiting colleagues, and through the innovative and inspirational work of our Bloomington faculty and graduate students, this year’s program expands our understanding of the rich interplay of teaching/learning processes at a research university. Empirical investigations within our own classrooms and comparative, interdisciplinary investigations are helping us understand both what it means to think as an expert within a discipline, and how to match disciplinary approaches with effective pedagogical strategies. The scholarship of teaching and learning can weave together disciplinary research and pedagogical research in ways that sustain both. Our colleagues ask questions about student learning that are fundamental to their disciplines, and evaluate results against standards that can be either broadly applicable, or field - (or course -) specific. As our 2005–2006 academic year progresses, consider how you could use the work your own students do to evaluate their different strands of learning, and how the resulting colors and textures produce patterns of expert knowledge, in your own discipline. We have come to expect high-quality, innovative work from our local SOTL scholars. I hope that your own projects, large or small, will join the growing body of SOTL presentations and publications emerging from our campus. Many Bloomington faculty members and graduate students participated in last year’s inaugural conference of the International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. Our campus’ strong showing was a notable infusion of research priorities into an emerging conversation among scholars from many types of institutions. The publication of this work, especially in disciplinary outlets, will most directly take our developing knowledge to colleagues who will use it, around the country and around the world. As with all of our scholarship, the truest measure of SOTL’s success is the quality of those publications. Please know that our office stands ready to assist individual faculty with SOTL projects and to help form and support research teams. I look forward to talking over this year’s SOTL events with you. Jeanne Sept
Formerly the chair of the Department of Anthropology, Jeanne Sept investigates proto-human subsistence ecology as a means to understanding human origins. Curious to understand how ancient environmental conditions would have influenced the dietary adaptations and ranging patterns of our early hominid ancestors in Africa, she has studied modern savanna environments analogous to early hominid habitats where sites have been preserved. Her publications include journal articles such as “Was there no place like home?” (Current Anthropology) and “Beyond bones: archaeological sites, early hominid subsistence, and the costs and benefits of exploiting wild plant foods in east African riverine landscapes” (Journal of Human Evolution), as well as an instructional CD-ROM “Investigating Olduvai. The archaeology of human origins” (Indiana University Press). She has also collaborated with IU colleague Martin Siegel on a federally funded project to develop and assess digital learning environments for archaeology students.
IU SOTL Initiative Begins Seventh Year
This seventh year of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Program at Indiana University Bloomington continues the momentum toward more nuanced models of learning and teaching and of ways for studying that dynamic relationship. This year’s lunchtime presentations will again invite discussion of what works in higher education and how we know it works. Many will also consider the learning environment, its assumptions and goals, more broadly. The presentations will also implicitly and sometimes explicitly urge us to consider what makes SOTL inquiry compelling, what kinds of evidence support convincing SOTL arguments, and who populates the audience for SOTL. We already know that the study of scholarship of teaching and learning is as iterative, individualized, and complex as any disciplinary research project. The challenge remains, I think, to approach “SOTL the field” as equally emergent and open to our direction. For example, this year several presenters will use learning indicators already built into their courses as means of gathering evidence of student learning. In a shift from more constructed assessment methods, these presenters reconsider what the exams, papers, journals, performances, and projects they already assign can contribute to their models of the relationship between teaching and learning. And they use some of their own practiced intellectual tools of selection and analysis to illuminate this complex dynamic. Our monthly gatherings will offer opportunities for building communities, resources, literatures, tested practices, common understandings, and considered differences. If there are other meetings that would make sense to you—smaller or on other topics—I would be happy to help make those happen. I am also available to work with individuals and research teams. You will find this year’s call for grant proposals in the middle of this booklet and a second call for proposals to participate in the May SOTL Writing Retreat at the end. The Advisory Council and the Steering Committee would appreciate your suggestions and comments. Please don’t hesitate to share your ideas with any of the members or to contact me (jenmetar@indiana.edu/812-855-9023). You can read more about IU’s Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Program, access steaming video of past presentations, and browse an electronic bibliography of IU’s SOTL articles (in full-text and abstract form) at the web site (www.indiana.edu/~sotl). Jennifer Meta Robinson
Jennifer Robinson directs Campus Instructional Consulting and the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Program at Indiana University Bloomington, supporting faculty members individually and in groups as they reflect on their teaching, make appropriate innovations, and assess their work for formative and scholarly purposes. She also coordinates IU’s participation in the Carnegie Foundation-sponsored Research University Consortium for the Advancement of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning and is the regional vice president from the United States for the International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. She is a founding member of ISSOTL and an organizer of its inaugural conference in Bloomington. In conference papers and presentations on IU programs and the scholarship of teaching and learning, Dr. Robinson highlights the important work of the IU faculty on SOTL, contributes her own insights on educational issues, and looks for the best ideas to bring back to Bloomington. Her doctorate, in English, is from Indiana University. She is the author of articles and book chapters on scholarship of teaching and learning, literature, and folklore and has presented on these topics around the country and abroad. She is currently at work on an ethnographic study of farmers’ markets. She has teaching experience at four universities, particularly with students traditionally underrepresented in higher education. |
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