ALS 6016 - Teaching as Research in Higher Education

Spring. 2 credits. S-U grades only.

Prerequisite: ALS 6015. Students participating in CTE collaborative programming (i.e., CIRTL, Teagle and future faculty programs in City and Regional Sciences and Biological and Biomedical Sciences Graduate Research and Teaching Fellowship Program) may be required to enroll in this course in order to complete their program requirements. This course is part of the fulfillment of the CTE Biological and Biomedical Sciences (BBS) Graduate Research and Teaching Fellowship Program. It will also be part of CIRTL offerings and is being considered for requirements for an additional group of Teagle grant participants.

K. Williams and T. Pettit.

Course will expose students to the literature on the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SOTL). Within this academic conversation about the scholarship of teaching and learning and teaching as research, students will design and complete their own original research project to inform teaching in their discipline. This course culminates in the creation of a teaching as research project to include: an in-depth literature review incorporating SOTL resources from one’s discipline; a methodology designed to address a particular need in one’s teaching and/or within teaching in one’s discipline; a critical analysis of the results and conclusions in a formal research report. Throughout the process students will give and receive critical feedback during key developmental stages and present their reports in multiple venues.

Outcome 1: Evaluate the scholarship of teaching and teaching as research literature within their disciplines in a literature review.

Outcome 2: Evaluate various research methodologies used in the research on teaching (e.g., qualitative, quantitative, mixed-methods, teacher-action research methods) to select the most appropriate methodology for their project.

Outcome 3: Describe the all ethical implications of their study as evidenced within the “risks” portion of their IRB applications.

Outcome 4: Write all parts of a research on teaching report (i.e., abstract, introduction, literature review, methods, results, conclusions, discussion, references, appendix) to include all critical elements defined in the final project rubric.

Outcome 5: Present their research findings in three different settings using presentation strategies discussed in class (i.e., poster, discussion, lecture, etc.) to meet the criteria stated in the presentation rubric.

Outcome 6: Identify ways to continue their own teaching as research projects to inform their teaching.