Quality enhancement through the introduction of SoTL: From tips and tricks to a scholarly approach

The aim of courses conducted by centers for educational development is to enhance and sustain quality in teaching and learning in higher education. Research suggests that taking a scholarly approach to teaching and learning results in higher quality teaching, which, in turn, promotes student learning (Trigwell & Shale, 2004). Moreover, a scholarly approach to teaching and learning helps sustain change processes on institutional levels (Mårtensson et al, 2011). One way of bringing about and supporting sustainable educational change is to introduce the notion of Scholarship of Teaching and Learning from an early stage (Kreber, 2000). Our perspective is that teacher training courses do not only address the individual’s knowledge and development but can also potentially affect institutional levels if the individual is encouraged to share knowledge with others.One way of motivating teachers to look beyond their immediate practice is to encourage them to raise concrete concerns within their own teaching situations. These concerns are communicated and discussed with the other participants at the start of an introductory course in Teaching and Learning. Additionally, we introduce the task of writing a project report which requires participants to reflect on the relation between theory and practice in the analysis of a pedagogical issue related to their own teaching practices. Through collected material and analysis of project reports, our study shows the various directions educational development takes from the early stages of discussing pedagogical concerns to the later stages of project writing, when SoTL has been introduced.