Experience-Based Insights Precede SoTL in Faculty

Abstract

Identifying indicators and domains of scholarship requires thorough empirical and theoretical explorations. The importance of within-faculty propositions and consensus on indicators has been addressed in order to enhance scholarship, promote teaching portfolios, and ensure discipline-specific knowledge to enrich general models. We found that faculty, when asked to individually propose statements on scholarship of teaching in the first phase of this modified Delphi-study on consensus-formation in SoTL, suggested statements that could be qualitatively structured into five areas. From the second phase, there was a strong tendency toward consensus within faculty on statements they considered to be good indicators of SoTL. Statements with lower agreement had higher dispersion, indicating more specific than general qualities.